Evidence Related to Bodies of 400 Executed Bosniaks Presented at Mladic Trial

The Hague Tribunal’s prosecution has reopened evidence proceedings against Ratko Mladic in order to present evidence on a mass grave in the Tomasica mine near Prijedor, where the bodies of more than 400 Bosniaks from Prijedor were found.

Mladic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prijedor is one of the municipalities where the persecution reached the scale of genocide.

According to the prosecution’s allegations, the Bosnian Serb Army killed Bosniaks in villages in the Prijedor area during the ethnic cleansing campaign that took place there in the spring of 1992. Their bodies were then buried in the Tomasica mine.

Following a one-month recess, issued in order to allow the defense more time to prepare its case, the trial continued with testimony from a protected prosecution witness known as RM-383.

Almost all of RM-383’s testimony was given behind closed doors. Several publicly available statements from his testimony indicate that he participated in transporting the bodies of executed Bosniaks to the Tomasica mine.

“I saw earth and a dredger …Apart from us, who’d brought and unloaded the bodies at that location…We were discussing something, but we couldn’t decide on anything…They were the superiors, who should have done it,” RM-383 said.

Prosecutor Arthur Traldi asked RM-383 whether he received an order to “close the location,” RM-383 said he didn’t.

At the beginning of the hearing, Branko Lukic, Mladic’s defense attorney said he wasn’t able to prepare for the Tomasica accusations adequately because of the short period of time at his disposal. He complained that the short amount of time left him unprepared to challenge testimony previously given by a prosecution expert.

“The time allocated to us hasn’t even been enough to identify the defense’s experts, let alone for them to prepare themselves,” Lukic said. He asked the tribunal to allocate more preparation time to the defense.

However, Lukic expressed his readiness to cross-examine witnesses about the facts of the case. Presiding judge Alphons Orie said the trial chamber would come to a decision regarding Lukic’s request at a later stage.

While presenting its evidence on the Tomasica mine, the prosecution said it would present testimony from six expert witnesses and seven witnesses, and would also include 60 documents in the case file.

The prosecution is due to complete its presentation of evidence on the Tomasica mine by the beginning of the Hague Tribunal’s summer recess on July 22. Following the recess, Mladic’s defense will continue presenting its evidence.

The indictment also charges Mladic with genocide in Srebrenica, terrorizing the local population in Sarajevo through an artillery and sniping campaign and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.