Mladic: ‘Mind-blowing’ Shelling of Sarajevo
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The recording, which was made by the Sarajevo authorities while intercepting Mladic’s communications, was replayed in the courtroom during the testimony of the protected witness RM-115, who worked at a Sarajevo hospital at the time.
On the recording, Mladic can be heard telling his subordinate Mirko Vukasinovic, to target the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Pofalici, because “not many Serbs live there”, some streets in the Sarajevo downtown area, as well as to “fire a volley on the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
Mladic went on to say that the purpose of those attacks was to “blow the minds” of people in Sarajevo and prevent them from sleeping.
The witness said that she listened to radio on May 28, 1992 and heard Mladic ordering the shelling, adding that she was wounded during an artillery attack on the hospital that night. She said that she went into coma after the wounding and underwent medical treatment for six months.
Explaining how she knew that it was Mladic’s voice on that recording, witness RM-115 said that “even small children” could recognize that voice.
During the cross-examination the defence attorney, Miodrag Stojanovic, suggested that the recording of Mladic’s order was fabricated.
Stojanovic quoted another intercepted conversation in which Mladic said that the Bosnian Army had impersonators who could mimic his voice.
The defence repeated an earlier allegation that the Bosnian army, which were positioned around the hospital where the witness worked, opened fire on the Bosnian Serb positions, but the witness said that she did not know anything about it, because she spent her time in the basement.
At the beginning of cross-examination Stojanovic said, on Mladic’s behalf, that he was truly sorry for her suffering.
Mladic, who was arrested in May last year, has pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war during the Bosnian conflict between 1992 and 1995.
The trial is due to continue on August 28.
