Trbic: Similarities between Bosnia and Iraq

International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, investigator Richard Butler said Milorad Trbic was assistant commander for security with the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS) in July 1995 and that he was the duty officer in his Brigade Staff on July 16.

The indictment alleges on that day Trbic “facilitated and coordinated the VRS officers, who implemented the arrests, detention, transportation, execution and burial of adult Bosniak men from Srebrenica”.

“Milorad Trbic was an assistant to Drago Nikolic and his task was to help him perform the tasks related to the execution of prisoners, as well as the burial and transfer to new graves,” Butler said, adding that those tasks “could only be performed by someone who had detailed information on what was going on.”

Suggesting that in August 1995, photos of the locations where Bosniak captives were executed were shown to the United Nations Security Council, Butler added that, “in September a proposal was made to exhume the bodies from the existing graves and transfer them to other locations, in order to hide the evidence.”

“This commenced in the first week of September and continued throughout October. In the Zvornik Brigade, Milorad Trbic was in charge of the reburial operation,” Butler said.

The indictment alleges that, in the period from August 1 to November 1, 1995 Milorad Trbic, together with other persons, facilitated and supervised the reburial of the bodies exhumed from primary mass graves on the territory controlled by the Zvornik and Bratunac Brigades and their transportation to secondary graves.

On the first day of his testimony, March 17, Butler explained that the conclusions of his analysis, which were presented before the ICTY on several occasions, were made on the basis of the documentation confiscated from the two Brigades Staff and the communication intercepted by the intelligence service of the Army of BiH.

During cross-examination, the Defence asked Butler to indicate how precise his conclusions were.

“My goal was to be as credible as possible,” Butler responded.

Defence attorney Milan Trbojevic said the analysis “need not be necessarily correct” and he gave an example of the analysis and conclusions on the existence of mass destruction weapons, which, in the end, led to the war in Iraq.

Richard Butler said that he did not see one single document regarding the participation of Trbic in the executions or any documents containing Trbic’s orders.

The trial of Milorad Trbic is due to continue on April 14, when the Defence will present its evidence presentation plan at a status conference.