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While confirming that operating assumption was that the victims, on whom he performed an autopsy, were “captured and shot”, Lawrence, however, rejected the allegation that it influenced the expert conclusions he made after the autopsy in any way.
Mladic, former Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica. The indictment also charges Mladic with persecuting Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by long-lasting shelling and sniping and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
In 1998 Australian pathologist Lawrence performed an autopsy of remains from 2,239 bags collected from eight mass graves in the vicinity of Zvornik.
He determined that the remains belonged to “at least 883” people, who, as he was told, were from Srebrenica. In addition to the remains, 83 hand ties and 103 blindfolds, which were found on the remains and in the graves, were analysed.
Injuries caused by bullets from fire arms, which were found in the graves, were visible on 203 out of 254 “almost intact bodies”, while on some of them we saw injuries caused by shrapnel pieces of explosive objects, said Lawrence.
While being cross-examined by Mladic’s Defence attorney Dragan Ivetic, Lawrence confirmed that he found “several layers of clothes” on many bodies, but he denied that it could lead to a conclusion that those persons were not killed in July 1995.
“I supposed that they had several layers of clothes, because they had already been transferred from some other area, so they wore them like that… It did not seem to me that they were killed at some other time,” the witness said.
Defence attorney Ivetic suggested that the hand ties found in the graves and on the remains could be bands, which Muslim soldiers wore around their arms or heads for easier identification.
Lawrence responded by saying that it was not known to him that bands were used like that.
When asked whether he considered the possibility that some of the victims were soldiers, who were killed in battles, the witness answered affirmatively, but he considered it “extremely unlikely” due to the existence of hand ties and blindfolds in the graves and on the remains.
The Prosecution is due to continue presenting evidence against Mladic on Monday, July 22.
