Expert witness in Perisic case says hundreds of shells found in the area were made in Serbia.
By Velma Saric in Sarajevo (TU No 632, 29-Jan-10)An expert witness told the trial of former Yugoslav army, VJ, chief Momcilo Perisic this week that crime scenes in the Srebrenica area contained bullet shells produced in Serbia.
Gary Selsky said that, of the total 3638 shell casings found, 378 were confirmed to have been produced at the Prvi Partizan ammunition and weapons factory at Uzice in Serbia.
Selsky, the senior investigator for the Prosecutor's Office, was the last prosecution witness at the trial.
Perisic, the most senior VJ officer to be charged with war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These include aiding and abetting the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995.
Perisic is also charged with failing to prevent or punish the deadly May 1995 shelling by Croatian Serbs of the Croatian capital, Zagreb, that killed seven civilians and injured 194.
Perisic’s indictment alleges that he provided financial, logistical and personnel support to Serb forces in both Croatia and Bosnia between 1991 and 1995, by personally establishing two personnel centres within the Yugoslav army to covertly deploy officers to those two break-away republics and pay their salaries.
Selsky had, upon the request of the prosecution, carried out an analysis of all shell casings found on crime sites in the Srebreinca area and compiled a special declaration on this analysis. The trial chamber accepted the declaration and entered it into evidence last week.
The prosecution is thus trying to prove that Perisic had contributed to the crimes in Srebrenica in July 1995, by providing support in weaponry and ammunition to Bosnian Serbs.
Selsky stated that, in October 2007, upon request by the prosecution, he had individually reviewed all 3,638 individual bullet shell casings found in the Srebrenica area.
"We reviewed each casing individually. The bottom had to be examined using a magnifying glass, as some bottoms had already corroded. These casings were found on sites in the Srebrenica area, sites that had been exhumed, meaning that sometimes the markings on them were not visible," he said.
Judge Michele Picard wanted to know what happened to casings "which were damaged or had no identification of their origin?"
"Most were in fact marked," said the witness, "but the markings were either very much damaged or very dirty so that these had to be set apart, without us dwelling much on them."
In cross-examination, defence lawyer Gregor Guy-Smith disputed the report of the witness by claiming it was not complete, as it had not explicitly identified ammunition produced before 1993. The witness said, however, that his task was only to review and examine casings produced in the period related to the indictment, after 1993, when Perisic had taken over the position of VJ chief of staff.
Presiding judge Bakone Moloto calculated that of the total 3,638 casings found, only 378 were determined to have been manufactured at the Prvi Partizan plant in Uzice after 1992, which the witness confirmed. There is no precise data as to when the remainder were made or whether they came from Uzice, said the witness.
The defence claims that 2,900 of the 3638 analysed casings found in the Srebrenica area were manufactured before 1992 and that some were produced in Konjic, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and could thus have belonged to any army.
Guy-Smith also stated that Selsky never checked whether "there was an agreement between the Republika Srpska government and the Prvi Partizan ammunition plant from Uzice on the issue of sale and purchase of arms and ammunition", adding that he had not in any way assessed who in Srebrenica had used the casings made in Serbia. The witness answered by stating that that "was not his task and does not belong to the domain of his expertise".
Guy-Smith suggested that the witness's analysis was not complete because he had not carried out any field work while working on his declaration.
"When you speak of the Prvi Partizan plant in Uzice, did you independently examine the area and go there on your own?" he asked.
The witness replied that he had never been to the area.
"Therefore, the information you had on the plant came from your investigators?" continued Guy-Smith.
"Yes, through Mr Milos Tomin, a translator from Belgrade, and Mr Kazimir Pikos, an investigator," answered the witness.
The defence counsel said that Tomin was an interpreter from Serbia who took up weapons and ammunition “as a hobby”.
Perisic surrendered to the Hague tribunal on March 7, 2005 and the trial commenced on October 2, 2008.
The trial continues next week.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo
IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible local media a voice. IWPR works in Afghanistan, Caucasus, Central Asia, The Netherlands, Iran, Iraq, The Philippines, Southeastern Europe, Syria, Uganda, Southern Africa and Zimbabwe. for more information about IWPR please visit www.iwpr.net
This is originally posted at http://www.iwpr.net/EN-tri-f-359741 and IWPR - Institute for War & Peace is responsible for the content.
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