The Erdemovic Dilemma

At the height of the Bosnian war, Drazen Erdemovic was a 23-year old soldier in the Bosnian Serb army led by Radko Mladic. When war broke out, Erdemovic was an unemployed electrician with a wife and newborn son. He had no enthusiasm for the war, but in an effort to support his family he enlisted with Croatian forces but was soon expelled for releasing prisoners slated for abuse. Erdemovic specifically requested assignment to a non-combat unit “so that he would not have to shoot anyone."

On July 15th, immediately following the fall of Srebrenica, the unit was dispatched to Pilica Farm outside the city. When buses filled with civilian prisoners arrived, Erdemovic’s unit was ordered to lead them into the field in groups of 10 and shoot them all. As soon as Erdemovic realized what was happening, he refused to participate. As he later testified:

"They told us that a busload of civilians would come from Srebrenica. I said immediately that I did not want to take part in that. . .and they told me, ‘If you do not wish to … you can just go stand in line with them. . .and we will kill you too’ I [was] not sorry for myself, but for my family and son who then had nine months, and I could not refuse because they would have killed me."

Erdemovic chose to participate in the firing squads, and he later estimated that he personally killed as many as 70 people over several hours, all of whom were bound and gagged and shot in the back

Question: Can Erdemovic be blamed for the killings?