1 Monday, 10th April 2000
2 [Open session]
3 [The witness entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.35 a.m.
5 [The accused entered court]
6 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Good
7 morning, ladies and gentlemen; good morning,
8 technicians; good morning, interpreters. I can see
9 that they are there. Good morning to our assistants,
10 representatives of the Registrar. Good morning,
11 counsel for the Prosecution, counsel for Defence. Good
12 morning, General Krstic.
13 Good morning, Witness J. Have you had a good
14 rest?
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, I have,
16 Your Honour.
17 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Did you
18 have a nice weekend here in The Hague?
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, it was
20 good. Thank you.
21 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Let me just
22 remind you, Witness, that you are still under oath, and
23 you will continue answering questions that will be put
24 to you by Mr. Cayley, whom you know already.
25 Mr. Cayley, you have the floor.
1 MR. CAYLEY: Good morning, Mr. President,
2 Your Honours, counsel.
3 WITNESS: WITNESS J [Resumed]
4 Examined by Mr. Cayley: [Cont'd]
5 Q. Good morning, Witness J.
6 A. Good morning.
7 Q. Now, Witness J, I'm just going to refresh
8 your memory as to where we were on Friday and what you
9 said to the Judges --
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. -- so that I can give you the point in time
12 which we reached in your testimony.
13 Now, you explained to the Judges that on the
14 12th of July of 1995 you found yourself in a meadow, in
15 a place called Lolici. Do you recall that?
16 A. No, we were not there on the 12th, we were in
17 Lolici on the 13th. And on the 12th we were still in
18 Jaglici.
19 Q. Yes, you're quite right, Witness. Thank you
20 for correcting me. And I think you explained to the
21 Judges that the Bosnian Serb soldiers searched you for
22 money; do you recall that?
23 A. Yes, they did.
24 Q. And I think you also said to the Judges that
25 you heard someone whisper in front of you that there
1 were about 2.000 Muslim men on the meadow; do you
2 recall that?
3 A. Yes. Yes, I do.
4 Q. I think we got to a point in time when you
5 explained that water was brought to you and a man in
6 front of you complained that he had not had any water,
7 and then a soldier beat him and then shot him.
8 A. Yes, and he killed him. The soldier killed
9 the civilian who had asked for water. He said that
10 somebody had had water two times already and that he
11 hadn't had any water so far, so two soldiers kicked
12 him; one kicked him on the left side of his head, the
13 other on the right side, and he started bleeding from
14 his mouth. So one of them then grabbed him by the neck
15 and the other took him as well, and they dragged him
16 away some six metres and they shot him, and he remained
17 there, lying dead.
18 Q. Now, I think the next thing that happened to
19 you is some Bosnian Serb soldiers recognised a Muslim
20 police officer amongst you; do you recall that?
21 A. Yes, I recall that. They recognised a
22 policeman who was a neighbour of mine, who used to work
23 in Vlasenica during peacetime. So they pointed their
24 finger at him and one of them called him out. He
25 addressed him by his last name and he told him, "Come
1 here." So he came up and five or six soldiers gathered
2 around him, they said hello to him, all of them, and I
3 was glad to see that because I thought, well, here's
4 someone who knows us, so they might help us.
5 But they took him away to a house that was
6 situated on the left-hand side, and they stayed there
7 for about one hour, one hour and a half, and after
8 that, three of them came back with him. And they stood
9 next to us, on the left side, and he called his brother
10 and he said, "Give me your jacket," so he did and they
11 asked him, "Who is this guy here?" and he said, "This
12 is my brother." And then he turned around and he
13 called his second brother. So they left again, they
14 went in the right direction, towards the house where
15 the wounded were, and I don't know what happened to
16 them. I didn't hear shots but I never saw them again.
17 Q. Now, Witness, these three men, they were
18 taken away by Bosnian Serb soldiers.
19 A. Yes, the soldiers, and ever since then we
20 haven't heard of them.
21 JUDGE RIAD: Excuse me. He said they were
22 taken to the house where the wounded were. Who was
23 wounded?
24 A. Above the house, behind the house where the
25 wounded were.
1 JUDGE RIAD: There were wounded people behind
2 the house?
3 A. The wounded were in the house, and the three
4 brothers were taken above the house, to the right-hand
5 side, and I haven't heard of them ever since.
6 MR. CAYLEY:
7 Q. Witness, were there Muslim wounded in the
8 house to which the three brothers were taken?
9 A. Yes, there were wounded in the house.
10 MR. CAYLEY: Your Honour Judge Riad, does
11 that answer your question?
12 JUDGE RIAD: Yes. Thank you very much.
13 MR. CAYLEY:
14 Q. Now, Witness, there was a road that ran in
15 front of the meadow where you were sitting. Do you
16 recall --
17 A. Yes, an asphalt road.
18 Q. Do you recall at any time seeing buses or
19 trucks on that road?
20 A. Both buses and trucks were passing and they
21 were travelling from Potocari towards Milici. They
22 were transporting civilians from Potocari.
23 Q. Did you see the people on those buses and
24 trucks?
25 A. Yes, there were people, including women and
1 children.
2 Q. Did you recognise them as your people?
3 A. I couldn't recognise anyone. I wasn't really
4 watching. I kept my head down because I kept thinking
5 only about my fate.
6 Q. Now, while you were in Lolici, I think the
7 Bosnian Serb soldiers asked for 30 volunteers from the
8 men. Do you recall that?
9 A. Yes, I recall that. They came to us and they
10 said that they needed about 30 young men, aged
11 approximately 25. So 30 of them came out and they
12 boarded a truck. They gave them some shovels and the
13 truck left. I don't know what happened to them. I
14 don't know where they were taken, but any trace of them
15 was lost.
16 Q. I think there came a time when a VRS officer
17 came to the meadow, do you remember that, and gave
18 assurances that everything would be all right.
19 A. First they searched us, looking for money,
20 asking for money. And there was one person whom they
21 addressed as Madzarevic, and Madzarevic -- people were
22 from Visnjica. One of them had blonde hair and a
23 ponytail, and he had some kind of black bandanna on his
24 head. So they searched us and they took six marks from
25 me and -- 600 marks and some necklaces that belonged to
1 my daughter.
2 And then Mladic came and he spoke to us. The
3 first thing he said was, "Isn't this better than to get
4 killed? Naser has abandoned you. He fled to Tuzla.
5 It is not a very good idea to wage war with Serbs. We
6 have almost evacuated all of our families and they have
7 been put up in Tuzla, Kladanj, and Zivinice, and most
8 probably within a day or two you will be exchanged as
9 well. Everyone will find his family. Nobody is going
10 to beat you. Nobody is going to provoke you. You will
11 be given food and you're very hot here so we will find
12 you some shade."
13 So everybody applauded, saying "Thank you,
14 sir. Thank you, General." He kind of encouraged us.
15 But I wanted to speak to him and he said, "What's the
16 problem?" I said, "General, you see I'm barefoot, I've
17 lost my boots. I have a pair of shoes in my backpack.
18 Can I go and get them?" And then he told me, "You will
19 get a pair of shoes." And then I said, "Thank you,
20 General." And then he left.
21 Then 15 -- 20 minutes later, the one who was
22 wearing a civilian uniform, without any insignia, he
23 said -- he told us to make a column by four. So the
24 one who had given this order was a few metres away from
25 us.
1 Q. If I could interrupt you just to clarify one
2 thing. Did Mladic say to you that your families had
3 been evacuated to Tuzla, Kladanj, and Zivinice?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Thank you. Now, you then said 30 minutes
6 later you were instructed to --
7 A. Between 20 and 30 minutes later.
8 Q. -- you were instructed to make a column for 4
9 by 4. Can you tell the Judges once you formed that
10 column where you went?
11 A. I didn't know the area. When I -- after I
12 had come out with the person who had been with me in
13 the warehouse, he told me that we were somewhere near
14 Kravica. They brought us to a warehouse and both sides
15 of the column, there would be a Serb soldiers every six
16 metres armed with automatic rifles. They had
17 ammunition belts across their chests, and they were
18 marching us a warehouse where a bus was parked just
19 outside the warehouse. And I entered the warehouse
20 through the second door, not the first one.
21 So the warehouse was completely full, and I
22 found a seat in one of the corners of the warehouse.
23 And the soldier who was standing at the right side of
24 the warehouse, he cursed at me and he told me to sit
25 down. And I told him that I wanted to stand, to lean
1 against the wall because I had back pain. And this is
2 how I sat down in that warehouse.
3 Q. Witness, before we move to the next part of
4 your testimony.
5 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could be shown
6 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/4, please.
7 Q. The column of men that you described to the
8 Judges, do you recall how long that column was?
9 A. According to my estimate, because I could see
10 it when we turned around the curve, I was somewhere in
11 the middle of the column. I think that the column was
12 between 400 and 500 metres long. I couldn't tell the
13 exact number, but this is according to my estimate.
14 Because we were all terrified. We didn't know what was
15 going to happen to us.
16 Q. I understand that, Witness. When you entered
17 the warehouse, how full was it with Muslim men. Do you
18 recall?
19 A. The warehouse was completely full. If you
20 had thrown a lighter or a match inside, it would have
21 stayed on somebody's shoulder or in somebody's lap, it
22 couldn't have fallen on the ground.
23 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. Usher, if you could first of
24 all put the photograph in front of the witness and let
25 the witness look at it.
1 Q. Now, Witness, I've shown you this photograph?
2 A. This is the first door, the first entrance
3 and this is the second one [indicates]. And this is
4 where I entered through the second one, and this is
5 where I got out, through this door.
6 The truck, the excavator was there when I got
7 out the night between Thursday and Friday.
8 Q. Witness, if you could stop for a moment.
9 MR. CAYLEY: And Mr. Usher, if you could
10 place the photograph on to the ELMO.
11 Q. Witness, what I want you to do now, I don't
12 want you to speak, I just want you to point to the door
13 in the warehouse through which you entered, and you can
14 use the pointer.
15 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. Usher, if you could give the
16 witness the pointer.
17 A. It is through this door that I entered
18 [indicates].
19 Q. Witness, you'll need to point on the
20 photograph. Can you see which door?
21 A. This door here [indicates].
22 Q. If you could keep the pointer on that door.
23 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. Usher, if you could help
24 the witness.
25 Let the record show that the witness is
1 indicating a small door on the right-hand side of the
2 photograph. It's a small door with some writing above
3 it and it's the last door on the extreme right hand of
4 the photograph.
5 Q. And that's the warehouse, is it, Witness,
6 which you entered?
7 A. Yes.
8 MR. CAYLEY: Thank you, Mr. Usher.
9 Q. Witness, if you could explain to the Judges
10 what you recall happened next?
11 A. In the warehouse, when we got in, when the
12 last person entered through the same door where I had
13 entered, he didn't have a place to sit down, so he
14 remained standing. And he was kicked by a Serb soldier
15 in the back. And the soldier told him -- he cursed at
16 him and he told him to sit down. And this man turned
17 around and he said, "I have no room to sit down." And
18 then there was a burst of gunfire that mowed him down.
19 And all of a sudden there was a lot of shooting in the
20 warehouse, and we didn't know where it was coming
21 from.
22 There were rifles, grenades, bursts of
23 gunfire and it was -- it got so dark in the warehouse
24 that we couldn't see anything. People started to
25 scream, to shout, crying for help. And then there
1 would be a lull, and then all of a sudden it would
2 start again. And they kept shooting like that until
3 nightfall in the warehouse.
4 I managed to reach an outside gate, a little
5 booth, and I found a neighbour of mine there, and he
6 told me to lie down. And I asked him if he was wounded
7 and he wasn't, and he asked me if I was wounded and I
8 wasn't either. And there was blood underneath and I
9 couldn't take it any longer. I pulled a dead body over
10 me, and this is how I remained for about 24 hours in
11 the warehouse.
12 In the next morning, one could tell that it
13 was dawning. This neighbour of mine stood up, and he
14 said that he needed to urinate because he was thirsty,
15 he couldn't take it anymore. So I grabbed him --
16 pulled him by his coat and told him to lie down but
17 then there was a burst of gunfire and he fell down.
18 So I spent the whole day of the 14th of July
19 in the warehouse. I didn't know what time of day it
20 was. Somebody asked us at one point if there was
21 anyone healthy amongst us to join their army. So a
22 couple of people went out but I didn't watch. So I
23 don't know who left.
24 And there was a sound of a truck that left,
25 but I don't know in which direction it left.
1 All of a sudden, I could hear a voice
2 crying, "Salko, Salko," for about 15 times. And then
3 somebody cursed us about our Turkish mothers. And then
4 we heard a voice, "Is there anybody alive amongst you?"
5 And then we heard a shoot and then everything went
6 quiet. After one hour, perhaps an hour and a half,
7 somebody started to shout, to cry, "Adila, Adila, get
8 me some water."
9 And then again, we could hear curses and
10 somebody asked if anyone was still alive. And then we
11 heard shots and everything went quiet again. Everybody
12 was silent.
13 I forgot to tell you that they had asked
14 about wounded. They wanted to know if anybody was
15 wounded, and they said that there would be an ambulance
16 that would take them to the hospital. So the wounded
17 people crawled out, and they were killed immediately
18 outside the warehouse.
19 When this guy who was crying for water was
20 killed, nobody spoke a word in the warehouse.
21 Then we heard a sound and I thought that the
22 vehicles were passing on the asphalt road and I could
23 tell that the sound was approaching but I didn't know
24 what was happening. When it became dark, we heard
25 voices, "Cover the asphalt with the hay," and that
1 there was a truck that arrived and somebody said, "It's
2 enough for today." So they covered the whole area with
3 hay and I thought they wanted to set it on fire, but
4 they didn't.
5 When it became dark, I realised that nobody
6 was alive in the warehouse. I couldn't hear a single
7 voice, a single sound. So I began to crawl out, and I
8 sat down. But I was so weak and I couldn't -- couldn't
9 leave. I just sat there for about one hour, an hour
10 and a half. I was trying to stretch a little bit to
11 get my bearings.
12 But then at one point I had heard a whisper
13 and I didn't know whether it was coming from inside the
14 warehouse or outside the warehouse, because I was
15 sitting next to a door.
16 And I tried to walk across those dead bodies
17 towards the whisper and I found two persons in the
18 warehouse and I told them let's flee, let's get out of
19 here. One of them was very young, he was a tall guy
20 and he said we couldn't go together. I said, "I don't
21 know where to go. I don't know where I am." But he
22 said, "We couldn't go together." And I asked him where
23 he was from. He said he was from Lolici. And I wanted
24 to go with him, because he knew the area. But he kept
25 telling me that we couldn't go together. So I wanted
1 to know where the other guy was from and he addressed
2 him by his first name, but he told me that this other
3 person couldn't hear very well.
4 So I stood up, I wanted to go with them, but
5 they wouldn't let me. So I came out and I was standing
6 behind the excavator. It was a very bright night, and
7 the visibility was very good.
8 All of a sudden, somebody said
9 [indiscernible] and I heard a soldier and at one point,
10 I lied down. And the voice said, "Get up." But I kept
11 lying down. And he went on like that for about two or
12 three times and then he said, "Stand up." And all of a
13 sudden I jumped up, and I went -- I left the warehouse
14 which was on my left-hand side and I went towards the
15 river, towards the brook where I drank some water.
16 Q. Witness, at this point I want to ask you a
17 few questions about what happened in the warehouse.
18 I know that you're now talking about your
19 escape from the warehouse. So if you could just listen
20 to a few questions that I have about the warehouse.
21 Now, you said in your evidence that when the
22 shooting subsided, you went and hid. You reached an
23 outside gate, a reception booth. Do you recall that?
24 A. In the warehouse.
25 Q. In the warehouse. Do you recall that?
1 A. When I was getting out of the warehouse?
2 When I left it?
3 Q. No. I want you to think about when you were
4 actually in the warehouse, and I think you survived by
5 hiding in a reception booth.
6 A. Yes. Yes. Yes.
7 Q. You were in a sort of an office --
8 A. It was a kind of reception booth, yes, rather
9 like that, a small hut.
10 Q. And it was inside the warehouse.
11 A. Yes, it was. Next to the warehouse, attached
12 to the warehouse.
13 Q. Was it inside the warehouse building or was
14 it outside, completely outside the warehouse?
15 A. From the warehouse I entered that reception
16 booth. It was all under one roof, but it was separate
17 from the warehouse where the dead were. But there were
18 some dead there too, inside the warehouse where I was.
19 Q. Now, in the reception booth, you covered
20 yourself with a dead body; is that right?
21 A. A body, yes.
22 Q. And do you recall how long you lay under that
23 dead body?
24 A. I lay there for 24 hours, in the warehouse,
25 under a dead body. I was brought to the warehouse on a
1 Thursday, about 4.00, 4.30, and the next Friday, on the
2 14th, I left the warehouse.
3 Q. Could you see any of the concrete floor
4 around you, or were there bodies covering the whole
5 floor?
6 A. No where could you stand on the concrete
7 floor without stepping on a dead body. The dead bodies
8 had covered the entire concrete.
9 Q. And your clothes, did you have blood on your
10 clothes?
11 A. I brought my sweater to Zivinice, which was
12 bloodstained, when this Muskic from Cerska, when he was
13 killed at Baljkovica. And there were people who saw
14 how bloodstained my sweater was. I couldn't throw it
15 away because it was cold at night, but it stank to me,
16 never mind other people, but still I had to put it on
17 again. And I reached Zepa with it, and from Zepa, with
18 that sweater, I got to Zivinice.
19 Q. Now, you mentioned that when you walked out
20 of the factory, you saw an excavator; do you recall
21 that?
22 A. I do. When we went out, I heard someone say
23 that they were collecting the dead and loading them
24 onto this truck. And when they were washing the
25 asphalt, it was covered in blood, so they brought the
1 water tank to wash it. And what we heard was the
2 loading of the dead onto the truck. Where they took
3 them, I don't know.
4 Q. Was there a time when you feared that you
5 would be loaded alive onto a truck with all of these
6 bodies?
7 A. What normal person would not be afraid? I
8 kept thinking, why didn't I get killed, or I might get
9 loaded onto the truck alive.
10 Q. Did you hear the excavator loading bodies?
11 Did you hear the engines of the excavator loading
12 bodies?
13 A. Of course I heard it loading, only I didn't
14 know what it was until they said that the excavator
15 should park.
16 Q. Now, I think you've already explained to the
17 Judges that there came a time when you escaped from out
18 of the warehouse and a Serb soldier saw you as you were
19 crossing the road; do you recall that?
20 A. We weren't crossing the road. I reached the
21 road; he was to the right of the asphalt road, I was on
22 the left-hand side when he stopped me. I lay down.
23 The third time he yelled "Get up," I jumped up, I ran
24 towards the river, the warehouse was left behind me to
25 the left, and there wasn't a shot fired behind me. I
1 didn't hear him shout "Stop" again. I crossed the
2 river to some maize fields.
3 Q. Witness, when you say that "he" yelled at you
4 and "he" said get up, are you referring to the Bosnian
5 Serb soldier?
6 A. I imagine it was a soldier. Why he didn't
7 shoot, whether he thought it was one of them -- I
8 believe he must have thought it was one of them,
9 because they were 100 per cent sure that there was not
10 a living soul left in the warehouse.
11 Q. Now, the next part of your evidence you
12 simply need to answer my questions yes or no.
13 I think you eventually managed to get to the
14 town of Zepa on the 26th of July, with some of your
15 colleagues; is that right?
16 A. But for five days I was in Podbrdze and then
17 I reached Zepa. This person new Podbrdze well, the one
18 who escaped with me. For five days he led me around
19 Podbrdze. If it hadn't been for him, I would have
20 never got out. He knew the ground; he knew every
21 village. And every night we tried to cross the asphalt
22 road but they were controlling it all night and all
23 day.
24 So during the night we would go into the
25 woods and they would cry out, "Come on, balija, come
1 down." They swore at Alija. Then they would call out
2 Muslim names, "Zulfa," "Mustafa," "Alija, come on, come
3 down. Surrender. No one will hurt you." I thought
4 they must have noticed someone. So we couldn't cross
5 the road. I tried to persuade him to go to Zepa. He
6 wouldn't. He knew the road to Baljkovica.
7 We reached a place called Jela. We found
8 some more of our men there; I knew some of them. I
9 tried to persuade them to go to Zepa, that we should go
10 together. Then one of them answered, "My child is
11 hungry, he will die of hunger." "He will die anyway if
12 there is no food, I said." One man was wounded. A
13 bullet had entered here [indicates] and come out here
14 [indicates] but no real damage was done. He was a
15 relative. He told me that there was a forester who had
16 a transistor radio and that Zepa still hadn't fallen.
17 So I said, "Let's go to Zepa." This one from Cerska
18 wouldn't. He insisted on going to Cerska.
19 While we were sitting there in a garden, we
20 were looking for apples or pears or anything to eat, we
21 heard bursts of fire above the village of Jela. These
22 bursts of fire were heard, we hid, and then somebody
23 appeared in an olive-grey shirt, with a long beard. I
24 thought it was a Serb soldier. Then I pointed my
25 finger at him, to this one from Cerska, but he said,
1 "No, no, he's one of us."
2 Then two came, both were deaf and dumb, and
3 they stayed on with this man from Cerska. And then me
4 and two others headed towards Zepa. They asked me, "Do
5 you know the way?" I said, "I don't. If only I could
6 see Rogac, then I would be able to find my way." And
7 so we went through the woods.
8 Up above Jela, on a hilltop, we saw eight
9 dead. Those dead were found when they went to collect
10 the bones. I told them where we had seen them. I
11 reached Rogac. I should have crossed Koprivne, which I
12 knew very well because I went hunting there. I had to
13 go around a house that had some very dangerous
14 watchdogs. I heard a voice. The three of us went to
15 the right. We sat down in a grass field, and after
16 four or five minutes, I saw two men appearing where we
17 had been. I didn't say anything to the others. Then
18 one of them noticed and said, "Look. Do you see
19 that?" And I said, "I do." "What are we going to
20 do?" "Well, they can't see us." And when the two of
21 them headed towards us, across the field -- the grass
22 hadn't been cut and they were heading towards us. So I
23 said, "Let's run," and then the other said, "Well,
24 let's see, maybe they are ours." And then I said,
25 "Well, how come we are here?"
1 They came up close, then the last one slipped
2 and I saw that he had something on his back and I
3 realised he was one of ours.
4 Q. Witness, I realise that the trip that you
5 made to Zepa was very difficult and very frightening,
6 but I would just like you to simply confirm a number of
7 points to the Judges by simply answering yes or no.
8 Otherwise, I think we're going to be here a very long
9 time, and I know you want to go home to Bosnia
10 tomorrow. So simply answer yes or no. Do you
11 understand?
12 A. Why should I say yes or no to your
13 questions?
14 Q. Did you arrive in Zepa on the 26th of July.
15 A. On the 26th of July, I arrived in Zepa, about
16 3.00 in the afternoon.
17 Q. And then I think, on the 29th of July, Zepa
18 fell, you --
19 A. On the 29th, Zepa fell.
20 Q. You left Zepa and you spent a long time --
21 Witness, listen to my question and simply answer yes or
22 no to the question.
23 I think you left Zepa on the 29th of July and
24 you spent over 40 days wandering in Bosnian Serb
25 territory, and then you eventually made your way to the
1 free territory on the 17th of September of 1995. Is
2 that right? Just yes or no.
3 A. Yes. Yes. Yes.
4 Q. Thank you, Witness.
5 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. President, I have no further
6 questions for the witness.
7 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Witness J,
8 you are now going to answer questions that
9 Mr. Petrusic, the Defence counsel, is going to put to
10 you.
11 Mr. Petrusic, you have the floor.
12 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, and
13 good morning, Your Honours, my learned friends
14 opposite.
15 Cross-examined by Mr. Petrusic:
16 Q. Good morning, Witness. I shall do my best,
17 in the course of this examination, not to take you back
18 too much to your experiences, terrible experiences, and
19 as a wise man, I hope we will understand one another
20 and be able to cooperate well.
21 Before I begin with my questions, I should
22 like to raise a purely technical matter so as to
23 facilitate the work of the interpreters and all of us
24 here present, and that is that when I put a question to
25 you, as we speak the same language, could you wait a
1 couple of seconds before giving your answer?
2 A. I will.
3 Q. Witness J, at the beginning of your
4 testimony, you said that the assembly of Muslim men was
5 held in Jaglici.
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And only able-bodied men attended.
8 A. There were men; there were boys of 15 to 17
9 years of age.
10 Q. Did anyone of the military leaders of
11 Srebrenica give you an order to gather at Jaglici?
12 A. We were informed by couriers that Srebrenica
13 was to fall. On that day, I spent the day collecting
14 hay. The couriers came, "Srebrenica has fallen. The
15 old men, women, and children are going to Potocari and
16 the others to the woods." The assembly was held at
17 Jaglici, so we rallied there on the 11th, in the
18 evening.
19 Q. If we can call this an order to go into the
20 woods, was it accepted by all the men who had rallied
21 there?
22 A. Of course it was accepted to go towards Tuzla
23 and be what may.
24 Q. There were no opposite opinions?
25 A. I was not able to notice any. We were
1 there. I went from Jaglici, on the 12th, at twenty to
2 one.
3 Q. Do you perhaps know, or did you perhaps hear
4 from men who went through all this with you that there
5 was a conflict in Jaglici between two different
6 currents of members of the 28th Division?
7 A. Between whom and whom, do you mean?
8 Q. That there were two groups. One group was in
9 favour of Potocari and the other was in favour of
10 making a breakthrough.
11 A. That was above Ravne Njive. Those who had to
12 go to Potocari went to Potocari, and those who went
13 into the woods went towards Jaglici. At Ravne Njive
14 they separated from their families, who went to
15 Potocari, and we went towards Jaglici.
16 Q. Yes, I understand that you separated from
17 your families. But when you rallied at Jaglici, were
18 there any incidents there, and even weapons being used
19 by various commanders?
20 A. At Jaglici there were no incidents while I
21 was there.
22 Q. Thank you, Witness J. Buljim Brdo was within
23 the enclave, wasn't it?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And access to it was not open to Serb
1 forces.
2 A. We crossed their lines. I didn't see anyone
3 there, on their lines. I saw their bunkers and
4 trenches very well, but I didn't see any soldiers,
5 until we reached a macadam road below Buljim. When we
6 got there, the column was stopped. Some asked, "What
7 are we waiting for?" And they said that the column had
8 been broken up and then the shooting started.
9 Q. So at Buljim, where their front line was,
10 there was no one.
11 A. Whether they had moved away and hid, I don't
12 know. But anyway, I didn't see anyone at Buljim. I
13 just saw the bunkers and the trenches but no soldiers,
14 no one alive. No persons.
15 Q. Witness J, at the beginning of your testimony
16 on Friday, if my memory serves me, you said that when
17 searching you, the Serb soldiers took 100 German
18 marks.
19 A. I gave 100 German marks involuntarily. When
20 I wandered to the asphalt, there were two of them
21 standing there, they searched our pockets, our belts.
22 They told us to put our hands behind our heads and
23 said, "Give us your money." I had 100 marks here in my
24 pocket and I gave them the 100 marks. But I had some
25 more in the lining of my jacket, and they found this,
1 600 marks, two necklaces, and ten gold coins.
2 Q. You said that the column, when it was formed
3 four by four, that according to your estimate, it was
4 400 to 500 metres long.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Who accompanied it?
7 A. It was accompanied or escorted by Serb
8 soldiers.
9 Q. Did you notice anything in particular about
10 the way it was escorted?
11 A. No, I didn't notice anything, except when we
12 got close to Kravica, I saw an UNPROFOR personnel
13 carrier. Who was on it, I don't know. Whether it was
14 the Serbs or UNPROFOR. But in any event they didn't do
15 anything. We passed by it.
16 Q. At the front of that column, was there a
17 soldier with a dog?
18 A. Yes, he had a dog and he had a 53 or an 84
19 rifle. I'm not sure because he was quite a way from
20 me.
21 Q. You mean a light machine-gun, don't you, an
22 M-53 or M-54 or M-84?
23 A. Yes. Yes.
24 Q. Witness J, when you entered this warehouse, a
25 picture of which is on the ELMO, could you tell us the
1 size of that warehouse? I know it is difficult to
2 think back and remember these things.
3 A. In my estimate, it seemed to me between 40
4 and 50 metres long and maybe 15 metres wide.
5 Q. So 40 to 50 metres long?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. You said that the Serb soldiers entered. As
8 far as I understood your testimony, they opened the
9 door and fired.
10 A. They fired through the door and they threw
11 grenades through the windows and used rifle grenades,
12 and all sorts of things. It was really a disaster. I
13 don't know what kind of a nation they can be to kill
14 people like that. Let everyone live as they will.
15 Q. Did you say they were using Zoljas?
16 A. They used anything at all, whatever they
17 could get hold of.
18 Q. Witness J, I assure you that it is not my
19 intention to revive those terrible memories for you,
20 but I have to, so could you explain. You were a
21 soldier?
22 A. I was.
23 Q. A Zolja is a deadly weapon or ammunition that
24 destroys man, personnel and causes burning in a closed
25 area?
1 A. No one needs to ask me anything. There's
2 proof on the walls and the blood samples, and they have
3 proven everything.
4 Q. Yes, but I'm just asking you whether what I'm
5 saying is correct?
6 A. What I heard firing was not just automatic
7 weapons.
8 Q. Witness J, could you explain why, in fact,
9 you went into the woods?
10 A. I went into the woods. I had to go somewhere
11 to save my life, as anyone else would do to get a hold
12 of free territory. I already had occasion to see since
13 1992 what was done in the places that fell before
14 Srebrenica. There was burning and killing regardless
15 of whether people were young or old. They hit cows and
16 calves.
17 My daughter was watching the cattle. One of
18 them was wounded. Why is he shooting my daughter if I
19 am on the front line? She is innocent.
20 Q. Witness J, do you know that from the other --
21 the Muslim side, the same things were done?
22 A. Yes. What did we have, and what did they
23 have? They were sitting on the -- on Rogac, like a
24 gentleman, whether he wants to shoot Zepa or I don't
25 know what he could do. What about us? We started
1 defending ourselves with hunting rifles, with homemade
2 devices. Everything went to the Serb army. We were
3 left without anything. You also know in that period --
4 we didn't have a tank or a personnel carrier or a
5 mortar or a howitzer. They had everything.
6 Q. Do you know that in the period of spring,
7 summer, autumn, winter of 1992 to 1993, that tens of
8 villages and dozens of villagers were killed of Serb
9 ethnicity?
10 A. We weren't the ones to start the war. We
11 were attacked. We had to defend ourselves. That has
12 been proven. They first attacked Slovenia and then
13 Croatia and then Bosnia-Herzegovina and now they are
14 attacking Kosovo, and now they want Sandzak too. It is
15 an aggressor.
16 Q. Witness J, my question was focussed on the
17 municipality of Srebrenica and the spring, summer,
18 autumn of 1992 and the beginning of winter 1993
19 inclusive -- until the arrival of the UN mission or
20 rather the formation of a protected zone.
21 When it was protected, why did it let such a
22 disaster happen? That is my question. Do you know
23 that in that area and in that period, dozens of Serb
24 villages were burnt down and that hundreds of civilians
25 were killed?
1 A. Understand what I'm saying. We had to defend
2 ourselves. How many people surrendered in Vlasenica?
3 Where are they today? It would have been the same with
4 Srebrenica and Zepa. All they wanted was to destroy us
5 so we wouldn't exist.
6 Q. And these acts that were committed in that
7 time and the area that we are referring to, did they
8 have the same aim in mind?
9 A. What do you mean?
10 Q. If the Serbs wanted to destroy the Muslims.
11 A. Did we Muslims attack the Serbs or did the
12 Serbs attack Muslims? Who attacked whom?
13 Q. I don't want to take any more time. I'm just
14 asking this witness to answer my question. Did it
15 happen or did it not?
16 A. As they attacked us, we had to defend
17 ourselves. That is number one. Only if we had the
18 equipment they had, we wouldn't have acted in that
19 way. We defended ourselves with hunting rifles and
20 devices.
21 Q. Did you have infantry weapons?
22 A. I only had a hunting rifle throughout the
23 war, and I brought it to Jaglici.
24 Q. Did you have an armed army, military unit?
25 A. Who would arm them if somebody bought a
1 weapon or captured a weapon. That's what they had.
2 Q. So you are claiming that there were no
3 infantry weapons or automatic rifles or machine-guns
4 mortars?
5 A. In our local community, there wasn't a single
6 light machine-gun. We may have had eight carbines and
7 hunting rifles. And perhaps somebody prior to the war
8 may have purchased an automatic rifle. That's all we
9 had.
10 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation]
11 Mr. President, Your Honours, I have no more questions.
12 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Thank you,
13 very much, Mr. Petrusic.
14 Mr. Cayley, any re-examination?
15 MR. CAYLEY: No.
16 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Judge Riad.
17 JUDGE RIAD: Thank you, Mr. President.
18 Questioned by the Court:
19 JUDGE RIAD: Good morning, Witness J. I'll
20 have to call you J and not to call you by your name.
21 We do appreciate your coming here to testify,
22 and we fully realise how painful it is for you.
23 I'll not prolong your ordeal, but we would
24 like to see more clearly some of the events you
25 mentioned in a few questions.
1 I'll start by what you mentioned about your
2 being in the Bosnian army. How long did you stay in
3 the Bosnian army?
4 A. From the 17th of April, 1992 until 1996.
5 JUDGE RIAD: And what was your grade?
6 A. I didn't have any. I simply went to the
7 line, I was there. I was a member of the civil --
8 before I was a member of the civil protection service,
9 I worked in the logistics department and it was like
10 that until 1996 when I was demobilised.
11 JUDGE RIAD: But you said that on the 11th of
12 July, 1995, you were a farmer in the village in this
13 Srebrenica enclave. Was that right?
14 A. Yes. I had been working on my land all my
15 life. This was my source of income.
16 JUDGE RIAD: Now, we go to the warehouse.
17 I'm sorry if I have to evoke your memory, and the
18 memory because there is some kind of -- it doesn't look
19 very clear to me what happened there.
20 You said the warehouse was so full that a
21 match would not fall on the ground, it would fall on
22 the head of people. And then during these events --
23 A. Yes.
24 JUDGE RIAD: Apparently nobody was left alive
25 after they were killed, I mean how were they killed. I
1 mean killing people who were sticking to each other.
2 How was it? Was it through a bomb? How could you kill
3 a place and nobody was left? Can I just ask you this
4 very sad memory, how it happened? Was it by grenades,
5 was it by -- because you can't shoot people standing
6 almost totally stuck to each other.
7 A. Take the example of the men who left the
8 warehouse with me. He had been hit with shrapnel all
9 over his body, on his legs. I wasn't wounded at all.
10 So he managed to reach Baljkovica and he was killed,
11 that's where he died. But I had not been wounded. I
12 was just lucky. It was my fate, that I survived.
13 When we were going to Zepa there were four of
14 us in a column. Actually, there were nine of us. I
15 was the fourth one in the column, and the one behind
16 stepped on a mine. And the one who was the seventh in
17 the column also stepped on a mine and lost two legs.
18 Afterwards, when they went back to the area
19 to look for the bodies, look for the bones, they
20 managed to find those bodies as they were clearing up
21 the road.
22 JUDGE RIAD: You mentioned that -- when you
23 were answering the Defence counsel, you mentioned that
24 the Serbs shot people young and old as well as animals,
25 as well as the cat, I suppose, you mentioned --
1 A. The same.
2 JUDGE RIAD: -- why did they have to collect
3 people in the warehouse. They can shoot them
4 everywhere. Did they shoot people wherever they found
5 them, and whether they are; men, women?
6 A. While I was walking around in Pobude, I saw a
7 number of dead bodies in brooks and rivers. They just
8 wanted to get rid of people. They didn't pay attention
9 to whether somebody was young or old. They just wanted
10 to destroy them.
11 JUDGE RIAD: What happened to your daughter?
12 A. My daughter was watching after cattle in a
13 field. There was another girl with her from a
14 neighbouring village, and shelling took place and one
15 of my daughters was killed and the other one was
16 wounded.
17 The girl who was from the neighbouring
18 village was also wounded. She didn't manage to reach
19 Srebrenica alive, but the other one spent 17 days in
20 the hospital and she survived.
21 One of my oxen was killed, a cow was also
22 killed in that shelling. Everything was destroyed. I
23 have lost a number of relatives and cousins and people
24 who could have helped me, but today I have to help
25 their children, and it's very difficult for me to help
1 anyone. I am barely surviving.
2 JUDGE RIAD: We are very happy that you have
3 survived.
4 A. Yes, I was lucky. Yes, that's what I keep
5 telling myself. But what's it worth now? My life has
6 been damaged, my health. When I have to sit for a long
7 time and then when I have to stand up, it's very
8 difficult for me to stand up on my right leg
9 from rheumatism.
10 JUDGE RIAD: Well, I think that will pass
11 with time. You're still a young man.
12 A. If I were allowed to go back to my land, yes,
13 but they wouldn't let me go back. And lots of
14 criminals are still at large and the world is simply
15 watching, and the world could have helped us.
16 JUDGE RIAD: The world is listening very
17 carefully to what you are saying, so be fully aware of
18 that.
19 Now, just my last question: Those people who
20 were in this warehouse, all of them, were they
21 soldiers, were they military people, or were they
22 civilians?
23 A. They were civilians, most of them. Most of
24 them were very young children, elderly people. There
25 were people of 60 years of age or more. They didn't
1 dare go to Potocari. They thought it would be easier
2 for them to go through the woods.
3 JUDGE RIAD: You mean they collected them
4 from the woods?
5 A. Who collected them? They were capturing them
6 in the woods, and then they took them to Lolici, and
7 after they had been gathered in Lolici, from there they
8 were taken to Kravica.
9 JUDGE RIAD: That's the answer I wanted.
10 Thank you so much, and I wish you luck.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] You're
12 welcome. Thank you.
13 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Thank you,
14 Judge Riad.
15 Judge Wald.
16 JUDGE WALD: Witness J, you told us that when
17 Srebrenica fell, a courier came to tell people, and it
18 had been agreed upon that the men would go through the
19 woods, and the women and children and others would go
20 on to Potocari.
21 Now, had that kind of agreement been arrived
22 at by the leaders of the Muslim community in
23 Srebrenica, or was it, as the Defence counsel
24 suggested, an order from the members of the 28th
25 Brigade or the Muslim army?
1 A. They informed the civilians, the population
2 in the villages, that Srebrenica had fallen, and they
3 said that we should go to the woods or to Potocari.
4 There were two options and we could choose between the
5 two.
6 JUDGE WALD: Who is the "they" that told you
7 that? What do you mean by "they"?
8 A. Well, probably the United Nations who were
9 protecting Srebrenica, they probably said that
10 Srebrenica had fallen, that the enclave had fallen, and
11 then our people conveyed the message to us, our
12 superiors.
13 JUDGE WALD: "Superiors" meaning your
14 superiors in the Bosnian army or your leaders in the
15 community?
16 A. Probably those who represented the
17 municipality, the municipal authorities. They told the
18 military and the civilians that Srebrenica had fallen
19 and that we should leave.
20 JUDGE WALD: Okay. At the time that you
21 left, were you still a member of the Bosnian army?
22 Even though you were farming your land, you were still
23 in the Bosnian army when you left to go to the woods?
24 A. Yes, I was a member of the civilian defence
25 when I left, and then after about -- I spent about
1 three months in the civilian defence.
2 JUDGE WALD: Okay. Thank you. When you were
3 going through the woods and you met your first and
4 second ambushes that you told us about, was the first
5 firing by the Serb armies, or did, in any case, the men
6 in the woods initiate the fire?
7 A. It mostly came from the left side of the
8 hill. We could hear someone shouting, "What are you
9 waiting for?" and then they cursed at us and at that
10 moment shooting started. Lots of people remained
11 there, lots of wounded and dead. But nobody paid
12 attention to anybody else.
13 JUDGE WALD: Did some of the people in the
14 column that was marching towards Tuzla, did they return
15 the fire? When they were shot at, did they shoot back?
16 A. Nobody returned fire.
17 JUDGE WALD: Nobody returned fired.
18 A. Nobody even thought of returning fire --
19 JUDGE WALD: Okay.
20 A. -- because we were surrounded.
21 JUDGE WALD: Now, my next question deals with
22 when General Mladic came. I want to make sure I have
23 the dates right. General Mladic, I think you said, but
24 you can tell me if I'm wrong, he came on the 13th and
25 assured the people gathered there in the field that you
1 would be taken care of and given shade and given food,
2 et cetera. Was that the 13th? And then on the 14th
3 was when the shooting --
4 A. On the 13th.
5 JUDGE WALD: Right. And then on the 14th,
6 the shooting occurred in the warehouse; is that right?
7 A. On the 14th was the shooting.
8 JUDGE WALD: So that was the day after
9 General Mladic --
10 A. General Mladic arrived on Thursday, in
11 Lolici, and on Thursday we were brought to the
12 warehouse. The shooting started on Thursday, around
13 4.00 or 5.00 in the afternoon. And on Friday, that is,
14 on the 14th, I spent the whole day in the warehouse.
15 On the night between Friday and Saturday, I left the
16 warehouse.
17 JUDGE WALD: Okay. Now, in the warehouse, I
18 think you told Judge Riad, in answer to one of his
19 questions, that there were a lot of men collected from
20 the column, from the woods, who had either surrendered
21 or been captured. To the best of your knowledge -- to
22 the best of your -- could I --
23 A. Columns of people were brought in from the
24 woods. We didn't get there altogether. People kept
25 arriving in groups, because we had surrendered up in
1 the hills and people started brandishing white shirts
2 on sticks.
3 JUDGE WALD: But to your knowledge, to the
4 best of your knowledge, were all the people in the
5 warehouse people who had either been captured or
6 surrendered in the woods? None of them were people who
7 had stayed in Potocari and were bused out of Potocari.
8 Is that right?
9 A. No. Nobody from Potocari was there. Just
10 people who had gone to the woods, they were there in
11 the warehouse.
12 JUDGE WALD: All right.
13 A. What happened in other places, I don't know.
14 I just know what happened when we were surrounded at
15 Kamenica. I don't know what happened to other people.
16 Whether they had surrendered or whether they had been
17 captured, I don't know. I just know what happened
18 where I was.
19 JUDGE WALD: Now, my last question is: You
20 said that you got back to Zepa on September 26th. Now,
21 when you got back there, was Zepa still under siege?
22 That was before its surrender on the 29th. Was it
23 under assault and being besieged by the Serbian forces
24 when you got there?
25 A. Yes.
1 JUDGE WALD: Do you have any knowledge of how
2 long it had been under siege before that?
3 A. It wasn't on the 29th. Zepa fell on the 29th
4 of July, not September.
5 JUDGE WALD: Okay. I see. So Zepa had
6 fallen already in July.
7 A. Yes, in July, on the 29th of July. And it
8 was on the 26th that I reached Zepa.
9 JUDGE WALD: Of September.
10 A. In September I left for Tuzla. It was on the
11 9th of September that I left for Tuzla.
12 JUDGE WALD: Just to clarify it once and for
13 all, when did you get to Zepa? When did you reach
14 Zepa?
15 A. I reached Zepa on the 26th of July, around
16 3.00 in the afternoon.
17 JUDGE WALD: Okay. So my question, then,
18 still is: Was Zepa under siege, or had it already
19 surrendered by the time you got there?
20 A. No. No, it had not surrendered yet on the
21 26th of the July. The last convoy left Zepa on the
22 26th.
23 JUDGE WALD: Okay. So do you know how long
24 Zepa had been under military siege by the time you got
25 there?
1 A. Until the 29th.
2 JUDGE WALD: No, but when had it begun? Do
3 you know when the siege, the military siege, of Zepa
4 had begun?
5 A. It began, I mean the attack on Zepa, as soon
6 as Srebrenica fell.
7 JUDGE WALD: So that would have been around
8 July 10th or 11th. Okay. Thank you.
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] You're
10 welcome.
11 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Witness J,
12 let me turn the situation a little bit. You said that
13 the fate had it so that you survived. Let me try to
14 tell you something. You are here with us, you have
15 told us a story, and you have a story to tell to the
16 world so that these terrible things could be avoided,
17 independent of who is responsible for them.
18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Thank
19 you, Your Honour, very much. I'm in favour of that as
20 well.
21 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes, I'm
22 very glad to hear that we share the same opinion,
23 Witness J. Thank you very much for coming here to
24 testify. We hope that you will continue to be witness
25 of these terrible events, and I hope that by doing so
1 you will do a great service to humanity. Thank you
2 very much once again.
3 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, of course,
4 Your Honour.
5 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Mr. Cayley,
6 I don't think we have any exhibits to take care of.
7 Mr. Petrusic, I don't think that there's
8 anything that we should settle in that respect.
9 Could the usher please show the witness out
10 of the courtroom.
11 [Trial Chamber and legal officer confer]
12 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Mr. Harmon,
13 what is next, or Mr. Cayley?
14 MR. CAYLEY: Sorry. You said "Mr. Harmon,"
15 so I thought my colleague would answer. We do have
16 another witness, Mr. President, yes.
17 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Any
18 protective measures?
19 MR. CAYLEY: He will be known by a pseudonym,
20 and he will have the same protection as this last
21 witness.
22 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] So the
23 conditions are the same as for this witness.
24 Mr. Petrusic.
25 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] We agree to
1 that, Your Honour.
2 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Thank you
3 very much.
4 For the public, let me just say that it will
5 be a public session.
6 Mr. Cayley, you may sit down.
7 Witness J, please do not move. We will leave
8 the courtroom and you will leave the courtroom after
9 that.
10 For now, we will have a 20-minute break,
11 after which we will resume the hearing.
12 --- Recess taken at 10.54 a.m.
13 --- On resuming at 11.18 a.m.
14 [The witness entered court]
15 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Good
16 morning. Can you hear me?
17 [Witness answered through interpreter]
18 THE WITNESS: Good morning. Yes, I can.
19 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Witness,
20 would you please read the solemn declaration that the
21 usher will give you.
22 THE WITNESS: I solemnly declare that I will
23 speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
24 truth
25 WITNESS: WITNESS K
1 [Witness answered through interpreter]
2 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Thank you,
3 you may be seated now.
4 Mr. Dubuisson. Mr. Dubuisson is going to
5 show you a piece of paper with your name written on
6 it. Could you please have a look at the piece of paper
7 and tell us by saying simply yes or no if this is,
8 indeed, your name.
9 THE WITNESS: Yes.
10 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] So this is
11 your name, Witness.
12 THE WITNESS: Yes, it is.
13 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Very well
14 then, Witness, you will first answer questions that
15 will be put to you by Mr. Cayley who is on your
16 right-hand side.
17 Let me just thank you for coming to the
18 International Tribunal.
19 Mr. Cayley, you have the floor.
20 MR. CAYLEY: Thank you, Mr. President.
21 Examined by Mr. Cayley:
22 Q. Witness, for your protection, I will be
23 addressing you as Witness K throughout your evidence.
24 Witness, you are Bosnian by nationality; is
25 that correct?
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. And you were born a Muslim by faith; is that
3 correct?
4 A. Yes. Yes, that's correct.
5 Q. In July of 1995, you were inside the
6 Srebrenica enclave; is that correct?
7 A. Yes, in 1995, I was in Srebrenica.
8 Q. And at the time you were a member of the
9 Bosnian army inside the Srebrenica enclave; is that
10 correct?
11 A. Yes. I was a member of the army of
12 Bosnia-Herzegovina.
13 Q. Inside the Srebrenica enclave, can you
14 describe to the Judges what kind of army the Bosnian
15 army was?
16 A. There was an army, but we didn't have much
17 weaponry. We started to defend ourselves in the war
18 with hunting rifles. And in doing so, we would seize
19 weapons from Bosnian Serbs from time to time, and we
20 would use those weapons to defend ourselves.
21 The soldiers that were in Srebrenica, I mean
22 the army that was in Srebrenica, was not a disciplined
23 army. The United Nations were there, and we were not
24 allowed to hold our lines because they had their
25 checkpoints.
1 Q. Witness, did you have a uniform?
2 A. No. No. I never put on a uniform. I was
3 never issued with a uniform.
4 Q. What weapon were you armed with in July of
5 1995?
6 A. I didn't have any weapon. They were in
7 warehouses, what weapons there were.
8 Q. What was the name of the unit to which you
9 belonged, the name of the Bosnian army unit to which
10 you belonged?
11 A. 282nd Brigade.
12 Q. I want you now to think back to the 11th of
13 July of 1995. And I think on that day, you set off
14 towards Jaglici; is that right?
15 A. Yes. Yes, that's right.
16 Q. I think you then started to make your way in
17 a very large column towards Tuzla and the free
18 territory; is that right?
19 A. Yes, that's right.
20 Q. (redacted),
21 (redacted)
22 (redacted)
23 A. (redacted)
24 (redacted)
25 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could be shown
1 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/A/2.
2 Q. Now, Witness, I know that the journey through
3 the woods was a very difficult one and that there was
4 shooting and there was explosions, and a large number
5 of people were killed, but I would like you to move
6 forward in time to the point where you, and a large
7 group of other men, surrendered to the Bosnian Serbs.
8 MR. CAYLEY: But, first of all, if the
9 exhibit could be placed on the ELMO.
10 Q. And if you could indicate to the Judges what
11 is represented by the dotted line on that exhibit.
12 A. This is the village of Jaglici [indicates]
13 and this is where we crossed the line. There used to
14 be a UN checkpoint here, and to our right where we
15 crossed the line that was held by Bosnian Serbs. This
16 is where we crossed the line [indicates]. There were
17 many people in the column one by one.
18 We had set off through the woods in the
19 direction of Tuzla. I will show you the route we
20 took. This is the way where we went [indicates], and
21 this is just approximately. And we surrendered to the
22 Bosnian Serbs at Konjevic Polje at this place here.
23 This is where we crossed the asphalt road, and we were
24 assembled here on a meadow.
25 Q. And let the record show that the witness has
1 indicated on Prosecutor's Exhibit 8A/2 that the dotted
2 line on that map represents the approximate route that
3 he took through the forest on the 12th and 13th of
4 July, and that where that dotted line bisects the road
5 between Konjevic Polje and Bratunac, which runs through
6 Kravica, is the point at which he surrendered to the
7 Serbs on the 13th of July.
8 Now, Witness, if you could tell the Judges
9 what happened to you after you surrendered to the Serbs
10 on the 13th of July. And if you would speak for a
11 minute, minute and a half and then take a pause, I may
12 have a few questions to ask you to clarify your
13 testimony, or I may just ask you to proceed on with
14 your story. Can you do that?
15 A. Yes, I can.
16 After we crossed the asphalt road, they
17 searched us, and we were moving in a column one by
18 one. They were taking away our money, our gold,
19 watches; everything we had that was of any value.
20 We had backpacks with food, but none of us
21 had any weapons. Those who had weapons had thrown them
22 away in the woods. We didn't dare surrender with
23 weapons.
24 So we gathered in a meadow, and there were
25 quite a few of us. I was in the first column, and I
1 think that we were about 1.000 in that column,
2 approximately. I cannot tell you the exact number of
3 people in the column at that moment, so this is just an
4 estimate.
5 They were standing around us, and we sat
6 down, one next to the other, and we were facing the
7 asphalt road. On my right-hand side, in a corner where
8 people were sitting, there was a tank, and on the right
9 side of the tank there was a Praga, which would, from
10 time to time, open fire and shell in the direction of
11 the woods. They were firing mortars but I couldn't see
12 them. They must have been near the houses that were to
13 my left side.
14 There were many wounded amongst us. There
15 were also children of maybe 14 or 15 years of age.
16 They selected younger people, and they also stopped
17 buses that were coming from the area of Potocari,
18 towards Kladanj, evacuating people. Those young boys
19 would be then put onto buses and sent towards Kladanj.
20 There were lots of wounded amongst us, and
21 they were being taken away to some houses that were
22 situated some 50 metres away from us, on our right-hand
23 side, maybe more, to protect them from the heat. It
24 was very hot on that day.
25 Then at one point they would sprinkle us with
1 water from a water tank; I remember they did that on
2 three occasions. From time to time somebody would go
3 to fetch water. Mostly it was younger boys who would
4 go to get water because they didn't allow older people
5 to leave the group.
6 We spent a couple of hours sitting in the
7 meadow, and then the second column arrived, the Bosnian
8 Serbs brought the second column of people. Some had
9 helmets, some had some kind of caps, multicoloured
10 uniforms, and they were armed with automatic weapons,
11 automatic rifles.
12 On our left side, next to the houses, there
13 was an anti-aircraft gun, a three-barrelled
14 anti-aircraft gun, which was also firing in the
15 direction of the woods, where we had come from.
16 After that, after the second column had
17 arrived, I recognised two men who were from Skelani,
18 from my neighbourhood. They were two brothers, Ahmed
19 and Dzemo, and they were put away -- they were
20 separated and put next to the tank. I knew them
21 because they were my -- they knew them because they
22 were their neighbours. And the others were placed in
23 the same meadow where we were.
24 One man tried to escape, one of us. He had
25 accompanied a wounded man towards the house, which was
1 on our right side, but they managed to catch him. They
2 captured him and they brought him to the tank, and the
3 one who was driving the tank came to him and he hit him
4 with his fist. The man fell down and fainted.
5 The other group, the people who had arrived
6 in the meantime, I don't know who they were, maybe some
7 members of the special forces from the Serbian army,
8 but as far as I could tell, they were respected by
9 others. I could tell by the attitude of other soldiers
10 that they were respected. They had kind of black
11 T-shirts with short sleeves; they had brand new boots,
12 uniforms.
13 Their commander, who was ahead of us, who was
14 standing in front of us, kept brandishing his knife and
15 he said that he would take revenge upon us for his
16 brother who had lost his life in the war. He didn't
17 touch anyone; he just played with his knife. But when
18 people would bring water, we were very thirsty, he
19 would fire a bullet or two from his automatic rifle to
20 calm us down because at that moment we would run
21 towards the water because we were thirsty.
22 The one who was wearing a black T-shirt, at
23 one point, took an automatic rifle, with a round clip
24 which can hold much more ammunition, I don't know how
25 much exactly, he approached the soldier who had been
1 hit near the tank and he stood above him and he simply
2 fired several bursts of gunfire in his chest. And then
3 he ordered two men from my group who were there in the
4 meadow, two Muslims, to come out and to throw him away
5 some 20 or 30 metres away from us in the meadow.
6 Q. Witness, that's a good point for you to
7 pause. I just have a number of questions to ask you,
8 to clarify what you've already said.
9 Now, you said in your evidence that when you
10 arrived at the meadow that "they searched us" and "they
11 were standing around". You mean by that Bosnian Serb
12 soldiers?
13 A. Yes, I mean the Bosnian Serb soldiers. They
14 searched us. They took everything of value, money,
15 gold, watches, valuables, and backpacks, and they threw
16 them all into a pile. They would search each of the
17 soldiers to make sure there were no weapons. And we
18 had to sit in the meadow; we were surrounded to make
19 sure that we wouldn't disperse.
20 Q. Now, these Bosnian Serb soldiers, how were
21 they dressed?
22 A. They had camouflage uniforms on. Some of
23 them had helmets, some had caps, some had nothing on
24 their heads, like me, for instance. They had
25 bulletproof jackets; some were camouflage and some were
1 SMB or olive-grey.
2 Q. Then you described another unit that were
3 wearing black uniforms and you said that that unit was
4 respected by the other soldiers. How long after you
5 arrived in the meadow did the soldiers that were
6 dressed in black arrive?
7 A. A couple of hours later, something like
8 that. That's my impression, very approximately.
9 Q. Now, the soldier who shot the man next to the
10 tank, how was he dressed?
11 A. As I said, he took an automatic rifle from
12 the man who was playing around with the knife and he
13 killed this man of ours, a Muslim. He had a black,
14 short-sleeved T-shirt on him and the trousers were
15 camouflage; he had new boots. So that as far as I
16 could have noticed, their own soldiers held them in
17 high esteem. They were valued more than ordinary
18 soldiers.
19 Q. How, to the best of your memory, were all of
20 the Muslim men who were sitting in that meadow dressed?
21 A. They were all in civilian clothes. I didn't
22 notice anyone wearing a camouflage uniform or a part of
23 a military uniform. They were all in civilian
24 clothes.
25 Q. Were there people amongst you that were
1 wounded?
2 A. There were. There were wounded.
3 Q. After a couple of hours, what was the state
4 of these wounded?
5 A. Some of those wounded, because it was
6 extremely hot, as I just said, they sprayed us with
7 water from a tank on three occasions, they cooled us
8 off so we wouldn't faint, and these wounded men, I saw
9 quite a number of them faint. And whoever was next to
10 them would pour water over them.
11 Q. Now, after the arrival of the second group of
12 Muslim men, can you estimate how many men there were in
13 the meadow?
14 A. You mean in all?
15 Q. Approximately how many men there were in the
16 meadow.
17 A. Perhaps around 3.500 to 4.000, that's my
18 estimate, maybe 3.000, 3.500, 4.000. I don't know
19 exactly. I didn't count them.
20 Q. After the men in the black uniform, the
21 Bosnian Serb soldiers in the black uniforms had
22 arrived, what is the next significant event that you
23 remember?
24 A. We were all facing the road in the meadow and
25 watching to see what would happen to us. We were all
1 in great fear and panic. The tank driver climbed the
2 anti-aircraft gun and pointed towards us as if he would
3 shoot, but he didn't. He would merely intimidate us.
4 And then buses from Srebrenica arrived with
5 the women, children, and the elderly, heading towards
6 Kladanj, and I recognised a number of women in the
7 buses as they went by. And the younger persons, there
8 were some girls in the meadows too. The buses would be
9 halted and they would be boarded onto the buses, and
10 they left towards Kladanj.
11 After that, after a while, I don't know how
12 long, General Mladic arrived with his bodyguards, maybe
13 five or six men, and he stayed there for maybe 10 or 15
14 minutes in the meadow, roughly.
15 Q. Did General Mladic say anything to you while
16 he was in the meadow?
17 A. He addressed us. I cannot remember the exact
18 words he used. He addressed us, saying that nothing
19 wrong would happen, not to be afraid, that they were
20 good, that not a hair on a head would be hurt, that we
21 would all be exchanged for their Serbs, that we would
22 be evacuated to Tuzla or Kladanj, that we would all
23 rejoin our families in safety, and that we should not
24 worry at all.
25 Q. After General Mladic left, do you recall what
1 happened to you next?
2 A. After that, I don't know after how long
3 exactly, this commander who was standing in front of us
4 all that time with a knife in his hand, he would select
5 us, the more able-bodied amongst us, and he would say,
6 "You, you, and you," pointing a finger at us, and we
7 would go out and he would say that we would be
8 exchanged for their Serbs, "who was imprisoned by your
9 Muslims," as he said. "we're exchanging you for our
10 Serbs," that's what he said to us.
11 And then we got to the road. Buses were
12 waiting for us, two to three buses. I was among those
13 who were in the bus. We were loaded, very many of us.
14 It was so hot, it was stifling, and I noticed
15 immediately that the bus wasn't taking us towards
16 Konjevic Polje or Kladanj, but rather that we were
17 going in the direction of Bratunac. And then after I
18 don't know how many minutes, it wasn't a long ride, the
19 bus took a turning to the right and they drove us in
20 front of a warehouse of some sort. That was Kravica.
21 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could be shown
22 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/3. If that could be placed on
23 the ELMO, please, Mr. Usher.
24 Q. Witness, do you recognise this place? Can
25 you just identify the location?
1 A. I know this place very well. I'll show you
2 now where they took us and where we got off.
3 Q. If you could just wait one moment, Witness.
4 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness --
5 Q. Could you tell the Judges the name of this
6 place, if you know?
7 A. This place is called Kravica. Before the
8 war, in peacetime, I would pass by here often, but I
9 never noticed those warehouses then. I know that I was
10 close to Kravica. Maybe this was not the centre of
11 Kravica that I was familiar with. I think this place
12 is called Sandici or Kravica, between Konjevic Polje
13 and Sandici. And so we were driven there to Kravica,
14 to these warehouses.
15 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could now be
16 shown Prosecutor's Exhibit 8A/2.
17 Q. Now, you said, Witness, in your evidence,
18 that you thought that you were being taken to the free
19 territory, you were taken to be exchanged. But then
20 you realised that the buses turned in the wrong
21 direction and went to Bratunac. Could you indicate to
22 the Judges in which direction you drove when the buses
23 left on the map that you see in front of you?
24 A. From here towards Bratunac [indicates]. That
25 was the direction we took.
1 MR. CAYLEY: So let the record show that on
2 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8A/2 that the witness travelled
3 from the dotted line that crosses the road between
4 Konjevic Polje and Bratunac to Kravica.
5 Q. And after you'd been told that you were to be
6 exchanged, where did you think that you should have
7 been going? Where should the Serbs have taken you if
8 they were to exchange you?
9 A. Towards Kladanj [indicates]. In this
10 direction.
11 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show on
12 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8A/2 that the witness is
13 indicating from where the dotted line bisects the road
14 at Konjevic Polje towards Konjevic Polje. And, in
15 fact, the direction is indicated by an arrow pointing
16 towards Konjevic Polje.
17 If the witness could now be shown a new
18 exhibit which is 1/19.
19 Mr. Registrar, on this exhibit, the witness
20 has placed his name and signed it because it was
21 attached to a statement. So if the redacted copy to be
22 placed on the ELMO and the copy with the signature and
23 the name of the witness can be placed in front of the
24 witness, that way the witness will remain protected.
25 Q. Now, Witness, this, I believe, is a diagram
1 that you drew for the investigators from the Office of
2 the Prosecutor in 1998 showing the approximate
3 locations of buildings at the Kravica warehouse
4 complex; is that right?
5 A. That is correct.
6 Q. Could you indicate, first of all, to the
7 Judges, the building that you were taken into by just
8 pointing to that building?
9 A. I can [indicates].
10 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show on
11 Prosecutor's Exhibit 1/19 that the witness pointed to
12 the large rectangle nearest the road between Konjevic
13 Polje and Bratunac which is parallel to that road and
14 has two smaller boxes beneath it.
15 Q. The two smaller boxes, Witness, one with the
16 cross in it, could you inform the Judges what they are
17 below the building to which you were taken?
18 A. What do you mean below the building? Above
19 the building?
20 Q. There's a box which indicates the factory
21 into which you were taken. Below that?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. There are two small boxes, and one has a
24 cross inside it. Can you explain to the Judges what
25 they represent?
1 A. These are buses [indicates] that drove us
2 there.
3 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
4 three small rectangular boxes on this diagram, on
5 Prosecutor's Exhibit 1/19, that the witness has
6 indicated are buses.
7 Q. Now, the box with the cross inside it, what
8 does the cross represent?
9 A. This is the bus [indicates] that I was in.
10 And when they quickly ordered us to get off as quickly
11 as we could and enter the warehouse, there's an opening
12 here, and that is the one I went through. So they
13 unloaded us there, and we were told to get inside as
14 quickly as we possibly could.
15 MR. CAYLEY: And finally if the witness could
16 be shown Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/1. And if that could
17 be placed on the ELMO.
18 Q. Now, do you remember, Witness, yesterday I
19 showed you this photograph, and I indicated to you that
20 it was aerial imagery that had been taken on the 13th
21 of July of 1995 at the Kravica warehouse at the time
22 that you were there.
23 The two white boxes below the warehouse, can
24 you tell the Judges what you told me they were
25 yesterday when you saw this photograph?
1 A. There are two buses here [indicates], and we
2 came from this direction [indicates]. Then we turned
3 right and we passed this warehouse [indicates], then
4 another right turn and then a left turn. When I got
5 off, I saw some warehouses were there. We were
6 unloaded from the buses and we went inside, and I
7 confirm, personally, that that is the exact spot where
8 I was. I was in that warehouse here just in front of
9 this first bus I got off and went in.
10 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
11 witness, although I think it's quite clear from the
12 transcript, identified that the two rectangular white
13 boxes immediately in front of the warehouse are the
14 buses which he drew on the diagram which he provided to
15 the Office of the Prosecutor. And that he confirmed
16 that the bus on the right-hand side of the photograph
17 is the bus from which he alighted and that is where he
18 entered into the warehouse.
19 MR. CAYLEY: If we could now have, I think,
20 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/4, please.
21 Q. Now, Witness, what is this a photograph of?
22 A. It's the warehouse that I was in.
23 Q. Can you indicate the door through which you
24 entered the warehouse?
25 A. I can [indicates].
1 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
2 witness is indicating the entrance on the extreme left
3 of Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/4, it's on the extreme left
4 of one of three entrances that are joined together.
5 Q. Witness, were there any?
6 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Excuse me,
7 Mr. Cayley, for interrupting you. I have a small point
8 of clarification. Can we go back to Exhibit 8/1? I
9 think that the usher has that exhibit.
10 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. Usher, that's the aerial
11 photograph.
12 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Could it be
13 possible to ask the witness where was the door of the
14 bus through which he got on and got off the bus. On
15 what side was it?
16 MR. CAYLEY:
17 Q. Witness, if you understood that question,
18 could you do as the President asked and indicate the
19 door on the bus from which you alighted into the
20 factory?
21 A. It was on the right-hand side. I can show
22 you on the photograph.
23 Q. Please.
24 A. [Indicates]
25 MR. CAYLEY: Although I think the point is a
1 little large, the witness is indicating that the door
2 and, indeed, said the door on the bus was on the
3 right-hand side of the bus. That's on Prosecutor's
4 Exhibit 8/1.
5 MR. CAYLEY: If Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/4
6 could be placed on the ELMO again.
7 Q. Now, Witness, you've just explained to the
8 Judges that you went into the warehouse on the
9 left-hand side. And now I have a question for you:
10 Were there Bosnian Serb soldiers in and around the
11 warehouse?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Could you explain to the Judges how those
14 soldiers were dressed?
15 A. I didn't know. When I entered the hangar, I
16 didn't know that there were Bosnian Serb soldiers on
17 guard duty around there. But when I escaped from the
18 hangar, I jumped out of the window of the hangar, then
19 I saw that there were guards. And I jumped out during
20 the night, and I didn't see how they were dressed. I
21 just saw those who were in front entering the warehouse
22 during the daytime. They had camouflage uniforms, but
23 one of them had a blue UN helmet on his head and they
24 had flak jackets on.
25 Q. So these were Bosnian Serb soldiers that you
1 could see as you were looking outwards from the inside
2 of the factory?
3 A. Yes. And who would enter inside while we
4 could see, it was still daylight.
5 Q. Now, after you entered the factory, what did
6 you do?
7 A. They shoved us into this warehouse. Where I
8 was, it was full of men so that I was somewhere in the
9 middle. I don't know exactly, as far as I could
10 notice. They ordered us to sit down. We sat down as
11 we could, one next to another.
12 After that, I could see two younger men.
13 They provoked us. They demanded that they make a
14 confession they didn't know.
15 After that, they brought them back to where
16 they were. Then they took watches off people; gold,
17 money, whatever people had, and they threatened us.
18 If somebody failed to give up his money and
19 money was found on him, he would be killed. And people
20 who had anything, one by one, they went up and handed
21 it over. I, too, personally, had little change,
22 although they had taken my ring in the meadow, not my
23 wedding ring, though, I had that too. I said it was a
24 souvenir from my girlfriend, because it wasn't a
25 wedding ring, it was a gold band. And I gave them my
1 watch and the chain and this gold band, everything I
2 had; I didn't have any money on me. And this applied
3 to everyone. Whoever had anything, they handed it
4 over. And they wrote it down on small bits of paper.
5 When I went up and handed over these
6 valuables, they would take down my name and surname, as
7 if they would be so nice as to return those things to
8 us one day, and then we would go back to the place
9 where we had been before.
10 Q. Now, you said in your evidence that "they
11 provoked us" and "they demanded that they make a
12 confession they didn't know". Now, are you saying that
13 Bosnian Serb soldiers demanded that Muslim men amongst
14 you make confessions?
15 A. Yes. They interrogated people, not many of
16 them. I saw two young men being taken out. They were
17 told to stand up against a wall. They shouted at
18 them. They asked them about some places, I don't know
19 which ones; I don't remember what we were interested
20 in. But these two young men, of course, didn't know
21 anything about that. They were not beaten; they were
22 brought back to their places.
23 From time to time they would bring water in
24 buckets, in white buckets, with Jupol letters written
25 on it, and we would then fight amongst ourselves for
1 this water. (redacted)
2 (redacted)
3 (redacted)
4 (redacted)
5 (redacted)
6 (redacted) because we were sitting behind and we
7 could never get any water. People would shout. We
8 were all very thirsty. We had not been drinking or
9 eating for quite some time.
10 Q. Witness, how full of men, how packed was the
11 section of the warehouse that you were in?
12 A. In my estimate, there were approximately
13 1.000, between 1.000 and 1.500 people, roughly. I'm
14 not sure either. Maybe less, maybe more. This is just
15 my rough estimate. This is how it seemed to me while I
16 was there, inside, but I was in fear.
17 Q. I understand that. How close was each man to
18 the other inside the warehouse?
19 A. One next to the other, shoulder by shoulder.
20 Q. So each man was touching the other inside the
21 factory building. There was no --
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. There was no space between all of the men
24 inside the factory at all.
25 A. No, not at all. There was no space
1 whatsoever. People were touching each other, they were
2 sitting next to each other, so that nobody could walk
3 between two people. Only if you lean on one side, one
4 could perhaps walk slowly.
5 Q. What was the atmosphere like in the factory
6 at this time? How did you all feel?
7 A. Terrible is all that I can say. We were in
8 great panic, all of us. I was fearful.
9 When we were brought there, I knew what was
10 in store for us, I knew it already. I mean, as soon as
11 we were crowded into those buses and when I realised
12 that we were not going towards Tuzla but Bratunac, I
13 knew what was happening, what would happen, especially
14 when we were brought to the warehouse.
15 Q. Now, you've explained to the Judges that the
16 Bosnian Serb soldiers took your belongings, that some
17 interrogations took place. Can you recall what
18 happened after that?
19 A. Yes, I remember that very well. After that
20 the night fell, it was in the evening. When we came
21 there, it was still daylight. I don't know what time
22 it was but it was getting dark.
23 After it became dark, some shelling started.
24 I heard shots and I realised that shells were falling
25 around, and I heard a sizzling noise of shell
1 fragment. And then they told us, "See how we're
2 guarding you? We're not hitting you, we're not beating
3 you. We're good to you. We'll let you go peacefully
4 towards Tuzla, and your people are now shooting at us
5 and they will not let you through peacefully." But I
6 cannot believe, and I still don't believe, that our
7 people were shooting at us. They didn't have any
8 mortars. While we were going through the woods, I
9 didn't see any mortar, any shells. We didn't have such
10 things.
11 So this created even greater panic, but after
12 a while everything became quiet. They would take out
13 two of our people, as if to -- they were saying that
14 they needed them to pick up their wounded members
15 because they didn't dare, they were afraid of being
16 shot. I didn't see those people, I didn't see the
17 people who were supposedly being brought by our people,
18 by Muslims. They were simply being taken out two by
19 two, and then they would be brought back.
20 So after a while, after everything went
21 quiet, they became very angry, the Bosnian Serbs. Four
22 or five of them would enter the warehouse, yelling at
23 us, shouting, cursing us, and this lasted for a while
24 and then they became quiet. Some of them wanted to
25 open fire on us, but there was one guy there who was
1 wearing a multicoloured uniform and he had an automatic
2 rifle in his hands, and he said, "Do not touch these
3 people. It's not their fault. They're not guilty of
4 anything."
5 So this lasted for a while and then it became
6 dark. At one point, while I was still in the
7 warehouse, while it was still daylight -- I forgot to
8 mention this -- buses were passing by, from Potocari,
9 travelling in the direction of Kladanj, carrying women,
10 children, and elderly, people who were being
11 evacuated. So while buses were passing by, everything
12 would be quiet. They didn't shout at us at that
13 moment, but after a bus had gone by they would start
14 yelling at us again.
15 And then as I told you, after it became dark,
16 one of them came in. He had a very long beard, dark
17 sunglasses, he had very long curly hair, and he was the
18 first one who opened fire from his automatic rifle on
19 us, and I think that maybe three or four of us fell
20 down immediately. The one wearing dark glasses was the
21 first one to have opened fire. As soon as that
22 happened, I threw myself on the ground and I fell down,
23 and immediately after that chaos ensued.
24 Q. Now, Witness, I know that this was a terrible
25 scene, but as best you can, if you can explain to the
1 Judges what, if anything, you could see going on around
2 you and for how long the shooting continued inside the
3 warehouse.
4 A. While I was inside the warehouse, they fired
5 from all kinds of weapons. They first fired infantry
6 weapons, automatic rifles. Then they would stop doing
7 that. They would shoot for about half an hour, then
8 take a little rest, and then there would be a new
9 series of shooting. They would throw hand grenades
10 through the windows, and grenades fell some two or
11 three metres away from me. I could just feel the
12 explosion, the detonation, and as a result of that I
13 was injured by small shrapnel coming from those
14 shells. So I got wounded, I was injured, but I felt
15 well. I wasn't seriously injured.
16 People started screaming, and it was
17 terrible. It is hard for me to describe it. I haven't
18 seen anything like it in any of the horror movies that
19 I saw. This was far worse than any film. And this
20 lasted all night long, with short breaks. Bosnian
21 Serbs would take some rest, make a short break, and
22 then they would resume.
23 They opened fire from anti-aircraft weapons
24 that were positioned on the asphalt road, with Zoljas
25 as well. All I saw was some kind of lightning coming
1 from weapons. A bullet hit me which came from, I
2 believe, an infantry weapon, but I'm not sure. I was
3 hit above my right knee. It was a gunshot wound but I
4 didn't feel any pain. I was only concerned about
5 losing my limb. I was worried that it might be a
6 fragmentation bullet.
7 After one of such breaks, when things became
8 quiet, when they stopped shooting, I grabbed myself by
9 my heel. I just wanted to make sure that my heel was
10 there because for a while I couldn't feel it at all.
11 And probably, it turned out later on, when I had some
12 medical examination by medical specialists, that a
13 tendon had been cut, and this is why I couldn't feel my
14 heel for a while. But at the moment I grabbed it, I
15 realised it was still there. I was glad it was there.
16 I didn't feel any pain. It was just a slight burning
17 feeling, as if from a cigarette.
18 I don't know what time it was, but it was
19 past midnight, things went quiet, and at that moment I
20 tried to escape, I tried to leave the warehouse. There
21 was a kind of container to my left, a kind of container
22 that is part of a truck. It was not a big container.
23 It was on the lower part of the wall. And above the
24 container there was a window which was open, so I
25 climbed onto the window and I jumped through the
1 window.
2 Q. Witness, can you describe the scene around
3 you as you made your way to the window? Can you
4 describe to the Judges what was on the floor all around
5 you?
6 A. (redacted)
7 (redacted)
8 (redacted)
9 (redacted)
10 (redacted)
11 (redacted)
12 After the shooting, I felt a strange kind of
13 heat, warmth, which was actually coming from the blood
14 that covered the concrete floor, and I was stepping on
15 the dead people who were lying around. But there were
16 even people who were still alive, who were only
17 wounded, and as soon as I would step on him, I would
18 hear him cry, moan, because I was trying to move as
19 fast as I could. I could tell that people had been
20 completely disembodied, and I could feel bones of the
21 people that had been hit by those bursts of gunfire or
22 shells, I could feel their ribs crushing. And then I
23 would get up again and I would continue towards the
24 container.
25 So I first made a few attempts, trying to
1 figure out where exactly I could get out.
2 Q. Witness, if you could pause there.
3 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. President, would it be an
4 appropriate time to take a break?
5 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes,
6 Mr. Cayley. Thank you very much for your attention.
7 We will have a 20-minute break now -- I'm
8 sorry, half an hour break, a 30-minute break, so that
9 the witness can have some rest.
10 --- Recess taken at 12.22 p.m.
11 --- On resuming at 12.56 p.m.
12 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes,
13 Mr. Cayley. You may continue.
14 MR. CAYLEY: Thank you, Mr. President.
15 Q. Witness, before the break, we had got to a
16 point in time where you were trying to make your escape
17 from the factory, and I just want to ask one question
18 about a point in time before that.
19 Do you recall when you were taken from the
20 meadow to the factory at Kravica in a bus?
21 A. In the afternoon?
22 Q. Yes. Do you recall that?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. On the bus, were there any guards? Were
25 there any Bosnian Serb soldiers?
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Can you describe how they were dressed?
3 A. In camouflage uniforms, camouflage.
4 Q. Now, you said, prior to the break, that there
5 was a container in the warehouse which you were going
6 to use to make good your escape. Can you explain to
7 the Judges whereabouts this container was located
8 inside the warehouse?
9 A. What do you mean? In relation to me, where I
10 was inside, or when you're looking inside from the
11 entrance?
12 Q. If you could explain where the container was
13 in relation to the back wall of the factory.
14 A. I was roughly in the middle, and if I were to
15 face the entrance that I passed through when I entered,
16 the container was to my left, diagonally. Above the
17 container were the windows, separated.
18 Q. Can you explain to the Judges how you used
19 this container to make your escape?
20 A. When everything was quiet again, I got up and
21 I tried to save myself, to escape. So that I was
22 treading on dead people, on the wounded. I reached the
23 container. I looked to my right from where I had
24 entered the warehouse. I saw outside that they were --
25 that there was some cigarettes lighted. All I could
1 see was the cigarettes alight. They were Bosnian Serbs
2 that were smoking cigarettes.
3 I jumped because the container wasn't very
4 high, so I was able to climb onto it. And then I
5 stepped on to the window and jumped outside to the
6 ground.
7 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could be shown
8 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/9, please.
9 Q. Was there anything covering the window that
10 you jumped through?
11 A. No, it was open. It wasn't covered with
12 anything. There were -- there was no glass in the
13 window. It was open.
14 MR. CAYLEY: If the exhibit could be placed
15 on the ELMO.
16 Q. If you can recall, could you indicate to the
17 Judges which window it was that you jumped through?
18 A. I don't know exactly which window now. I can
19 roughly show you.
20 Q. As best you can remember, Witness.
21 A. It may have been one of these two
22 [indicates], or maybe this one, the third one. One of
23 these. One of these three or four. I don't know
24 exactly which one it was because I wasn't looking when
25 I jumped. I didn't remember. I didn't turn around to
1 look at the windows.
2 MR. CAYLEY: So let the record show on
3 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/9 that the witness indicated
4 that the window that he jumped through was one -- I
5 think he was most certain about the three small windows
6 on the back of this building, so -- this is actually
7 the rear of the warehouse, but as this photograph
8 appears, the witness indicated that he jumped from one
9 of three or four small windows that can clearly be seen
10 on this photograph in the centre of the building.
11 Q. Now, Witness, can you describe to the Judges
12 what you could see around you at this point, if
13 anything at all?
14 A. When I jumped from the window and fell to the
15 ground, I just heard a voice from the corn field. I
16 didn't know that there were guards around, and that
17 there were guards. If I had known, I wouldn't have
18 dared jump. I wouldn't have had the courage, because
19 they would have killed me.
20 So when I jumped and fell to the ground, I
21 just heard a voice saying, "There's one that just
22 jumped." And then when I fell to the ground, I saw in
23 front of me, to my right, there were two dead men lying
24 on the ground. Most probably, they had also tried to
25 save their lives and escape and, unfortunately, they
1 failed.
2 Q. Now, you mentioned that you heard a voice,
3 let me get this right, coming from the corn field.
4 Can you indicate to the Judges on this
5 photograph, the corn field that you're referring to?
6 A. Yes, I can [indicates].
7 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
8 witness is identifying on Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/9 that
9 the piece of ground covered in snow which is
10 immediately in front of the building and which has some
11 plants growing on it, corn, old corn growing on it is
12 the corn field to which the witness is referring.
13 Q. Now, it was summertime when you were there,
14 it was July. Was the corn higher than is shown in this
15 photograph?
16 A. Yes, of course it was much higher. And it
17 was still green, it hadn't ripened yet, but it was very
18 high. So if I were to stand up straight, though I
19 didn't stand up straight, if I were to stand up
20 straight, it would be higher than me, the maize.
21 Q. Now, you said today that you saw that there
22 were two dead men lying on the ground and that they had
23 tried to save their lives, and you stated
24 unfortunately, they failed. Can you recall what
25 happened to you next?
1 A. Yes, of course I remember. When I heard this
2 voice from the maize, "There's one that's just jumped
3 out," immediately a man headed towards me through the
4 maize. And the searchlights went on, and the person
5 who passed by me, I could feel. I wasn't looking at
6 him. I was facing the wall from which I had just
7 jumped, the window, rather. He was carrying this
8 searchlight which had been switched on and, of course,
9 he carried a rifle, but I didn't see that.
10 But I could feel the flash of the light
11 against the wall. And this Serb soldier was
12 approaching me. I knew that was my end. I didn't try
13 to run, though I could have tried, but I didn't want
14 to. I waited for him to kill me. So that if I had
15 tried to run, he would have certainly killed me. There
16 were several of them. I waited for him to kill me. He
17 approached two metres from me and he shot a single
18 bullet at me, so that he hit me in the back, my right
19 shoulder blade. It was an entry and exit wound. I
20 kept quiet; I didn't speak or say anything. He asked
21 me, "Do you want more?" I remained silent, without
22 uttering a sound, to try and persuade him that I was
23 dead. I pretended to be dead, and of course I
24 succeeded, he really thought I was dead, but luckily I
25 was alive.
1 Then he cried out that his clip had fallen
2 out, so that a second man approached him and they found
3 the clip. And they left me, they went back into the
4 maize.
5 After that I continued to hear bursts of fire
6 and shots being fired at people in the warehouse where
7 I was, I heard them killing people there, so that I
8 remained there all night, until morning.
9 Q. Witness, if you could just pause there for a
10 moment.
11 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could be shown
12 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/9, which is the one I think that
13 was on the ELMO.
14 Q. If you could indicate to the Judges on this
15 photograph where you lay that night, approximately.
16 A. Here [indicates]. Here [indicates], perhaps
17 half a metre from the wall, here [indicates], on the
18 grass. To my left was the maize field. My head was
19 turned towards the river, or rather towards Kladanj,
20 and my legs towards Bratunac, shall I put it that way.
21 Q. That's very clear, Witness.
22 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
23 witness has indicated, on Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/9,
24 that he was lying on some grass between the factory
25 building and the cornfield, with his head facing
1 towards the left-hand side of the photograph and his
2 legs to the right-hand side of the photograph.
3 Q. Now, Witness, you said that you stayed there
4 all night. Did anybody come and check your body during
5 the night?
6 A. No, no one came.
7 Q. Can you tell the Judges what you recall from
8 the next day, from the next morning, what happened to
9 you?
10 A. When it dawned?
11 Q. When it dawned, Witness, yes.
12 A. I was still lying there. I didn't dare move
13 because I was thinking and I was afraid that someone
14 might come to check whether I was still on that spot or
15 whether I had escaped. So when the sun rose, I heard
16 yells and a noise. People were yelling and asking
17 whether anyone inside was left alive, in the
18 warehouse. Of course there were some people who were
19 alive. So they promised them, I heard a voice saying,
20 the Bosnian Serbs promising and saying that the Red
21 Cross had come and that the first aid people had come
22 to take them to the hospital to treat them. And
23 whoever could walk and crawl out of the warehouse, they
24 came out. I didn't see them coming out. I didn't see
25 them taking them out.
1 And probably they sat down there somewhere; I
2 don't know because I couldn't see it. And then this
3 one man, of course I assume it was the leader who was
4 giving the orders, who was in command, he ordered them
5 to sing songs, Serb songs, Chetnik songs, rather. As
6 far as I could hear, I remember well that they sang the
7 song "From Topolje to Ravne Gora, there are all our
8 guards of General Draza," and many other songs that I
9 had remembered but I've forgotten in the meantime.
10 After that, they went on singing for about
11 half an hour or an hour, I'm not sure, then I heard
12 bursts of fire. The fire went on for some time, I
13 don't know for how long, a certain amount of time.
14 They killed those wounded, and later I didn't hear
15 anything anymore, I never heard them singing those
16 songs. But they were dragging them inside, into the
17 warehouse.
18 After that I heard a voice, one of those
19 Bosnian Serbs said, "There are some dead around the
20 building. They need to be collected." So I was even
21 more afraid there. I panicked because I thought they
22 would collect me and they would see I was alive and
23 then they would kill me. Then another one said, "Well,
24 they are not a problem. We'll collect them later.
25 Let's deal with those who are inside."
1 Then they were shooting them in their heads.
2 I heard them inside, they were saying something like,
3 "I think this one is still alive. Shoot him in the
4 head," and then you would hear a bullet, one, two, or
5 several, shooting at those they thought were still
6 alive.
7 After that I heard a loud noise inside, in
8 the hangar. The excavator, the dredger, was collecting
9 the dead, and in my view they were probably loading
10 them onto a truck and driving them to graves. I could
11 not see the direction they took. So that I still
12 remained in the same spot, lying there.
13 After a while I heard somebody walking
14 through the maize field toward me. It was a Bosnian
15 Serb soldier. I realised immediately that it was the
16 soldier who had shot me the previous night. He came to
17 a metre from me, perhaps. Judging by the sound, he
18 stopped very close to me.
19 I was stinking like a corpse, covered in
20 blood. There were flies all over me. As I said, the
21 sun was high and it was hot. And when he approached
22 me, the flies flew off me, they flew away. And he was
23 there for maybe half a minute or a minute; I don't know
24 exactly, anyway, very briefly. So he didn't say
25 anything, he didn't touch me, he just broke off a leaf
1 from the maize plant and he sounded as if he had a
2 cold, he was sniffing. And then he went back again
3 through the maize field. While he was approaching me,
4 I held my breath so that he couldn't notice that I was
5 breathing, so in that way I managed to make him believe
6 that I was dead. When he left, no other person came
7 close.
8 After that I raised my head a little and I
9 looked in front of me. I was all stiff because I
10 didn't dare budge all night. Then I stretched my arms
11 and legs a little, and I saw that everything was all
12 right, that I could walk, it wasn't too painful. Then
13 I turned to look around behind me, and I saw the hangar
14 behind me and I saw Bosnian Serbs entering, entering
15 the other hangar.
16 On that hangar they were entering, I saw some
17 red letters but I don't remember what was written on
18 that hangar. The letters were written in a straight
19 line, vertically, in red.
20 Q. Witness, if you could wait there for a
21 moment.
22 MR. CAYLEY: If the witness could be shown
23 Prosecutor's Exhibit 116.
24 Q. Now, Witness, you and I viewed a video
25 yesterday afternoon, which I think is Prosecutor's
1 Exhibit 8/9.
2 MR. CAYLEY: It's a video that's in
3 evidence. I'll give the Court a number in a moment.
4 It's actually Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/13, the video that
5 Your Honours saw of the Kravica warehouse.
6 Q. In fact, you noticed on this video that the
7 lettering that you saw on the building is -- if the
8 photograph could be put centrally.
9 Could you point to the lettering, the
10 vertical lettering, that you saw when you got up on
11 that day, in July, on the other building?
12 A. Yes, of course I'll show it. They are these
13 letters [indicates].
14 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
15 witness is indicating, on Prosecutor's Exhibit 116, a
16 series of seven letters that are set vertically on a
17 white building, a part of the factory complex in
18 Kravica, and they are located just above and to the
19 right of the door, which is just off centre in the
20 photograph.
21 If the witness could then be shown
22 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/2.
23 Q. If you could just indicate on this photograph
24 the building on which those letters were written from
25 which you saw Bosnian Serb soldiers entering.
1 A. Of course I'll show you. It's this building
2 here [indicates].
3 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
4 witness is indicating, on Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/2, to
5 the part of the factory complex, the warehouse
6 building, which is furthest to the left. It's above
7 the road and it's the building furthest to the left,
8 and it's perpendicular to the road that runs from the
9 left to the right of the photograph.
10 Q. Now, after you'd got up, after you'd seen
11 this lettering, what did you do next?
12 A. I sort of stretched out a little while I was
13 still lying down.
14 Q. Sorry, Witness, it's just we need that
15 photograph again, and rather than have the usher bring
16 it back.
17 MR. CAYLEY: It's Exhibit 8/2. You can just
18 leave that Mr. Usher.
19 Q. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Witness, you said
20 that you stretched out a little. You were still lying
21 down. What happened to you next?
22 A. Yes. As I was saying, I stretched my legs
23 and arms. I looked to the left through the maize. I
24 saw them entering again, Bosnian Serbs. It was a
25 little way away from me. They were entering the lower
1 hangar and to my left. I'll show it to you on the
2 picture [indicates]. They were entering this hangar.
3 This one.
4 Q. If you could just wait there, Witness.
5 A. By this hangar, next to this hangar.
6 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
7 witness is indicating on Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/2 the
8 white rectangular building which is furthest in the
9 background of the photograph and has a striped effected
10 front, the front of the building has -- appears to have
11 black and white stripes.
12 Q. Please continue, Witness.
13 A. In the course of the night, in this building,
14 I will show you now [indicates], in this building, I
15 heard to my left, I think it was in this building, that
16 there must have been cows screaming, something was
17 squealing like pigs. I don't know what it was. To me,
18 it sounded like cows. There were some cries anyway and
19 screams.
20 And, as I have just said, I saw those Bosnian
21 Serbs, two or three of them I saw. Once when I had
22 decided to run from the place I was lying, I saw them
23 entering this hangar to my left.
24 And then, I crawled to the left through the
25 maize for a distance of some two or three metres, maybe
1 more. So I entered a line of the maize and I headed --
2 if I'm looking at the picture, as I am now, towards the
3 river. I'll show you now. And I crawled as far as the
4 river. From here to the right [indicates].
5 I reached this corner here [indicates]. I
6 looked to the right to make sure there were no Bosnian
7 Serbs to see me there. And while I was crawling
8 through the maize, I was going very slowly so that no
9 one would notice any movement. I saw two or three
10 bodies here [indicates]. The soil was clay near the
11 river, and the maize couldn't grow from the clay soil,
12 it was very small, very short, maybe only half a metre
13 from the ground, maybe even smaller.
14 And I saw three Muslim men dead there. One
15 of them had a shot wound in his head.
16 Q. Witness, if you could just indicate again,
17 without speaking, the route that you took from behind
18 the warehouse, and I'll describe it so that it's on our
19 transcript. So if you can just indicate, with the
20 pointer, the route that you took from behind the
21 warehouse?
22 A. What do you mean? While I was crawling or
23 while we were on the bus?
24 Q. While you were crawling.
25 A. I see. I'll show you. This is where I was
1 [indicates], and this is the distance that I covered
2 crawling to my right side in the direction of the
3 river, if you're looking at the picture the way I am
4 now. So this is the way I took, and this is the spot
5 where I actually entered [indicates] the brook, the
6 creek. I stayed five minutes -- for about five minutes
7 there. I drank some water. I washed myself a little.
8 And I saw another dead body here [indicates] who also
9 had a gunshot wound in his head. It must have been a
10 Muslim who had tried to save his life, but didn't
11 manage to. So I crossed the river --
12 Q. Witness, if you could wait.
13 MR. CAYLEY: Let the record show that the
14 route that the witness took on Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/2
15 is a route that he indicated immediately behind the
16 main factory building which is in the centre of the
17 photograph, immediately behind that building to its
18 extreme right end, and then up diagonally into an area
19 that appears to have bushes and trees where he
20 indicated there was a brook.
21 Q. Now, Witness, you said that you went into a
22 brook where you washed yourself and you drank some
23 water. Do you recall that?
24 A. Yes, of course I recall that.
25 Q. How long did you spend in that small river?
1 A. About five minutes, at least I think it was
2 five. I didn't have a watch.
3 Q. And after you left that little brook, where
4 did you go after that?
5 A. I'll show you on the picture. At this corner
6 here [indicates], this is where I drank some water,
7 where I washed myself at the brook.
8 So I moved maybe five or ten metres upwards
9 and then I turned back. And then I turned towards the
10 warehouse and I could still hear the sound of the
11 excavator collecting dead bodies from the warehouse.
12 I was looking for a bottle or a container of
13 some kind so that I could take some water for me for
14 later on to refresh myself, but I couldn't find
15 anything.
16 So I crossed the brook and I entered another
17 cornfield. This is the other cornfield [indicates].
18 And I walked through the cornfield, through one line of
19 the corns, and I reached a small path which cannot be
20 seen on the picture, and this is where I entered the
21 woods.
22 Again, I felt very weak. I was about to
23 faint. And this is where I found an empty can. I
24 continued for about 20 to 30 metres along that path and
25 I came up to a brook again.
1 MR. CAYLEY: If the record could just show
2 that the route that the witness indicated was a
3 cornfield in the top right-hand corner of the
4 photograph and that he left through the cornfield and
5 then followed a path which is not shown on this
6 photograph.
7 Q. Witness, you said you found an empty can and
8 you continued for 20 to 30 metres along a path and you
9 came to a brook again.
10 Now, I know from you and I having spoken that
11 you had quite a difficult journey after this, but I
12 want to cut matters short. I think I'm right in saying
13 that you eventually found yourself in the town of Zepa
14 on, I think, the 26th of July of 1995; is that correct?
15 A. I don't know exactly what date it was. I
16 know only that I was in Zepa, that's true. But it was
17 before the fall of Zepa at any rate.
18 Q. Do you know when Zepa fell?
19 A. I don't know, because I had left before the
20 town fell, and the Bosnian Serbs had already entered
21 the area. Maybe it was two, three, four, maybe five
22 days later, and I stayed a while in the hospital in
23 Zepa.
24 So when we went down to Zepa, the 12 of us
25 who were wounded, we decided to join a convoy with the
1 civilian population; women, children, and elderly
2 people towards Kladanj.
3 Q. While you were in Zepa, were you registered
4 by the Red Cross?
5 A. Yes. When I came to Zepa, together with a
6 colleague of mine, a friend of mine whose name was
7 Senad. I forgot his last name. He's from Voljavica.
8 MR. CAYLEY: I want to show you your Red
9 Cross certificate which is Exhibit 118.
10 Mr. Usher don't put this on the ELMO because
11 it has the witness' name on it, but if copies of it
12 could be given to the witness and Judges.
13 Q. Witness, don't read anything from this
14 certificate, but can you just confirm that this is the
15 Red Cross certificate confirming that you were
16 originally registered in Zepa and then subsequently
17 visited at the Rogatica military camp?
18 A. Yes, that is correct. I was registered
19 together with everybody else. There were, I believe,
20 12 of us who had been wounded.
21 We entered the UN Compound where the Ukranian
22 Battalion was stationed, and this is where the Red
23 Cross people came and registered us.
24 The Bosnian Serbs, the military, had already
25 entered the town of Zepa, and they were walking around
1 the area. They were together there while the
2 evacuation of civilians was taking place towards
3 Kladanj.
4 Then French doctors came and examined us
5 together with a Serb doctor. This doctor examined me
6 as well, and then they were selecting wounded people.
7 They wouldn't let them do it. They let some of them
8 go. There were quite a few elderly people there;
9 people who could not walk, could not move, and they
10 were evacuated by the French military in their APCs.
11 Some of the wounded were put on buses, but the 12 of us
12 who remained, they didn't let us go --
13 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Mr. Cayley,
14 I'm sorry to interrupt you at this point because the
15 text has already disappeared from the screen. The
16 exhibit that we saw was 5/18 and the transcript on page
17 91 which is no longer here stated 6/18. I would just
18 like to make sure that it was 5/18.
19 MR. CAYLEY: Thank you, Mr. President. I
20 know that after the proceedings, the stenographers
21 actually go through the recorded -- the record and
22 actually correct all of these numbers. So it will be
23 done.
24 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Very well,
25 then, because I didn't say 5/18 or 6/18. I said --
1 well, if a correction is going to be made, then it will
2 be corrected, because I wanted to say that it was not
3 Exhibit 1/18, yes, but the exhibit number 5/18.
4 I'm sorry, I see 5/18 once again. As far as
5 I can see, it's 5/18 and I wanted to say 118. That is
6 118. I'm sorry. It's my mistake. I'm sorry.
7 MR. CAYLEY: Well, Mr. President, you have
8 success at the end. You have 118 on the transcript.
9 Q. Witness, in summary, and if you could just
10 answer yes or no, the Defence may have some more
11 detailed questions than this, but am I right in saying
12 that you were promised that you would be taken to free
13 territory and, in fact, you found yourself in the
14 Bosnian Serb prison camp at Rogatica. That's where the
15 Bosnian Serbs actually took you?
16 A. Yes, that's correct.
17 Q. And I think you stayed in that camp until the
18 15th of January, 1996, and you were then taken to Kula
19 prison and exchanged at Sarajevo airport on the 19th of
20 January of 1996; is that right?
21 A. Yes, that is correct.
22 Q. If I could just briefly show you Prosecutor's
23 Exhibit 117, which, again, Mr. Usher, is a document
24 that's not to go on the ELMO.
25 (redacted)
1 (redacted)
2 (redacted). I'm not going to go through them all, but
3 if you could just confirm that these are your medical
4 records which you provided to the Office of the
5 Prosecutor a number of years ago, I think two years
6 ago.
7 Are these your medical records?
8 A. Yes, these are my medical records.
9 Q. (redacted)
10 (redacted)
11 (redacted)?
12 A. Yes, that's right.
13 Q. (redacted)
14 (redacted)
15 A. (redacted).
16 Q. Now, I know you suffered some trauma as a
17 result of these events, and that's shown in your
18 medical records. How do you feel now?
19 A. I don't feel very well. That's all I can
20 tell you. But all in all it's okay. I cannot
21 complain.
22 Q. Do you still have any night-time recollection
23 of the events at Kravica? Do you still have dreams or
24 nightmares about these events?
25 A. Yes, of course I do. I have dreams. I wake
1 up in the middle of the night and I shiver. I become
2 anxious, I start trembling, and everything comes back
3 to my mind, my journey from Srebrenica to Tuzla.
4 Everything sort of passes through me once again and it
5 makes me fearful again. It's difficult to describe how
6 I feel.
7 Q. Witness, thank you very much, indeed, for
8 your patience. I have no further questions for you.
9 MR. CAYLEY: Mr. President, I can now offer
10 the witness for cross-examination.
11 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Thank you
12 very much, Mr. Cayley.
13 I think we should have a break now because
14 one member of the Chamber has an urgent obligation.
15 I don't know how much time you will need,
16 Mr. Petrusic, for your cross-examination. Could you
17 tell us that now?
18 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President,
19 of course it will depend on the answers given by the
20 witness, but we hope to finish before the end of the
21 day. However, this is not a 100 per cent reliable
22 estimate, but we will do our best to complete the
23 cross-examination today.
24 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] But in any
25 case we have to have a break. We will have a 15-minute
1 break, and after that we will continue.
2 Thank you very much, Mr. Petrusic.
3 A 15-minute break now.
4 --- Recess taken at 1.47 p.m.
5 --- On resuming at 2.03 p.m.
6 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] As you can
7 see, Judge Fouad Riad was unable to rejoin us, and in
8 line with Rule 15 bis we're going to continue with the
9 testimony of this witness.
10 Mr. Petrusic, you have the floor.
11 Witness, you are now going to answer
12 questions put to you by Counsel Petrusic.
13 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Thank you,
14 Mr. President.
15 Cross-examined by Mr. Petrusic:
16 Q. Good afternoon, Witness K.
17 A. Good afternoon.
18 Q. At the very beginning, I should like to ask
19 you, where did you start out from in the direction of
20 Jaglici, on the 11th of July, I think it was?
21 A. We headed towards Tuzla.
22 Q. But where from? You yourself.
23 A. From Srebrenica.
24 Q. A group of able-bodied men rallied in
25 Jaglici, did they not?
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. So could you please wait a couple of seconds
3 after my question, since we speak the same language,
4 for the benefit of the interpreters. Just three
5 seconds or so.
6 So this group went on along which road?
7 A. I'm afraid I didn't understand your
8 question.
9 Q. When you got together in Jaglici, you headed
10 towards which position, along which path, which route?
11 A. We headed towards Tuzla, through the woods.
12 Q. You said in the course of your testimony
13 today that you were not armed.
14 A. I beg your pardon?
15 Q. During the examination-in-chief, you said
16 that you were unarmed.
17 A. When? Where?
18 Q. I mean Jaglici and on from there.
19 A. Yes. The majority were not armed, of the
20 men, of course.
21 Q. In your statement to the Agency for
22 Investigation and Documentation, AID, on the 16th of
23 February, 1996, you said, on page 2 --
24 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Could I ask
25 the usher for his assistance, please. Could the
1 statement be given to the Chamber, the Prosecution, and
2 the witness.
3 THE REGISTRAR: [Interpretation] It will be
4 Exhibit D14.
5 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. So on page 2, the first sentence: "After a
7 short lull, the Chetniks opened fire at us again,
8 demanding that we surrender our weapons, which we did
9 not agree to."
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Therefore, this was an armed group.
12 A. No, they didn't see that. But they called on
13 all of us, whoever had any weapons, to surrender them,
14 or if they had any, to surrender them. They thought
15 that we were all armed and we were not. Very few men
16 had rifles.
17 Q. Witness K, you said that you didn't agree to
18 surrender your weapons, so my question is: Was yours
19 an armed group of men or not?
20 A. I don't understand. Do you mean a small
21 group or all the men who were heading towards Tuzla?
22 Q. The group that you were in.
23 A. The group I was in? They called on all of us
24 to surrender, anyone who had any weapons. All men who
25 were armed were called on by them to throw down their
1 weapons, or to surrender. Of course, when the
2 surrender occurred, no one reached them with their
3 weapons on them. They wouldn't give themselves up
4 armed.
5 Q. You're talking about the group you were in,
6 and you said that you didn't accept their offer, shall
7 we call it that.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Therefore, that group did have weapons.
10 A. We did, but we didn't surrender together with
11 our weapons. The moment that I decided to go and
12 surrender, together with a group of men, none of us had
13 any weapons because people threw away their weapons in
14 the woods. They didn't dare surrender with their
15 weapons on them, of course.
16 Q. So let us make this quite clear. The moment
17 that you were called upon, did you and your group have
18 weapons on you?
19 A. The moment they called on us, I did not have
20 a weapon just then.
21 Q. So you are claiming that the statement you
22 made to AID is not correct.
23 A. What do you mean?
24 Q. Regarding this part that we're referring to.
25 A. I don't understand that.
1 MR. CAYLEY: Objection. Your Honour, I think
2 it should actually be made very clear what the witness
3 said in his statement, and I think there is a slight
4 degree of misrepresentation that is taking place by
5 Mr. Petrusic.
6 The witness did not state in his statement
7 that he refused to do anything, and Mr. Petrusic has
8 actually offered it to the witness in that fashion,
9 "You refused to lay down your arms." If I read from
10 the English version, it states: "After a short
11 silence, the Chetniks opened fire on us again,
12 demanding that we surrender our weapons to them, which
13 we refused to do."
14 The witness has been asked on a number of
15 occasions whether or not there were armed persons in
16 the column. He's acknowledged that. He said that
17 there were a number of people that were armed in the
18 column. Mr. Petrusic is asking essentially the same
19 question over and over again, to which he's getting the
20 same response. So I think he should be asked to move
21 on with his cross-examination, and I think that the
22 witness has satisfactorily answered the question.
23 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation]
24 Mr. Petrusic, what is your response? What is your
25 reaction to this?
1 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] My response,
2 Mr. President, is that I am not misrepresenting what
3 the witness said, I'm just asking him whether what he
4 said was correct or not. Maybe we can put the question
5 in that way.
6 The sentence that has been quoted from his
7 statement, does it reflect the real state of affairs at
8 that point in time, on the 11th of July, and at that
9 spot where he was?
10 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes,
11 Mr. Petrusic, but I think that the witness has already
12 explained, in a way. But if the witness has answered,
13 maybe you should move forward and go on to another
14 question.
15 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Very well,
16 Mr. President.
17 Q. Thank you, Witness K.
18 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] I should like
19 to ask the usher to be kind enough to put on the ELMO
20 Prosecutor's Exhibit 8/4. Could you please move it to
21 the right a little, the photograph to the right, to the
22 right. Thank you.
23 Q. In relation to the left part of the
24 photograph, where we see these two pillars, below the
25 sign saying "Kravica", can the witness tell us where
1 the buses stopped?
2 A. Yes, I'll show you on the photograph.
3 Q. The front part of the bus, where did it stop?
4 A. Here [indicates], further to the left, off
5 the photograph.
6 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] So for the
7 record, it can be noted that it is to the left of the
8 area shown on the photograph, underneath the first
9 window.
10 Q. You disembarked from the bus, and can you
11 then explain where you went to?
12 A. On the photograph? You want me to show you
13 on the photograph?
14 Q. Describe it, and then we'll see for the
15 record.
16 A. I got off the bus. I entered the first
17 entrance there. Just in front of this pillar where it
18 says "Kravica". To the left of the first pillar.
19 Q. Did you pass in front of the bus?
20 A. What do you mean in front? How?
21 Q. The bus, the bus was at a standstill. It was
22 stopped. You got off the bus. Did you have to pass in
23 front of the bus, the driver's side?
24 A. Yes, I did. I passed around the front of the
25 bus, and we were quickly pushed into the warehouse.
1 Q. This part of the warehouse which has these
2 two supporting pillars, is it partitioned in relation
3 to the left closed part of the warehouse?
4 A. What do you mean left, which side?
5 Q. On the left of the photograph. You see the
6 part of the warehouse which is closed in.
7 A. I can't see it being closed in. I can only
8 see the outside wall.
9 Q. In relation to the outside wall that you can
10 see, and in relation to the front part with the two
11 supporting pillars, is there any partition between
12 these two premises?
13 A. Between the two pillars? I don't
14 understand.
15 Q. Between the open part of the warehouse and
16 the part where we can only see the outside wall that is
17 walled in; is there a partition there?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. And is there a door on that partitioning
20 partition?
21 A. I didn't see it. There was some kind of a
22 fence, like a fence that was broken or something, as
23 far as I could see.
24 Q. Did that go the whole length of the
25 building? That fence, did it go along the whole
1 breadth of the building, rather?
2 A. I didn't notice that. I don't know. I was
3 unable to register whether it did or not.
4 Q. Could you tell us how long, how high that
5 fence was?
6 A. How could I know? I didn't measure it.
7 Q. Did it look like a door?
8 A. No, it was a fence, like any fence. Like
9 this external fence that is shown on the photograph,
10 rather like that, something like that. Now how high it
11 was, I don't know.
12 Q. Were you placed behind that fence to the
13 left?
14 A. What do you mean?
15 Q. I mean the part of the building that we only
16 see the outside wall of?
17 A. Yes, to the left. When we went inside and
18 sat down, I was looking in front. To my right was the
19 entrance where I went through, and in front of me was
20 the fence and the wall, the partition, some kind of a
21 partition.
22 Q. Perhaps it will be easier if we look at
23 Exhibit 8/9.
24 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] So as not to
25 waste time, Mr. President, I can give the usher a copy
1 myself.
2 Q. Witness K, in relation to these two windows
3 through which we can see the panorama behind the
4 warehouse, were you in this right-hand wing of this
5 warehouse?
6 A. Yes, I'll show it to you [indicates]. In
7 this area, in this part [indicates].
8 Q. Does this include the part where you
9 encircled two open windows, those that you can see
10 through?
11 A. I don't know that.
12 Q. Was your whole group in that part of the
13 building?
14 A. What do you mean the "whole group"?
15 Q. All of you who came from Lolici. And
16 according to your estimate, there were 1.000 to 1.500.
17 Were they all accommodated there?
18 A. All the people who came in the buses, as far
19 as I saw, were unloaded and placed in those hangars.
20 When I entered the warehouse, I didn't see outside
21 whether others may have, perhaps, been taken to another
22 warehouse because we were very much afraid.
23 Q. You said that there was a fence, Witness K?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Were you all on one side of that fence?
1 A. All of us who were there with me, yes, who
2 were with me. As far as I was able to see, we were all
3 there on one side of the fence.
4 Q. Let me -- delete that, please.
5 I know that you were fearful, that you
6 probably didn't notice many details, but could you
7 roughly tell us the size of the premise that you were
8 in?
9 A. Roughly, let me try. It would be, perhaps,
10 the length of the warehouse where I was, it seemed to
11 me to be maybe about 30 metres long, 40, maybe less.
12 That's how it looked to me. And the width was maybe 15
13 metres, I don't know, maybe less, maybe more. That is
14 very roughly my estimation. I don't know exactly.
15 Q. These two young men who were taken out of the
16 warehouse allegedly to assist in collecting the
17 wounded, did they come back to the warehouse?
18 A. Yes, they did.
19 Q. Did you ask them where they went, in fact?
20 A. No, it never occurred to me.
21 Q. Not one of those from your group?
22 A. No, I didn't hear them.
23 Q. Did they, themselves, say anything?
24 A. No, we just kept quiet to see what was going
25 to happen. We were all in a panic and great fear.
1 Q. Were there any injuries on them?
2 A. No.
3 Q. Witness K, as you said, you were crammed into
4 that warehouse very close to one another so that, as
5 you put it, you couldn't move left or right an inch?
6 A. Not quite like that. You misunderstood me,
7 sir. It's not true that we really couldn't budge. But
8 I said, and I am saying, that we were crammed full so
9 if you would try to get up and go out, you couldn't
10 stand on the ground, on the concrete. You'd have to
11 lean against someone else for a person to try and
12 get -- walk out, if somebody wanted to get out.
13 Q. It was obviously very crowded there, but when
14 the Serb soldiers entered and started shooting, you
15 said that you threw yourself on the ground?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Can you explain to me where did you throw
18 yourself to in view of the fact that you were so
19 crowded?
20 A. I threw myself on the ground. The Serb
21 soldier who opened fire lay on -- I lay on my stomach,
22 and I remained lying like that on the ground.
23 Q. So when the soldier opened fire. So in view
24 of the fact that it was so crowded, as you said a
25 moment ago, now, suddenly, you have enough space to
1 throw yourself face down on the ground?
2 A. Let me explain in greater detail, sir. I see
3 that it is not clear to you, so I want to make sure you
4 understand me properly.
5 The Serb soldier, when he opened fire, after
6 that, a couple of others, maybe five or six of them, I
7 don't know how many, I don't know exactly. When they
8 opened fire, there was panic, and people jumped to
9 their feet, one on top of another. We saw what was
10 happening and they were going to kill all of us.
11 So when the people jumped up off the ground,
12 in view of the terrible fear that was widespread, I
13 threw myself on the ground, though there wasn't too
14 much space, but I sort of stuck to the ground without
15 getting up. And after that, people started falling on
16 top of me; dead, wounded.
17 Q. Witness K, before you climbed the container
18 to get to the window and jump out, did you cross this
19 fence?
20 A. No, I didn't cross the fence. The container
21 was below the window to my left or, rather, as we can
22 see on the photograph. It was to the left of me. So I
23 went diagonally towards the window and towards that
24 container. I climbed on the container so that I
25 stepped on to the window sill and then I jumped out. I
1 fell to the ground.
2 Q. How long did you remain beneath this window,
3 below the window?
4 A. For the whole night.
5 Q. And after that, as you have already
6 explained, you went to the creek, to the small river,
7 rivulet. And there were Serb soldiers everywhere
8 around you?
9 A. What do you mean "everywhere"?
10 Q. Well, in the immediate vicinity, in relation
11 to this small river.
12 A. Of course I didn't know that they were
13 there. If I had known that they were there, that they
14 had surrounded the warehouse, I wouldn't have dared
15 jump out because they would have killed me. I thought
16 they weren't there. I thought that only those outside
17 the entrance of the hangar were there next to the
18 road. When I jumped out and fell to the ground, I
19 heard a voice from the maize saying, "There's one
20 jumping out," and then I realised that there were
21 guards there, Serb army guards.
22 Q. The machine that you describe as a dredger or
23 excavator which was collecting the bodies, you didn't
24 see it?
25 A. No, I didn't.
1 Q. And in which part of the warehouse was this
2 machine?
3 A. You mean -- I didn't see it, but I heard the
4 noise. This was in the same direction that I jumped.
5 Q. In relation to this photograph?
6 A. Well, that was my impression.
7 Q. Could you show us on this photograph on the
8 ELMO.
9 A. Yes, I can. You want me to show you where
10 this excavator was? Is that what you mean?
11 Q. Yes. Exactly.
12 A. Here [indicates].
13 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] For the
14 record, the witness is showing the back part of the
15 warehouse, viewed from the direction of Bratunac,
16 Kravica. Yes, Bratunac, Kravica.
17 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation]
18 Mr. Petrusic, you mean the right part of the
19 photograph, right-hand side of the photograph?
20 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Yes. I was
21 trying to describe the direction of the road, but I
22 quite agree with you that it is the right-hand side of
23 the photograph.
24 Q. After that you reached Zepa.
25 A. Yes.
1 Q. On the 26th of July.
2 A. I don't know the exact date when I arrived.
3 Q. Immediately after your arrival in Zepa, did
4 representatives of the International Red Cross give you
5 an ID card?
6 A. No, not straight away. I was in hospital for
7 four or five days.
8 Q. You were promised evacuation.
9 A. Yes, we were promised that by the Bosnian
10 Serbs, and the Red Cross made this promise.
11 Q. And then you went to prison in Rogatica.
12 A. No. Together with 12 wounded and some
13 elderly men and women and children from Zepa, we headed
14 towards Kladanj. We had a rest at Boksanica. There
15 was the Ukrainian checkpoint. Night fell while we were
16 there. And I heard there that Ratko Mladic had come,
17 General of the Bosnian Serb army, with a helicopter. I
18 saw the helicopter. And the commander of Rogatica came
19 with an escort, asking where we came from, but they
20 didn't hurt anyone.
21 After that we continued towards Kladanj. I
22 don't know the places but I heard them mention the name
23 Luka. We got close to Kladanj and then the army of
24 Republika Srpska stopped the buses. Of course, they
25 had lists from the Red Cross that had registered us,
1 they had listed all of us and the wounded, and they
2 read out from the lists and ordered us to get off and
3 to board other buses. There were quite a number of old
4 men too there; they probably needed them for labour, as
5 this proved to be later. And then they drove us
6 towards Rogatica, the camp there. That's where we
7 ended up.
8 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation]
9 Mr. Petrusic, excuse me for interrupting you, but I
10 would like to know whether you intend to finish today
11 or whether we should leave the cross-examination for
12 tomorrow. Let's try and finish with the witness so as
13 not to make him come tomorrow. But I would like to
14 know whether you need a lot more time or not.
15 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] I will bear in
16 mind your suggestion, Mr. President. I'm almost done.
17 A couple of minutes more.
18 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] In that
19 case, Mr. Petrusic, would you make your questions
20 precise and concrete? Then the witness will answer in
21 a similar fashion. Thank you.
22 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation]
23 Q. Witness K, in your statement given to an
24 investigator of this Tribunal, on the 26th of November,
25 1998, you stated that you had been taken off the bus
1 because you had a pair of military trousers on.
2 A. That I was taken off the bus?
3 Q. "I assume that I had been taken off the bus
4 and that I was not evacuated because I was wearing
5 military trousers."
6 A. Which location do you have in mind? Where?
7 Q. I'm reading from your statement, the
8 statement that you gave on the 26th of November, 1998.
9 A. Sir, I asked you about the location where I
10 was taken off, where I was separated, whether it was in
11 Zepa or at Luka.
12 Q. If we disregard the exact location, because
13 you're not referring to it in your statement, I should
14 like to know whether this is, indeed, what you stated.
15 A. While I was in hospital in Zepa, while I was
16 wounded, I found a pair of multicoloured trousers of
17 Russian make, and that was the only clothing that I
18 could get hold of. It was the bottom part of the
19 clothing. I couldn't walk around naked. I also had a
20 pair of cowboy boots on. This is what I had found
21 somewhere in the forest after I had fled the execution
22 site in Kravica. Because I was barefoot, I had to
23 throw away my shoes at one point, and then in one
24 discarded backpack, I found a pair of cowboy boots, and
25 this is how I reached Zepa, wearing those boots.
1 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President,
2 I have no further questions.
3 Witness K, thank you very much.
4 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you too.
5 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Thank you,
6 Mr. Petrusic.
7 Do you have any further questions,
8 Mr. Cayley? No. Thank you.
9 Judge Wald.
10 Questioned by the Court:
11 JUDGE WALD: Just a very few questions,
12 Witness K.
13 You say you were a member of the Bosnian army
14 at the time that you joined the column moving towards
15 Tuzla. Were all the men in that column members of the
16 Bosnian army, and if not, what proportion would you say
17 were not?
18 A. I couldn't give you the exact number. Of
19 course, I was a member of the army.
20 JUDGE WALD: Would you say the majority of
21 people in the column were members of the Bosnian army
22 or the majority were not and were just civilians?
23 A. The majority were civilians.
24 JUDGE WALD: Okay. My second question is:
25 Why did you surrender? I mean, what were the
1 circumstances when you had started on the march that
2 made you and your fellow marchers surrender?
3 A. Bosnian Serbs had encircled us from all
4 sides. I had already spent one night there, and when
5 it dawned, we reached a meadow just above Konjevic
6 Polje -- I don't know the name of the place but it was
7 near the wood -- and I continued like that for about
8 100 metres, in the direction of the asphalt road, and
9 this is where I found a large group of people who were
10 unarmed, had no weapons. They were simply standing
11 there. They were confused; they didn't know where to
12 go, what to do, whether to surrender or not. And the
13 Bosnian Serb army had completely surrounded us, we had
14 no where to go, and this is how we decided to
15 surrender.
16 JUDGE WALD: Okay. At the point that you
17 escaped from the Kravica warehouse by jumping out of
18 the window, you told us that you didn't know that there
19 were soldiers on the outside or you might not have
20 jumped. But were there soldiers guarding the prisoners
21 on the inside of the warehouse, and if so, roughly how
22 many?
23 A. Yes, occasionally they would enter the
24 warehouse. Five or six of them would always be
25 inside. Sometimes only three would remain; sometimes
1 there would be five of them. They would watch us, walk
2 around, and then leave.
3 JUDGE WALD: How, then, do you think you were
4 able to get over to the container, get on top of the
5 container and jump out without one of them seeing you?
6 A. Well, they were inside before they opened
7 fire on us. This was before. But after that, when
8 everything became quiet and the smoke dispersed, then
9 one by one they would enter and throw in hand grenades,
10 or they would finish off those who had remained alive,
11 wounded. So when they thought that everybody had been
12 killed, there was a longer lull in shooting, and at
13 that point I decided to jump through the window to save
14 myself.
15 JUDGE WALD: Okay. My last question is:
16 When you were in Zepa, you mentioned that they were
17 beginning to evacuate, or they were evacuating not only
18 the wounded but some women and children and others.
19 Were you in a position to see some of that evacuation
20 taking place? I mean, were you in a position so that
21 you saw some of the civilians in Zepa being evacuated?
22 A. Yes, of course, I was there.
23 JUDGE WALD: So if that's right, are you able
24 to tell us whether or not, in that evacuation, the men
25 were separated from the women and children, and the
1 women and children were put on vehicles and evacuated
2 but the men were not?
3 A. I didn't see men being separated. The
4 able-bodied men had gone to the mountain, those who had
5 weapons, and only civilians remained together with us,
6 the wounded. The wounded were separated and taken to
7 the Ukrainian Battalion compound. But I could observe
8 the evacuation of people from Zepa, and they included
9 women, children, and the elderly.
10 JUDGE WALD: But there was no formal process
11 that you observed of separating the men out from the
12 women and children for evacuation, of those that were
13 there?
14 A. No, I didn't observe that.
15 JUDGE WALD: And the Red Cross was observing
16 the evacuation; right?
17 A. Yes.
18 JUDGE WALD: Okay. Thank you, Witness K.
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your
20 Honour.
21 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Mr. Cayley
22 and Mr. Petrusic, what is the status of our exhibits?
23 I can see that there are several of them.
24 MR. CAYLEY: Yes, Mr. President. If I could
25 apply for admission into evidence of the following:
1 The first exhibit is Prosecutor's Exhibit
2 8A/2, which is a map which the witness used to
3 demonstrate to the Judges the route that he took.
4 Exhibit 118, which is the witness'
5 registration by the Red Cross. That certificate should
6 remain under seal because it has the witness' name and
7 date of birth upon it.
8 The next exhibit is Exhibit 119, which is a
9 sketch which the witness produced when he was
10 originally interviewed by the OTP. That document
11 should remain under seal because it has upon it the
12 signature of the witness and his name. There's also
13 119 bis, which is a public document, which is the
14 redacted version. It has the signature and name of the
15 witness removed.
16 Exhibit 117, which are the medical records of
17 the witness concerning the injuries he suffered at
18 Kravica, that document should remain under seal because
19 it has identifying features.
20 And then the last exhibit is Exhibit 116,
21 which is the still taken from a video, showing letters
22 in a perpendicular fashion on one of the factory
23 buildings.
24 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes.
25 Mr. Petrusic, any objections as regards the
1 exhibits tendered under seal?
2 MR. PETRUSIC: [Interpretation] No, we do not
3 object to the exhibits tendered by the Prosecutor. We
4 would also like to tender D14 into evidence.
5 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Mr. Cayley,
6 any objection to this one, D14? No. Thank you very
7 much.
8 Therefore, Exhibit D14, Prosecutor's 8A/2,
9 118, 119, and 117 will be admitted into evidence,
10 including two exhibits admitted under seal.
11 THE REGISTRAR: [Interpretation] Yes,
12 Mr. President. These exhibits have been admitted.
13 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes. Thank
14 you, Mr. Dubuisson.
15 Mr. Cayley, any remarks?
16 MR. CAYLEY: It's my fault, actually,
17 Mr. President, because I gave you the exhibits out of
18 order. There's also Exhibit 116, which I actually
19 mentioned last on the list but which you didn't mention
20 when you were admitting these exhibits into evidence.
21 JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Interpretation] Yes. Maybe
22 you didn't get the interpretation, but I remember
23 mentioning it. Exhibit 116, is that the one? Yes.
24 Very well, then. Thank you very much, Mr. Cayley.
25 Before we adjourn for the day, I should like
1 to tell the parties that we would like to have a short
2 Status Conference on the 13th of this month, this week
3 therefore. We will have to finish the session at ten
4 minutes past two and we will try to have a
5 20-minute-long Status Conference.
6 The reason for this Status Conference is that
7 I should like to see where we are in relation to the
8 plan that was established at the beginning, that is,
9 how can we save even more time and speed up things a
10 little bit. So I should like to hear the Prosecutor as
11 regards the possibility of finishing his case, the
12 Prosecution case, before the summer recess, and also I
13 should like to hear the Defence and the plans as
14 regarding their case, because we have to bear in mind
15 the schedule.
16 We will after that try to set up a calendar,
17 after this Status Conference, taking into account all
18 the possibilities that remain open. So this was all
19 that I wanted to tell you for the time being.
20 I should also like to address the witness
21 before he leaves. Witness K, you have finished your
22 testimony before the International Criminal Tribunal.
23 Thank you very much for coming to testify here. We do
24 hope that you will have a long life and that you will
25 be able to change your opinion, what you mentioned
1 here. You said that you had seen a number of horror
2 films and that which you experienced was much worse.
3 We do agree with you, but we also hope that you will be
4 able to find courage to change that perspective in
5 life. Thank you.
6 So tomorrow at 9.30 we will gather here
7 again. Thank you very much.
8 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at
9 2.53 p.m., to be reconvened on Tuesday,
10 the 11th day of April, 2000, at
11 9.30 a.m.
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25