Ewa Tabeau, witness at the Radovan Karadzic trial

Ewa Tabeau, the prosecution demographic expert, testified at the trial of Radovan Karadzic for genocide and other crimes in BH. Tabeau’s task was to investigate the movements of the population and the changes in the ethnic composition of 27 BH municipalities listed in the indictment against Karadzic. She also had to establish the number of civilian and military victims of the siege of Sarajevo, and to present the demographic findings on the victims whose deaths were related to the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Dr. Tabeau used Prijedor as an example in her presentation of the report on the BH municipalities. By comparing the 1997 electoral rolls with the 1991 census, Tabeau established that the share of the Muslim population in Prijedor in that period dropped by 97.6%, from 42.6 per cent before the war to just 1% in 1997. In the same period, the Serb population increased from 43% to 89% of the total population. The prosecution’s demographic expert estimated that out of a total of 481,109 Muslims who had been living in 1991 in the territory of 27 BH municipalities listed in the indictment, 284,239 were displaced by 1997.

Prosecutor Kimberly West moved on to three reports on civilian and military victims in Sarajevo. The latest report has been drafted specifically for Karadzic’s trial, while the two earlier reports were used at the trials of the two commanders of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, Stanislav Galic and Dragomir Milosevic. The main source of information for the reports were the 1994 victim lists, put together by the War Crimes Institute in Sarajevo and the lists of the Bakije funeral company from Sarajevo.

As the OTP Demographic Unit investigated the ‘intensity of the siege’ of Sarajevo, they determined that in many cases, more civilians were killed every day than soldiers. This led the Unit to conclude that civilians were systemically targeted in the attacks that were unrelated to military operations, as stated in a report written for Dragomir Milosevic’s trial. This indicates there was a deliberate campaign of terror against civilians in Sarajevo.

Ewa Tabeau will continue her evidence on Tuesday, 1 May 2012. The prosecution has two witnesses left: Belgrade journalist Zoran Petrovic Pirocanac and protected witness KDZ 071, and will then rest its case. The Trial Chamber announced today that a 98 bis hearing will take place after it has ruled on all the pending motions. It was also indicated that the defense will open its case on 16 October 2012.

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