Demographer did not Determine Victims’ Status
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Brunborg said that while being cross-examined by Mladic’s Defence attorney Dragan Ivetic. During his testimony yesterday Norwegian demographer Brunborg said that 7,692 Muslim met went missing following the occupation of Srebrenica by the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.
Responding to a suggestion by Defence attorney Ivetic, Brunborg said that he did not try to determine how many men, who went missing, were in a line of people moving walking through the woods in an attempt to break through to Tuzla. He said that he was not requested to do that.
The witness said that his statement, given at one of the previous trials, saying that the lists of the missing and killed people did not include soldiers, might have been “too strong”.
“Nobody knows how many people participated in battles in the woods,” Brunborg said, admitting that he did not have information about “those killed in battles”.
The demographer also confirmed that the lists of the missing, which were made by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, contained names of people, who were killed prior to the fall of Srebrenica, and that his team deleted those names.
The indictment charges Mladic, former Commander of VRS, with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
Brunborg was the 130th Prosecution witness. The Prosecution plans to complete the presentation of its evidence by the end of October or beginning of November.
The trial of Mladic before The Hague Tribunal is due to continue after the summer break, on August 19.
