A Muslim man told judges at the UN trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Wednesday that he survived the Srebrenica massacre by feigning death beneath the bodies of men gunned down around him.
The witness testified under a pseudonym and with his image distorted, saying he feared Karadzic supporters could find him and exact revenge for his appearance at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.
Reading a summary of the man’s written statement to judges as a way of saving time, prosecution lawyer Julian Nicholls said the witness was among about 1,000 Muslim men who surrendered to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995 and was trucked to a school gym near the town of Srebrenica.
There, the men were taken to a small room, given a drink of water and blindfolded, before being put on another truck and driven to a nearby meadow.
“Prisoners were lined up in rows and shot,” Nicholls said. “The witness managed to survive by feigning death as he lay under the body of another victim.”
The witness said more trucks loaded with prisoners would arrive every 10 to 15 minutes and the men would be executed in the same way.
“This killing continued for hours,” Nicholls said.
As night fell, the witness managed to creep away and eventually found his way back to Muslim-controlled territory.
Bosnian Serb forces gunned down some 8,000 Muslim men in fields around the UN safe haven of Srebrenica in late July 1995, Europe’s worst massacre since the Holocaust.
Karadzic faces 11 charges, including two genocide counts. He insists he is innocent.
Karadzic, who is conducting his own defense, objected to the witness’ testimony, saying prosecutors were presenting it for “dramatic effect.”
Presiding judge Kwon O-gon brushed aside the objection and told Karadzic not to interrupt.
Wednesday’s testimony completed a brief overview of the worst atrocities of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war — the Srebrenica massacre, the siege and shelling of the capital, Sarajevo, and the brutal “ethnic cleansing” campaign early in the war to expel Muslims and Croats from territory claimed by Serbs.
In coming weeks and months, prosecutors are expected to present dozens more witnesses to give more details on Serb atrocities and attempt to link Karadzic to them.
The prosecution contends that Karadzic, 64, is guilty as “supreme commander” of Bosnian Serb forces responsible for the crimes. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.
Last week, a man told judges how his wife was killed by a Serb shell while shopping at a Sarajevo market and another witness described how 20 Muslim men were forced to dig their own graves and then were shot or had their throats cut by a Serb butcher as their village was ethnically cleansed early in the war.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS