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712 OF TOMASICA VICTIMS IDENTIFIED
Demography expert Ewa Tabeau was asked by the prosecution to write an expert report about the Tomasica exhumations. In the report, she notes that a total of 712 victims were exhumed in four exhumations from 2001 to 2013 and identified. In 95 per cent of the cases, the victims were Muslim men who had gone missing from their villages and the prison camps near Prijedor in July 1992
Ewa Tabeau, witness at Rako Mladic trial With the evidence of demography expert Ewa Tabeau the prosecution concluded its case on the Tomasica mass grave near Prijedor. Tabeau wrote a report in which she presented the number of exhumed victims, their cause of death, specifics of the DNA analysis and the information on the missing persons.
In her report, she relied on the data from three sources. The first set was the missing persons list produced by the International Red Cross and the Book of Missing Persons from Prijedor. The second source is the data from the International Commission on Missing Persons pertaining to exhumed victims’ remains and the DNA matching. Finally, the third source contained the data on the causes of death of the victims exhumed from the Tomasica mine in 2013 based on the expert report produced by pathologist John Clark. Tabeau also used the data on the cause of death of the victims exhumed from the Jakarina Kosa grave in 2001, and victims exhumed from Tomasica in 2004 and 2006.
Explaining her methodology, Tabeau said that she first made a list of victims identified using DNA analysis. Tabeau then compared the list with the missing persons’ list from Prijedor; she looked for identical names.
As she presented the findings from her report, Tabeau said that to date, 268 victims exhumed in 2013 from the Tomasica mine, 16 victims exhumed in 2004 and 2006 at the same location as well as 94 victims exhumed from the Jakarina Kosa mass grave have been identified. This brings the total of identified victims to 378. Seven victims were matched with DNA profiles of their family members, the witness noted. The re-associated remains of 334 victims were also exhumed, raising the total number to 712 victims.
Also, Tabeau established that almost 96 per cent or 320 identified victims were Muslims, mostly men. The numbers correspond to the data about the missing persons from Prijedor. According to the report, most of the identified victims disappeared in the Prijedor area, the villages of Biscani, Rizvanovic and Carakovo, and from the Keraterm, Trnopolje and Omarska prison camps on 20, 23, 24 and 25 July 1992. It was determined that a number of victims went missing in May, June and August 1992.
Ewa Tabeau will continue her testimony on Tuesday, 7 July 2015 when she will speak about the cause of death of the identified victims.
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