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Document places Milosevic`s troops at Srebrenica massacre
The Hague, June 20: Prosecutors at the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal may have produced the first evidence linking Slobodan Milosevic to the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in 1995, but they will need more to make genocide charges against the former president stick, legal experts said today.
The Hague, June 20: Prosecutors at the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal may have produced the first evidence linking Slobodan Milosevic to the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in 1995, but they will need more to make genocide charges against the former president stick, legal experts said today.
The new document, dated a few days before the fall of the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica, ordered a joint unit of troops from Serbia - who were under Milosevic's authority - and Bosnian Serb police to push into the eastern Bosnian region. In the following week, around 7,500 Muslims were massacred there at the end of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
The material was introduced at Milosevic's trial last week, during the testimony of former Yugoslav Interpol Bureau chief Budimir Babovic, but prosecutor Geoffrey Nice only briefly referred to it during court hearings, and the paper's importance was not immediately clear.
Trial watchers said today it could prove incriminating for Milosevic, who faces 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide for the events in Srebrenica.
"It is very significant. It is the first piece of evidence that places Serbian police in Srebrenica,'' said Judith Armatta of the Coalition for International Justice, a Washington-based advocacy group. "But whether these troops were involved in the massacres is yet to be seen,'' said Armatta, who closely follows Milosevic's landmark trial.
The one-page document, dated July 10, is signed by the Bosnian Serb wartime staff commander and chief of police, Tomislav Kovac, and written on Bosnian Serb interior ministry letterhead. It orders seven subordinate officers to move their troops including the Serbian police unit, to "crush the enemy" in Srebrenica.
Bureau Report
The material was introduced at Milosevic's trial last week, during the testimony of former Yugoslav Interpol Bureau chief Budimir Babovic, but prosecutor Geoffrey Nice only briefly referred to it during court hearings, and the paper's importance was not immediately clear.
Trial watchers said today it could prove incriminating for Milosevic, who faces 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide for the events in Srebrenica.
"It is very significant. It is the first piece of evidence that places Serbian police in Srebrenica,'' said Judith Armatta of the Coalition for International Justice, a Washington-based advocacy group. "But whether these troops were involved in the massacres is yet to be seen,'' said Armatta, who closely follows Milosevic's landmark trial.
The one-page document, dated July 10, is signed by the Bosnian Serb wartime staff commander and chief of police, Tomislav Kovac, and written on Bosnian Serb interior ministry letterhead. It orders seven subordinate officers to move their troops including the Serbian police unit, to "crush the enemy" in Srebrenica.
Bureau Report