The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

Securing Verdicts: The Misuse of Witness Testimony at The Hague
enlisted to shoot too, and they did.” 74 At one stage, however, Erdemovic
claimed that the bus drivers who were transporting the Muslim men
didn’t know that they were taking them to be killed, believing instead
that they were carrying out an exchange of prisoners. That they would
then be prepared to participate in the killings seems far-fetched. Milosevic
was quick to seize on these points:
Milosevic: If the bus drivers didn’t know that they were taking
the Muslims to an execution site, how could Erdemovic
know that the people who had dispatched the Muslims intended
to deliver them into the hands of murderers? If the bus drivers
weren’t aware of what was going on, how could Erdemovic be
certain that the execution orders came from the Republika Srpska
high command? 75
From the beginning, the ICTY showed little interest in establishing
the truth of Erdemovic’s claims, but sought to use him for its own purposes.
Indeed, even before Erdemovic was in their custody and thus before
they could evaluate the truthfulness of his testimony, ICTY
prosecutors were promising him extreme leniency. “It would be far more
preferable and more acceptable by the public for such persons to receive
the benefit for their cooperation in terms of reduced sentences,” Deputy
Prosecutor Graham Blewitt was quoted as saying. “There’s certainly an
option which is open to the prosecutor to grant immunity in particular
cases.” 76 The OTP let the cat out of the bag early on. On November
20, 1996, a prosecutor declared proudly that Erdemovic’s testimony “at
the Rule 61 hearing influenced, in a positive sense, the public clamour
to arrest Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.” 77 Erdemovic became
the vehicle for the ICTY’s key claim, namely, that the Republika Srpska
high command had ordered the massacre of Muslim civilians.
Enter Inspector Ruez
The prosecutors didn’t fare too well when trying to boost Erdemovic’s
credibility. On November 19, 1996, they introduced satellite pictures in
order to corroborate Erdemovic’s story. French investigator Jean-Rene
Ruez pointed to several of these showing a
bird eye’s view of the farm, and you can see a number of bodies
scattered over the field and there is a probable mass grave there
in the process of being dug….[W]e were also able to find some
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