Reluctant Participant in the Srebrenica Massacre
Told Details of Slaughter Before His Arrest
(PARIS—Reuters) A former soldier in the Bosnian Serb army gave a chilling account Friday of his part in the execution of about 1,200 Bosnian Muslim prisoners in a single day after the fall of Srebrenica last summer. Drazen Erdemovic told the newspaper Le Figaro he believed he personally shot about 70 people to death. "I tried to kill as few as possible," he said.
Erdemovic, a Bosnian Croat, was arrested by Serb authorities hours after giving the interview at Becej in Serbia last Saturday. A small number of Croats and Muslims, usually from mixed ethnic backgrounds, fought with the Bosnian Serb army. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said Thursday that Erdemovic was arrested as part of an investigation into war crimes.
The State Department has urged Serbia to turn over Erdemovic and a Bosnian Serb, Radoslav Kremenovic, to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to testify about what could be the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. The two men had gone into hiding after agreeing to testify before the Hague-based tribunal on war crimes in ex-Yugoslavia, hoping for guarantees of safety.
'They Begged Us Not To Kill Them'
Erdemovic said those shot were men who had sought refuge with Dutch U.N. troops in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. "Most begged us not to kill them or promised us money. Some insulted us while others just mumbled 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great)," he said. Erdemovic said the executions took place near the village of Pilica and the victims were ferried there all day in a fleet of five buses which brought them 60 at a time."The Serb drivers were terrified but (the firing squad commander) forced them to kill at least one Muslim each. That way, they would not be tempted to testify one day. At one point, I turned to another member of the firing squad who was a Croat like me and whispered to him: 'God knows that one day all this will fall back on us.' He replied: 'Shut up and shoot. Otherwise you know very well it will be our turn, we're only Croats.'"
Erdemovic said the killings took place on July 20, nine days after the fall of Srebrenica, a U.N.-protected safe haven. As many as 8,000 Muslims disappeared after the fall of the town. Erdemovic said the eight-man firing squad, members of a unit called the 10th Diversion Commando, used rifles but also a Soviet-made machine gun. (The commander) and his buddies were drinking more and more brandy. They were like crazy and were hitting the Muslims with iron bars. When they knocked one out, they forced his friends to carry him with them to the execution site,'' he said.
Could Not Leave Any Living Witness Behind
"(The commander) decided to use the machine gun to hurry things up but it wasn't professional. The bursts wounded them instead of killing them outright. The wounded were begging us to finish them off. So (another firing squad member) fired bullets into their heads. Later he bragged he had used 700 bullets during the day," Erdemovic said. He said he tried to rescue a middle-aged Muslim who pleaded for mercy, saying he had helped Serb civilians escape from Srebrenica and offering a list of their names and telephone numbers in Serbia for verification. "'Sorry,' the man was told, 'we can't leave any living witness behind,'" Erdemovic said.Erdemovic said he decided to testify about what happened after being wounded in a brawl with his unit commander who had him expelled from his home last month. Le Figaro correspondent Renaud Girard said he lent his car last Saturday night to Erdemovic who was supposed to meet him again Sunday to continue the interview. But he found out that police from Belgrade had raided the house where he was staying at 3 a.m. Sunday.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
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