Srebrenica witness feigned death to survive

A MUSLIM man told judges yesterday at the UN trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that he survived the Srebrenica massacre by feigning death beneath the bodies of men gunned down around him.

The witness testified under a pseudonym and with his image distorted, saying he feared Karadzic supporters could find him and exact revenge for his appearance at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Reading a summary of the man’s written statement to judges as a way of saving time, prosecution lawyer Julian Nicholls said the witness was among about 1,000 Muslim men who surrendered to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995 and was trucked to a school gym near the town of Srebrenica.