Karadzic: Massive Surrender of Bosniaks
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At the beginning of his testimony, Ruez said that he began an investigation about Srebrenica by speaking to refugees in Tuzla on July 20, 1995, following media reports, saying that many Bosniak men went missing.
Appearing before the judges, Ruez commented on satellite images and photographs made in the period between July 11 and July 15, 1995, depicting the locations, where Bosniaks, who had been captured in the vicinity of Srebrenica and Bratunac, were held and Serb soldiers transporting them by buses.
Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with genocide against more than 7,000 Bosniak men and the persecution of their families in the days that followed the occupation of Srebrenica enclave, which was a United Nations, UN protected zone, by the VRS on July 11, 1995.
The Hague Prosecution charges Karadzic with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo by a long-lasting shelling and sniping and taking members of international peace forces hostage in the period from 1992 to 1995.
The witness said that, during the investigation it was determined that women, children, the elderly and some men from Srebrenica tried to find shelter in Potocari, where the UNPROFOR Base was situated. The column, which, according to witness estimates, consisted of up to 15,000 men, tried to get to Tuzla through the woods.
Approximately one third of them were members of the 28th Division of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were military equipped despite the previous demilitarisation of the enclave, while the rest of them were unarmed civilians, Ruez said.
The witness said that, during the course of the investigation eyewitnesses said that VRS members separated Bosniak men from women and children in Potocari and detained them in a white house. However, there was no material evidence about it until the detained Bosniaks briefly appeared in a movie made by Serbian journalist Zoran Petrovic-Pirocanac in Potocari on July 13, 1995. The Prosecutors played the specific part of the movie, depicting men stuffed on the terrace of the white house, in the courtroom.
Serb forces then transferred the prisoners to Bratunac and detained them at several locations, including the school building, Ruez said, showing photographs of those buildings.
The witness said that the satellite images, which the Prosecution received from United States of America, USA authorities, confirmed the massive surrender of Bosniaks, who were in the column of people trying to break through to Tuzla, to Serb soldiers on July 12 and 13, 1995. The witness said that, one of those images clearly depicted prisoners on a football stadium in Nova Kasaba and buses parked in the vicinity of the stadium.
The trial is due to continue on January 27.R.M.
