Prosecution Expert Testifies About Srebrenica & Mass Graves

For more than five years, Prosecution Investigator Dean Manning has been investigating mass graves and the bodies exhumed from them in the area around Srebrenica, said to be the site of the worst massacre of civilians since WWII. At one time or another, he has visited every mass grave site, several at the time they were exhumed. Today, he submitted his report to the Trial Chamber hearing the case against Slobodan Milosevic, but cautioned that the investigation is still not complete. Large numbers of body parts have not yet been identified. Identified grave sites remain to be exhumed. And investigators anticipate finding additional mass graves.

Mr. Manning reported to the Court that the 'minimum minimal number of individuals' (MMNI) which have been identified from the mass graves is 2,541. It is an 'extraordinarily conservative' number, he testified. Serb forces dug up bodies from primary burial sites and reburied them, using heavy equipment which mangled and crushed the corpses, making identification as well as establishing a firm number of bodies extremely difficult. Mr. Manning said the estimated number killed at Srebrenica, between 7500 and 8000, is based on the number identified as missing.

Beginning his cross examination by asserting that even one execution such as those described in Srebrenica is a war crime, Milosevic nevertheless questioned the numbers in Mr. Manning's report. Alleging intense fighting in the area between the Bosnian Army and VRS (Army of Republika Srpska), the Accused asked how the investigator distinguished between bodies killed in combat and those executed. The witness described finding bodies with hands bound behind them and/or blindfolded. Investigators recovered 423 ligatures. Though bodies were decomposed and skeletal, some were clearly shot in the head; others were found leaning in a forward position which indicated they'd been shot in the back. Mr. Manning explained it was likely the 1,440 bodies for which cause of death was not established were also executed because of the way they were found lying among the other bodies in the mass graves.

Milosevic suggested that many of the individuals could have been part of the column of 15,000 men fleeing toward Tuzla. Mr. Manning testified that the column may have included as many as 30,000 men and boys. Only the forward part was armed and able to break through Serb lines, he said. The middle and rear of the column were captured and transported to the killing sites. There was no way to determine how many from the column were killed, though he testified that a large number from both the column and the men held at Potocari were executed. When asked how many men were captured, Mr. Manning said an exact figure wasn't available because 'people who know it were either killed or are captors not willing to provide it.' Nevertheless, videotapes and telephone intercepts indicate thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up, from the column and Potocari, and held captive. Survivors, witnesses and a few perpetrators have testified that the captives were then transported to sites where they were killed. The exhumations, investigation and identification of bodies are ongoing.

Both the Accused and Branislav Tapuskovic, amicus curiae, questioned Mr. Manning about the ages of those killed. While most could be classified of military age (between 17 and 55), the witness said there were also boys as young as 9 and men in their 80's and 90's, as well as individuals who were infirm.

What the Accused and the Amicus are suggesting is that the vast majority of bodies found in the mass graves near Srebrenica were men killed in combat, as evidenced by their military age and the severity of fighting in the region. Mr. Manning testified that forensic evidence (ligatures, blindfolds, tied hands, position of bodies, etc.) contradicts this.

The supposition has also been contradicted in court by survivors of the massacre, one of its perpetrators, a UN officer and the extensive written testimony of Miroslav Deronjic, head of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in Bratunac and Radovan Karadzic's man, who described the thousands of prisoners captured from the column, as well as men and boys who sought UN protection in Potocari and were turned over to the Bosnian Serbs, the plan to 'kill them all,' and its execution.