Indictment Confirmed for the Murder of 22 Civilians in Bijeljina

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The State Court has confirmed the indictment against eight members of the Republika Srpska police structures who are accused of participating in the murder of 22 Bosniaks, including women and children, in the village of Balatun near Bijeljina in September 1992, confirmed the acting prosecutor Ivan Matešić for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH).

For the crimes in the Bijeljina area, according to an earlier statement by the BiH Prosecutor's Office, the accused are Živan Miljanović, assistant commander of the Bijeljina Public Security Station (SJB), Stevo Bokarić, member of the Bijeljina State Security Service, Jovica Petrović and Mirko Simić, members of the SJB Intervention Platoon, Goran Sarić, former commander of the Republika Srpska (RS) Special Police Brigade, and Ljubo Marković and Slavenko Kočević, members of the RS MUP Special Platoon, the so-called “Pahuljice”, as well as Zvonko Pržulj.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office charges the accused with acting contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilian persons during war, in their capacities as leading officials of the Bijeljina Public Security Station (SJB) and the State Security Sector, and as members of the Bijeljina SJB Intervention Platoon and the Special Unit of the Republika Srpska Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP RS), the so-called “Pahuljice” from Sokolac.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, during the night of 24 to 25 September 1992, they unlawfully captured and took away entire families Sarajlić, Sejmenović and Malagić from the Bijeljina settlement of Bukreš, a total of 22 people, more than half of whom were women, children and the elderly.

“After the capture and taking to the village of Balatun, the aforementioned civilians were executed by firearms, their bodies thrown into the Drina River, and after the war exhumed from several locations along the Sava River in the territory of Serbia and buried in the area of Sremska Mitrovica, while the bodies of four murdered victims are still being sought,” the BiH Prosecutor's Office previously stated.

At the cemetery in Sremska Mitrovica in 2002, the remains of 13 bodies were found, buried under NN markings. By 2011, 18 victims had been found and buried, while four are still listed as missing.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office will prove the allegations of the indictment by calling 111 witnesses – including eyewitnesses to the abduction and murders, eight of whom will testify under assigned protection measures – as well as by submitting several hundred pieces of collected evidence.