TWO SERBS GUILTY OF GENOCIDE: RADOMIR VUKOVIC & ZORAN TOMIC GET 62 YEARS

PHOTO: Radovan Vukovic and Zoran Tomic, two Serbs who participated in the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide by savagely killing unarmed Bosniak men.

Today, the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina found two Serbs guilty of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide and sentenced them to 62 years in jail.

"Radomir Vukovic, 36, and Zoran Tomic, 38, were members of the 2nd Sekovici Special Police Detachment which intended to partly exterminate a group of Muslims and help remove forcibly 40,000 civilians from the eastern enclave," Judge Senadin Bektasevic said, and added that the two participated in the killings of unarmed Bosniak prisoners.

"Vukovic and Tomic were among the interior ministry members who rounded up and guarded the Kravice warehouse on July 13, 1995 and later opened a fire through the windows at the captives ... at the same time Vukovic was throwing hand grenades at them," Bektasevic said.

Retrial of Milos Stupar Completed

Meanwhile, the retrial of Milos Stupar, former Commander of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, who is charged with participation in the Srebrenica genocide, has been completed with the presentation of material evidence and the Prosecution will present closing arguments on 28 April 2010.

Statement by the Court re: Vukovic/Tomic case:

Following the completion of main trial, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pronounced the first-instance verdict finding the accused Radomir Vuković and Zoran Tomić guilty of the crime of Genocide under Article 171. paragraph a) as read with Article 31 of the Criminal Code of BiH (CC BiH). For this offense, the Court sentenced them to long term imprisonment of 31 years each.

The accused Vuković and Tomić are found guilty because, on 12 and 13 July 1995, as members of the special police force of the 2nd Detachment of the Šekovići Special Police of the Republika Srpska MUP, at the section of the Bratunac-Konjević Polje road at Sandići, Bratunac Municipality, they participated in keeping the road passable so that Bosniaks could be transported by buses and trucks without obstruction, in securing the road, closing and opening it for traffic in line with the plan to forcibly transfer Bosniak women, children and elderly, and after they participated on 13 July 1995 in the capturing of a large number of Bosniak males who attempted to escape from the UN Safe Area, they took part in escorting a column of approximately one thousand captured Bosniaks from Sandići to the warehouse of the Kravica Farming Cooperative, knowing that they would be executed. After the captured Bosniaks were imprisoned in the warehouse, members of the 2nd Detachment started killing the captured Bosniaks from automatic weapons and by throwing hand grenades. The accused Vuković participated in the execution of the prisoners by throwing hand grenades at them, while the accused Zoran Tomić fired at them from an automatic rifle.

At the same time, the Trial Panel rendered a decision to extend custody of the Accused. Under the decision, the custody may last nine months at the longest, that is, by 22 January 2011, or until the Court issues a new decision.

Related:
@ The New York Times:
Two Bosnian Serbs Jailed for 31 Years Over Srebrenica
@ Balkan Insight:
Retrial of Milos Stupar Completed
Zeljko Ivanovic: Witness of Murders in Kravica
Darko Dolic (rapist): Face that Cannot be Forgotten