Information about Autopsy of Srebrenica Victims
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Prosecution expert Lawrence specified that, in the summer of 1998 he performed an autopsy of remains contained in 2,239 bags, which were sent to him at the mortuary in Visoko, and determined that the remains belonged to at least 883 people, who, as he was told, were from Srebrenica.
In addition to the human remains, 83 hand ties and 103 blindfolds, which were discovered in the graves, were also analysed.
Wounds caused by bullets fired from firearms, which were found in the graves, were visible on 203 out of 254 “almost intact bodies”, while injuries caused by shrapnel pieces of explosive objects were found on some of them too.
The Australian pathologist said that, in most of the cases he was not able to determine the exact cause or time of death, not only because the bodies were damaged by the decay process, but also because they were relocated to secondary mass graves.
Mladic, the then Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Muslims from Srebrenica, who were shot in the days that followed the occupation of the enclave on July 11, 1995.
According to the charges, in the fall of 1995 the VRS exhumed bodies of the killed people from primary mass graves and transferred them to secondary graves in an attempt to conceal traces of the crime.
Psychotherapist Teufika Ibrahimefendic, whose closest family members were killed in Srebrenica, testified at this hearing prior to Lawrence.
She said that, while assisting families with “Srebrenica syndrome” from 1995 onwards, she has determined that they suffer from various emotional injuries and behavioural disturbances.
“It can be noticed that the mourning of women, who have still not found the remains of their husbands and sons, is blocked, because there are no bodies, so the real mourning as a type of recovery cannot begin. Those women do not have the vision of future, because everything is connected to the dead and the mourning,” Ibrahimefendic explained.
According to the witness, “there is a gap” in the identity of children, whose fathers disappeared after the fall of Srebrenica, and the gap “will not be filled”.
The trial of Mladic, who is also charged with persecuting Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, is due to continue on July 19.
