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Mladic Promised Srebrenica Muslims Safety before Killing Spree Began By Keiron Henderson
Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have been accused of responsibility for genocide against non-Serbs in the siege of Sarajevo, in which 12,000 are estimated to have died, and the 1995 fall of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in which more than 6,000 Muslim men are believed killed.
Ruez showed the tribunal videotape footage of Mladic entering Srebrenica in triumph on July 11 and of him addressing groups of panicky Muslim refugees.
Ruez was giving evidence, gathered from witness statements, at a "Rule 61" hearing in which the prosecution has the opportunity to lay out its case in the absence of the defendants. Such hearings are not trials in absentia.
"Do not be afraid -- nobody will harm you," Ruez told the court, translating the video footage of Mladic's address. "Our army does not want combat against civilians," Mladic said. "Mladic was also in charge of the evacuation and explained to everybody that the men would follow," said Ruez, telling the panel of three U.N. judges how Muslim men and women were separated by the Bosnian Serb forces. Ruez said groups of men were later taken behind factory buildings at Srebrenica and killed with knives.
"Away from the crowd, men would arrive in small groups of 10. Soldiers were already waiting for them and they killed the men with knives. This lasted for several hours," Ruez said.
Those who fled were attacked by soldiers waiting outside. Serb soldiers called out to those in the hangar, asking if any were still alive, then finished them off when they answered.
"One woman was approached by a soldier and asked the sex of her baby. When she said it was a boy the soldier killed the baby with a knife," Ruez said.
Another woman struggling to get on a bus was asked by a Serb soldier why her child was crying. "She said it was hungry and the solder replied "Oh well, it won't be hungry any more', and slit the throat of the child in front of everybody," Ruez told the court.
Ruez said an elderly man travelling in a family group was made to stab a boy in the stomach by a Serb soldier and eat a part of of his internal organs.
A group of soldiers picked a woman out from a group, gang-raped her and then discussed ways of killing her before slitting her throat, Ruez testified.
Scenes at Srebrenica were so hellish that a number of people committed suicide, with many choosing to hang themselves rather than face the same fate as other refugees, Ruez said.
Created by the U.N. Security Council in 1993, the Hague-based tribunal is the first body of its kind since the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials after World War Two. It has so far indicted 75 men, mainly Serbs, with war crimes and holds seven accused at its cells in The Hague. |
People struggling away from Srebrenica fared little better, with groups of refugees facing arbitrary slaughter, said Ruez. One group of 500 to 1,000 people were rounded up and forced into a large industrial hangar at Kravice, near Srebrenica. "Immediately, firing from all the openings (to the hangar) started. Grenades were thrown in," said Ruez.
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Berserkistan, May 29 · Documentary Claims Serbia Provided Srebrenica Arms
Berserkistan, May 29 · War Crimes Team Probes Suspected Mass Grave
Berserkistan, Apr 5 · Tribunal Probes Srebrenica Killing Fields
Berserkistan, Massacre Hill Jim Bartlett in Bosnia's Killing Fields
Berserkistan, Ghosts in the Woods Team Berserkistan Investigates a Srebrenica Massacre Site
Serbs Massacre Muslims in "Safe Area" of Srebrenica
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Reports concerning human rights abuses in Bosnia Intac Access
Major War Criminals/Suspects CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia CalTech's Bosnia Site
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