Karadzic: Defence and Nothing but Defence

Defence witnesses Vlade Lucic, former Commander of a battalion with the VRS Romanija Brigade, and Dragan Maletic, Assistant Commander, said that those units, as well as the entire Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, “acted exclusively in self-defence” from attacks by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the city.

“We opened fire at the targets which targeted our units,” Lucic said.

The indictment alleges that Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of its Army, is charged with terrorising the population in Sarajevo by conducting a shelling and sniping campaign in the period from 1992 to 1995.

The two officers, who were deployed to positions in Grbavica neighbourhood, said that they had received “a permanent order” not to shoot at civilians in the city. However, as they said, Muslim forces constantly opened fire at civilians in Grbavica.

“Our enemy opened unselective fire, irrespective of whether civilians or soldiers on our side would be shot,” Maletic said.

Lucic said that the ABiH misused civilian buildings in Sarajevo for deploying its units and opening fire towards Grbavica. According to him, fire came from the surroundings of the Kosevo hospital, railway station and the Ciglane tunnel.

Lucic said that his unit never responded to that fire, because it did not want to cause civilian victims, adding that his unit’s mine-throwers only covered the frontlines.

While confirming that his unit had snipers, Lucic denied that they had ever opened fire on civilians or vehicles in Sarajevo.

During his cross-examination by Prosecutor Katrina Gustafsson, Lucic said that he did not know anything about the deportation of hundreds of Muslims from Grbavica during just one day in May 1992.

Also, he said that he had not heard about Veselin ‘Batko’ Vlahovic, who committed crimes in Grbavica, as indicated in Serb police documents presented at the trial. Vlahovic is on trial for war crimes committed in Sarajevo.

Lucic repeated that he did not know anything about it even after the Prosecutor presented him with documents indicating that the VRS tried, as she said, to trick an agreement on the removal of artillery from the surroundings of Sarajevo in 1995.

The documents included, among others, an order issued by the VRS Main Headquarters, saying that “broken weapons” should be brought to positions around Sarajevo during the night and withdrawn the following day in presence of UNPROFOR and ABiH representatives.

While cross-examining witness Maletic, Prosecutor Caroline Edgerton said that targets in the downtown area could be seen and aimed at from the positions in Grbavica held by his unit.

After Maletic confirmed that the company, which was under his command, held the Metalka building in Grbavica “at the beginning”, the Prosecutor showed him a photograph taken from the seventh floor of that building, indicating that one could see as far as the Holiday Inn hotel from it.

Maletic, who “could not remember” how long his unit was situated in Metalka building, said, several times, that he “does not know where the photograph was taken”.

After having been presented with photographs taken from another tall building in Grbavica, from which one could see the Sarajevo downtown area and the tram rails, Maletic just said: “Yes”.

According to the charges, VRS snipers attacked civilians in trams or in Sarajevo’s central streets on several occasions.

The trial of Karadzic, who is charged with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, is due to continue tomorrow.
R.M.