Troops were later ordered to dig up the bodies from the initial mass graves and transfer them to other sites in a huge cover-up operation that took months to complete. U.N. tribunal forensics teams began uncovering the graves in 1996 in eastern Bosnia's Drina Valley, where Srebrenica was located. The biggest mass grave of Srebrenica victims was found around 35 miles away, near Zvornik by the Yugoslav border. Obrenovic was acting commander of the Zvornik brigade for the crucial period when Srebrenica was taken. His brigade also attacked a column of Muslim citizens attempting to flee their Serb captors.
Prosecutors say evidence points to a different picture of a willing and efficient slaughterer.
In an alleged conversation intercepted and recorded by the Bosnian Army, Obrenovic and Krstic discuss their efforts to hunt down the survivors of the Srebrenica attack. Kill each and every one. The arrest of Obrenovic, currently a Lieutenant Colonel, was the first by SFOR troops since June last year and the tribunal expects more to follow, with around 10 fugitives in the Bosnian Serb republic. The indictment had been kept secret until Sunday to give peacekeeping troops the advantage of surprise. Obrenovic had in fact already been questioned more than once by war crimes investigators and his lawyer said he would have surrendered voluntarily had he known of the indictment.