Troops from Serbia at Srebrenica, Survivor Testifies

A young survivor of the Srebrenica killing fields gave some of the first evidence in the Milosevic trial that Serbia was involved in the events in Srebrenica in July 1995. B-1401 was part of the column of boys and men who surrendered to the Serbian forces near the Konjevic Polje Road. After they were transferred to the Sandici Meadow, one of their captors addressed them, 'We are from Serbia.' He was 'full of himself,' the witness said. Pointing to the wounded men, he lectured, 'You see these comrades. You should have surrendered earlier.' Mocking the men, he told them they would be transferred to hangars and wouldn't get any dinner. 'He was laughing because he knew what was in store for us,' B-1401 told the Court. The man who identified himself as a Serb from Serbia made the Bosniaks lie on the ground and shout, 'Long live the king!'

On cross examination, Milosevic said that proved the soldiers could not have been from Serbia. B-1401 responded, 'I cannot confirm if they were or they were not from Serbia. The fact is the soldier said that and we shouted that while they were probably killing the wounded.'

B-1401 was a 17 year old refugee when he and his family were caught in the maelstrom of war, ethnic cleansing and mass executions that became known to the world as 'Srebrenica.' Somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered, over 30,000 Bosnian Muslim civilians were forcibly removed and the area became Muslim-free. Slobodan Milosevic has been charged with genocide and complicity in genocide for his alleged involvement in the crimes of Srebrenica.

Srebrenica was a UN protected Safe Haven when it was attacked and overrun by Serbian forces in July 1995. B-1401, along with other able-bodied Muslim men and boys, was faced with the decision to seek shelter at the UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) base in Potocari with the women and young children, or to flee into the woods. Lacking confidence that UNPROFOR would protect the Muslim men and boys, B-1401 fled with his father, uncle and other male relatives into the woods.

They joined a column of 15,000 men, at the front of which were one to three thousand Bosnian Army troops (BHA). The column was headed toward Bosnian-controlled territory. In fierce fighting, the BHA soldiers broke through enemy lines. The civilians and some of the soldiers were left behind. When Milosevic questioned the witness about the Army's abandonment of the civilians, he responded, 'They had to save themselves. If they'd taken us, no one would have survived.'

The remaining civilians spent the night in the woods under heavy shellfire. B-1401 described a scene of extraordinary chaos and panic. Men were wounded and dying. Some were hallucinating and a few killed themselves rather than surrender. They didn't know where they were. The witness lost contact with his father, which whom he had fled, and never saw him again.

The next day the shelling let up and Serb forces demanded that the column of men surrender. While some men headed deeper into the woods, many thousands walked toward the Serbian forces with their hands raised. B-1401 described walking over corpses, seeing men with their faces and hands blown off from shells. When asked by Milosevic, he estimated about 500 men were killed in the woods.

After demanding the men throw down their weapons, valuables and German marks, their Serb captors marched them to Sandici Meadow. From there, they were put on overcrowded trucks and taken to Bratunac where they spent the night in the trucks without food or water. The following morning, they were driven to Zvornik, then to a school in Petkovci. The prisoners were crammed into the school building under even worse conditions than in the truck. They were forced to repeat, 'This is Serb land. It always was and always will be.' By this time, the men were so thirsty they drank their own urine.

As night fell, the men were taken out in groups of three to five, then shots were heard. Soon, soldiers began leading the rest of the men out, tying their hands and loading them onto a truck. The witness described feeling a sticky substance on his foot and seeing a large pile of killed prisoners in front of the school. After a five to ten minute ride, the truck stopped. Men were unloaded in groups of five. Each time, the remaining men heard shots. B-1401 said the men tried to avoid getting off the truck, knowing they were going to be executed. Many begged for water. They did not want to die thirsty. The witness said he tried to hide, too. 'I just wanted to live another minute or two.'

When it was his turn, Serb soldiers told him and his group to find a place to lie down among the dead bodies. 'Everything happened so fast,' he told the Court. 'I thought I'd die soon and not suffer any more, that my mama would never know where I am.' Then the soldiers opened fire. B-1401 was shot in his right side. The killing continued for another hour. When the next group came and the shooting began, he was wounded again -- this time in his left foot. Later, he was hit once more. He was suffering so much from his wounds, he told the Court, that he wanted to cry out and beg to be killed. The moaning of the man next to him elicited a bullet in his head.

The witness testified that he was suffering so badly he never would have tried to escape if it hadn't been for another survivor. They crawled on their stomachs across the field of corpses, used their teeth to untie each other's hands and made it to the top of a hill. From there the next morning, they were able to see a yellow loader collecting dead bodies and loading them onto a truck. They saw a 'very large pile.' Speaking of the trek through the woods with the other survivor, B-1401 testified that 'he was the only one who knows how badly I suffered. I couldn't walk. He would leave me, then come back and beseech me to go on. I hurt so badly.' After four days of walking, he and his companion reached safety.

Amicus Curiae Branislav Tapuskovic attempted to make much of the fact that witness B-1401 had not consistently described his wounds in the three or four statements he made after he escaped. In one, he said he'd been hit in the right chest and lower arm. In another, he said he'd been hit in the stomach. When confronted by Tapuskovic on the stand, the witness retorted, 'You expect me to say the same sentence in every statement. I was hit by fragmenting ammunition. Later, the investigators saw the x-rays. But there was a burst of gunfire. The bullets fragmented. The x-rays showed that.' His medical records including x-rays were introduced into evidence.

Neither Judge Robinson nor Judge May could see any reason for trying to point out discrepancies in statements made shortly after the extreme trauma the witness experienced. Judge May pointed out that the court had photographs of the wounds, while Judge Robinson said he failed to see the purpose of the line of questioning unless Mr. Tapuskovic was suggesting B-1401 had not been wounded, in which case he should ask the witness directly. When the Amicus protested that he shouldn't have to explain, Judge May interjected that he was attempting to deal with a matter the Court had not thought to question. 'Not even Mr. Milosevic has said the witness was not injured. I don't think it is right for you to.' The Court has chastised Mr. Tapuskovic on other occasions for acting more like a defence counsel than a friend of the court.

It is a delicate matter to cross examine witnesses who have testified to extreme traumatic events. Even Milosevic, who considers the entire proceeding a farce and nearly all witnesses liars, demonstrated a softer approach with B-1401. Near the beginning of his cross examination, the Accused addressed the witness, 'I don't want to hurt you in any way in view of what you've been through.' While cross examination that tests the witness's credibility is appropriate, every defence attorney must weigh the advantages of attempts to expose a sympathetic witness as a liar against the dangers of provoking anger and a protective response from the trier of fact, be it judge or jury. In this case, Mr. Tapuskovic chose wrong.

In his cross examination, Milosevic took a wiser course. He questioned the witness about the nature of the column of men -- how many were armed, how many were Bosnian Army soldiers, how many of the men in the woods were killed in combat. This line of questioning is aimed at supporting Milosevic's defence that a large number of the Srebrenica dead were killed in combat. To say this is a proper and relevant line of questioning doesn't mean it was successful. Even if 500 men were killed in the woods and not execution style, 6500 or more others would still not be accounted for.

Milosevic also challenged the witness's testimony about the soldier who announced 'We are from Serbia,' to the prisoners in Sandici Meadow, as noted above. As the witness stuck to his testimony, Milosevic's simple declaration that it cannot be was ineffective in undermining it. This is the first testimony in open court asserting that soldiers from Serbia were involved. While it is important, substantial corroborative evidence is required to support a legal finding to this effect.

The Accused also questioned the witness about apparent discrepancies between his statements. In the first statement he made shortly after the events, B-1401 said he and others were driven to a school in Petkovci, which he was able to identify by lifting the tarpaulin. In a statement a short time later, he was unable to identify the location of the school by name. As noted above, such discrepancies do not seriously undermine his testimony, as they are relatively minor matters, easily explained by the nature of trauma and memory. Speaking of difficulties in identifying the execution site, B-1401 told Milosevic, 'It happened during the night. You'll never be able to understand the feeling when one is taken out to be executed.'