Witness Recounts Srebrenica Investigation
Tolimir trial hears reconstruction of events following fall of enclave.
Witness Recounts Srebrenica Investigation
Tolimir trial hears reconstruction of events following fall of enclave.
The Hague tribunal trial of former Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir heard testimony this week from a prosecution witness who reconstructed the events between July 11 and 17, 1995, after Bosnian Serb forces had entered the Srebrenica enclave.
Tolimir, the former assistant commander for military intelligence and security in the Republika Srpska, RS, army general staff, is charged with eight counts including genocide, conspiring to perpetrate genocide, extermination, murder, expulsion, forced transfer of population and deportation of Bosniaks, Bosnian Muslims, from Srebrenica and Zepa in July 1995.
Jean Rene Ruez, former head of the prosecution’s Srebrenica investigation team, has previously testified in trials including that of Vujadin Popovic, the former assistant of the chief of the security of the Drina’s corps of the Bosnian Serb army, VRS.
For the Popovic case, Ruez wrote a book which was included in the evidence for the Tolimir trial, together with other photographs, maps and video recordings.
Ruez said that his book had been "devised with the aim to help everyone who had not been on the ground to reconstruct all the events that happened in Srebrenica between July 11 and 17, 1995".
In July 1995, some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed after the United Nations-protected enclave of Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces.
On July 11 that year, around 25,000 Bosniak refugees sought refuge in the UN base in the village of Potocari near Srebrenica before Bosnian Serb troops began the forcible transfer of the refugees from the enclave the next day.
The Srebrenica investigation had two primary aims, according to the witness.
"The main task of the investigation was to collect statements by the witnesses and talk to them….to determine what exact sites they were talking about, and then as soon as it became possible for us to enter Republika Srpska, [to] find these sites and confirm whether the witness statements agree with what we encountered on the ground," Ruez said.
"The other task was to determine the sites of where the bodies were located, the graves, the execution sites. Afterward it was necessary to locate evidence and documents which would help us understand and perceive an image of the whole case."
Ruez's testimony was illustrated with a number of photographs and aerial recordings made by the United States government and provided for the purposes of the investigation. He also used maps to mark all key points relevant to understanding the events in Srebrenica and confirmed that he had visited all the related sites in eastern Bosnia during the six years of his work with the prosecution.
The witness stated that on July 11, 1995, there were two directions of movement by different sections of the population. The first was the movement of women, children and older men from Srebrenica toward Potocari. The other direction was toward Susnjari and Jaglici, where men of military age went first, aiming to walk to territories controlled by Bosnian Muslims.
The witness said that during the investigation, particular importance was given to the video materials by Belgrade journalist Zoran Petrovic, made in the Srebrenica enclave on July 13 and 14, 1995. He said that Petrovic was the first journalist allowed by Bosnian Serb forces to come to the area at that early stage.
In Potocari, on July 13, Petrovic filmed the so-called White House, where imprisoned men can be seen on the balcony of the building. According to the Tolimir indictment, these men were separated from their families in Potocari on 12 July to be taken first to the Bratunac area and then to be executed.
The witness said that the investigation showed that the men from the White House were taken on July 13 by bus to be detained at the Vuk Karadzic school, at the soccer ground and at some other locations in Bratunac and the area he later indicated on the map.
The prosecution then pointed to another aerial photograph from the US government, made on July 13 and showing the site of Livade, close to the village of Sandici. This location is identified in the indictment as one of the major surrender and detention sites of Bosniaks from the group which was moving toward the village of Nezuk, which was controlled by Bosniaks. The same aerial photograph also showed the buses which were, according to the witness, used to "transport a part of the prisoners toward the nearby warehouse at Kravica".
According to the Tolimir indictment, the Kravica warehouse was the site where more than 1,000 prisoners were shot on the evening of July 13. Ruez commented on several photographs of the interior and of the facade he made at various times in 1996 and 1998. The photographs from the warehouse also showed the taking of samples of blood, hair and human tissue from the walls as well as from the floor, as well as documenting cartridges, personal effects and documents discovered there.
The prosecution pointed to a July 13 US government aerial photograph of the Nova Kasaba stadium in the Konjevic Polje area, which showed the stadium, the detainees and the buses.
The witness said that "in his view, the photograph was completely accurate and there was no doubt about the dots in it being individual people", clarifying that this had been confirmed by not only witnesses who had been imprisoned there but also bus drivers who drove the people to this site.
"I remember a pregnant woman I spoke to in the summer of 1995 who was imprisoned at the soccer ground before being allowed to board a bus," he said.
The trial continues on April 14.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.
