Witness Describes Massacre at Bratunac

The witness remembered Miroslav Deronjic from when Miroslav was a boy. He was friends with his father. He hadn't seen the boy since he went away to school. In May 1992, Deronjic returned to the village of Glogova with Yugoslav Army (JNA) soldiers. The witness saw him on two occasions when he addressed the men of the village, telling them they must turn in their hunting rifles, that there was no reason to fear, the rifles would be returned to them eventually. They were given receipts. The third and last time the witness saw his former neighbor, Deronjic was in uniform and stood watching other uniformed men massacre dozens of villagers. One of them, Jusuf, addressed him directly, 'Surely, neighbor, you won't kill me. We went to school together. I have two small children. You know yourself I am an invalid.' A masked soldier fired three shots into Jusuf's chest, while Deronjic, the former village school boy, stood there impassively, and did nothing.

Witness B-1701 lived all his life in Glogova, a village of 750 houses and about 2000 inhabitants in the Bratunac Municipality of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The villagers, an ethnic mix of Serbs and Muslims, had lived together peacefully for decades. That changed rather suddenly in 1992 with the arrival of Yugoslav Army soldiers, the disarming of Muslim civilians and the arming of non-Muslims with automatic rifles.

Though it was nearly eleven years ago, May 9, 1992 is a day witness B-1701 will never forget. It was the day he was beaten with an ax handle on his head and back. It was the day he watched his friends and neighbors massacred. It was the day he nearly died, the day he became the sole survivor of a group of men murdered at the riverside after carrying the slain bodies of their friends and dumping them in the river. It was the day he lay in the river himself for four hours, among the bodies of his friends, with only the tip of his nose and one ear rising out of the water. It was the day he survived, just barely.

Though he can't remember exact numbers or prior statements Milosevic asked him about on cross examination, he remembered clearly being ordered to kneel by the river, hearing the order to fire, turning and seeing his friend's head blown off. He remembered clearly the feel of another friend's brains splattered against his neck and how he found a piece of it caught in his shirt when he got up four hours later. Earlier, he witnessed the man's cold-blooded murder by a uniformed woman, who obviously knew him. She addressed him as he sat in his wheelchair, attended by his nephew: 'Camil, where do you want me to shoot you? In the back or the head?' She put two bullets in his back, one in his head and blew his nose off. Then she killed his nephew and pointed her still smoking pistol at witness B-1701. At that point, she pulled off her mask and drank 'two to three fingers' from a bottle of brandy.

Traumatic memories have a way of searing themselves into the memories of those who experience them -- sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. The trauma does not exist at an isolated moment in time, but continues into the future until someday it might be laid to rest, for the lucky ones. Witness B-1701 saw what no person should have to see. He experienced what no human should have to experience. When he related what he saw and experienced to the three Tribunal judges, his voice broke. He apologized. He was re-living May 9, 1992, in all its horror. Judge May assured him there was no reason to apologize.

While telling one's trauma to others may have a healing effect, it is nevertheless painful and distressing. Add to that being questioned about it by one of the people you feel is primarily responsible and the distress is acute. Though Milosevic said he would bear in mind the witness's age and the degree to which he was upset, his often irrelevant questioning was too much for witness B-1701. When Milosevic persisted in asking him about the Bosnian Party for Democratic Action (SDA) in which the witness had no involvement, he responded, 'I'm really very upset.' Judge May intervened to lecture Milosevic, 'The witness has described the massive execution of civilians. It is a waste of time to discuss politics. . . . You aren't saying there is some political justification for the crimes?' he asked with incredulity.

The witness's tension increased as Milosevic turned to the events of May 1992, and began asking him about the hunting rifles that were collected. 'I'm trembling,' the witness cried. 'You've got me all upset. You're asking questions that shouldn't be.' Judge May intervened to calm the witness, advising him that he could ask for a break whenever he needed it and there would be a limit to the cross examination. Milosevic seemed not to understand that whoever contributed to tensions in the region, whoever had guns, stole them, or armed others is irrelevant to the fact that JNA soldiers engaged in a massacre of civilians. And not one soldier did anything to try to protect any of the villagers or to stop the killing. Both action and inaction are war crimes (commanders have a duty to stop their troops from committing crimes and to punish those who do).

More to the point, Milosevic attempted to show that the witness could only identify one person, Miroslav Deronjic, and that none of those who took part in the killing could be identified as members of the JNA because, though they wore JNA uniforms, they were wearing stockings over their heads (to hide their identity). 'Do you know that the JNA didn't wear socks on their heads?' he demanded of the witness. Rather than dignify this question with an answer, the witness took the opportunity to confront Milosevic: 'We lived as brothers in the old days, when we used to say Comrade Milosevic. Everything changed when you came to power.'

Witness B-1701 is the first witness to testify about the massacre in Bratunac. The prosecution has others witnesses who will provide the details he could not remember and against whose testimony his can be measured. No doubt, the Court will also weigh the trauma he experienced in evaluating his testimony. Regardless of details, however, witness B-1701 provided powerful testimony which should remind everyone what this trial is all about.