Trbic: A report on Srebrenica

The Defence for Milorad Trbic, charged with complicity in the genocide committed in Srebrenica, examined a witness, who spoke about the conclusions presented in the Report made by the Republika Srpska Government Commission concerning the events in Srebrenica and its vicinity in July 1995.

Djordje Stojakovic, a member of the Commission, which made the Report in 2004, said that the Commission determined that “about 7,789 persons disappeared” after the fall of Srebrenica. 

Most of the eight Commission members were “judges with longstanding working experience in criminal law.”

The indictment, filed by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, charges Milorad Trbic, as assistant commander for security of Zvornik Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), with having “participated”, together with other members of the military and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, “in the execution of more than 7,000 Bosniak men” at the stadium in Bratunac, where between 1,000 and 1,500 men were detained, on July 13, 1995.

During the course of direct examination, Stojakovic explained that the Commission faced certain difficulties in trying to determine the number of the missing people, due to the existence of double records in the existing lists.

“It happened that one person was reported as missing, but we found out, later on, that the person was serving his sentence in Mitrovica due to a criminal act of robbery,” Stojakovic said.

The witness explained that the total number of the missing included “persons, who had committed suicide due to hunger,” as well as “some persons who had been killed on the front when they tried to take over the positions held by the Serbian forces between Srebrenica and Tuzla.”

“Those who had been shot were buried in the graves together with the persons who had been killed on the frontlines. A communal company cleaned an area and they buried corpses in the closest graves,” Stojakovic said.

The witness said he did not visit the 32 graves, which have not been exhumed as yet, as he was not a member of that particular team. He said that it might be that only one or two corpses were buried in some of those graves.

The trial is due to continue on April 21.