Dutch Officer Describes Potocari Separation

Velma Šarić

IWPR-trained journalist

Friday, 5 November, 2010

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A Dutch United Nations officer told the trial of Zdravko Tolimir this week he had witnessed the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, separate men from women and children in Potocari after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Lieutenant Vincentius Egbers, who was stationed with Dutch UN peacekeepers in Srebrenica in 1995, appeared this week as a prosecution witness in the trial of the former assistant commander for military intelligence and security in the VRS, Zdravko Tolimir.

Tolimir is charged with eight counts including genocide, conspiring to perpetrate genocide, extermination, murder, expulsion, forced transfer of population and deportation of Bosniaks from Srebrenica and Zepa in July 1995.

In 1995, Egbers commanded a platoon of the UN Dutch Battalion (Dutchbat) in Srebrenica. So far, he has been a witness in all the Hague trials related to the events in Srebrenica in July of 1995, testifying about what he experienced between July 8 and July 14, 1995.

This week, prosecutor Nelson Thayer read a resume of his statement from the trial of Vujadin Popovic, a former assistant of the chief of the security of the Drina’s corps of the VRS. This resume was included in the evidence for the Tolimir trail.

Reading from the resume, Thayer said the witness had stated that the VRS started its attack on Srebrenica on July 6. At that time, Egbers and his platoon were at the Foxtrot observation post, in the southern part of the Srebrenica enclave.

The following days, having returned to the UN base at Potocari, Egbers and his troops helped the assembled Srebrenica population by escorting convoys taking women and children to Bosnian Muslim territory and the town of Kladanj, the prosecutor added.

On July 11, around 25,000 Bosniak refugees sought refuge in Potocari before Bosnian Serb troops began their forcible transfer from the enclave the next day.

This week, the prosecutor referred to parts of the statement from the Popovic case where Egbers spoke of how he witnessed the VRS separate men from women and children at Potocari.

According to the prosecution, Tolimir had an important role in the implementation of the alleged Bosnian Serb plan to rid the eastern part of Bosnia of members of other ethnic communities, particularly Bosniaks.

“You then said that all men were gathered nearby, is that right?” Thayer asked the witness.

“Yes, I told them that they too would be taken to Kladanj, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case,” Egbers answered. He clarified that he had, in his own words, “naively” believed that the men and boys would also be taken to Kladanj.

Asked by the prosecutor to explain this in more detail, Egbers said that “the men were panicking, but I tried to calm them down, so I asked the VRS lieutenant what would happen to them. He answered that they would first try to determine their identity, and then send them to Kladanj”.

“I am a soldier trained to respect the Geneva conventions, and I was convinced that all prisoners will be treated humanely. I thought it to be the case here as well, and I kept calming them down. But they kept shaking their heads as if to say no and crossing their throats with their finger, trying to tell me that the situation was different,” he said.

“Yet, because I was escorting the convoys with their wives and children aboard buses, it became clear to me that the men were not coming along,” the witness added.

Describing the atmosphere in Potocari on July 12, at the so-called White House where the men were being detained, the witness said that “weapons were being pointed at the heads of the Bosnian [Muslim] men.

“I saw that there were rooms full of Bosnian [Muslim] men, boys and older men. They were there while their wives and children were being sent by buses. It left quite an impression on me.”

According to the Tolimir indictment, these men in the White House were separated from their families in Potocari on July 12 to be taken first to the Bratunac area and then to be executed.

Some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed after Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces.

“Can you explain what you talked about in the Popovic case when you spoke about escorting convoys? Can you tell the chamber what happened to the Dutch UN troops who tried to escort the buses with Bosnian Muslim men and boys toward Bratunac?” the prosecutor asked.

“Lieutenant Versteeg was escorting that convoy, and he told me that there was a gun pointed at his head. He was told to return back while the convoy continued without Dutch escort toward Bratunac,” the witness explained.

He also confirmed a part of his previous statement in which he described what he saw on July 12 and 13, when he was escorting convoys with women and children en route to Kladanj. He said he had passed by the villages of Konjevic Polje and Nova Kasaba, where he saw a football field filled with Bosnian Muslim men, who had hands tied behind their backs.

This week, Thayer also showed a drawing titled Nova Kasaba and signed by Egbers, and asked him to explain what the drawing meant.

“You can see two vehicles moving northward by the football field. Behind the big bus with the refugees there is the Mercedes I was driving in. On the right is a football field, where the men and boys were on their knees. Along that road and on the football field I saw some 20 Serb soldiers,” the witness clarified.

He said he was driving by at a speed of some 20-30 mph. The drawing was then entered into evidence.

The witness also confirmed the part of his statement from the Popovic trial in which he said that, having come back from Kladanj where he had driven to with the convoy, he and his colleague were stopped by the VRS in the village of Nova Kasaba.

Their vehicle and equipment were confiscated there, including blue UN helmets and bulletproof vests. They were ordered to sit by the road with ten other Dutch soldiers. After a certain period of time, they were all taken to the school in Nova Kasaba.

“In the Popovic case you clearly said that you weren’t free to go – could you explain what you meant by that?” the prosecutor asked in this week’s trial.

“We didn’t have handcuffs while at the school in Nova Kasaba, my hands were free, but that didn’t mean I could just get up and leave. There were guns pointed at us although we weren’t locked down. It’s a bit of a difficult situation to explain. We were also not free to leave when we returned to the enclave, but we weren’t locked down like the [Bosnian Muslims],” the witness answered.

Thayer then pointed to Egbers’ statement from October 24, 1995, in which he said how “[they] were being stopped by Serb soldiers who wanted [their] bulletproof vests, vehicles and guns”. The witness then told the court he had heard on the radio that other UN vehicles were robbed by VRS, too.

“After having heard that other Dutch peacekeepers were being robbed, based on your experience and what you heard in the reports, did you think that these were random occurrences or did you have the impression that it was being done in a coordinated way?” the prosecutor asked the witness.

“We were in a convoy and had a radio link with other vehicles, and it was my understanding that all UN vehicles were stopped and that vehicles, weapons, equipment, helmets and bulletproof vests were taken away,” the witness answered.

“These were not isolated incidents happening just to a few, but something well planned and carefully thought of,” he concluded.

The trial continues next week.

Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.