Karadzic: Witness Blindly Believed UN Reports
This post is also available in: Bosnian
As he continued cross-examining Richard Higgs, Karadzic said that Higgs findings, which were based on UN peacekeepers reports, were unproved and based on trust.
The court expert adopted other teams findings, without checking them or undertaking measurements. (…) The mine-throwers incidents caused most damage to us. We are saying that Serbs are not to be blamed for any of them, but those incidents were designed in order to bring Serbs into a difficult situation. We can prove this statement, said Karadzic.
Higgs, a former mine-throwers expert with the British army, explained that his role was not to undertake new investigations of the shelling incidents but to review the previous investigations and determine whether the correct methodology was applied.
I must believe that what they wrote was true, and they calculated everything in a fair manner. I did what I could by visiting the crime scene and reviewing the reports. I concluded the reports did not contain any statements that were extremely incorrect. When I went to the field to undertake an inspection, the craters were not in a good shape that would enable me to conduct a new analysis, said Higgs who began his testimony on August 18.
Karadzic, the former Supreme Commander of Republika Srpska armed forces, is charged with genocide committed in seven Bosnian municipalities in 1992 and Srebrenica in 1995 as well as crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war.
The indictment alleges that Karadzic participated in a sniper and shelling campaign in Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 which killed thousands.
Answering questions related to the shelling of the Markale market place on August 28, 1995 when 43 people were killed and 75 wounded, Higgs said he determined that the projectile was fired from a position held by the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, located 2,400 metres from the explosion location.
The trial resumes on August 20 with witness Thomas Blazychk then takes a two-week break to allow Karadzic time to review materials and evidence found in the apartment of Ratko Mladics wife. Judges said this was in the interest of justice.
A status conference will be held during the break to discuss among other things trial management.D.Dz.
