| Press Release |
CHAMBERS
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague, 14 December 2001
CC/P.I.S./651e
The indictment against Vinko Pandurevic is unsealed.
On Friday 7 December 2001, the disclosure of the indictment against Vinko Pandurevic was ordered. The indictment was confirmed on 2 November 1998 and amended on 27 October 1999.
THE ACCUSED
Born in 1959 in Sokolac (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Vinko Pandurevic was an Infantry Captain in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) prior to being appointed Brigade Commander within the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS). According to the indictment, he was Commander of the "Zvornik Brigade" from 12 December 1992 through to November 1996, which was involved in the July 1995 attack on the Srebrenica "safe area" and the subsequent killing and execution of Bosnian Muslim men and boys. Vinko Pandurevic was promoted to the rank of General-Major in June 1997, and was a member of the VRS General Staff until he was relieved in April 1998.
FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS
The indictment alleges that between about 11 July 1995 and 1 November 1995, Vinko Pandurevic, "intending to destroy a part of the Bosnian Muslim people as a national, ethnical or religious group", killed and caused serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. He allegedly "planned, instigated, ordered or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution" of the "opportunistic killings" and "organised mass executions" of thousands of captured Bosnian Muslim men and boys from the Srebrenica "safe area".
The indictment links Vinko Pandurevic to the following locations, where killings and executions occurred from 11 July 1995 until 18 July 1995: Potocari, Kravica, Bratunac, Tisca, Orahovac, Petkovci Dam, Cerska Valley, Pilica School, Branjevo Military Farm, Pilica Cultural Centre and Kozluk.
Following these events, Vinko Pandurevic and units under his command participated in various attempts "to conceal and cover up the killings and executions", including the burial of the victims’ bodies in isolated sites scattered throughout a wide area, and the digging up of bodies from initial mass graves to transfer them to so called secondary graves.In the indictment the actions of Vinko Pandurevic are linked to those of General Radislav Krstic.
THE CHARGES
Vinko Pandurevic is indicted on the basis of both his personal criminal responsibility and his superiour authority responsibility.
He is charged with one count of genocide, alternatively complicity to commit genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity (extermination, murder, persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, deportation alternatively forcible transfer) and one count of violations of the laws or customs of war (murder).
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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