Defence expert for Mladić: Graves in Srebrenica also contain people killed before 1995

The defence expert for demography at the trial of Ratko Mladić maintained his testimony that mass graves in Srebrenica also contained people killed before July 1995, reports the Patria news agency.

"I still believe that the Prosecution's list includes persons who died before 1995… Those persons could have been found in the graves, but the fact that someone was found in a grave does not mean they were killed in July 1995, after the fall of Srebrenica," stated Svetlana Radovanović.

She said this follows from documents of the Army and the Ministry of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were also accessible to the prosecution's demographic experts. 

At the suggestion of the prosecutors, Radovanović confirmed that she used the list of victims from 2009, and that the updated list, compiled in 2013, was "not taken into account". 

In that updated list, it was heard in the courtroom, errors were corrected regarding 80 out of a total of 220 persons for whom there was data indicating they died before 1995. 

The then commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, General Mladić (73), is charged with genocide against approximately 7,000 Muslim men from Srebrenica in the days after the enclave in eastern Bosnia was taken by that army on 11 July 1995. 

Radovanović concluded her testimony today, which had lasted since Monday, after which Mladić's defence attorneys continued to examine their witness Simo Tuševljak, who began his testimony back in July. Tuševljak will continue answering questions from the defence counsel on Monday, 31 August. 

General Mladić is also charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in six municipalities had the dimensions of genocide - terrorising the population of Sarajevo through prolonged shelling and sniping, and taking UNPROFOR members as hostages, 1992-95.