Mladic: Protesting to Sarajevo Government

Banbury, who worked as an UNPROFOR officer from April 1994 to May 1995, began testifying on Thursday, February 7, when he said that the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, which was under Mladic’s command, terrorised the local population in Sarajevo.

While being cross-examined by Mladic’s Defence attorney Miodrag Stojanovic, Banbury confirmed that two soldiers were killed by sniper bullets in Sarajevo on April 14 and 15, 1995. One of them was killed in the Dobrinja neighbourhood, while the other one was killed in the downtown area. However, the witness said that he did not know who had killed them.

Attorney Stojanovic then presented a letter sent by Alija Izetbegovic, the then Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to general Rasim Delic, Commander of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on April 22, 1995.

Quoting the letter, Stojanovic said that Izetbegovic wrote that the French Ambassador told him that “France was angry due to the murder of a soldier” in Dobrinja, because “a military expertise” determined that the bullets were fired from positions held by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As indicated in that same letter, the Ambassador told Izetbegovic that “he has got evidence that, out of 24 killed French soldiers, half were killed by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

When Stojanovic asked him if he had obtained similar information, Banbury said that he did not have “concrete information” about it. “The allegations by VRS or UNPROFOR that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina attacked the international forces were very frequent. In a very small number of those cases it was proved that the fire came from the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the witness said.

Mladic is charged with terrorising civilians in Sarajevo, committing genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, persecuting the non-Serbian population and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

Banbury confirmed that, in the summer of 1994 UNPROFOR protested to the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because fire was opened from its positions at airplanes bringing humanitarian aid to Sarajevo, which led to the closure of the airport.

Banbury said that the Party of Democratic Action “manipulated” the problem of displacement of its own people in order to create a more favourable image in the World.

Responding to a suggestion by Defence attorney Stojanovic that the Serb side advocated for cessation of hostilities during the entire war, Banbury said that he disagreed with him.

“Although they claimed that they were interested in peace agreements, ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, Bosnian Serbs usually set conditions that were unacceptable for the Sarajevo Government and the most part of the international community. They wanted peace under their conditions, which was unacceptable,” the witness said.

According to Banbury, “the opinion that Mladic was twisting the truth prevailed” among UNPROFOR members.

The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Monday, February 11.