Serbs Tried over Srebrenica Video
20/12/2005| IslamWeb
Five former members of a Serbian police unit called the Scorpions are going on trial in Belgrade for their alleged part in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
They are the first Serbs to be tried by a Serbian court over the massacre, the worst atrocity in Europe since 1945.
It is claimed the men are those who appear in a video shown at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, in which six Bosnian Muslims are shot in the back.
It is alleged the men filmed the video of the incident themselves.
The video - which lasts about 20 minutes - shows several members of the "Scorpions" police unit ordering six Muslim prisoners, dressed in civilian clothes, from the back of a lorry.
The victims are then marched into woodland and shot one by one.
They were among about 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed during the massacre at Srebrenica, when the town fell to Bosnian Serb forces near the end of the Bosnian war.
The five accused men are Slobodan Medic, Pero Petrasevic, Aleksandar Medic, Branislav Medic and Aleksandar Vukov.
A sixth suspect has already been on trial for war crimes in Croatia, while a seventh has not been found.
Both the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military counterpart, Ratko Mladic, are accused by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague of orchestrating genocide at Srebrenica.
They remain Europe's two most wanted fugitives and are considered heroes by Serb nationalists, says the BBC's Matt Prodger in Belgrade.
PHOTO CAPTION
Mujic Sabra, a Bosnian Muslim woman cries over the coffin of her son Mujo on July 10, 2005 in a factory hall in Potocari where 610 victims of Srebrenica massacre wait for the funeral. (REUTERS)
Five former members of a Serbian police unit called the Scorpions are going on trial in Belgrade for their alleged part in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
They are the first Serbs to be tried by a Serbian court over the massacre, the worst atrocity in Europe since 1945.
It is claimed the men are those who appear in a video shown at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, in which six Bosnian Muslims are shot in the back.
It is alleged the men filmed the video of the incident themselves.
The video - which lasts about 20 minutes - shows several members of the "Scorpions" police unit ordering six Muslim prisoners, dressed in civilian clothes, from the back of a lorry.
The victims are then marched into woodland and shot one by one.
They were among about 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed during the massacre at Srebrenica, when the town fell to Bosnian Serb forces near the end of the Bosnian war.
The five accused men are Slobodan Medic, Pero Petrasevic, Aleksandar Medic, Branislav Medic and Aleksandar Vukov.
A sixth suspect has already been on trial for war crimes in Croatia, while a seventh has not been found.
Both the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military counterpart, Ratko Mladic, are accused by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague of orchestrating genocide at Srebrenica.
They remain Europe's two most wanted fugitives and are considered heroes by Serb nationalists, says the BBC's Matt Prodger in Belgrade.
PHOTO CAPTION
Mujic Sabra, a Bosnian Muslim woman cries over the coffin of her son Mujo on July 10, 2005 in a factory hall in Potocari where 610 victims of Srebrenica massacre wait for the funeral. (REUTERS)