Prosecution Wraps Up in Srebrenica Seven Case

The prosecutors presenting evidence in the case against of seven Bosnian Serb military and police officers charged with war crimes in Srebrenica and Zepa in 1995 wrapped up their case this week, 18 months after the trial began .



In that time, the prosecution called 138 witnesses and entered thousands of documents into evidence, including transcripts of intercepted radio and telephone communications, photographs and video recordings taken in July 1995, when 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed after Serb forces overran the enclave.



On trial are Vujadin Popovic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Ljubisa Beara, Vinko Pandurevic and Drago Nikolic, facing genocide and war crimes charges, and Radivoj Miletic and Milan Gvero, accused of blocking aid and supplies to Srebrenica.



Another accused in the same case, General Zdravko Tolimir, will be tried separately, because he was arrested a few months after the trial of seven Bosnian Serb officers had started.



This week, the prosecutors called their final witness, former British army officer Emma Sayers, who was a liaison officer and interpreter in the United Nations Protection Force, UNPROFOR, headquarters in Sarajevo in 1995.



Sayers confirmed the November 2007 testimony of General Rupert Smith, the UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia at the time of the fall of Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves, who said that General Milan Gvero took over the Bosnian Serb military operation in Zepa from General Zdravko Tolimir.



Smith testified that Gvero confirmed this to him during a meeting near Zepa, an encounter that Sayers verified and wrote up in her daily reports of General Smith’s day.



Gvero’s defence team called Sayers’ recollection into question. Yet, while Sayers conceded that she didn’t recall every detail from the time, the UNROFOR reports she said she’d reviewed - some of which were written by her - refreshed her memory and she stuck to her testimony given during the examination in chief.



The trial will resume on February 14.



Erica Beinlich is an IWPR reporter in London.