1606 Srebrenica Bodies Identified
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Rifat Kesetovic, the medical expert, said that in February he made a report on identification of bodies from the primary mass grave Branjevo, or Pilica, and other secondary graves linked to this one.
According to the report, so far 1606 bodies of murdered Srebrenica people have been identified in the primary and eight secondary graves from this area.
All secondary mass graves were, explained Kesetovic, linked through DNA with the primary grave at the Branjevo military farm.
“We have five examples where one body is found in three mass graves,” said Kesetovic, adding that all DNA results from this area have not arrived yet.
The expert said that several persons underage at the time of death were found in these graves, as well as mortal remains of a large number of persons aged over 60.
The cause of death in the majority of people was multiple gunshot wounds, but on the majority of bodies you cannot state the cause with any certainty because the exhumed bodies were mere skeletal remains.
“In some situations it is simply difficult to differentiate wounds inflicted before death from those that caused it,” said Kesetovic, adding that many fractures on bones were made during the transfer of bodies to secondary graves.
The Prosecution charges Aleksandar Cvetkovic, former member of the Tenth Saboteur Squad of the Army of Republika Srpska, with the murder of over 900 Bosniaks at the military farm in Branjevo.
At the hearing the Defence read questions it would like to ask Drazen Erdemovic, whose statements were read at the hearing held on March 18.
The Defence would like to ask Erdemovic whether he knew the defendant Cvetkovic and since when, what he thought of him, did he know whether he was a driver for the Tenth Sabouter Squad, and whether he participated in actions, as well as many others.
The Hague Tribunal sentenced Erdemovic in 1998 to five years in prison after he confessed to participating in the mass executions at Branjevo. He declined to testify at Cvetkovic’s trial.
The trial will resume on April 1.
