An Organized Crime

Drazen Erdemovic (22) was a soldier in the Bosnian Serb Army (BSA). He started with an offer to testify about a war crime that he took part in, a new chapter in the epilogue of the war.

His testimony is horrifying and the story is something to learn from at the very least.

Erdemovic is part of the story. He was stationed in Bijeljina and took part in the clean-up operation after the fall of Srebrenica. On July 20, 1995, he and seven other soldiers were ordered to the village of Pilice by a BSA security service lt. colonel. Erdemovic said he never took part in that kind of operation until then. The group was issued a lot of ammunition: 700 pistol rounds and plenty of automatic rifle ammo. Erdemovic still didn't realize what was coming.

The site was a farm in Pilice. The lt. colonel brought them there at 10:00 in the morning. The lt. colonel told them what their job was: buses would bring in Moslem men for execution. He went off and the buses came. Erdemovic said he had a hard time; he didn't want to kill them but the others would have killed him if he had refused.

The killing started right away. The Moslems were brought out of the buses in groups of 10 and ten to a field were they were lined up with their backs to the soldiers. The shooting lasted until all the civilians fell; then a couple of soldiers went from man to man to check if they were dead. Erdemovic did that. "I tried to aim at older men first, I somehow thought that was less evil, they were closer to their end." Erdemovic thinks he killed between 70 and 100 men. The total was 1,200 all of them civilians aged from 17 to 50 but some were older.

Five buses with Centrotrans and Drinatrans markings ferried the civilians to the farm until 4:00 that afternoon. They came from the direction of Zvornik. The bus drivers were made to take part: they were given guns and ordered to shoot and they obeyed, killing several people.

Erdemovic said he argued with one of the other soldiers twice. We'll call him Pero. The first time over the use of 7.65 caliber pistol ammunition which wounded the men and left them to die slowly. He demanded that everyone use more humane ways of killing. His demand wasn't met. On the contrary, some picked up iron bars and beat the civilians. He says he took every opportunity to stand aside and smoke or get a drink. He heard someone wailing at one point: "Don't kill me, I saved the Serbs in Srebrenica!" An elderly man, a Moslem, even had phone numbers in Serbia to back up his story. Erdemovic took him aside and offered him a cigarette. They talked for half an hour and Erdemovic tried to save his life. The man asked: "How can you do this?" Erdemovic said it was very hard for him and that he wouldn't if he had a choice. Pero and some other soldiers didn't share his compassion. Despite Erdemovic's opposition they dragged the man away and killed him. Another non-Serb in the group, a Croat who like him didn't like this killing, warned Erdemovic that he was being stupid. Shut up and do as you're told or the others will kill you, he said.

Around 3:30, after the last bus arrived and all the civilians were dead (He says no one survived) most of the soldiers sat down to eat. They were joined by the farm keeper who was in one of the buildings all the time. The soldiers were all drunk after drinking all day. They bragged about the number of Moslems they killed. Pero said he killed between 200 and 300. Someone said a bulldozer was on its way to dig a pit for the bodies. The guard pointed to an untended area and said that was where the grave would be. That's the second time, he said, there's a mass grave there from World War II.

Just before 4:00, the lt. colonel appeared and ordered the group to follow him to a cafe where another 500 Moslems were being held. When they got there Erdemovic saw a group of Moslems who managed to break through the soldiers guarding them and started running down the street. The soldiers shot at them and threw hand grenades and when they killed them they threw grenades into the building.

Many, including Erdemovic, believed in 1991 that Yugoslavia was being defended in Croatia. He was a recruit then and he agreed to go to war for his country. He fought at Vukovar until he was demobilized. And there the paradox begins: in early 1992, he returned to his native village of Dragunj near Tuzla. In May 1992, the war broke out in Tuzla. A very bad choice for Erdemovic who stayed on the Bosnian side. "How could I go to war against the people I was in the army with." He got to Serbia in mid-February this year and soon contacted ABC. Erdemovic also told me that he wants to testify for the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague and that he accepts his responsibility. The state security service dug up the story. When I left the country, the tapes with the interview were taken away. The next night, Er