61 Finally also indicted Radovan Karadzic and most requested of all, General Ratko Mladic.
62 This is the state of the ICTY indictments to date. A priori, it should not evolve at the level of this instance. It is obvious that there is a whole group of other identified or identifiable persons who participated in the operation. These are essentially executors, "trigger pusher".
63 In terms of police officials, the answer is that the investigation has not brought to the prosecutor the evidence that they were involved in organizing the massacre or executions themselves, the evidence to to charge them and give the prosecutor a reasonable chance of winning a case. It's as simple as that. Indeed, the police authorities have done everything to stay away. That said, the police could have been investigated more, and it was not, given its secondary role in this essentially military context.
64 On policies, it is the future will tell. But for Deronjic, apart from his contacts with Beara, with Karadzic, apart from his knowledge of the situation, the prosecutor's office could not prove that he participated in the planning, the execution, and so on. It was a military operation. Now it is certain that from a historical point of view the articulation between the army, the police and the political staff is certainly more intertwined, but the level of proof that we can provide must prove the individual criminal responsibility of a person implicated.
65 As for the question "who did what? "I will not answer because the investigation is still ongoing and other trials are planned or possible in the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2001, the units that had participated were identified (the Bratunac Brigade, the Zvornik Brigade, as well as the Borovcanin Special Police Brigade, which subsequent trials will deal with). For the determination of the units involved, we are in an evolutionary system. In 2001, there were things we were certain of, but we did not use occasional trials. All this is very delicate. We can only say things when we have proof. This is the problem of an investigation, a prosecutor, a court: even when one is convinced of it, it concerns only the one who has it. She can not intervene in a lawsuit as a real fact. Take a recent case: Scorpions. This unit, apparently dependent on Belgrade, is present in the region and is involved in the killings of six teenagers. We discover this by a path in which I will not return and that occurred in 2005. There may be some discoveries in 2010. I will not go into detail other possible ways but they are numerous.
66 How, then, does this fit with the evidence that allows the prosecutor to bring the evidence into the debate, it is not up to me to say that. The fact is that, unfortunately, all those who were in the area, not just the military but also paramilitaries, had the opportunity to participate in the execution of prisoners. There must have been also volunteers for this job. There are things that appear clearly to the listening. There is a need for people to commit mass executions, but during that time, fighting takes place. There is the offensive on Zepa led by the Army of Republika Srpska, there is the column of fugitives, some of whom are coming off to lead a diversion attack on Zvornik. From a military point of view, at that moment, confusion reigns. So the investigation will remain "in progress" to identify all those who participated in the operation of assassination of prisoners.
67 However, given the destruction of a number of archives, the only way forward is not the investigation itself, but by the consequences of the charges and possible guilty pleas. In this area, there is nothing worse than someone who does not plead guilty because his attitude will not help to advance the truth, while the one who pleads guilty confirms the truth of the facts and, if really he is of good will, he can add new elements to the file. These will obviously have to be checked and corroborated. It is not enough to settle for a "yes it's true, it's me who did it".
Top of page Noteshttp://www.un.org/icty/cases-f/index-f.htm
2 . NDD: http://www.un.org/icty/transf33/000313it.htm
3 . NDD, following the clarifications of J.-R. Ruez: to be precise, we speak of "sockets" only beyond the 30 mm caliber (shell casings). For "small caliber", we speak of "cases".
4 . NDD: On the exhumation work carried out in ICTY investigations, see D. Manning's testimony in the Krstic trial on 26 May 2000:
http://www.un.org/icty/transf33/000526it.htm
5 . NDD: on the role of aerial imagery, see infra p. 30.
6 . NDD: Sullivan S., "Genocide Without Bodies," Newsweek , November 4, 1996.
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