The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

The Numbers Game
although how limited that was may be seen in the fact that in April
2002—nearly seven years after Srebrenica fell—the BBC’s Alix Kroeger
reported that only 200 bodies had been identified. 79
However, based on a new DNA testing technique, in June 2005 the
ICMP stated on its website that “One month before the 10th anniversary
of the fall of Srebrenica in 1995, the International Commission on
Missing Persons…has completed identifications of more than 2,000 of
the Srebrenica victims.” 80 Were they killed in July 1995? Were they executed?
Whatever the meaning and truth of this claim, one thing is
clear: At the time in November 1995 when the ICTY issued indictments
for “genocide” (among other charges) against Radovan Karadzic
and Ratko Mladic for “acts and omissions in relation” to the summary
execution of Bosnian Muslims following the fall of Srebrenica, the ICTY
had no hard evidence to support the Srebrenica-related charges. 81 It had,
in other words, issued indictments without having the beginnings of a
case and without even clear proof that a crime of this gravity had taken
place.
A further statement on the strength of the mass graves evidence assembled
by the ICTY came in an update to the case involving the Bosnian
Serb Army General Radislav Krstic on July 8, 2005. The crucial
passage reads:
Although forensic experts were not able to conclude with certainty
how many bodies were in the mass-graves, they were able
to conservatively estimate that a minimum of 2,028 separate
bodies were exhumed from the mass-graves. Only one of the
1,843 bodies for which sex could be determined was female.
The Trial Chamber could not rule out the possibility that a percentage
of the bodies in the gravesites examined may have been
killed in combat. Overall, however, the forensic and demographic
evidence presented by the Prosecution was consistent
with the testimony of witnesses who appeared before the Trial
Chamber and recounted the mass execution of thousands of
Bosnian Muslim men at Èerska Valley, Kravica warehouse, Orahovac,
Branjevo Farm, Petkovci Dam and Kozluk. The Trial
Chamber was satisfied that the total number of executed men
was likely to be within the range of 7,000 and 8,000. 82
This is conspicuously non-specific on the forensic findings. The ar-
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