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(1)Monday, 13 March 2000
[Open session]
[Prosecution Opening Statement]

--- Upon commencing at 9.30 a.m.
(5) [The accused entered court]

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that the interpreters can hear me. Good morning also to the technicians; good morning to counsel for the (10)Prosecution, for the Defence; good morning, General Krstic. Good morning also to the public, who is also going to participate in this hearing. I wish to stress that the hearings are public before this International Criminal Tribunal. We will (15)now be acting in accordance with Rule 84 of our Rules of Procedure and Evidence. I would now like to ask Mr. Dubuisson to call the case.

THE REGISTRAR: [Int.] Case number (20)IT-98-33-T, Prosecutor versus Radislav Krstic.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you very much, Mr. Dubuisson. Could I have the appearances for the Prosecution please, Mr. Harmon.

MR. HARMON: Good morning, Mr. President; (25)good morning, Your Honours; good morning, counsel. I

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(1)am assisted this morning and will be throughout the trial by my colleagues. To my right, Mr. Peter McCloskey; and to his right, Mr. Andrew Cayley; and to my left, Ms. Kirsten Keith. Thank you.

(5) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you very much, Mr. Harmon. Could I have the appearances for the Defence, Mr. Petrusic, please.

MR. PETRUSIC: [Int.] Good morning, Mr. President; good morning, Your Honours; good morning (10)also to my learned colleagues from the Prosecution. My name is Nenad Petrusic, I am representing General Radislav Krstic, together with my colleague, my co-counsel Mr. Tomislav Visnjic. Thank you very much.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you (15)Mr. Petrusic. We're now going to open the present case, and as I have already stated, I will give the floor to Mr. Harmon for the opening statement. Mr. Harmon, you have the floor.

MR. HARMON: Thank you, Mr. President. (20)Again, good morning, Your Honours. Following the conquest of the UN safe area of Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serb army in July of 1995, the victors abandoned all semblance of humanity and committed atrocities of a type and on a scale not seen (25)since the Second World War.

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(1)Over a period of about five days, thousands of Bosnian Muslim civilians and Bosnian Muslim soldiers, who had laid down their arms, were systematically murdered by members of the Bosnian Serb (5)army. This is a case about the triumph of evil, a story about how officers and soldiers of the Bosnian Serb army, men who professed to be professional soldiers, men who professed to represent the ideals of (10)a distinguished and Serbian past organised, planned, and willingly participated in genocide or stood silent in the face of it. The authors of these foul deeds have left a legacy that has stained the reputation of the Serbian people and has disgraced ...

(15) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Excuse me, Mr. Harmon, for this interruption, but I think that General Krstic cannot follow us. General Krstic, can you hear me now?

THE ACCUSED: Yes.

(20) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Okay. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, Mr. Harmon, for this interruption. Please continue.

MR. HARMON: I was saying these particular (25)deeds have disgraced honourable profession of arms.

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(1)In their wake, they murdered thousands of defenceless men and boys and shattered the lives of generations of Bosnians. The only way to attempt to eradicate this (5)stain and to deliver justice to the victims of this tragedy is to expose the individual criminal responsibility of those persons who perpetrated and assisted in the commission of these heinous crimes. The Prosecutor in this trial will prove the (10)criminal responsibility of one of those individuals, General Radislav Krstic. Now, let me put the events described in the indictment in the proper historical context of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm going to do so in a (15)cursory fashion, because I intend to introduce into evidence the report of the Secretary-General on Srebrenica and copies of all the relevant resolutions relating to the conflict. The Secretary-General's report sets forth in (20)great detail a description of the events and the UN responses to them. The former Yugoslavia was a federal state. It was comprised of six republics and two autonomous provinces. In late June of 1991, Yugoslavia began to (25)disintegrate and a succession of wars was fought first

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(1)in the Republic of Slovenia and then in the Republic of Croatia as the governments of those republics declared their independence. On the 6th of March, 1992, the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (5)declared its independence and a wide-scale war ensued. As in Croatia, the federal army of Yugoslavia, the JNA, fought alongside rebel Serb forces in order to secure territories declared to be part of newly emerging self-proclaimed Serbian entities. (10)The Bosnian Serbs led by Dr. Radovan Karadzic were supported politically and militarily by rump Yugoslavia's government, which was in the hands of Slobodan Milosevic. Because of the combined military superiority (15)of the JNA, paramilitary and police forces from Serbia proper, and Bosnian Serb forces, large areas within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the newly sovereign state, quickly seized and fell under the control of the Serb authorities. (20)The military operations of the entities involved were coordinated and systematic, and by the end of 1992, this campaign resulted in the deaths or forced displacement of approximately two million non-Serbs who had been perceived to be a threat to the (25)creation of an ethnically homogenous Serb-dominated

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(1)entity. The Security Council of the United Nations adopted a series of resolutions for the purposes of establishing peace commencing with Resolution 713, (5)which implemented an arms embargo on the delivery of weapons and military equipment to Yugoslavia. This resolution, however, had negative ramifications and simply cemented the military imbalance between a well-armed JNA and rebel forces on one side and the (10)poorly-armed forces opposing them. However, as a result of international pressure, the JNA was required to withdraw from Bosnia by the 19th of May, 1992. The actual withdrawal was deceptive as, in reality, substantial numbers of JNA (15)personnel and significant amounts of war materiel were left behind in Bosnian Serb hands. The resulting vacuum was seamlessly filled by the nascent Bosnian Serb army known as the army of Republika Srpska. Its commander, a JNA serving officer by the name of Ratko (20)Mladic, who in 1991 had commanded the JNA units actively supporting Serbian territorial claims in Croatia, took over command of this entity. Many other officers of the JNA, including the accused, Radislav Krstic, became members of the VRS, and I'll be (25)referring to the army of Republika Srpska as "VRS"

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(1)throughout my remarks. The VRS was the blunt instrument of a political agenda that had as its goal the creation of an ethnically-pure independent Bosnian Serb entity (5)within Bosnia and Herzegovina that would eventually unite with Serbia, Montenegro, and the breakaway republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia to form a Greater Serbia. Non-Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the territories occupied by the VRS in a (10)systematic and well-organised fashion. Now, let me turn my attention to the events in the Srebrenica area from the outset of the war, and let me first begin by locating for you where the municipality of Srebrenica is in Bosnia and (15)Herzegovina. My assistant has placed on the ELMO for your viewing a map of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the right-hand side, you can see, marked in yellow, the municipality of Srebrenica. I see Mr. Dubuisson is handing to you as well hard copies of the items that (20)I'm going to be referring to throughout my opening remarks. Srebrenica, according to the 1991 census, was a predominantly Muslim municipality, with 75 per cent of the population being Bosnian Muslims and 25 per cent (25)being Serbs. Despite their numerical superiority at

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(1)the beginning of the war, the Muslims in the Srebrenica municipality were expelled from their homes and subjected to inhumane treatment by members of Bosnian Serb armed formations. Muslims were driven from their (5)homes, many Bosniaks were murdered, and many other homes burned to the ground. However, the Bosnian Muslims reorganised themselves and took initiatives to reclaim the town of Srebrenica. In May 1992, they succeeded in this (10)endeavour and continued to attempt to expand control of the territory around Srebrenica and were eventually able to link up with Zepa, a town to the south of Srebrenica. During this period of the conflict, Bosnian Serb civilians suffered. Many were killed, (15)many were driven from their homes, and Bosnian Serb homes were destroyed. On the 7th of January, 1993, Serbian Orthodox Christmas, the village of Kravica was attacked by elements from Srebrenica, and according to Serb sources, many civilians were killed. (20)The events at Kravica galvanised the Bosnian Serb military resolve to extinguish the military threat that was in the enclave, and a Bosnian Serb counter-offensive ensued. The counter-offensive was swift, effective, and brutal. As a result, Bosnian (25)Muslim villages were overrun and tens of thousands of

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(1)Bosnian Muslims sought refuge in and around the besieged town of Srebrenica. The plight of these refugees became desperate as there was inadequate shelter and food for them. (5)With the attention of the world focused on the plight of these refugees and the siege of Srebrenica, General Morillon, the French UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia, arrived to the besieged town on the 11th of March, 1993, and he told the people of (10)Srebrenica that he would not abandon them. Now, this dramatic promise was captured on film and was aired throughout the world. About a month later, Bosnian Serb commanders threatened to enter Srebrenica, and three days later, (15)on the 16th of April, 1993, the Security Council, acting pursuant to Chapter VII of its Charter, adopted Resolution 819. This resolution demanded that the parties treat Srebrenica as a safe area which should be free from any armed attack, and demanded the immediate (20)withdrawal of Bosnian Serb forces from the area around Srebrenica. Two days later, the 18th of April, 1993, an agreement was signed between the commander of the Bosnian Serb forces, General Ratko Mladic, and the (25)commander of the Bosnia government forces, General

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(1)Halilovic. Under the terms of this agreement, Srebrenica was to be demilitarised and UNPROFOR troops were permitted to be deployed into the area. On the 8th of May, a more comprehensive agreement was signed (5)by these two Generals covering both the Srebrenica enclave and the Zepa enclave. Now, as a result of these agreements, enclaves were created, and if I could have my assistant place on the ELMO a map, I will show Your Honours where (10)those enclaves were in Bosnia. You'll see from this exhibit, there are three enclaves; the Srebrenica enclave, the Zepa enclave, and the Gorazde enclave, all located in the eastern part of Bosnia and all located within territory controlled by the Republika Srpska. (15)Now, as a result of these events that I have described, Mr. President and Your Honours, the situation in Srebrenica stabilised. On the 18th of April, a small contingent of UNPROFOR soldiers from Canada entered Srebrenica, and (20)their task initially was to oversee the demilitarisation of the town of Srebrenica. They remained deployed in Srebrenica until January of 1994 when they were replaced by elements of the Dutch Battalion. (25)Following these resolutions and agreements,

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(1)an uneasy calm came over the Srebrenica enclave. However, the enclave itself was never fully demilitarised, and an armed unit of the army of Bosnia-Herzegovina remained in it, making forays out of (5)the enclave and attacking Serb targets in order to acquire food and ammunition. Because of the military threat that was posed by the presence of an armed unit within the heart of the Republika Srpska, valuable military assets of the VRS that were needed elsewhere (10)in the war were frozen around the enclave in order to contain the perceived threat that was within the enclave. By 1995, the tide of war had changed, it had shifted against the VRS, and the valuable military (15)assets that were frozen around this enclave were needed elsewhere. Therefore, a decision was taken at the highest political and military levels within the Republika Srpska to attack the safe areas. Thereafter, a military plan to attack Srebrenica, code named (20)"Operation Krivaja 95" was prepared by General Krstic and others. It envisioned attacking the enclave through the south. On the 6th of July, 1995, Operation Krivaja 95 commenced and five days later the town of (25)Srebrenica was captured. I'm going to go into greater

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(1)detail about that attack later, but I want to turn my attention now to the accused and tell you about him. General Krstic is a career soldier who at the time of the crimes described in the indictment was a (5)capable and experienced senior officer who was trained in and familiar with his responsibilities and obligations under international law during the time of war. General Krstic was born on 15th February, (10)1948 in the municipality of Vlasenica. He was educated in military academies in Sarajevo and in Belgrade, and after he graduated he was commissioned an officer and held a series of positions in the JNA. His first assignment was to the Centre of (15)Military Schools in Sarajevo, where he served from 1972 until 1981. Thereafter, he was sent to the General Staff Academy in Belgrade and from there he was transferred to Kosovo where he held a number of command and staff positions. At the time he left the JNA, he (20)held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Now, after the war started in Bosnia, the accused, like many other officers of the JNA, joined the VRS. The accused became a brigade commander of the 2nd Romanija Motorised Brigade which was part of (25)the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps. In November of 1992, this

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(1)unit became part of the Drina Corps, and the accused remained its commander until September of 1994, when he assume the concurrent post of Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of the Drina Corps. (5)On the 29th of December, 1994, the accused stepped on an anti-personnel mine which resulted in a serious injury to his leg, part of which was amputated. Following his recovery and his rehabilitation, he returned and re-assumed his post as (10)Chief of Staff/Deputy Commander of the Drina Corps. In May of 1995, he was promoted to the rank of General-Major in the VRS. Now, our evidence in this case will show that on the 13th of July, 1995, General Krstic issued orders (15)under the title of Commander of the Drina Corps, and his subordinate units accepted and implemented those orders. Moreover, on the 14th of July, 1995, General Krstic's appointment as commander of the Drina Corps was formalised by the Supreme Commander of the VRS, (20)Dr. Radovan Karadzic. This formal appointment became effective the day after it was issued. General Krstic remained the commander of the Drina Corps until the 21st of November, 1995, when he was then sent to the School of National Defence in (25)Belgrade where he remained until September of 1996. In

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(1)that same month, he became the Chief Inspector of the VRS. In 1998, General Krstic was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel-General, which is the (5)equivalent rank of a two-star General in the United States army or the British army. At the time of his arrest by SFOR forces, General Krstic was the commander of the VRS 5th Corps. Now, Your Honours, I'd like to turn briefly (10)to describe for you the structure of the VRS and identify some of the personalities about whom you'll be hearing about during the course of this trial. The JNA had been one of the most professional armies in Eastern Europe, and after its departure, the (15)VRS retained its basic structures. So if I could have my assistant put on the board the first exhibit I'd like to show you. Your Honours should have a small copy of this in front of you. (20)This, as you can see --

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the counsel, please.

MR. HARMON: This, as you can see, is the VRS Main Staff structure. The Commander-in-Chief, the (25)Supreme Commander, was Dr. Radovan Karadzic. He's not

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(1)shown on this. But directly subordinate to him was General Ratko Mladic, who was the Commander of the Main Staff. And the command from the Main Staff went directly to subordinate corps which are identified at (5)the bottom, and you will see in the middle the Drina Corps with the commander being General Krstic. And you'll see this chart has been populated by individuals who have been identified in other responsible positions of command. Now, this chart reflects the structure at (10)or about the 13th of July, 1993. Now, in addition to the direct chain of command flowing from General Mladic to the corps, General Mladic also had a staff at the Main Staff over which he had command. I'd like to identify for you (15)some of the individuals who you'll be hearing about throughout the course of this trial. You will notice in the middle under "Staff Branches," where I am pointing, the name Lieutenant Colonel Ljubisa Beara. Colonel Beara was the Chief of (20)Security for the Security Administration of the Main Staff. You'll be hearing a lot about this man throughout this trial. Another individual about whom you will be hearing is Colonel Jankovic, who was the Assistant Chief of (25)Intelligence Operations for the Intelligence

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(1)Administration of the Main Staff, and you'll be seeing film footage with Colonel Jankovic during the course of this trial. Now I'm going to show Your Honours another (5)chart, and it will reflect the structure and personalities of the Drina Corps at or about the time of the 13th of July, 1993. Now, Your Honours, coming down from the Main Staff command, from General Mladic, was the Drina (10)Corps, and the commander of the Drina Corps, on or about the 13th of July was General Krstic. He had direct command over his subordinate units which are found at the bottom of this chart, and you will see these are various brigades, the Zvornik Brigade, the (15)Bratunac Brigade, and the like. You will be hearing the names of some of the people who populate this particular exhibit. For example, you will be hearing the name Colonel Vinko Pandurovic. Colonel Pandurovic was the commander of the Zvornik Brigade. And you will (20)be hearing about his assistant Major Dragan Obrenvic, who was his Chief of Staff. You will be hearing some of these other names who were the brigade commanders throughout this trial as well. Your Honours, like the Main Staff, the corps (25)had a staff of its own, and General Krstic had command

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(1)over the people within his staff. You're going to be hearing a number of these names as well throughout the trial. Let me start with Lieutenant-Colonel Popovic, (5)who was the Assistant Commander for Security. Let me continue with the name Lieutenant-Colonel Kosoric who was the Chief of Intelligence. His assistant, Major Pavle Golic. You will be hearing about Lazar Acimovic, who was the assistant for rear services. You will be (10)hearing the names of, as well, other people who are identified throughout this particular chart. Now, Mr. President and Your Honours, in addition to the structure, the military rules and regulations and doctrines of the JNA were also adopted (15)by the VRS. There was neither the time nor the inclination to reinvent the wheel, if you will. The central tenent of the VRS and the JNA was the concept of senior and superior command, which meant that members of the army were obliged to execute orders (20)of a superior officer, unquestionably, completely, and on time. The only exception to this principle was found in the Laws Governing the Conduct of War, which both the former Yugoslavia and the Republika Srpska had adopted. (25)On the 13th of May, 1992, General Radovan

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(1)Karadzic signed an order obligating the VRS to apply and to respect the international laws of war including treaties signed and ratified by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Customary International Laws of (5)War, and the General Accepted Principles of International Laws of War. Under the terms of this decree, commanders of all units and members of the VRS were required to abide by these rules and every superior officer was duty-bound to initiate legal (10)proceedings against individuals who violated these rules. Let me give you an example of one such regulation. I'm referring to paragraph 21 of the Instructions on the Application of the International (15)Laws of War on the Armed Forces. This rule states and I will quote: "An officer shall be personally liable for breaches of the Rules of the Laws of War if he knew or should have known that units subordinate to him or (20)other units or individuals were planning the commission of such breaches and at the time, when it had been still possible to prevent their commission, failed to take the measures to prevent such breaches. "The officer will also be held personally (25)liable who, aware that breaches of the rules of law had

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(1)been committed, fails to institute disciplinary or criminal proceedings against the offender or if instituting the proceedings does not fall into his purview, fails to report the breach to the superior (5)officer in charge." The similarities of this rule to our Statute are quite obvious. Interestingly, paragraph 20 of this same document states, and I quote: (10)"Perpetrators of such criminal acts may also answer before an international court if such a court has been established." From his military education and from the rules and regulations of both the JNA and VRS, there is (15)no doubt that General Krstic was fully aware of his obligations under international law. He chose instead to violate, with impunity, every fundamental duty imposed upon him as an officer and as a commander, and that is the reason he sits before you today in (20)judgement. Turning now to the indictment that Your Honours have before you. We have charged General Krstic with eight counts. One count of genocide, one count of the complicity to commit genocide, five counts (25)of crimes against humanity, and one count of a

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(1)violation of the laws and customs of war. All of the acts described in the indictment occurred within the Drina Corps area of responsibility, the area that was under the command of General Krstic, (5)and all of these acts relate to the events that occurred during and after the fall of the UN safe area of Srebrenica, acts which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Muslims from the Srebrenica enclave. (10)The counts of the indictment can be divided into two broad categories. The first category is the deportation and forcible transfer of an estimated 20.000 to 30.000 Muslims from the Srebrenica enclave by members of the VRS on the 12th and 13th of July 1995. (15)The second broad category is the systematic, organised mass murder of thousands of Muslim civilians and soldiers who had laid down their arms by members of the VRS. Most but not all of these executions occurred between the 11th and the 17th of July, 1995. (20)Under Article 7(1) of our Statute, we have charged General Krstic with committing, planning, instigating, ordering or otherwise aiding and abetting and the planning, preparation, or execution of these charges. (25)We've also charged General Krstic, under

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(1)Article 7(3) of our Statute for failing to prevent his subordinates from committing the crimes identified in the indictment and for failing to punish them for having done so. (5)The direct and circumstantial evidence that we will present to Your Honours will prove beyond a reasonable doubt both forms of this criminal liability. Now, during the course of this trial, you're (10)going to be confronted with a number of issues. The first issue you're going to confront is when did General Krstic become the commander of the Drina Corps. Now, I've mentioned previously in my remarks evidence that we will present that will demonstrate (15)that General Krstic was the commander of the Drina Corps and exercised his authority as commander during the relevant times of this indictment. Another issue, Your Honours, that you're going to confront is did the Bosnian Muslims leave the (20)Srebrenica enclave on the 12th and 13th of July voluntarily or were they forcibly expelled and deported. Our evidence, which I'm going to address shortly, will describe how they were forcibly deported and expelled from the enclave. (25)Another issue that you will face in this

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(1)trial and must decide is whether thousands of Bosnian Muslim civilians were summarily executed by the VRS as described in paragraph 24 of the indictment and whether those acts constituted genocide. The evidence that (5)these large-scale murders occurred, as described in the indictment, is overwhelming, and we assert that they constituted genocide. Another issue that you will decide in this case is this: Did General Mladic take over exclusive (10)command of the Drina Corps and create a separate chain of command that went around General Krstic for purposes of committing genocide? Now, in this regard, Your Honours, the High Command case from the Nuremberg jurisprudence addressed (15)the question of whether or not a commander becomes responsible for actions committed within his command, pursuant to orders passed down independent of him. The tribunal stated that under such conditions, the commander had four choices: (1) he could issue an (20)order countermanding the order; (2) he could resign; (3) he could sabotage the enforcement of the order within a somewhat limited sphere; and (4) he could do nothing. The tribunal went on to say, and I (25)quote: "Under basic principles of command authority

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(1)and responsibility, an officer who merely stands by while his subordinates execute a criminal order of his superiors which he knows is criminal violates a moral obligation under international law. By doing nothing, (5)he cannot wash his hands of international responsibility." Our evidence will show that the crimes that were committed by members in units of the VRS Main Staff and the Drina Corps were crimes that were (10)committed jointly. These units were working together, and General Krstic participated in and was fully aware of these crimes when they were being committed and he actively supported their commission. Another issue that Your Honours will face in (15)this case is whether General Krstic was even aware of these killings that are described in the indictment during and after their commission. Our evidence is going to show, Your Honours, that General Krstic was fully aware of these killings while they were being (20)committed. Those are some of the principal issues that you'll face in this case and we'll be addressing throughout this trial. I would now like to return to the invasion of (25)the Srebrenica enclave by the VRS. As I mentioned to

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(1)you earlier, the invasion started on the 6th of July, 1995, and it included attacks on Dutch observation posts that ringed the enclave. As a result of the VRS attacks on these observation posts, Dutch soldiers (5)yielded their positions to the advancing VRS, and many of them were taken hostage by the VRS and later threatened with death if the airstrikes being conducted by NATO continued. Between the 6th of July and the 11th of July, (10)the invasion into the enclave proceeded in fits and starts. The VRS advance met little or no resistance from armed Bosnian elements from within the enclave, or from UNPROFOR soldiers. During the advance into the enclave, soldiers of the VRS systematically burned (15)Muslim homes. Now, as the VRS soldiers advanced into the enclave, the Muslim inhabitants panicked, they were terror-stricken, and they fled to the town of Srebrenica and gathered around the UN compound in (20)Srebrenica. On the 11th of July, the VRS shelled the UN compound. They killed a number of Muslim refugees within the compound and injured a number of them, and this created absolute panic and terror among the thousands of refugees who had gathered in and around (25)the town of Srebrenica. They were terrified, and as a

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(1)result they fled from the UN enclave in Srebrenica to the UN base in Potocari, a distance of about three or four kilometres. During the course of this trial, we are going (5)to present to Your Honours video footage of these events, and you'll see for yourselves the absolute panic and despair of these people as they fled from Srebrenica to Potocari. It was sheer pandemonium and chaos. But by the morning of the 12th of July, 1995, (10)an estimated 20.000 to 30.000 refugees had arrived around the enclave -- I'm sorry, around the UN compound at Potocari. We are also going to present video footage for Your Honours that was taken on the 11th of July, (15)showing General Mladic, General Zivanovic, General Krstic, and other high-ranking members of the VRS triumphantly entering the deserted town of Srebrenica. During their victory march, a Serb war correspondent interviewed General Mladic, and in that interview, (20)General Mladic said, and I quote only a part of his interview, "that the moment had finally come to take revenge on the Turks here." By "Turks," he meant the Muslims of Srebrenica. General Krstic was present in Srebrenica with General Mladic when he made these (25)remarks.

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(1)We will also present the testimony of Mr. Drazen Erdemovic, who was a member of the 10th Sabotage Detachment, an elite military unit that was a part of the Main Staff. Mr. Erdemovic participated in (5)the invasion of the enclave and entered into the town of Srebrenica itself on the 11th of July, 1995. Mr. Erdemovic will describe to Your Honours the cold-blooded execution of a military-aged, unarmed Muslim who had been captured by his unit, and at the (10)order of his commanding officer, a member of the 10th Sabotage Brigade killed the Muslim. This killing portended the tragedy of things that were to come. Mr. President and Your Honours, not all of (15)the Muslims who had fled, fled in the direction of Potocari. Another group of approximately 15.000 Muslims fled in the direction of Jaglici and Suesnjari. This group of people included members of the armed military formations that were inside the (20)enclave; it included civilians; it included women; it included children, and these people fled in the direction of Tuzla, which is located on this map here
[indicates] This was their ultimate destination. Now, about a third of this column, the people in it had (25)light arms, they had rifles, and the object of this

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(1)particular indictment deals, in part, with --
[Technical difficulty]

MR. HARMON: There's a technical problem, Mr. President, so I'll stop. Ready to proceed? (5)As I said, thousands of these people in the column who had fled eventually surrendered or were captured by the VRS and were later murdered. On the evening of the 11th, when the column had departed from the enclave, other significant events (10)occurred. There were two meetings that were held at the Hotel Fontana in Bratunac. The first meeting occurred at 8.30 in the evening, and its participants included General Mladic, General Zivanovic, and Colonel Karremans, who was the UNPROFOR Dutch commander. This (15)meeting was quite short, and at this meeting, General Mladic insisted on knowing whether or not Colonel Karremans had ordered airstrikes against his troops. This was an intimidating meeting. You'll see full footage of it. He also demanded that the Dutch (20)commander return at 11.00 that same evening with a representative of the Muslim people, and we are going to present to Your Honours video footage of that meeting, and you'll see the context, the ambience, in which this occurred. (25)Now, the second meeting did occur, it

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(1)occurred at 11.00. Colonel Karremans did, indeed, return to the Hotel Fontana with members of his staff, and he brought with him a man who was a representative of the Muslim people, a teacher by profession, a man by (5)the name of Nesib Mandic. This particular meeting was designed to intimidate Mr. Mandic and send a message to the Muslims who were still within the enclave. At this meeting, in front of Mr. Mandic was the town sign of Srebrenica. Symbolically, it was broken. (10)During this meeting, General Mladic informed Mr. Mandic that he wanted a clear position from Mr. Mandic whether the Muslim people wanted to stay, survive, or disappear. He demanded that the Muslims of Srebrenica lay down their arms, and if they didn't do (15)so, he threatened their destruction. Now, to reinforce the import of these remarks and to increase the psychological terror on Mr. Mandic, at the time that General Mladic was making these remarks, a pig was being slaughtered outside the window (20)of this meeting, and its death cries could clearly be heard. Sitting alongside General Mladic when those menacing remarks were made was one of General Mladic's principal subordinates, General Krstic. At the conclusion of this meeting, General (25)Mladic insisted on another meeting the following

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(1)morning at 10.00, and he insisted that Muslim representatives appear, and he was going to wait to hear their decision. And we're going to present to Your Honour the video footage of this second meeting. (5)The next morning, on the 12th of July, Colonel Karremans and members of his staff returned to the Hotel Fontana, and with them they had three Muslim representatives, including Mr. Mandic. At this meeting, General Mladic again threatened that the (10)Muslim people could either survive or disappear, and once again, at his side when these remarks were made, was the accused, General Krstic. General Mladic insisted that members of the army of Bosnia-Herzegovina surrender their arms, and then he informed the Muslim (15)representatives that the civilians within the enclave could stay if they wanted, or they were free to leave. The meeting didn't last long. In the afternoon of the 12th of July, 50 or 60 buses and trucks arrived in Potocari and the (20)deportation began. Our evidence is going to show that General Krstic played a central role in ordering and coordinating the arrival of the buses that were to deport the Muslims from the enclave. Our evidence will also show that after the buses arrived, General Mladic, (25)General Krstic, and other high-ranking members of the

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(1)Drina Corps staff were in Potocari. Members of the VRS included Lieutenant-Colonel Popovic, the Drina Corps Assistant Commander for Security, and Lieutenant-Colonel Momir Nikolic of the Intelligence (5)and Security Service of the Bratunac Brigade, again, names you are going to be hearing throughout the course of this trial. Our evidence will show that in the period of the 12th and 13th of July, members of the VRS (10)terrorised the refugees before they were expelled thereby facilitating their removal from the enclave. During the 12th and the 13th of July, members of the VRS committed indescribable acts upon members of the refugee community, including murdering them, raping (15)them, committing acts of mayhem on them. These barbaric acts absolutely panicked the refugees, and some of them became so desperate that they committed suicide or attempted to do so. As the refugees fled toward the buses, Muslim (20)men and boys were separated from their families and detained in Potocari. The process of collecting the victims had begun. Those who had been separated were robbed, some were beaten, some were summarily executed in Potocari. While these events were occurring, (25)members of the Main Staff and the Drina Corps were

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(1)present in Potocari. Following their separation from their families, the men and the boys were forced onto buses and they were driven from the enclave to distant locations that their captors did not want the world to (5)see. This became obvious when DutchBat soldiers who had been assigned to escort these buses on the orders of their commanders, in order that no harm befell the occupants of those buses, were (10)systematically stopped by the VRS. Their equipment was taken, their vehicles were confiscated, and, as one Dutch soldier was to remark later, "it was as though they were trying to remove our eyes and our ears." In retrospect, it is clear from these actions that the (15)Bosnian Serbs did not want anyone to interfere with their genocidal plans. The expulsion of all the Bosnian Muslims from Potocari took a little over a day and was finished by 2000 hours on the 13th of July. During this period, an (20)estimated 20.000 to 30.000 Muslims were deported from the enclave. However, a few Muslims did remain in the enclave, hidden in and around their homes. They were hunted down with dogs and they were slaughtered. The grim reality for the Bosnian Muslims was that remaining (25)in Srebrenica was not an option.

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(1)One of the only Muslims who was permitted to remain in the enclave after the deportations were completed was Mr. Nesib Mandic, the representative I previously mentioned. He remained sequestered in the (5)UN compound in Potocari. On the 17th of July, a Bosnian Serb representative appeared at the UN compound with a prepared declaration, and he insisted that Mr. Mandic and a Dutch officer sign this declaration. It was eventually signed under duress by Mr. Mandic and (10)Major Franken, a Dutch officer. The declaration stated inter alia that the meeting that had been held on the 12th of July was convened at the request of the Muslim civilian authorities, which was patently false. It asserted (15)that, and I quote: "The evacuation was carried out by the Serb side correctly ... that there were no incidents and that the Serbs had abided by the Geneva Conventions and the international laws of war." The declaration identified General Krstic as being present (20)at that meeting. This document was created solely for propaganda purposes. In the days that followed, the VRS and the Republika Srpska propaganda machines attempted to shield their ugly crimes with this false document. It was constantly referred to. (25)Now, Mr. President and Your Honours, I'd like

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(1)to turn my attention to another subject, and that is the killings. Our evidence will show that a minimum number of 7.574 persons from Srebrenica are missing and (5)presumed dead as a result of the events that I've been describing. Both members of the Bosnian army who were armed and unarmed civilians within the column that was fleeing in the direction of Tuzla were killed by Serb gunners as the column advanced and fought its way (10)through Serb occupied territory. We don't know how many people in this column were killed. The exact number of those killed will never be known to us. These people who were in the column and killed as it advanced towards Tuzla are not, in the (15)legal sense, the victims of the crimes alleged in the indictment. Our indictment, instead, focuses on the fate of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys who were separated in Potocari and were captured by or surrendered to the VRS after they fled from the enclave (20)on the 11th of July. We will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were systematically murdered by members of the VRS who were under the command and control of the VRS Main Staff and the accused. The manner in which these (25)people perished and the scale of this atrocity is truly

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(1)incomprehensible by every standard of humanity. When the Office of the Prosecutor conducted exhumations at various locations, including those associated with killing sites identified in (5)paragraph 24 of the indictment, we found the mortal remains of 1.866 victims. The remains of another estimated 2.571 victims are believed to be in grave sites that have been probed by the Office of the Prosecutor but not yet completely exhumed. In (10)addition, other grave sites remain to be located. In the course of conducting these exhumations, we found a number of pieces of identifications on the bodies confirming that the deceased were from Srebrenica. I'm going to ask my (15)assistant to place an example of one such piece of identification that we found on the ELMO. You will see, Mr. President and Your Honours, there is a name of this individual, the name Srebrenica. The town of Srebrenica is located at the (20)bottom left-hand side of this document. This individual is an individual who is identified as missing on the ICRC list. Now, we also found, in the course of our exhumations, photographs on some of the victims. I'm (25)going to ask my assistant to place one such photograph

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(1)on the ELMO. Will you lower it, please. Thank you. These artefacts that we found are poignant reminders of happy moments long past. It's images like these, like this one on the ELMO, that touch our (5)humanity and remind us that the victims of these crimes include the living as well as the dead. Now, let me tell you what else we found. We found blindfolds like this. Indeed, Mr. President and Your Honours, this particular blindfold that I am (10)showing you is a blindfold -- is this blindfold that is found on this person who we discovered in a grave site in Kozluk. His hands were bound. He was blindfolded like many of the other individuals who were pulled out of this particular grave site and out of countless (15)others that we exhumed. Contrary, Mr. President and Your Honours, to the VRS and the Republika Srpska propaganda, these individuals were not the collateral casualties of battle. They were people who were liquidated as part (20)of the genocidal plan perpetrated by the VRS against the Muslim population of Srebrenica. These cowardly acts were planned and meticulously organised and executed by members of the VRS Main Staff and members of the Drina Corps in a joint operation that lasted for (25)several days. They weren't simple military operations

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(1)but actions that involved extensive planning and coordination at a time when active combat was occurring in the Drina Corps area of responsibility, particularly in the Zvornik area. (5)Most but not all of the mass execution sites are located in the Zvornik area. Those sites include the Branjevo Military Farm, Pilica, the Dam, Orahovac, and you can see that these sites are located far away from the enclave in Srebrenica. Not all of the mass (10)execution sites were located so far away. You will be hearing evidence about a mass execution that took place at the Kravica warehouse, very close to the enclave and very close to the town of Bratunac where the meetings with General Mladic and (15)General Krstic occurred. You will be hearing about a mass execution site that occurred in the Cerska Valley, but the bulk, the majority of the mass executions took place far to the north. Now, I'd like for Your Honours to consider (20)for a moment what was required to conduct an operation of this scale. First, it involved the issuing, the transmitting, and the dissemination of orders to all units that participated in the movement, the killing, the burial, and the reburial of the victims. It (25)involved the assembling of a sufficient number of

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(1)vehicles and buses, trucks, to transport the thousands of victims from the location of their capture and surrender to detention centres that were located near the execution sites. It involved obtaining fuel for (5)these vehicles, and one must bear in mind that at the time there was a fuel embargo and that fuel was extremely precious. This operation involved providing guards and security for each of the vehicles that moved north (10)toward the killing sites. It involved identifying detention centres that were secure enough and in close proximity to the execution fields. It involved providing secure routes for prisoner convoys. It involved obtaining sufficient numbers of blindfolds and (15)ligatures so these prisoners could be bound before they were executed. It involved obtaining sufficient men to secure the actual detention facilities themselves, to guard the prisoners for the days or for the hours that they were kept there before they were executed. It (20)required obtaining transportation to take the prisoners from the detention facilities to the killing sites themselves. It required obtaining the killing squads, organising the killing squads, and arming the killing squads. (25)This operation required, as well, the

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(1)requisitioning and transportation of heavy-duty equipment necessary to dig the large mass graves, and it required men to bury the thousands of victims who we were later to discover. (5)It also required, Mr. President and Your Honours, preparing and coordinating propaganda from the Drina Corps and at all levels of military and political establishment in order for the Republika Srpska to attempt to refute the well-founded claims that (10)atrocities had taken place. These extermination operations involved the cooperation, knowledge, and participation of countless members of the army. They were known to the civilian population. General Krstic was fully aware of these (15)plans, and he and his subordinates actively assisted in them, even though the evidence may show that General Krstic was, at times, in the area of Zepa conducting a military operation to take over that particular safe area. (20)Now, when it became apparent, Mr. President and Your Honours, that the International Community was aware that thousands of Muslims were missing and had been executed, General Krstic and his colleagues, units under his command, persons under his command, engaged (25)in a systematic effort to cover up their crimes. What

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(1)they did was they went back to their original killing fields. Many of the victims of these mass executions were buried at the sites where they had been executed. In September, in that area, these locations (5)were dug up and the bodies from these various locations were transferred a considerable distance to these remote and isolated locations on the Cancari road and the Hodzici road. There are a number of secondary grave sites. (10)We have visited those grave sites, and we have conducted exhumations of some of those gave sites, and Your Honours will also see aerial images of the cover-up in progress. Now, let me show you, Mr. President and Your (15)Honours, a photograph. This is a photograph, Mr. President and Your Honours, that was taken at the Kozluk site. Again, we conducted an exhumation at this site. The earth that was on these bodies originally was taken off, and you will see this photograph (20)illustrates how clumsy and inept they were when they attempted to cover up their crimes. This large trough is a mark caused by an earth digger that was used by the VRS to pull out the bodies. Obviously, as you can see here in this (25)photograph, they missed a significant number of those

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(1)bodies. They also severed some of the bodies. But our evidence will show that this was part of the effort to cover up the crimes. Now, you'll also note in this picture, and (5)you'll have an opportunity later to study it, but a number of these people have their hands behind their backs. When Your Honours consider the scale and the coordination and the planning of these reburial (10)efforts, it will be apparent to Your Honours that General Krstic was fully aware of this and that this operation required significant logistical support and planning. Now, Mr. President and Your Honours, since (15)one of the issues in this case is whether there were executions that took place at all, particularly those identified in paragraph 24 of the indictment, I'd like to summarise briefly for you some of the evidence that we're going to present in respect of those specific (20)allegations. I'd like to turn first, Mr. President, to the execution that occurred at the Kravica warehouse. Now, this execution, our evidence will show, took place on the 13th of July, 1995. (25)Kravica is located near -- let me show you.

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(1)When the column left in the direction of Tuzla, it fled from the village of Susnjari, and it attempted to make its way in the direction that I'm using my pointer to indicate. The road that you see on this illustration (5)is a road that was ringed with elements of the VRS and other units, and the column had extreme difficulty in penetrating in this iron of steel that was ringing their escape route. Many thousands of Bosnian Muslims surrendered to the VRS at these locations along the (10)road, and they were collected and they were gathered at various sites, including a football field and the like. A significant number of the people who had been captured and who had surrendered were taken to an (15)agricultural facility located in Kravica, and at this particular location, the individuals were jammed into that particular agricultural facility when the facility itself -- parts of that facility were fully packed, the VRS soldiers opened fire on the people who were inside (20)that facility. I put on the ELMO, for your viewing, a portion of the facade of this particular facility, and you can see the pockmarks of heavy machine-gun fire that was directed into the facility. In addition, (25)grenades were thrown into the facility, and all but a

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(1)few people in that facility were killed. The few survivors who remained, some of them cried out for help. They were summarily executed. And from this particular episode, only three persons are (5)shown to have survived. Two of them will testify before you. They will testify, among other things, that after these killings took place, heavy equipment arrived at the scene and started to take these people, these victims, these bodies, and bury them. They were (10)buried, many of them, at a location, Glogova, that I'm pointing to. Now, during the cover-up that took place probably in September, the bodies at Glogova were reburied, were exhumed and reburied a considerable (15)distance away. They were hidden along a forested and not-often-travelled mountain road near Zeleni Jadar in five particular secondary sites. The next location that I'm going to describe to Your Honours is Tisca, and I'm pointing to it with (20)my pointer. Now, Tisca was a location where the buses that had taken the people from the enclave drove, and it was at this location where the people on those buses were taken off the buses and permitted to walk six kilometres to Bosnian Muslim-held territory, but Tisca (25)was the final separation and screening point for men

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(1)who had somehow gotten on those buses and not been detected. At that location, men, and some women, were separated from the people who had disembarked from the buses. The men were put in a school, the Luka school, (5)and they were detained there by the VRS. Then they were taken in trucks to execution fields. Your Honours will hear the testimony of the sole survivor of one of those trucks. The next location, Your Honour, that I'll (10)talk about is Orahovac. Now, Orahovac is a small village north of the enclave, and on the 14th of July, hundreds of Muslim men who had been detained in Bratunac were transported to the school nearby, the Grbavci school and detained in it. They were later (15)blindfolded and transported in trucks to the village of Orahovac, and they were summarily executed. Members of the Zvornik Brigade participated in the executions and participated in the burials of the victims. We will present forensic evidence that will corroborate the (20)testimony of the victim-survivors that you will be hearing from. Our evidence is going to show that this mass grave site was exhumed and the bodies were then transported to various secondary sites along the (25)Hodzici road.

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(1)The next cited was the Dam, another site of a mass execution. This Dam was located near a village of Petkovci, where on the 14th of July, hundreds of Bosnian Muslims were transported and detained in the (5)Petkovci school. At that location, many of them were summarily executed. During the evening of the 14th of July and the morning of the 15th, VRS military personnel transported those individuals to the Dam, where they (10)murdered them. The victims were buried at the Dam, and they were later reburied in remote locations in order to conceal the crimes. We're going to present to Your Honours the testimony of survivors from that execution. (15)Now, our evidence is going to show, Mr. President and Your Honours, that on the 15th of July, 1995, at 10.00 in the morning, Colonel Beara, who was the chief of security for the Main Staff, had a conversation with General Krstic on an open line. (20)Colonel Beara complained to the defendant that he had "3.500 parcels to distribute and he had no solution." "Parcels" was a codename for Bosnian Muslims, and "distribute" was a code for murdering them. He asked General Krstic for more men for the job and the (25)defendant endeavoured to assist him. At the time of

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(1)this conversation, there were still thousands of Muslims yet to be executed. Now, the next location that I'll describe to Your Honours is the Cerska Valley, which is located (5)here. Between the 14th and the 21st of July, a mass execution occurred there as well. We will present the testimony of an individual who had fled with the column and who concealed himself in the woods above the area of Cerska. In the time frame -- sometime in the time (10)frame that I have described, he saw three buses full of Muslim men heading up that main road, a small road, into the Cerska Valley. Those buses were followed by heavy equipment. From his advantage point, he heard soon thereafter repeated rounds of small-arms fire. (15)He descended from his position and he discovered the execution site. He directed members from my office to this location, and we conducted an exhumation at that site, and there we were able to find 150 bodies of males, aged from approximately 14 to (20)50 years old. Many of the victims were bound with wire ligatures, and I am holding and will present into evidence later, Your Honours, one of the wire ligatures that we recovered from the execution site. Your Honours, I've asked my assistant to place on the ELMO a (25)copy of a photograph that we took at the Cerska Valley

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(1)site, and Your Honours can see in it the wrist bones of an individual and you can see the wire ligature that is around the wrist bones. Mr. President and Your Honours, I'm going to (5)now tell you about the executions that took place at the Pilica school, the Branjevo Military Farm, and the Pilica Cultural Dom. Now, I'll indicate where those locations are with my pointer. If Your Honours can see, these are extremely (10)north of the enclave [indicates], and these killings that took place at the Pilica school occurred between the 14th and the 16th of July. The murders that took place at the Branjevo Military Farm and the Pilica Cultural Dom occurred on the 16th of July, 1995. (15)We are going to prove that these executions took place, Mr. President, through the testimony of a number of survivors -- not many, but a number of survivors who were able to make their way through to freedom after these executions took place. We're also (20)going to present to Your Honours forensic evidence that will corroborate their testimonies. We will present for Your Honours' consideration the testimony of Mr. Drazen Erdemovic, who was a member of the 10th Sabotage Detachment, who (25)participated in these executions. He also witnessed

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(1)the executions at the Pilica Cultural Centre. Mr. Erdemovic has been convicted by this Tribunal and he's been sentenced by this Tribunal for his participation in these events. (5)Now, these mass graves that were located at the sites of these particular killings were also exhumed. They were exhumed probably in September, and the remains of the victims from the Branjevo Military Farm were reburied along the Cancari road, far to the (10)south. After these particular executions at the Branjevo Military Farm and Pilica Dom had been completed, our evidence will show that Lieutenant Colonel Popovic, who was General Krstic's Assistant (15)Commander for Security, called the Drina Corps headquarters and asked for General Krstic. General Krstic wasn't present, and Colonel Popovic left a message for the accused that he had "finished the job." (20)Lastly, Mr. President and Your Honours, we're going to present evidence of an execution that occurred at Kozluk. I'm indicating that location on the chart
[indicates] That site of that particular mass execution occurred within a kilometre of the (25)headquarters of the Drina Wolves, one of the units that

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(1)was subordinate to General Krstic in the Drina Corps. At this location, Mr. President and Your Honours, hundreds of Muslims were summarily executed. They were buried there. I've shown you two large (5)images from that particular execution site. In September, the VRS returned to dig up some of the bodies that were buried there and reburied them along an isolated road far from Kozluk. When we conducted exhumations at the Kozluk (10)site, we found the remains of 340 individuals. Most of the victims were bound with ligatures. The remains of another 158 victims related to these killings were found at one of the secondary sites along the Cancari road. (15)Mr. President and Your Honours, I have concluded my opening remarks. Let me just say in conclusion that the Office of the Prosecutor will present evidence that will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crimes alleged in the indictment (20)occurred and that General Krstic was a full participant in each of them. Thank you.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you, Mr. Harmon. (25)We are now going to have a break, a

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(1)half-an-hour break, so that the Prosecutor has an opportunity to prepare himself for the presentation of his evidence. We will be back at 11.30.

--- Recess taken at 11.00 a.m.

(5) --- On resuming at 11.34 a.m.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Can you hear me, General Krstic? General Krstic, can you hear me? Very well. Now, pursuant to Article 85, we shall proceed (10)to the production of evidence by the Prosecution. Mr. Harmon, you have the floor.

MR. HARMON: Thank you, Mr. President; thank you, Your Honours. I would like to call Jean-Rene Ruez.
(15) [The witness entered court]

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Good morning, Mr. Jene-Rene Ruez. Can you hear me? You will now take the solemn declaration, please.

THE WITNESS: [Int.] Yes, I can hear (20)you very well, Mr. President. But I shall testify in English.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Very well. This is one of the official languages of the Tribunal.

THE WITNESS: I solemnly declare that I will (25)speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the

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(1)truth.

WITNESS: JENE-RENE RUEZ

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] You may be seated. I believe you are already accustomed to this (5)procedure. You will now be invited to answer questions which Mr. Harmon will be asking of you, and after that you will answer the questions that will be posed to you by the Defence. Be at ease. You're a master of sorts. (10)Yes, Mr. Harmon.

MR. HARMON: Thank you.

• EXAMINED by Mr. Harmon:

• Q.: Good morning, Mr. Ruez.

• A.: Good morning.

(15) • Q.: Could you state your name, please, and spell your last name for the record.

• A.: My name is Jene-Rene Ruez, R-u-e-z.

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, what is your current occupation?

• A.: I'm an investigation team leader at the ICTY (20)since early -- I arrived at the Tribunal in April 1995, and I've been in charge of this investigation since that time. I was officially nominated team leader here in 1987 -- 1997, sorry.

• Q.: Since you have been employed at the Tribunal, (25)the Office of the Prosecutor, have you been working

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(1)exclusively on the Srebrenica investigation?

• A.: Yes. Exclusively on this topic since July 1995. The first mission in the territory was 20 July 1995 and arrival in Tuzla 21 July 1995.

(5) • Q.: Now, Mr. Ruez, to your right is Prosecutor's Exhibit number 2. It's a large map. First of all, can you identify that map and can you tell the Judges where it was acquired?

• A.: This map is part of a collection of documents (10)which were seized at the headquarters of the Zvornik Brigade in January 1998. It's one among many other documents which were seized during the search of that headquarters. This map is a description of the military operation as seen by those who did it.

(15) • Q.: Can you please approach the map and with a pointer can you explain significant features about that map to the Judges? There's a microphone there.

• A.: So first of all, this map is not an operational map which was used during the time of the (20)operation. This is a map which has been done afterwards in order to show what happened on a military point of view. The important elements on this map are that it shows the attack from the -- coming from the south (25)of the enclave. As we know, indeed the first

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(1)operations, military operations conducted there happened in the south. This map is confirming this element. The arrows show the penetration of the Serb (5)forces towards Srebrenica and the takeover of observation posts. I will not discuss that element now. A military analyst will testify about all these details, as well as Dutch peacekeepers who were in the area at that time. (10)It also shows that after having entered Srebrenica, the operation here stops and then other forces are coming north, from Bratunac, and penetrate the enclave and arrive in Potocari here. Other elements that can be seen is that there (15)was indeed military activities conducted in an area south-west of the enclave, which is called the Bandera triangle. When you look at daily SITREPS, situation reports, from UNPROFOR at that time and also comments which Mladic was making, General Mladic was making, (20)heavy combat apparently was going on in that part of the enclave named Bandera triangle. What it shows also is the concentration of the refugees and military people who tried then to flee the enclave, start to go assemble the 11th, in the (25)evening, in the area north-west of the enclave which is

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(1)the area of Susnjari, which is the neighbourhood of a little hamlet but it is the entire area here we are talking about. On 11 July, indeed the population understood (5)that the enclave would fall and took two courses of action. The women, the children, and the elderly, but also a certain number of men who decided to take that chance and face the Bosnian Serbs who would enter the area, they probably thought that since they had nothing (10)personally to hide, they would not be harmed, but apparently they made a wrong decision on that. All the other ones who didn't want to face the risk of being captured decided to take off from the area, and following instructions which were in fact to (15)follow the power line which is running all around -- all along the stretch of road between Bratunac and Konjevici, the intersection here, decided to go cross country and take the direction of Udrc Mountain and then towards north. (20)These are all elements that we found out from witnesses, and who are now confirmed by the map of those who did the operation. The map is not very precise. The arrow here shows a straight line between Susnjari and the intersection of Konjevici. In (25)reality, the track was different. First the people

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(1)took the direction a little bit here north-west and were walking closer to the ridge of hills which are along this asphalt road, much closer than it shows on the map. We will return on this later on. (5)The very important detail which is marked on this map is the blocking position that the Bosnian Serb army put in place in this area here, which is an area we call Konjevic Polje, which is in that location here, and Nova Kasaba, a little town a bit more south. (10)On July 12, once the Bosnian Serb army realised what in fact was happening, which was that a huge column of men was trying to flee the area and indeed take this direction. Initially there was an element of surprise, so no possibility to challenge (15)that column. Part of that column was armed. The first group was organised in brigades. The forces inside Srebrenica were quite structured, and they recreated brigades at the moment they were assembling. Those who had weapons were mainly walking in front. (20)So then the blocking position was put in place. The army managed to walk through. When I say the army, it was, in fact, those who were carrying weapons and those who were with them, but once these people passed, then this was completely blocked and no (25)one could walk through any more.

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(1)Then the map shows that the trail taken by this column goes towards Udrc Mountain. Here also it is not very precise because it goes straight above Udrc, which is quite a high mountain, 1.042 metres high (5)and very difficult to walk through here. Later they made the tour. Here it shows battles which took place in this location. I won't deal with that also but around the 13th and 14th July --

(10) THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

• A.: The microphone does not work? Sorry. What did you miss here?

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Just a minute, please.

(15) • A.: I was saying the map is not very precise here because the arrow goes straight above Udrc Mountain, which is not realistic since it's a quite high mountain, very difficult terrain in reality. The movement was much less precise than that. They were (20)turning around. Once they arrived in the area here which is the south-west of Zvornik, ambushes were set to block this column, but these ambushes were not successful. In fact, the column punched through these Serbs (25)positions, managed to capture equipment, anti-aircraft

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(1)guns, mortars, and even managed to capture Serb prisoners. More details will probably be given later on about this, but this is really not the main topic of (5)the investigation. The important part here also is that on the 16th July 1995, it shows how the column managed to break through the lines. In fact, there was some agreement initially to let the column go through, but (10)very quickly this agreement also was breached and combat had to take place in order for that column to pass the Bosnian Serb lines. The date of that event is marked on it. It's the 16th July 1995. A very important aspect here is the 14th of (15)July and part starting the 13th. The Bosnian Serb army realised that this column was causing a very severe threat to the town of Zvornik. The reason is that all the forces who were in this area, not all of them were but let's say the main forces in this area were down (20)towards Srebrenica to conduct the Srebrenica operation. So there was a decision to mobilise all men who were able to carry a gun, and all these people were then sent under military and police control to a secure Zvornik area. (25)There is an important element. Several

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(1)witnesses will at some point probably develop on that and explain what consequences they think it has for them. The important aspect also you will see when (5)we switch on the other map, is that this area here is close to locations where we have detention sites and execution sites. But these sites are not connected with the military operation. The dead bodies that we will talk about in the area are absolutely not (10)connected with these combat activities, but they happen nearby. That is all I would say on this map at this stage.

MR. HARMON:

(15) • Q.: Mr. Ruez, while you're standing, does this map indicate the boundary of the Drina Corps area of responsibility?

• A.: Yes, indeed. Critical element. We will notice when we switch on the other map that all the (20)crime scenes we are talking about are within the precise limits of the Drina Corps. This map marks the north limit of the corps, which is here, and you will see that the identified crime scene that we have most at the north of our map (25)is the area of Pilica, which is this area here; so just

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(1)under the north border of the Drina Corps. All the rest of the crime scenes are indeed within these limits.

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, you can have a seat again. Thank (5)you very much.

MR. HARMON: If I can have the assistance of the usher. We have our next exhibit underneath, Exhibit 2, and if I can ask you, Mr. Usher, to remove this exhibit and expose the next exhibit. (10)Now, Your Honours, what's before Your Honours is the large map that I used in my opening statement. It's been marked as Exhibit 1E.

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, what I'd like you to do for the Judges is to summarise the principal events relating to (15)your investigation and use this exhibit as a means to illustrate various points in your testimony. So if you would kindly -- if you want to stand up, use the microphone and the pointer, would you please commence your testimony.

(20) MR. HARMON: Mr. President and Your Honours, we have a legend that we're going to identify later and introduce for this particular map that will be marked Exhibit 1E bis. We don't have additional copies. We can put one now on the ELMO for Your Honours, and we (25)will present later to Your Honours a copy.

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(1) • A.: So, indeed, this is the map which summarises the view that we have of these events from the investigation. The colour codes are very important to understand, indeed, these locations. (5)The triangles represent areas where prisoners were concentrated. The red triangles mark execution sites, but small-scale execution sites. In reality, what we consider small-scale execution sites in this environment is roughly under 100 individuals. At the (10)red circles, we have mass execution sites. Then we have yellow circles which indicate the locations where mass graves can be found, those that we call primary mass graves, undisturbed mass graves. The ones which have a cross in it are disturbed mass graves, because, (15)as you know, there was a robbing operation of all these graves, which I will not develop at this stage but at the next one. The result of that operation is the creation of secondary mass graves scattered in the area in order -- that in case we would discover some of (20)them, we would never be able to demonstrate how many people, indeed, had been massacred during this operation. So there are a number of them already marked on the map, but we will enter these details at a later stage. (25)So based on this map, the reconstruction of

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(1)the event is that, as I said, the people from the enclave took two courses of action. The ones who decided to flee towards Potocari and seek the protection of the United Nations at the UN base went to (5)Potocari. The evacuation of this group started on July 12, after the meetings which were held in Bratunac between General Mladic, members of his staff, and representatives of the Muslim population, and it started 12.00 -- after 12.00, around 2.00 p.m. (10)The people were taken on board buses, driven through Bratunac, towards Konjevic Polje, then towards Vlasenica, in order to reach the confrontation line which was before Kladanj. The last stop was in the area here [indicates], and then the people had to walk (15)through a canyon towards Kladanj which was, at the time, under the control of the Muslim forces here
[indicates] On the way, a lot of separations took place. There were checkpoints set along the road. The UN (20)personnel who tried to follow the convoys in order to make sure that the people would reach their destination were stopped. The UN personnel was stripped of their equipment and couldn't fulfil their mission and find out exactly what was going on. (25)At many instances, we have witnesses talking

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(1)about soldiers checking the contents of the buses and taking out men who were in it, even young boys. The women will tell you that they had to dress kids as girls in order to make sure that they would not be (5)taken off of the bus. Some men still managed to get on board these buses and reach Kladanj, mainly at the beginning of the operation. The more we enter the operation, then the less men would be able to go through, and at one point, no one is going through. (10)The men who tried to get on board of the buses in Potocari had special treatment. They are separated at the moment that they try to get on board, and they are taken to a specific location in Potocari which we call the White House. Inside that house, (15)people were jammed, and once there were enough numbers, specific buses were waiting for them and they were loaded only on these buses, and from there taken to Bratunac. In Bratunac, they were kept in various locations. This lasted during the two days of the (20)evacuation, the 12th and the 13th. We only know these locations from men who managed to survive later on their execution, but we know that a large number of men at one point were, indeed, in Bratunac town. I will have to return to (25)Bratunac later on, since Bratunac will then become the

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(1)main concentration area for all the prisoners captured in this part of the territory. Those who tried to flee through the woods, approximately 15.000 men, we cannot be more precise (5)than that. This is the number which is given by nearly all the people who were there at the time. It's an assessment which is, indeed, very difficult to make, we cannot either confirm or deny it, but we will keep that figure since it is the one generally considered, as (10)well as the figure of 25.000 people who were taken out of the enclave and bused to Kladanj. That number is also very difficult either to confirm or to deny. The flight through the woods started on the 11th, in the evening, during the night. People waited (15)until night-time to try and sneak out, and they had to cross the minefields at the border of the enclave. So first they had to open a one-metre-large path in these minefields, and then it was a very long process to get out of the area. This created a very long column of (20)men which stretched all along the area here
[indicates], in order to pass here [indicates], at 12.00 -- at the end of the afternoon.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Harmon, but it will be perhaps (25)convenient to say the names of the villages that we can

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(1)find on the map, instead of saying "here" and "there." Because, as you know, we have the transcript, and now that we have a map, it's easy, but if we only look at the transcript without the map, it's going to be (5)difficult. So if you can please state the name of the village as well. Thank you.

MR. HARMON:

• Q.: Mr. Ruez.

• A.: So at 12.00 in the afternoon, one part of the (10)column is already reaching the area of Konjevic Polje; meanwhile, others are still stretched all along the ridge of the hills which is along the asphalt road between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje, just in the area to the south of Kravice. (15)Several ambushes were set on the way, and also shelling of these columns in order to break it into smaller parts. One main ambush occurs at 12.00 in the afternoon, or at the end of the afternoon, just south of the village of Kravice, in a place we call (20)Kamenica, because there's a little hamlet there called Kamenica. Unfortunately, there are many villages called Kamenica, and this can create some confusion with an area north that the people know as being Kamenica. That is the reason why we will call this (25)area here [indicates] Cancari.

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(1)Following this ambush, a lot of panic is already instilled among the people who were trying to flee. Most of the people don't really know the ground. Most of the refugees who are in the Srebrenica (5)enclave are not from Srebrenica. The population inside of the enclave are people who were "ethnically cleansed" in 1992 and were coming from Bijeljina, from Zvornik, from Vlasenica, and from other municipalities in the vicinity. So they don't know the area and (10)that's the reason why they had this guideline, to follow the power line. But after that, many of these people didn't know where to go. Serb forces begin to infiltrate the column, people talk about the wounded being killed, and (15)no one is trusting anyone. At some point, people start shooting at each other, thinking that they are confronted with enemies. So a huge panic is happening in this place. The consequence of that is that on the 13th, (20)in the morning, all of these people decide, in fact, to surrender. Many try to prevent them from doing so since they witnessed that at the moment of surrender people are executed on the spot. We're talking here about small-scale executions, individuals or groups of (25)two or three. Nevertheless, the decision is made, in

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(1)fact, and a massive movement of surrender starts. On the 13th, in the morning, the people begin to go down a valley and arrive in the area of Sandici. They also arrive in the area nearby which is not marked (5)on the map which is Lolici. In fact, when surrendering starts, it happens in many locations. We're not only talking about the massive ones. On the 12th, in the evening, I also said that the spearhead of the column managed to pass through the (10)Serb lines, but the rest of it was trapped behind. So we have the same situation on the 13th, in the morning, in the area of Konjevic Polje as we had south of Kravice. Surrendering starts. So we have at that moment, the day of the 13th, in the morning, people who (15)are assembled in meadows; one meadow of Sandici and one soccer field here [indicates] in Nova Kasaba. I also have to say that this movement of surrender was encouraged by the illusion that protection would be provided to those who surrendered. (20)The Bosnian Serb forces who were present in the area and who stripped the UN personnel of their equipment used that equipment to lure the people and make them believe that they would be under the protection of UNPROFOR. Soldiers were wearing blue helmets. Bosnian (25)Serb soldiers who were using UN APCs always gave the

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(1)feeling to the refugees who were trying to escape that there was some kind of protection which would be for them. Also, soldiers were shouting messages through megaphones, inciting the people to surrender and (5)telling them that they would be under the protection of the International Red Cross, present in the place, according to what they were saying. The fate of those who were on these meadows is that most of them were taken on board of buses or (10)trucks and taken back to Bratunac, but there are exceptions to this. On the 13th, a large group of prisoners is assembled on the meadow of Sandici. At the beginning of the afternoon, the General passes in this area, makes a speech to the prisoners, and then (15)leaves the place. Shortly afterwards, a first group is taken on board the buses and taken to Kravice, jammed inside an agriculture warehouse. A second group, larger than the first one, is then also marched towards the Kravice warehouse and jammed into it. We will (20)return to the events there in detail. But then once the people were inside the warehouse, the soldiers who were guarding them started to open fire from all the openings of the building and throwing grenades inside, and the people who were (25)inside the warehouse were killed, but not all of them,

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(1)since we have also survivors of this execution. Many small-scale executions happened in this vicinity which are not even marked on the map. The witness --

(5) THE INTERPRETER: Could the witness slow down, please.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Ruez, you've been asked to slow down, please. It is necessary to bear in mind all the time that there are (10)interpreters between the two of us. So please slow down. Thank you.

• A.: I'm sorry. The situation at the soccer field at Nova Kasaba is different than in Sandici. There is no (15)massive execution happening at Nova Kasaba. There are few executions happening there. The fate of the prisoners assembled here [indicates] is transportation towards Bratunac. So on the 13th of July, Bratunac begins to be (20)packed with these prisoners. We know that several buildings were used; the Vuk Karadzic school was used; an old school behind the Vuk Karadzic school was used as well; one hangar, which is yet not identified, but the investigation is still ongoing on that and as well (25)as on many other aspects, this warehouse also was

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(1)used. It seems, in fact, that the few facilities available were jammed with people, since several witnesses will explain that they were staying on board of the buses and trucks which were in lines, and we (5)have three lines of buses and trucks filled with prisoners in Bratunac town. We will pinpoint them on the map later on, but we have one line of trucks waiting in front of Vihor garages, one line of trucks waiting in front of (10)the Vuk Karadzic school, and one line of trucks at the outskirts of Bratunac town, at the west of it. During these days, the 12th and the 13th, the deportation of the population within the enclave was still going on. So you had movements of buses, in (15)fact, going towards Kladanj, but you also had movements of trucks and buses going towards Bratunac. The men who were separated at the last checkpoint, which was in the place called -- little place called Luke, where there is only one little (20)building which is an elementary school, were put inside the school. From there the 13th, in the evening -- this process might have happened many times but we only know about once since there is only one person who managed to survive that process -- the men were taken (25)on board of little trucks, driven towards Vlasenica.

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(1)Vlasenica they turned left, which is, in fact, north of Vlasenica, in an area of hills, of wooded hills, and somewhere in this area the people were executed. We have never managed to find the precise spot where this (5)execution took place. We also know, from witnesses who were blocked on a hill just above Konjevic Polje, that indeed people who were captured or surrendered were executed in this area, but we are talking here about one, two, or three (10)bodies, and we have never found these locations and we will not. The main location, we have found it, but can implement -- the witnesses who talks about these events is one witness who witnessed a massive execution happening here. Not massive according to the code that (15)I previously gave, but still it talks about three groups of prisoners, one group of 30, a second group of 30, and then a larger group of about --

THE INTERPRETER: Could the witness slow down, please.

(20) MR. HARMON:

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, will you slow down.

• A.: And he witnessed how these people got shot on a meadow. We will return on that meadow later on. We managed to find this one and process the crime scene. (25)Also, at a date which is still difficult to

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(1)fix, but it will probably happen at the time the witness will be coming here, several witnesses talk about an event which happened in the valley of Cerska. I will give all the details about it when we will be (5)talking about that precise location, but we have an execution site of 150 people in the valley of Cerska. They were transported by bus into the valley and shot there. I will provide you with the details of that later on. (10)We also have a smaller execution of 16 people at the intersection between the Jadar River and the Drljaca River. The situation during the night of the 13th and the 14th is -- in Bratunac is the preparation of (15)the evacuation of all these prisoners towards other locations. There are several versions about what happened at that time, and I must admit it is a bit difficult for us to explain all the details at this moment since indeed the investigation is ongoing and we (20)are, at the moment, in contact with witnesses from all sides. We are still collecting and we are still collecting information from them, and everything we are saying during this proceeding is helping the people a lot. We are trying to find out exactly what their role (25)and implication was in these events.

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(1)Nevertheless, what can be said on Bratunac was that the version served by those who witnessed the events from the inside is that there was a fear that the town will be captured by all these prisoners who (5)were inside Bratunac town. The alleged reason is that the town is empty of military forces, when we know a lot of forces are in this area. Therefore, the prisoners had to be guarded by old people carrying guns, and by children, and there was a threat that (10)revenge would be taken on them. So that justified the need to evacuate the town. In reality, what happens in terms of evacuation is that the 14th, in the very early morning hours, indeed the first convoy of prisoners is leaving (15)Bratunac town. That convoy does not take the asphalt road that goes towards Konjevic Polje, probably because of still some combat activities and the cleaning of the area going on at that moment, so the convoy took the road that goes north of Bratunac and then recaptures (20)the road that goes towards Zvornik. That first group of prisoners was -- there was a promise of exchange which was done the day before, on the 12th, in the evening, by General Mladic, who went to visit some of these spots, and told to the (25)prisoners that they had nothing to worry about and that

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(1)they will be later on exchanged. Indeed, this first group of prisoners believes that this is going to happen since they take the direction of Zvornik. They pass Zvornik. They (5)arrive in Karakaj. At Karakaj they turn left, take the asphalt road that leads towards Tuzla, arrived at an intersection which is an intersection that leads to a village which at that time was completely destroyed, the village of Kriljevici, which is not marked on this (10)map. They stop and they unload the buses. All the prisoners have to enter a school which is the Grbavci school, and during the day several convoys are coming from Bratunac and the prisoners are entering the gym of that school. (15)At a later stage of the day, once the gym is full, General Mladic is witnessed coming to the school and gives a little speech to the prisoners. After his departure, the prisoners are taken out of the school, of the gymnasium of the school in little groups, loaded (20)on a little TAM truck -- TAM is a trademark of the truck -- and taken very nearby to a field where an execution squad is waiting for them, and during all the afternoon of the 14th and part of the night of the 14th, all the prisoners who were at the Grbavci (25)gymnasium are executed at the site we call Orahovac.

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(1)That same day, the 14th July, at the same moment probably, other convoys of trucks and buses full of prisoners are leaving Bratunac town, taking the same direction towards Zvornik. They pass Karakaj, and they (5)turn left towards a place called Petkovci where there is a school also. There is no gymnasium in that school. It is just a school building. The prisoners are put into classrooms. Once these classrooms are full -- we know for the first floor for sure because of (10)survivors, but they believe that the ground floor was also full of prisoners. At the end of the afternoon, the prisoners are taken towards the Dam of Petkovci. We will give details about the location. The fact is that from the (15)evening of the 14th, also through part of the night, group after group, an execution squad is waiting for the trucks bringing in the prisoners and all the prisoners are executed there. Luckily also, some managed to survive and will be able to tell you the (20)story of what happened here. During that time, there are still prisoners in Bratunac. Prisoners who are in the old school are not evacuated before the 15th of July, despite all the allegations of officials in Bratunac who declared to us (25)that the town was emptied in one day, the 14th of

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(1)July. We know it's not true. The 15th, some prisoners were still in the old school and evacuated that day towards Zvornik, going north, passing Kozluk, even more north. And just under the border of the Drina Corps (5)which we saw on the previous map -- the border would be here -- they were brought to a school which is the Pilica school in a hamlet called Kula. They were jammed inside that school. We are suddenly talking here about a large number of people. (10)When we will look into the details of this crime scene, you will see the size of that school. It's a big one which has also the gym and the classrooms. Obviously they were used to kill the prisoners. We believe that for the reason that during (15)the night of the 15th to the 16th, one bus of prisoners came and the prisoners were not taken inside the school. They were executed outside the school. The probable reason for that is there was no space any more to keep them inside. (20)The next day, the morning of the 16th, the people are taken out of the school and driven towards the Branjevo farm where an execution squad composed of members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment and members of another unit are waiting for them and execute them (25)all. The other unit is the Bratunac Brigade. We'll

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(1)give details later on about the involvement of the Bratunac Brigade in the extermination of all the prisoners of the Branjevo farm. The key witness for this execution, aside the (5)survivors, because here also are survivors, is Drazen Erdemovic, who will again testify about these events. After the execution at the Branjevo farm was finished, the same execution squad was tasked to go and kill prisoners who were inside the house of culture of (10)Pilica. The commanding officer who instructed the squad to go and kill these people mentioned a number of 500. We have no idea of how many people were inside, but this man seemed to know how many were in it. That same day, the 16th or the 17th, we (15)cannot be very precise on this, we will explain later on why, we have knowledge also of another execution which took place in this area. We believe that the prisoners who were executed there were initially kept in a school called Orahovac. These prisoners were (20)taken to Kozluk, and at the edge of the Drina River there was also an execution squad waiting for them in that location and the people were killed here. Our figure was 500 people killed here, which was indirect information. We will enter all these details also when (25)we talk crime scene by crime scene, and we can confirm

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(1)indeed that number here. So this is roughly -- this is a summary of the chain of executions which happened after the takeover. What happened later on, but this also will (5)be part of the separate demonstration, is that before the signature or even -- at the moment, the Bosnian Serb Army realised that the war was going to be ended and not necessarily the way they expected but through an agreement, the decision was made to try to erase the (10)evidence of the crime committed. It was already clear that there would be an investigation on this. Journalists had already started to investigate the place. Some even had tried to enter and have entered the area. So there was no doubt in (15)their mind that there would be a full investigation on such events. Therefore, the decision was made to erase all the evidence from the mass graves and transfer the bodies in hidden locations, which was indeed done, and (20)all the triangles mark the positions of individual graves, each of them having a content between 80 and 180 bodies in them. These areas are scattered mainly in the south-west of Zvornik and at the south of the Srebrenica enclave. (25)We'll give details later on about how the

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(1)secondary sites connect with what we call the primary sites. I think at this stage, that's what we have to say.

(5) • Q.: Have a seat please, Mr. Ruez.

MR. HARMON: Just to inform Your Honours, I intend to call Mr. Ruez back later, at a different stage of the trial, to explain these additional aspects of this, particularly the secondary grave sites.

(10) • Q.: But let me turn now, Mr. Ruez, to a film which I would like you, first of all, to inform the Judges in advance what's on this film, what it shows, where it was acquired, who filmed it. Could you do that, please, and just give a brief summary, and then (15)during the showing of this film, I'd like you to narrate the various aspects.

• A.: Yes. The film we're going to see is going to show several aspects of the operation at the time it was happening. We will see people from Srebrenica (20)leaving Srebrenica town on one piece of that footage. The footage is coming from a journalist named Zoran Petrovic. He was present in the enclave at the time of the events. He was obviously in agreement with the Bosnian Serb Army to be there, since he's driving in a (25)military vehicle and is constantly in the presence of

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(1)Bosnian Serb military personnel. The fact is that in the film, it doesn't make that very clear, since some people ask him questions about his presence once he presents himself as an (5)independent journalist of Studio B in Belgrade. At another moment, he presents himself like the police. The fact is that he was there and could film quite a lot of interesting sequences. He didn't do that in the purpose of assisting the Tribunal, that's clear, but (10)nevertheless, he sold bits of his film later on to international press journalists. Before doing that, he edited his film in order to make sure we would not get access to pictures that would implicate too heavily the Bosnian Serb (15)Army. So there are some blank spots in this film. One journalist could see the entire version of it. The missing parts are not extremely relevant, in fact. They don't show murders. They don't show a lot of dead bodies, but they show prisoners, as an example, but we (20)will come on it later, in the White House of Potocari. He initially had a sequence showing men sitting on the balcony, which is, in fact, also interesting, because it shows that the house was indeed really packed with people, but that sequence was erased in his film. (25)Nevertheless, the film has been extremely

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(1)useful for the investigation, both for -- to have a better view of the events but also to identify a certain number of very interesting individuals. Also, this film implements some parts of the (5)stories told by the witnesses, which no one would ever have a chance to implement without live pictures at the time of the events. The film shows, as an example, a Bosnian Serb soldier on the asphalt road between Lolici and Sandici, wearing a blue helmet. This -- we would (10)not have been able to confirm that without this film. In the footage we're going to see, in fact, is a mixture of footage, as there are -- also part of it are extracts of news from RS television. In fact, I discover a bit the synopsis of the tape at the moment (15)I'm talking about it. So we will see refugees leaving the enclave. Then we will also see Serb forces entering Srebrenica. We will see Milan Jojovic, who is the commander of a special force unit the Drina Wolves, which is -- in (20)fact at that time was a unit part of the 1st Zvornik Brigade, giving some instructions to his troops. We can see also General Mladic, General Krstic, General Zivanovic entering Srebrenica town. The piece of footage showing the speech of General (25)Mladic, which is not translated on the tape but I

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(1)assume you will be provided later with a full transcript of the tape where General Mladic talks about the fact that it is now time to take revenge on the Turks, which is the name a certain number of Bosnian (5)Serbs used to designate Muslims. We will also see films on Potocari, of refugees, of women arriving, of General Mladic talking with these refugees and giving them some reassurances, General Mladic giving an interview also which is not (10)translated on the footage you will see. I will make some comments probably at the moment the film is rolling. And various views of Potocari, which will be interesting, but I think I better make the comments at the moment the film is unfolding. (15)After Potocari, part of the film will be extracts of Zoran Petrovic's videotape, and these will be pictures of military activities going on in between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje. At some points, but we'll return later on on this when we will be talking crime (20)scene by crime scene, we will return to these pictures because for some of them we can identify very precisely the location, and this is an identification we have made very recently and we will expose it to you. Then it will show Srebrenica town, which is (25)also an interesting thing for us to have since you will

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(1)see on this film how the mosque in Srebrenica, the main mosque of Srebrenica looks like at the moment it was -- the place was captured by the Bosnian Serb army, and I will then show you photographs of that same mosque in (5)1996, 1997, and in 1998, and you will see the slow destruction of that building until it is transformed into a parking lot. Then you will have a little piece of footage which is undated, where we can see refugees arriving in (10)Kladanj, and finally the film will end with a piece of footage of BiH television news, which is the arrival of the first military men coming out at the area of Nezuk, where the members of the 28th Division, which was the Muslim division inside the Srebrenica enclave, managed (15)to exit that part of the territory.

• Q.: Now, Mr. Ruez, as we roll the film, if you want to make comments to inform the Judges about what's being seen in the images, please feel free to do so. If we could dim the lights, and if we could start the (20)video, it's Prosecutor's Exhibit number 3.
[Videotape played]

• A.: That was the UN compound in Srebrenica called Company B. At this moment, the people ...

THE INTERPRETER: The interpreters are sorry, (25)but this cannot be interpreted. It needs to be stopped

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(1)for the interpreters to hear the comments.

• A.: Do you have the sound when the film is ongoing?

MR. HARMON:

(5) • Q.: Could you rewind the film please. Keep the volume down, and we'll start again.

• A.: The first sequence in black and white is, in fact, a moment of panic in Srebrenica town where the population realises the enclave is going to fall, and (10)the men are discussing what to do. And this is, in fact, the key moment where massively the decision to flee either towards Potocari, either towards the woods and try to find a way to exfiltrate the area. Very shortly, in fact, after that, or even (15)before that, the crowd was entering the UN compound, and General Mladic, the day before, had threatened the United Nations that no refugees should be accepted inside the compound. If not, the compound would be shelled. It is hard to say if what happened next is an (20)on-purpose act or "an accident," but the fact is a mortar shell hit in the middle of that crowd, and an unknown number of people were killed and injured at that moment.

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, was this film taken by Zoran (25)Petrovic, or is this additional film footage that's

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(1)been inserted in this exhibit?

• A.: This is an additional insertion. We would have to double-check where it's coming from exactly. I think it's either coming from a Bosniak Muslim video (5)footage or Dutch footage.

• Q.: All right. Now if we could proceed with the film, and proceed to make your comments, Mr. Ruez, as we progress.
[Videotape played]

(10) • A.: The building here is Company B in Srebrenica town. This is a crowd which is at the UN compound. Nearby, they are trying to decide what course of action to take. At that moment, everyone knew it was already lost. (15)These are the first refugees arriving at the UN base. The first ones will arrive in trucks and buses. The United Nations personnel, they are trying their best to go and collect as many people as possible. But the main column arrived walking. Some (20)shelling was happening on the way, but not targeting the population; in fact, channelling the population towards Srebrenica. Several were wounded by the shelling, but the shelling was not designed to kill the people, but to make sure that they would go like (25)organised cattle towards Potocari.

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(1)This is the commander of the Drina Wolves giving instructions to his troops to yell like wolves in order to scare off probably the opponent. This is the area south of the enclave at the (5)moment the military operation is going on. Probably -- the people we just saw were probably in the vicinity of the forward command post of Krivaca, which is a hill just east of Srebrenica town, south-east of Srebrenica town, which enables us to have an overview of this (10)area. Here you can see the Drina Wolves yelling. This is a picture of a tank. This is probably the Republika Srpska news. This is General Mladic entering Srebrenica (15)town, greeting individuals wearing black camouflage uniforms, which are members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment. We know several of them by name. He's calling General Krstic and General Zivanovic, asking them to speed up. Greeting here, you can see members (20)of the unit of the Drina Wolves. They have this armband with a blue patch with a black wolf yelling in it. You have here various people, including the brother of General Zivanovic. The identification of (25)faces and names might come at a later stage, when we

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(1)will discuss, in detail, the responsibilities. When he says "Krle," he refers to General Krstic. An element of the 2nd Romanija Corps, which was also a unit which participated in the takeover of (5)the enclave. Here we can see General Krstic greeting his colleague from the 2nd Romanija Corps. You can see several people of top interest; we will discuss them later. This is the piece of footage where General (10)Mladic ends by saying that the time of revenge on the Turks has arrived. This is a group of Bratunac Brigade people from the reconnaissance unit who are entering Srebrenica -- Potocari first. Bosnian Serb forces in (15)Potocari, next to the White House. Behind it is an electrical substation. The people are coming from a hamlet above. They are directed towards the asphalt road. This is a view of a crowd of refugees in (20)Potocari next to the Express Compound. General Mladic explaining to the crowd what is going to happen, that the woman, the children, and the elderly are going to be evacuated first, that the turn of the men will come after that part of the evacuation will be completed, (25)that no one will harm them. The very precise location

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(1)of that footage is known. I'll show you later on pictures of that location. There are ground features which are easily recognisable. You can see the person wearing the blue flak (5)jacket, this is Major Kingori, a United Nations military observer who was present there and who has a lot of interesting details to give. In this interview, General Mladic is just giving technical comments regarding the ongoing (10)operation, what is going to happen; all the good things that he is currently doing for these people, providing them with water and food. I believe this is also the footage where he explains that the operation is not directed against UNPROFOR, nor the civilian population, (15)but only against army people. The men surrounding Mladic are his bodyguards. You will constantly see them in his presence. In every footage where General Mladic appears, you will see them. They are his bodyguards. (20)This is the separation line which is nearby the Express Compound, just in the area where General Mladic was just giving his interview. At this moment, this is a little piece of propaganda where the soldiers are handing, for the sake of the RS television, (25)chocolate and bonbons to the children.

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(1)This is a view of the refugees waiting for the buses in the vicinity of the Express Compound, just at the location where General Mladic was talking. These are the faces of men in that little compound. (5)The men will all be separated and taken to what we call the White House. This is a view of the Express Compound, one of the factories in Potocari where the refugees were jammed inside, waiting for a chance to flee that place, (10)and we will explain why they needed to flee. This is a scene where the people are cleared to go on board the buses. Soldiers in the vicinity of the buses. All these buses are coming from all over the area. There was even an appeal to the public to (15)provide transportation. All these men are men who were in the White House and who are going to take separate buses. You will see at one point individuals who try to go on the other side are prevented by soldiers in between the (20)truck to reach the other side of that road. All these men have been identified by face, and they are all missing. Someone will come and testify about this identification. This is the other part where the women, the (25)children, and the elderly could walk and go in buses

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(1)which were going towards Kladanj. Men were shipped towards Bratunac. You can see some men are still on that part of the road. This means that these men logically will (5)be able to get on board of the bus, but several of them will probably be separated on the way before Kladanj, except the very old ones or the really disabled ones. People know each other, as you can see. This is a discussion between a UN soldier and (10)the commander of special police forces in charge of organising the process here. You can see a lot of clothing lying on the ground. People had to abandon their bags, their belongings, before entering the buses. All the way towards Kladanj, they will be (15)systematically robbed of all their belongings also. This is Major Kingori at this moment complaining about the situation inside the White House. He says that the men are sitting on top of each other, and that this is no good, no good. General (20)Mladic visited, indeed, the White House also. These are belongings of the men who were forced into that White House. That scene is filmed on the meadow of Sandici. At this moment, this man is forced to shout (25)the name of his son who is somewhere in the woods and

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(1)bring him to surrender. These are soldiers who are guarding the prisoners, and this is most probably also at the meadow of Sandici, since there is no break in the footage. (5)Not "most probably," it is most certainly the meadow of Sandici. The man who is playing with the gun of this soldier is an alleged legal officer. This is a group of prisoners arriving on the meadow. These are the hills which are south of the (10)asphalt road of Bratunac-Konjevici. They were shooting on the column with anti-aircraft weapons. The shells explode when they hit the trees and then they throw shrapnel on all those beyond it. It is totally forbidden to use these kinds of weapons on personnel. (15)It has been a common practice throughout the war to use these weapons on them, that is, anti-personnel guns. This is the road coming from the direction of Konjevici, towards Sandici. Sandici is in the hill just after this stretch of road; behind the hill is (20)Sandici. You can see abandoned clothing at the edge of the road. People were surrendering, sometimes one individual, sometimes two, three, but the main surrenderings were massive. Soldiers were lined up all along this stretch of road. (25)You can see soldiers all along that stretch

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(1)of road here again. They're waiting for prisoners to surrender. In this piece of interview -- you will also, I assume, get a full translation of it -- the soldier (5)is explaining that today they have captured between 3.000 and 4.000 prisoners in this location. The journalist asks him, "This is exaggerated," but meaning that this is a lot, and the soldier replies, "Yes. Yes, this is a lot." (10)Here you can see the Bosnian Serb soldier next to the alleged legal officer wearing a blue helmet. This is at Sandici meadow. Prisoners arriving from the forest. I mean, at that moment, they (15)become prisoners. This man has a bloodstain on his backpack. This man is asked by the journalist, why is he afraid, and he explains, who would not be? In this picture, there is a dead body lying nearby, and the fact is that at this point, there was no reason to have (20)dead bodies lying on the ground. There is some propaganda saying that some persons who were arriving on the asphalt road, in fact, were willing to pick fights with the people guarding them, but that doesn't seem very serious. Here is the dead body. (25)Still the Sandici -- the arrival towards

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(1)Sandici. Most of the soldiers stripped themselves of military clothing, not to be identified as soldiers. This one is forced to take off his T-shirt. But in the end, they will all be treated the same way, whatever (5)kind of clothing they were wearing. The soldiers are directing the prisoners towards the meadow at this moment. This is the arrival towards the meadow, trying to take this wounded toward the meadow. The (10)wounded will then be put in some destroyed houses, and no one knows what will be their fate. This is a view of the hills nearby the asphalt road. This is Srebrenica town. The town is empty. (15)There is a car passing by with an individual flashing the Serb victory sign. Zoran Petrovic filming dead bodies in Srebrenica town. We don't know how these people died, if they died because of shelling or if they were executed there. (20)This is a view of the mosque as it was when the enclave was taken by the Serb forces, filmed by Zoran Petrovic. These are women, children, and also some men arriving at the canyon in Kladanj. This is on (25)Muslim-held territory at that time. We do not know if

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(1)this was filmed on the 12th or the 13th. This is the arrival of members of the 28th Division who managed to break the lines at Nezuk. As you can see, they carry their weapons. It's an (5)absolute fact that the enclave was not demilitarised. But only the first part of the column was organised and properly equipped. Some weapons were among those in the huge crowd left behind, but only hunting rifles, old rifles.

(10) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Harmon, I think this is a convenient time to make a break.

MR. HARMON: Yes.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Would you agree?

(15) MR. HARMON: Yes.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Very well. We shall now make then a 20-minute break.

--- Recess taken at 12.54 p.m.

--- On resuming at 1.18 p.m.

(20) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Harmon, you may continue.

MR. HARMON: Mr. President, let me just briefly summarise the manner which Mr. Ruez will be testifying now. We have prepared Volume 1 of the (25)Office of the Prosecutor exhibits. They have been

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(1)premarked. You should have copies of those, I hope, before you or you will have them shortly. What I propose to do is ask Mr. Ruez to proceed by each of the subparts of this exhibit. He will enter more into the (5)details of this particular series of events.

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, what I'd like you to do now is enter more into the details of the various locations that you have been discussing in your broad overview of the events that took place following the fall of (10)Srebrenica. I have before me and you should have in front of you Prosecutor's Exhibit 4, and it is divided into subparts. The subparts specify specific locations. What I would like you to do, first of all, is to begin (15)with this exhibit, the first tabbed item which is Srebrenica, and I'd like you to enter into the details of that. I'm going to start my examination by tendering a film, and I'd like you to inform the Judges (20)what the film will show them first. Will you do that? Then I'll ask you to put on a map.

• A.: Sure. The map first, the video second. First of all, the map of the area of Srebrenica. If it does work on the ELMO -- do I have to press something?

(25) • Q.: It will take care of itself. You're fine.

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(1) • A.: Okay. Sorry.

MR. HARMON: Okay. Now, for the video booth, we're going to be playing Prosecutor's Exhibit 4/8.

• Q.: Could you, before we play that, Mr. Ruez, (5)could you please explain to the Judges what it is that they will be seeing on the video?

• A.: Yes. The video will be views from Srebrenica town, filmed by myself, but before -- and which will show Srebrenica town from the air first, and then it (10)will show Srebrenica town from the road. The aim of showing you these pictures is mainly to give you a feeling of the ground, how the place looks like. The terrain is changing in this area significantly every 30 kilometres. The south of Srebrenica is very hilly, (15)mountainous; the north is entering a plain. So it is important for the good comprehension of the military operation also to know how the ground looks like. The military operation will be developed later by someone else, but this will already give you a feeling of how (20)the area is. You will also be able then to review these pictures and identify precise locations where the perpetrators can be seen. First of all, I start with the Exhibit (25)number 4/A, which is the map of the area. On the map

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(1)one can already read the ground through the markings but the video will be much better for this. Another element of importance on this map is a little place that you can find just south-east of (5)Srebrenica town. I'm going to circle it on the exhibit. It's Pribicevac. Pribicevac is the location of the forward command post which was set there for the sake of the command and control of the military operation of the takeover of the enclave. (10)Initially, the operation was not designed to take over the enclave but to shrink it to the limits of the town in a way to create a big open-air refugee centre which would then lead to the decision by the UN to evacuate the area. It is only the 11th that the (15)Bosnian Serb army realised that there would be no opponents to challenge their advance towards the town, that General Mladic made the decision to capture the entire enclave, and this is the location from which the operations were directed. (20)We can now have a look at the film. Also one important detail is to see the distance between Srebrenica and Bratunac, which is a short distance as you can see it on the map.

• Q.: All right. Could the audio booth please (25)start the film.

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(1) [Audiotape played]

• A.: This is the access to Srebrenica to the south of the road. You can see here the road that is at the south of the map. It's on top of a hill, and it will (5)then go down to Srebrenica. This is the road that the Bosnian Serb army took before entering the town and after capturing the observation posts south of the enclave. So here you can see what the ground looks like. It's a very hilly zone. (10)The area you can see in front, these succession of hills, it's the same landscape between Srebrenica and the intersection of Konjevici. All the ground looks the same. It's a succession of huge hills. This is the town sandwiched in between two (15)hills, and from Pribicevac, one can overlook the town. This is approaching towards the centre of town. In the middle of the picture here you don't see any more the location of the mosque. This film is dated August 1999. I filmed it from a helicopter. (20)Here you can zoom-in on what is now a parking lot. I will show you still pictures after this film. There was then the Orthodox church. I will show it to you on photographs. This is a soccer field. The concrete (25)playground here is a soccer field. There are two

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(1)soccer fields in the town, one for which we have a still photograph, and other one for which we don't have. This is the UN compound for Company B in (5)Srebrenica town. This is the second soccer field. The soccer fields are important because, as Drazen Erdemovic testified, the population which was left inside the town was then directed towards the soccer field. We have not determined with him what soccer (10)field. The fact is, anyhow, that we don't know what is the fate of these people who were then taken to this soccer field. This is the road coming from Potocari towards Srebrenica, and we are just at this moment passing this (15)soccer field which is the most south of Srebrenica town. This is filming the west part of that area. We are going right now from this soccer field towards the centre of town. This lasts approximately, I would say, three to five minutes. (20)The video is filmed by a colleague from the Office of the Prosecutor, Peter Nicholson. This film is dated -- this one is dated April 1996. So nine months after the takeover. Most of the hills are deforested. The reason (25)is that the only heating source inside the enclave

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(1)since, in fact, 1992, before even the enclave existed, was wood. That's why all the hills look so naked. This is the Company B, the UN compound of Srebrenica. The guardhouse of the entrance. The (5)location has obviously been transformed at that moment into a depot of trash. The town needed a severe cleaning for all these years and, in fact, the municipality was very busy and active cleaning the town still at that moment. (10)The quality of the film is not excellent. It's super -- it's an 8-millimetre video camera, basic device, so there is no steady shot on the picture. This is the reason why the picture moves so often. One thing one can note also, not necessarily (15)on these pictures, but we could have others that can demonstrate it, the place had been subject to quite intense shelling from time to time, but the fact is that the destructions are not extremely obvious. Most of the buildings are standing. Many have shrapnel (20)traces, but it is not a destroyed area. The situation reports number the number of shells at some point during the attack up to 200 a day. There was intense shelling going on, but the result of it is not so obvious. (25)This is an area where General Mladic was

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(1)sighted on film, a film by RS television. We did not show this footage in the film that we previously showed, but this is the south-west part where we can sight General Mladic, the 11th of July.

(5) THE INTERPRETER: Could the sound volume of the film be put down, please?

• A.: [Previous translation continues] ... from the 10th Sabotage Detachment. This is entering the centre of Srebrenica. The buildings on the right was made (10)famous when General Morillon raised the UN flag on top of it. I'm not sure if it's this one or the one next to it. This place here was the area where the red vehicle was passing in the Zoran Petrovic video. This (15)is leading to the marketplace where the main mosque of Srebrenica was standing in the Zoran Petrovic video. This is, as I said, footage dated April 1996. You will see that the minaret of the mosque and the dome of the mosque have been dynamited. (20)This road leads now to Zeleni Jadar. We are still in Srebrenica town going to Zeleni Jadar, which is south of Srebrenica. It is an area where we will later talk about secondary mass grave sites. It is still a pile of trash and rubble in the town. As I (25)said, the cleaning process of the garbage was not over

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(1)at that time. This is an area where Drazen Erdemovic put on fire a haystack to mark a position, a position of their advance. The ones who entered the enclave were the (5)10th Sabotage Detachment and Drina Wolves. Both of them can be seen on pieces of footage that we have available. This is driving towards Zeleni Jadar, overlooking the town. This is exactly the view that (10)the Bosnian Serb army had when they arrived towards Srebrenica by road.

MR. HARMON:

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, if you'd now proceed using the still photographs that are located in Prosecutor's (15)Exhibit 4. Would you kindly put them on the ELMO and explain to the Judges what they represent. Will you move it up a little, please? That's fine. Thank you very much.

• A.: So this is -- this is a photograph from the (20)part of the road that we have just seen, but this is a photo, not an extract from the film. It shows just the town and how it is blocked in between those two hills. No, sorry. There is one important detail on this one. This is so far the only photograph we have (25)of the concrete playground. You can see in the centre

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(1)of the picture a group of white buildings, and just at the left of these white buildings, behind them is an area of concrete. This is the playground number 1, let's call them like this, of Srebrenica town. (5)Exhibit number 4/2 is, for reference, a photograph of the UN compound of Srebrenica town, the Company B compound. This is the place where the crowd of people was assembled at the beginning of the film that we showed as Exhibit number 3.

(10) • Q.: Is this the location that was shelled and Muslim refugees were killed and injured?

• A.: Yes, definitely this is the place.

• Q.: Please proceed.

• A.: The Exhibit 4/3 is a photograph of the (15)destroyed mosque, which I took in April 1993. No, sorry. This photograph is one dated January 1996. January 1996. It was the first mission we did and where we were unable to enter Republika Srpska in company of Under-Secretary of State John Shattuck at (20)the time. We could visit a few of these locations and have a brief entering of Srebrenica town. This photograph is January 1996.

• Q.: Now, Mr. Ruez, earlier in the Petrovic film that we saw, we saw a mosque that was standing up. Is (25)this the same mosque?

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(1) • A.: This is exactly the same mosque. The only changes on this one is that as you can see here, that part is the minaret, and the dome which was on top of the mosque is now destroyed also. These destructions (5)are most probably caused by dynamite. Exhibit 4/4, on this exhibit you can see a view from the main mosque of Srebrenica, in the middle of the picture, and its environment. One detail you can note on this one is that there is also another (10)religious monument in the frame of the picture, which is the Orthodox church.

• Q.: When was this picture taken?

• A.: This picture is dated April 1996. We have never visited the inside of the Orthodox church, but (15)you have to know that during a certain number of years, propaganda claimed that the Orthodox church had been destroyed by the Bosniak Muslims who were inside of the enclave. After the fact, photographs were shown now with the claim that it was not destroyed from the (20)outside, but destroyed from the inside. We never went to check. The only thing we can show is this photograph that shows that the church is standing. This is another photograph, but dated 1997. The difference with the photograph dated 1996 is that (25)you do not have any more the minaret and you do not

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(1)have any more the dome on top of this rubble. Exhibit 46 is still extracted from the video that I filmed from a helicopter in August 1999, and which was shown to you at the beginning of the film on (5)Srebrenica. On this one, you can see at the precise location where the mosque was standing now is a concrete ground, and vehicles are parked here
[indicates] This has now been transformed into a parking lot. (10)The next exhibit, Exhibit 47, is a view of another mosque in Srebrenica, which is on the way going to Zeleni Jadar, so very south of the town. This picture is dated April 1996. In January, we didn't go so far, so we don't know how it was in January, but in (15)April 1996, at the moment the central mosque of the marketplace was dynamited, we can see that this one has suffered the same treatment as the main mosque. We have no other pictures of this one, we just monitored the destruction of the main mosque, but this one now is (20)exactly in the same state as the main one. It doesn't exist anymore. These are the exhibits I wanted to show you about Srebrenica town.

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, is there any other detail you'd (25)like to relate to the Court before we turn to Exhibit

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(1)5, which is Potocari?

• A.: No. The investigation does not focus on Srebrenica town, since the only elements we know about the situation at that time, in that place, is that (5)people were still there. According to Drazen Erdemovic, the people who were found in Srebrenica town were directed to the soccer field, but he never went to the soccer field so he doesn't know what was the situation there. He describes one murder committed in (10)Srebrenica, which was filmed by those who committed it, but we never could access that footage. For the rest, in fact, the only elements we have are the destructions of the mosques. And it's not a full survey, we only have photographs on two (15)mosques. As far as I know, there were four mosques, and maybe even five mosques in Srebrenica.

• Q.: All right. Mr. Ruez, let's turn our attention now to Potocari. Would you inform the Judges of the additional details about Potocari?

(20) • A.: This is Exhibit 5A, which is, in fact, a black and white photocopy of a map. That map does not show all the buildings in Potocari, but the main ones. I will show you other products which will enable you to get familiar with the various factories. (25)The important element in Potocari is that

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(1)when all the refugees came from all the parts of the enclave towards Potocari, there was not enough space to accommodate them, and when I say "accommodate," to give some kind of shelter to them. So they entered these (5)factories, and the factories were completely crowded and packed with refugees. Also, the surroundings were occupied, houses were occupied, and a lot of criminal events are described by the witnesses in Potocari. All of them -- most of them we have only to stand on the (10)declarations of the witnesses because we have no ability to conduct any forensics in that place. Most of the criminal events that the witnesses describe are happening in the vicinity of the factories, people taken by soldiers and led towards (15)hidden directions, and also in little groups of houses which are in the vicinity. One important element about what happened in Potocari is that it was not -- it is not what we could really call an execution area. In fact, murders were (20)committed there. Obviously, there was a kind of free possibility for either the soldiers or locals from Bratunac to come to the place and behave in the way, more or less, they wanted to behave. So it's a very confused situation. (25)A lot of murders are reported. Bodies were

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(1)left in the open, near water pumps, which is important information, because these bodies were not hidden, and we suppose that this was done on purpose. The reason is that after the night spent in these factories, the (5)main concern the next morning was to try to find water, so the women went to find water pumps in the vicinity, and you will hear many reports about dead bodies lying nearby water pumps. This situation has to be put in correlation (10)with the official declarations of General Mladic and other officials, which is that the population was given a free choice either to stay under the protection of the army of the Republika Srpska and the police of Republika Srpska, and those who have committed no (15)crimes have nothing to fear; either to leave, to leave either towards Muslim-held territory or towards the territory of the Federal Republic, towards Serbia; or even to go to a country of their choice, adding that there was no possibility to meet personal requirements (20)but that that option was even open. The reality behind that alleged choice is that what happened in Potocari was designed not to exterminate the people, but to infiltrate enough terror to force them to flee the place, and you will see here (25)that all the people there, indeed, were very eager to

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(1)get on a bus and get out of this place, where they knew that they would be killed at one moment or another by staying too long. But I am not going to develop on what the witnesses will tell you in this courtroom.

(5) • Q.: Mr. Ruez, before you move the map, can you tell the Judges the approximate distance between Srebrenica and Potocari?

• A.: Yes. As you can see, the distance from Srebrenica to Potocari is five kilometres on the map, (10)roughly four to five kilometres. Then the distance between Potocari and Bratunac is approximately three kilometres. All these are short distances.

• Q.: And these squares in the map represent one-kilometre square; is that correct?

(15) • A.: This is absolutely correct, yes.

• Q.: Please proceed, Mr. Ruez.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Harmon, sorry to interrupt you, but before we turn to the following issue, I would like to know why we are (20)talking about Potocari, whereas the encircled place is called Pecista.

• A.: The reason is everyone calls this location where the factories are, everyone calls this place Potocari. The reality is that the little hamlet of (25)Potocari, I'm going to check in the map if it is even

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(1)written on it -- yes, the little hamlet is written on it, but it is not the area of the building. The area where the main factories are has no name.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you.

(5) MR. HARMON:

• Q.: Please continue, Mr. Ruez. Please explain what this photograph is, if you will.

• A.: Exhibit 51 is an aerial photograph from Potocari, from the area where all the factories are. (10)This photograph is a product of the US government. All the photographs which will be coming from that source, which is, in fact, the State Department, which delivers these products to us, will have white markings on them. You will see later that on these same products, (15)yellow markers are added. All the yellow markings are coming from myself; all that is white is the information provided by the US government. This photograph is dated 13 July 1995. One thing that we won't discuss also is the platform that took the (20)picture, on which we have no information. Here you can see a group of buildings which -- this won't be very meaningful, which is the reason why I'm going immediately to pass to the next exhibit, which is 52, which has markings on it.

(25) • Q.: Mr. Ruez, as you identify these particular

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(1)locations, can you tell us very briefly what happened in each of these locations and what the significance of these buildings are?

• A.: So we are going to start with the UN base. (5)The goal of this presentation is also, indeed, to get familiarised with the various buildings here. In fact, there are not so many important buildings that the people refer to. The main one, naturally, is the UN base. It is circled and squared in yellow, in a yellow (10)frame. All this area is the area of what everyone refers to also as the Akumulator Factory, which is a former battery factory for ships, and maybe other devices. But it is, in fact, the UN base. In this compound, about 5.000 refugees (15)managed to find shelter on the 11th. Despite Mladic's instruction, order, not to accept any refugees inside the compound, Dutch officers decided to open a fence in a little hidden part of that compound so that refugees could get in, and 5.000 of them could enter. (20)Unfortunately, at some point, the factory was full of people and the order came out not to accept any more refugees inside of it. So once this factory was totally filled in with refugees, other factories started to get occupied. (25)The Blue Factory is not referred to by people

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(1)for the simple reason that as soon as the Bosnian Serb army arrived in the location, they took possession of this factory and they taped around it; no one could approach. We don't know what happened inside, no one (5)is in a position to tell us at this point, but no refugees was inside this factory. It is called the Blue Factory; it's a generic name that everyone used for it because the building is blue, and I will show you that on photographs where you can see the colour of (10)it. Just in front of the Blue Factory, parallel to the asphalt road, is a building which is referred to as the Faros Building, because it is written on it, "Faros," it was the name of the company. It's not a (15)factory, it's an administrative building. On the top of the picture, which is, in fact, south, going south, we have the Express Bus Compound. This is the compound of a bus company. The white little bars that you can see in the vicinity are (20)destroyed buses. This is an important location. You will see it in the film which was taken at the time of the events, either by RS news or by Mr. Zoran Petrovic. This place was absolutely packed with people. (25)Several witnesses talk about groups of

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(1)soldiers getting inside this compound by night and flashing lights on people to identify them, and separating men out of the crowd of refugees and taking them in unknown directions. It is also the location (5)where people talk about desperate individuals, scared of the way they will die, who committed suicide. One body was found in a little side room, which is behind the factory, he had hung himself in that room. On the top of the picture, but unfortunately (10)under the white frame here [indicates], is another little group of factories which you will see from other pictures. But their names are of interest because the witnesses will refer to them as well. One is the building of Energoinvest, and the (15)other one, which was also absolutely packed with refugees, is the factory of 11 of March, "11 of March" being the name of the factory. We will return to that specific factory for the reason that I told you that we could not conduct forensics about criminal events which (20)happened in this place, this is a fact, but we have a very compelling story from one witness, and we found elements on the ground which we believe entitle us to give credit to this witness. We will talk about that at a later stage. But this is the location where the (25)events will happen, in the vicinity of 11 of March

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(1)Factory. And the factory south of it, the Zinc Factory, this is a huge building. This was also crowded with refugees, and separations took place also (5)in this one. It's always the same process: a group of soldiers getting in and selecting men or taking people out. Murders were committed behind these factories. You will hear about them, depending on the will of these witnesses to come and testify. (10)A very important feature seen on this photograph is the White House. Behind it is the electrical station. It was marked because it is just near it. We have no elements about what happened there, and we forgot to mark -- we will probably need (15)to add that -- an arrow on this building here
[indicates], which is a building we call the Blue Building. Everyone refers to it like this. So we have two blue buildings; one is the Blue Factory, not to be confused with the Blue Building, which is much smaller, (20)as you will see on other photographs. The Blue Building is the location where the water tank is on the live footages which can be seen at the time of the events. This is where Zoran Petrovic addresses a Dutch officer, asking him, "What is going (25)on here?"

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(1)The White House is probably the most important element in this picture. This is the location where the men were taken after separation. You will see in a close-up that this little group of (5)black things here on the picture [indicates] is the crowd which is building up at the location where the separation line is. The men who were then separated here [indicates] walked along the buses, as we could see on the Zoran Petrovic film, the reason why we can (10)hardly say in the Zoran Petrovic film that these men were, in fact, getting out of the White House to be loaded on buses or if they were coming from the separation line and led towards the White House. It's one solution or another. But this is the location (15)where the men were detained and where Mladic went to see how they were doing inside. Major Kingori, the military observer who was present in that location, also had an opportunity to visit the inside of this White House and witness the (20)condition of the people inside. I am done with this one. This is Exhibit 53, which is a blow-up of the previous picture, or of another one, I can't say, because one has an hour, the other one has none. This (25)picture is dated 1400 hours, 13 July 1995. I won't

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(1)make the comments on the 11th before showing you the next exhibit which has all the markings on it. So we pass immediately to Exhibit 54. Here again we can have as a reference the Blue Factory. (5)Just in front of the Blue Factory, the building Faros, which is not marked here, and just on the opposite side, you have the White House. Next to the house is a bus, which most probably is there to collect prisoners who are still inside the house. (10)At that time of the day the evacuation was not over, and still some number of men were present in the area. So this is a problem we had with the computer. The computer never accepted to print out properly this part. We'll have to redo one probably. (15)This is written "people" here. That circle is a crowd of people. This area here is visible on the Zoran Petrovic film. This is the location or the area where the day before General Mladic was addressing the crowd. This is where his bodyguards were handing over (20)chocolate bars to the children. Just behind this crowd is a separation line, which was also visible on the footage that we saw, just a rope across the street. UN soldiers were at this line in order to make some order in the situation, but (25)the ones who were ruling the show there was the Bosnian

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(1)Serb army, who did, in fact, exactly what they wanted. The UN soldiers were stripped of their equipment quickly, and on the 13th, no one was in a situation to oppose what was going on, and the separation was still (5)ongoing that day. As you can see, there is a mixture of vehicles going up and collecting the people. You have trucks and buses. The water tank is marked again on this one. What else. (10)Yes. Then I'm going to start talking about another -- no. No. Sorry. On this one also I have marked several things that we won't have pictures after that to show, but here we're already entering, in fact, one criminal (15)situation. We have several features that we can see here, a little wooden share which is at the edge of the zinc factory, another shed which is not visible on the photograph because it's under the tree line, which is (20)on a hill behind this factory. We have this house here, and in front of it is a cornfield, which on the photograph one can see that it is a grown-up, grown cornfield. The black line you can see here is the corn, high corn. The little (25)white spot which is inside the corn is a vehicle, a

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(1)car. I will have to return on that a bit later. Exhibit number 5/5 is a photograph extracted from the video film from the helicopter in October 1999 and shows some of the buildings that we had on these (5)aerial black and white photographs. These ones are not marked yet. This is the zinc factory.

• Q.: For the record, you're pointing to the long rectangle building on the left-hand side of the road as (10)you look directly at the photograph?

• A.: Yes. At the bottom right of the picture, on the east part of the asphalt road that goes from Bratunac to Srebrenica, you have the Express compound building. The location where I was talking about, the (15)body which was found hanged, is in this little extension of the building.

• Q.: When you say "this," you're referring to the long, rectangular, white building on the right-hand side of the road; is that correct?

(20) • A.: This is correct. The White Building which is the Express compound, the bus compound. You can also see on this photograph, on the road just in the direction of Srebrenica, which on this photograph is on the right, you have a group of trees (25)here. This is the location where General Mladic was

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(1)giving his interview and where his bodyguards were handing over candies to the children. You can see also that just in between the road -- the trees are in between houses. And the road, this is a kind of (5)construction where, in the Zoran Petrovic film, we could see refugees assembled, and men among them, sitting, and one individual, who was wearing a purple bandanna on his head, was looking at the refugees behind the fence. (10)We will return at some point one day on this individual who is a very interesting man for this investigation.

• Q.: Now, Mr. Ruez, just so the record is perfectly clear, when you referred to trees where (15)General Mladic gave his interview, you're referring to the large clump of trees that appear in this picture in the upper right-hand corner. They appear to bisect or block the road; is that correct?

• A.: That is correct, yes. Thank you for the (20)precision of the description. Behind these trees, on the top right part of the photograph, are two buildings of interest. One is -- we cannot see his colour on this photograph, but we will see other photographs of it. It's the Blue (25)Building. It's the one we call the Blue Building,

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(1)which is the location where the water tank was positioned. These reference points will be important later on in order to pinpoint precise locations where (5)people were. We will use them as a reference point to identify both the fact that this is the location and the precise spot. On this same photograph, the last building one can see on the upper part of the picture totally at (10)the top right, the White Building. This is the so-called White House in which the prisoners were assembled prior to being transported towards Bratunac. One additional comment. Also on this picture, one can see also the other little (15)constructions which are the houses in the vicinity. The fact is that the main crowd of refugees was occupying the factories, but as I told you, also the houses were occupied, and you might face the situation where people will talk about criminal events in the (20)vicinity of these houses, because the fact is that these type of reports are scattered, and we have a lot of difficulties at this point to identify precisely where. Another thing that I have to tell you and (25)admit, in fact, is that the investigation on the events

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(1)in Potocari is the weak point of this investigation. The reason is that we have spent most of our time reconstructing the main criminal events, which are the massive executions. We did not have time yet to (5)finalise the investigation on Potocari. This is something still ongoing. We will do it at the moment the trial continues. Exhibit 5/6 is a view from the hill which is just behind --

(10) • Q.: Mr. Ruez, let me just interrupt you for a moment. Perhaps we have different exhibits. The 5/6 that I'm holding has a different set of buildings on it.

• A.: I have this one.

(15) • Q.: Perhaps they have been misidentified. Go in whatever order you like, but since you're using the official Court copy -- let me just pause for a moment. That's marked 5/19 in the copy that I have. So we're perfectly clear and we're operating off the same (20)photograph, I will change this to 5/6.

• A.: So this picture is taken from mid-height of a hill which is behind the Zinc Factory. The view is turning towards the north, north-east. The asphalt road going --

(25) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Excuse me.

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(1) Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the English and French transcripts

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(1)Mr. Harmon, which number is this photograph exhibit number?

MR. HARMON: In my binder, it was originally 5/19, but since Mr. Ruez is testifying from the (5)official Court exhibits, it should be 5/6 and should be marked accordingly. So in your copy perhaps it is 5/19.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you.

MR. HARMON:

(10) • Q.: Mr. Ruez, please continue.

• A.: So on this photograph, the interesting elements are, again in the very centre of the picture, the Blue Building. On this one, one can this time clearly see that it is blue, the small one which is (15)right in the centre. The fact is that from this angle, this building seems melded with the one behind it, which is not the case. The one just behind it is the Feros Building. Behind the Feros Building, the huge blue structure is the so-called Blue Factory. (20)On the left of the Blue Factory is the Akumulator Factory, which is the UN compound. One important element on the UN compound is this structure. On top of it, this is the watchtower of the compound. This is a photograph dated June 1996. (25)The next exhibit number is 5/7.

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(1) • Q.: That may be marked in your exhibits as 5/9. So just wait a minute, Mr. Ruez. We will make sure that we all have the same exhibits.

• A.: Do you know what?

(5) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] I believe it is 5/7, which before that was numbered differently. It said 5/15 before. These are the numbers that we see here.

MR. HARMON: Well, obviously in preparation (10)for today and with the massive amount of exhibits, there has been some confusion. I apologise. We will -- if I could just have a moment with my assistant, perhaps we could resolve this.

• A.: You have a good order. I have a wrong one.

(15) MR. HARMON:

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, we're going to give you a different set of these.

• A.: Now -- mine are mixed, in fact.

• Q.: Don't despair. So are mine.

(20) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Now there is no problem. We are now with 5/7, and I believe it is this one.

MR. HARMON:

• Q.: Mr. Ruez, if you can put your set that you're (25)working with aside, we'll clear your desk, and you can

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(1)testify off of the set that I've just handed you. There are two loose pictures that I have taken out of sleeves, but they have numbers that may correspond to the numbers being used by the Judges.

(5) • A.: Okay. I'm just a bit confused now. Is this the one we have shown?

• Q.: I believe we're going to 5/7.

• A.: Which one is the one I'm supposed to put on it?

(10) • Q.: Mr. Ruez, proceed in the order that you want to proceed in and just identify the photograph as we progress through them.

• A.: This is one we are currently working on?

THE REGISTRAR: Yes, this one.

(15) MR. HARMON: Perhaps, Mr. President, this might be an appropriate time to take a break, conclude for the day if it's possible. We can sort this out. We'll be far more efficient tomorrow.

JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] I think (20)this is a good proposal. We can adjourn for the day and then resume tomorrow after you organise things better. Of course, you are doing your work, and you will do it as you like, but tomorrow morning we shall meet once again at 9.30. Until tomorrow.

(25) MR. HARMON: Thank you.

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(1) --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 2.18 p.m., to be reconvened on Tuesday, the 14th day of March, 2000, at 9.30 a.m.