Recordings of Captives and Killed People
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Petrovic filmed a few tens of dead people in front of a warehouse in Kravica from a passing car that day, while a round of fire was echoing and Serb soldiers were moving around.
“There are dead Muslim soldiers as well,” Petrovic commented during the film.
The car from which Petrovic filmed the scene was driven by Ljubomir Borovcanin, the then Deputy Commander of the RS Special Police Brigade.
In April 2010 the Tribunal sentenced Borovcanin to 17 years in prison for having failed to prevent mass murders in Kravica, thus supporting the murders, extermination and persecution of Muslims from Srebrenica.
Petrovic’s film, which was broadcast on Studio B television from Belgrade on July 17, 1995, was commented on in detail by Hague Prosecution investigator Tomasz Blaszczyk, who provided the judges with information about the locations, persons and events depicted in the footage.
Petrovic’s film depicts the surrender of tens of Muslims, who tried to break through the ring around Srebrenica and reach Tuzla by walking through the woods.
According to the charges, the VRS later shot most of the Muslim captives.
Mladic, former Commander of VRS, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Muslim men from Srebrenica.
During the cross-examination Mladic’s Defence attorney Dragan Ivetic suggested that the murders in the Agricultural Co-operative premises in Kravica were committed by police members, not by VRS. Witness Blaszczyk confirmed his allegation.
The Defence attorney said that the gunshots, which could be heard in the film, in the vicinity of the warehouse, could have been fired in a combat between Serb forces and members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were trying to break through the ring around Srebrenica and reach Tuzla through the woods.
Blaszczyk said that the conflict happened in the morning on July 13, but not in the afternoon hours, when the film was recorded.
Attorney Ivetic said that a VRS soldier, who was depicted saying that between 3,000 and 4,000 Muslims had surrendered, was exaggerating.
However, Blaszczyk stuck to his earlier allegation that the available evidence confirmed that the VRS did hold as many Muslim captives on July 13, 1995.
The trial of General Mladic, who is also charged with the persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, is due to continue on Monday, June 10.
