Serb Positions Were Too Far Away

By examining the Defence’s expert witness in ballistics Mile Poparic, before the Hague Tribunal, former Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic denies allegations that the RS Army, VRS, is responsible for 17 sniper attacks against civilians in Sarajevo.

According to the charges against Karadzic, former supreme Commander of VRS, those attacks, as well as long-lasting shelling, were a part of a campaign for terrorising the local population in Sarajevo, which was conducted by VRS in the period from 1992 to 1995.

After having analysed the results of Sarajevo police investigations and available pieces of evidence, Poparic prepared a report about sniper incidents, in which he said that, according to ballistic rules, the bullets could not have come from the Serb side and civilians could not have been intentionally hit in “the crossfire” between the VRS and Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The ballistic expert said that, due to the lack of detailed court medicine findings, it was hard to determine what happened in downtown Sarajevo on November 18, 1994, when, according to the charges, Dzenana Sokolovic was hit and her seven-year old son Nermin Divovic was killed when the same bullet hit him after having penetrated through her body.

Denying the allegations that the bullet was fired from VRS positions in the Metalka building in Grbavica, Poparic said that the investigation did not determine the angle under which the bullet had hit the mother, so it was not possible to determine the direction from which it had come. Poparic pointed to contradictory allegations in several Prosecution documents on whether the mother and her son were hit from their left or right side.

Commenting on a similar incident in which Nafa Taric and her daughter Elma Taric were wounded by a single bullet on September 3, 1993, the Defence’s ballistic expert determined that, on the basis of available evidence, “they were not deliberately targeted, irrespective of the direction from which the bullet came”.

According to the expert witness’ findings, thirteen-year old Sead Solak could not have been wounded by a sniper bullet in the Sarajevo downtown area on November 22, 1994, because the closest Serb positions were beyond the shooting range of sniper guns.

Poparic said that fourteen-year old Tarik Zunic, who was wounded in Sedrenik neighbourhood on March 6, 1995, was most probably hit by a stray bullet from an exchange of fire between ABiH and VRS, in which UNPROFOR too was involved.
 
The expert further said that the bullets that wounded Azem Agovic and Alen Gicevic in a tram in front of the Holiday Inn hotel on March 3, 1995 could not have come from VRS-held sniper positions in Grbavica.

Poparic suggested that the bullets came from nearby buildings in the Sarajevo downtown area, which was controlled by ABiH.

Poparic denied the responsibility of VRS for the wounding of three-year old Anisa Pita, who was hit while playing on the porch of her house on December 13, 1992, explaining that the location could not be seen from Serb positions.

Giving similar explanations, Poparic denied the allegations that the VRS was responsible for the murder of civilians in 17 attacks in Sarajevo, as alleged under the indictment.

On May 30 Poparic is due to continue testifying at 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.