Karadzic: Witness Claims Serbs Only Defended

Garic, former officer of the Territorial Defence in Novo Sarajevo, said that the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, acted only to prevent the breakthrough by the Bosnian Army from Sarajevo to Serb territories.

The witness said that Bosnian Serb forces respected the provisions in international law, while Bosniak forces misused civilian buildings and smuggled weapons in humanitarian aid convoys.

Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of its Army, is charged with terrorising civilians in Sarajevo through artillery and sniper attacks. He is on trial for genocide, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

According to Garic, when the war began, the Yugoslav National Army, JNA decomposed, while the Territorial Defence, TO headquarters, including the one in Novo Sarajevo, where the witness worked, “organized themselves”.

“An organised group of citizens set a defence line in front of houses and neighborhoods inhabited by Serbs. There was not one single attack by Serbs on neighborhoods where Muslims were the majority. The division lines remained unchanged until the end of the war,” Garic said.

According to Garic’s testimony, at the beginning of May 1992 a JNA brigade arrived in Novo Sarajevo and appended a local TO unit to it. In mid-May the brigade took control over Grbavica “in order to protect the Serb population, which was the majority”.

At the same time, many Serb civilians were killed in a strong attack by “Muslim forces” on Pofalici – Garic said, adding that he assumed a function with the Ministry of Defence of the Republika Srpska in December 1992.

While being cross-examined by the Prosecution, Garic denied having been “commander of a VRS battalion”, although this was mentioned in one of his statements. He said that he organised “the defence of the Serbian people” as a TO officer in Novo Sarajevo municipality.

The Prosecution presented the witness with a series of intercepted conversations, in which a person identified as Momo Garic asked for urgent help in manpower and “armour” on April 21, 1992, after his soldiers “went down to the River Miljacka” and became surrounded.

After having said again that he did not recall those conversations, the witness insisted that he was not the Momo Garic who conducted those conversations. “This does not sound like me. The voice sounds like a child’s voice,” Garic said.

When asked by judge Kwon whether Momo was his nickname, Garic answered negatively, adding that people called him “Moka or Moco”. After that Garic was presented with a list of Karadzic’s defence witnesses, where he was mentioned as Momo Garic. “I did not know that. I sign myself as Momir,” the witness said.

The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Tuesday, November 6.