Dražen Erdemović

Dražen Erdemović (; born 25 November 1971) is a Bosnian former soldier who fought during the Bosnian War for the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and was later sentenced for his participation in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

Background Erdemović was born in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia to a Croat mother and a Croat father. A Tito sympathizer, at the 1990 Bosnian general election, he voted for the Union of Reform Forces. He served his military service in Belgrade since December 1990. After joining the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), he took part in the Battle of Vukovar while stationed in Petrovci and Marinci. After completing his military service, he returned from Belgrade to Tuzla in March 1992, where he was harassed for fighting on the "Chetnik" side in Vukovar. In May, he was drafted to the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), which he was a member of between July and October.

In November or December 1992, Erdemović joined the 115th Brigade "Nikola Šubić Zrinski" of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). Rebellious during his HVO service, Erdemović tried to smuggle 76 Serb civilians from the Tuzla area over Majevica to Republika Srpska in October 1993. He was caught and incarcerated by both HVO and ARBiH. Receiving a five-day leave from the former, he uses it to flee to Republika Srpska on 3 November 1993.

While in Republika Srpska, he spent time in Bijeljina, Janja, Vrbas (Serbia), Srbinje and Balatun. Desperate for money to escape to Switzerland with his Serb wife and newborn son, Erdemović joined the VRS 10th Sabotage Detachment, a part of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), in Bijeljina.

Srebrenica In July 1995, Erdemović and his unit were sent to Branjevo military farm in the village of Pilica, north of Zvornik. After the VRS forces took over Srebrenica on 11 July, the Serbs began to send male Bosniaks POW to various locations for execution. One of those places was the farm in Pilica, 15 kilometers from the border with Serbia, where Erdemović and the 10th Sabotage Detachment were tasked with executing about 1,200 Bosniak POW men and boys between the ages of approximately 17 and 60 years, who had surrendered to the members of the Bosnian Serb police or army near Srebrenica.

On 16 July, the prisoners were bused to the farm and gunned down in groups of ten. Erdemović allegedly resisted the order, but was then told that he either shot them, or hand his gun to another, and join those to be killed. After the murders were over the victims were buried in mass graves. While it is unknown exactly how many people were personally killed by Erdemović, he estimated it was around 70 men and boys.

In the media

The story of Erdemović's trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia forms the basis of the 2005 play A Patch of Earth, written by Kitty Felde and collected in the anthology The Theatre of Genocide: Four Plays about Mass Murder in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, and Armenia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008).