Karadzic: More than 8,000 Srebrenica Victims

Karadzic, former President and Supreme Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with genocide against Bosniaks from Srebrenica committed in the days that followed the occupation of the UN protected enclave by the VRS on July 11, 1995.

Masovic said that, according to ICMP’s estimates, there were a total of 8,100 victims in Srebrenica. On the basis of a DNA analysis, the Commission has already linked the remains of 7,787 persons, which have been found in mass graves, with about 22,000 blood samples given by families of the missing persons.

“No link has been established between 166 remains and blood samples, which means that relatives of those persons have not given blood or that there are no survivors in those families,” Masovic said.

The witness said that names of 8,372 persons, whose death can be linked to the fall of Srebrenica and neighbouring Zepa in July 1995, have been carved on a memorial wall in the Memorial Center in Potocari.

While cross-examining the witness, Karadzic quoted a report from a meeting of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 1995, mentioning 3,000 victims in Srebrenica.

Masovic said that this was not known to him, adding that “the exact data collected directly from mass graves” indicate that “at least 6,700 complete or incomplete remains have been found at 450 locations and that families have reported the disappearance of 8,262 persons”.

“Unfortunately, half of those graves are secondary graves. Parts of one person’s body were found in four graves. Worst of all, the person’s body is still incomplete,” he said.

When asked if he knew what the cause of death of the exhumed persons was, Masovic said that all testimonies, pieces of evidence and indications suggested that they had been killed in an unlawful way. The witness asked the indictee why would they otherwise have exhumed bodies from the primary graves, “crushed” the victims’ bodies with “bulldozers” and relocated them to secondary graves.

Just like he did during the examination of one of the previous witnesses, Karadzic said that Masovic said that some persons, who were still alive, were identified as Srebrenica victims, because their “amputated limbs” were found in the mass graves.

Masovic responded by saying that his statement had nothing to do with the mass graves of Srebrenica victims, but with an exhumation of amputated limbs and stillborns, which were buried by a nearby hospital at a cemetery in Sarajevo, which was conducted by mistake.

When asked if he said that “at least 500” people, who were not killed in Srebrenica, were buried in the Memorial Centre in Potocari, the witness said that it was not true and that nobody had ever determined that.
However, he said that about 70 relatives of Srebrenica victims, who were killed at other locations, were buried in Potocari, but their names were not included in the lists of people who were killed after the fall of Srebrenica. Masovic said that Karadzic’s allegations that ABiH soldiers, who were killed during the previous war years, were buried in the mass graves, along with others, was improbable.

The trial of Karadzic, who is charged with the Srebrenica genocide, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR soldiers hostage, is due to continue on Wednesday, April 11.R.M.