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.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS