ICMP Expert Describes Prijedor Mass Graves at Mladic Trial
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ICMP Forensic Director Thomas Parsons said the remains of 385 victims had been exhumed from the mass grave in the Tomasica mine in 2013. He said the ICMP found the remains of 211 additional individuals at the nearby grave site of Jakarina Kosa. In around 100 cases, Parsons said, the remains of the same person were found in both Jakarina Kosa and Tomasica.
“This means that bodies from Tomasica were moved,” Pasons said, adding that the connection between the bodies was confirmed through DNA analysis.
He said eight sets of remains still remain unidentified.
During cross-examination, defense witness Miodrag Stojanovic tried to dispute the validity of the ICMP’s findings by presenting DNA samples taken by pathologists and anthropologists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, not employed by the ICMP.
Parsons is the fifth witness to testify in reopened evidence hearings regarding the Tomasica mass grave. Prosecutors at the Hague said they would call on six experts and seven witnesses, and present 60 documents.
Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with the wartime persecution of Bosniaks and Croats across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The persecution reached the scale of genocide in several municipalities – Prijedor being one of them.
Mladic has also been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
