The Srebrenica genocide Memorial Centre and Bosnian Croat Presidency member Zeljko Komsic urged the Prosecution, on Friday, to investigate allegations against the Prime Minister of the country's Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Radovan Viskovic, claiming he offered money to a protected witness to relocate mass graves from one location to another.
“The allegations published by the research web portal Istraga.ba, the authenticity of which we have no reason to doubt, indicate that the protected witness M-16 had directly connected the name ‘Radovan Viskovic’ with locations concerning the genocide in Srebrenica, as well as with the later concealment and relocation, as well as active encouragement to participate in the concealment of mass graves,” said the Srebrenica Memorial Centre.
Istraga.ba portal published a text on Thursday and an audio recording from 2017 of a protected witness M-16 in the case of Miodrag Josipovic et al. saying that the current Prime Minister of Bosnia's Serb-dominated RS entity organized the transport of Bosniaks from Nova Kasaba village, near the eastern town of Srebrenica, to the location of their execution.
“These astonishing allegations by the witness who was a member of RS Army's Milich Brigade, indicate in the most serious way that the RS entity Prime Minister participated in the genocide during the war, and that such a person cannot hold any office in the state until the judiciary examines these allegations,” Adil Osmanovic, head of SDA Caucus at Bosnia's House of Representatives.
“Radovan Viskovic offered me money to relocate mass graves,” protected witness M-16 told the Court in 2017, Istraga.ba reported adding that the same witness gave exactly the same testimony in 2007.
“We are deeply disappointed that it took 13 years for this statement to be published, all the more so because it is about a suspect who was not only available but also served at a public office in the past. In addition, the acts he is accused of are so monstrous and so morbid that the credibility of Bosnian Prosecutor's Office is now measured only by the speed with which they will order the arrest and interrogation of Radovan Viskovic. Everything else will be a shameful relativization and instrumentalization of that institution for the purpose of covering up the responsibility for the genocide and crimes against humanity,” the Srebrenica Memorial Center concluded.
The Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, also urged the Prosecution to initiate an investigation into these allegations.
“I believe that the Prosecutor's Office is obliged to thoroughly examine the allegations of the witness, especially because they were made in Court, and not elsewhere in the form of speculation. Respecting the presumption of innocence that no one is guilty until proven otherwise, I must say that I, like most citizens, was surprised by the said testimony,” said Komsic.
Istraga.ba portal noted that to date, the Prosecution of has not prosecuted or marked Radovan Viskovic as a suspect. Back then, during the testimony of witness M-16, the Chief Prosecutor was the incumbent Gordana Tadic and prior to taking over as Chief Prosecutor, Tadic was head of the War Crimes Chamber, the portal wrote.
