GRABOVAC: I WILL PRESENT AMERICAN INVESTIGATORS WITH EVIDENCE OF CRIMES AGAINST SERBS IN BROD TOMORROW

DERVENTA, JULY 21 /SRNA/ - President of the Organisation for the Search for Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians from Brod Marko Grabovac told SRNA that he will testify tomorrow before American investigators in Derventa about war crimes against Serbs and will submit to them an expert report on the genocide against Serb civilians in the territory of the former Bosanski Brod municipality in 1992.

Grabovac explained that the expert report contains evidence of mass Serb graves, the bodies of murdered Serbs and Roma, the rape of Serb women, torture of Serb camp detainees, burned Serb property and villages, as well as signs and plaques that were displayed on facilities where members of Croatian-Muslim forces were stationed in the Brod area. "Members of the Croatian Army and the HVO operated in the Brod and Derventa areas in coordination with Muslim forces, and they left behind several mass graves of Serbs, seven camps and detention facilities through which several hundred Serb camp detainees passed," Grabovac pointed out. He reminded that the first crimes against Serbs were committed in the Brod area and that the first camps for Serbs were established there, as well as that the burning and looting of Serb property were carried out under the command of the Croatian Army, which at the time carried out aggression against BiH. "In addition to Nijaz Čaušević, known as Medo, from Slavonski Brod, a large number of those who ordered and carried out war crimes against Serbs in the Brod area were included in the criminal complaint that we forwarded in 2001 to the Hague Tribunal, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and the Croatian judiciary," Grabovac said. He believes that the arrival of American investigator-prosecutors gives hope that those who ordered and carried out war crimes against Serbs in the areas of Derventa, Brod and the entire Posavina region will be brought to justice. Serb camp detainees who survived torture at the notorious Rabić camp in Derventa in 1992 continued giving their testimonies today to American investigator-prosecutors. Yesterday, Doctor Željko Stajčić and Drago Knežević testified before the American investigators at the Court of General Jurisdiction in Derventa. A total of eight Serb former camp detainees are scheduled to give their statements over four days, concluding on Thursday. During the Defensive-Patriotic War, before the Army of Republika Srpska had even been formed, Croatian and Muslim forces attacked the local Serb population in Derventa. Camps for Serbs were established, the most notorious of which were those at the Army Hall and the Rabić site. A total of 120 Serbs were detained at the Rabić camp, which was established in April 1992, while several hundred Serbian civilians passed through the camps in the Derventa area overall.