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Helge Brunborg, Prosecution’s expert in demography, says at Ratko Mladic’s trial that 7,692 Muslim men from the Srebrenica enclave went missing after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.
5,601 persons, who had been exhumed from mass graves in the Zvornik surroundings, or 65.8 percent of the missing people had been identified by 2009, when he submitted his report to the Prosecution. It was determined that a total of 66.7 percent of the missing were dead.
“I think we shall never find all of the missing persons, but we are getting closer and closer,” Brunborg said.
Prosecutor Peter Mchloskey announced that another demographic expert, Eva Tabeau, as well as the Prosecution’s investigator Dusan Janc would soon present newer data.
Mladic, former Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Muslims from Srebrenica, as well as other crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Norwegian demographer Brunborg explained that he made the list of the missing persons by crossing a list made by the International Committee of Red Cross, ICRC, immediately after the fall of Srebrenica and other lists, including results of the population census in Srebrenica in 1991 and postwar electoral lists.
The Prosecution’s expert pointed out that had had not come across any examples of organised false reporting of disappearance of people from Srebrenica, confirming that some mistakes, like doubling the names of the missing, did happen, but they were corrected.
He said that no fake persons had been registered as missing with the aim of increasing the number of the missing persons and that all the persons, who were found to be alive, were removed from the list of the missing.
Mladic’s Defence attorney, who began cross-examining Brunborg today, is due to complete the cross-examination of July 26.
Prosecutor Peter Mchloskey announced that he would complete the presentation of evidence against Mladic until the end of October or beginning of November.
