Former judge of the Bijeljina court investigated the Yellow Wasps, a paramilitary unit, in 1992; they were accused of stealing cars. Today she said she would not have ordered their release from remand prison had she known about their involvement in the murders and torture of Zvornik Muslims


Biljana Simeunovic, prosecutor in the Office of the Prosecutor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was called today as a new witness at the trial of Mico Stanisic, the first interior minister in the Bosnian Serb government, and Stojan Zupljanin, former chief of the Security Services Centre in Banja Luka. The two are on trial for the crimes the Serb police committed against the Bosnian Croats and Muslims between April and December 1992.

In June 1992, Simeunovic was appointed as a judge in the Bijeljina Court. The decision on her appointment was signed by the then president of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadzic. Today she described how investigations were launched and the role of the police, prosecution and judges in the proceedings. As she explained, the police acted in the pre-investigation stage. The police filed criminal complaints to the prosecution, and the prosecutors in turn requested the investigative judges to institute proceedings. If new facts were uncovered in the course of the proceedings or if new crimes came to light, the prosecution asked the police to conduct additional investigations and to find new evidence and identify new suspects.

In August 1992, Simeunovic, as investigating judge, took part in an investigation of the Yellow Wasp paramilitary group, headed by Vojin Vuckovic a/k/a Zuca. A criminal report had been filed against them for a theft of a car at a check-point near Zvornik. In addition to the statements the Yellow Wasps had provided in the course of the investigation, the prosecutor today showed the decision to release the paramilitaries from remand prison, signed by Simeunovic in late August 1992. As she explained, there was no cause to keep Vukovic and the other suspects in detention based on the criminal report for the theft. Today she said she would not have authorized their release, had she known at the time the group had been implicated in war crimes.

In 1994, Vojin Vuckovic was convicted before the District Court in Sabac for illegal possession of arms, and his brother Dusan Vuckovic was sentenced to eight years in prison for the murder of 20 Bosniaks in the Culture Hall in the village of Celopek. In a retrial before the War Crimes Chamber in Belgrade in June 2008, the Yellow Wasps were sentenced to 31 years in prison for the torture and murder of Zvornik Muslims in the Celopek Culture Hall and in two other sites, known as the Brick Factory and Farm.

Mico Stanisic’s defense counsel is opposed to the admission into evidence of the statements the Yellow Wasps had given to the Bijeljina police, noting that under the local law, the suspects ‘have the right to lie’ at that point in the proceedings. The defense will cross-examine the witness tomorrow.

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