29 Years In Prision For Terrorizing Sarajevo

“The Appellate Chamber acquits Dragomir Milosevic of responsibility for planning of and issuing orders for the massacre at Markale on August 28, 1995, as well as shelling of ‘Bitas’ building on August 22, 1995, because he was in Belgrade for medical treatment in the referenced period of time, while his Deputy Cedomir Slavoje issued orders in the field,” judge Fausto Pocar said.

Milosevic was acquitted of responsibility for shelling the market place in Bascarsija on 22 December, 1994, because it has not been determined, “beyond reasonable doubt”, from which positions the projectiles had been fired.

In December 2007 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, pronounced a first instance verdict against Milosevic, sentencing him to 33 years in prison for having led the shelling and sniper campaign in Sarajevo, with an aim of spreading terror among the civilian population in the city.

Milosevic replaced Stanislav Galic as Commander of Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the VRS in August 1994. He performed the function until November 1995.

Thirty seven people were killed and about 90 were wounded in the massacre at Markale, August 29, 1995. In December 1994 two civilians were killed and seven or eight were wounded at the market place in Bascarsija. In the shelling of the “Bitas” building one person, who was in the vicinity, was killed while another one was wounded.

The Appellate Chamber acquitted Milosevic of responsibility for planning of and issuing orders for sniper incidents, but it determined, “beyond reasonable doubt”, his command responsibility for having failed to prevent the crime or punish the perpetrators.

The Chamber rejected Milosevic’s appeal in which he said that Vojnicko polje, Ali-pasino polje, Dobrinja, Sedrenik, Hrasnica and Marijin Dvor were military zones, determining that those were civilian areas and that civilians were the target of snipers and shelling activities during the course of the siege of Sarajevo.

The ICTY sentenced Stanislav Galic, former Commander of the VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, to life imprisonment for acts of violence, whose main purpose was spreading terror among the civilian population of Sarajevo, as well as for murder and inhumane acts.

Galic was sentenced, by a second instance verdict, for the shelling and sniper campaign in Sarajevo, which resulted in a large number of wounded and killed people, including children.

Slobodan Milosevic, former President of the Republic of Serbia, was charged before the ICTY with crimes committed in Sarajevo, but he died before the completion of his trial, in March 2006, so the process was terminated.

Biljana Plavsic, former President of Republika Srpska, admitted guilt before the ICTY for participation in, among others, crimes committed in Sarajevo, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. In late October 2009 she was prematurely released to liberty from a prison in Norway, in which she was serving her sentence.

Radovan Karadzic, who is held in custody, and Ratko Mladic, who is still on the run, will also be tried for crimes committed during the siege of Sarajevo.