No Mine-Throwers in Sarajevo Surroundings

Dusan Skrba, former Commander of Artillery with the First Sarajevo Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, says at Ratko Mladic’s trial that the Unit could not have fired a mine-thrower grenade at Markale market place in August 1995.

In his written statement, which Mladic’s Defence attorneys introduced as evidence, Skrba specified that the Sarajevo Brigade of VRS did not have 120mm mine-throwers in 1995, because all of them “had been relocated outside the 20 kilometres circle around Sarajevo”.
 
Skrba said that UNPROFOR deployed permanent observers on artillery positions held by his Brigade.

“UNPROFOR observers were always present on our positions. They even slept there. I had to inform them about our activities and showed them the points from which the enemy opened fire at us,” Skrba said.
 
Skrba said that he had never received or executed an order to target civilians in Sarajevo or public transportation vehicles in the city. Also, he said that, while defending its positions and preventing a breakthrough by the Army of BiH from the city, his Unit opened fire exclusively when lives of soldiers and civilians were endangered.
 
“My Unit never progressed. It just defended itself,” Skrba said.
 
Mladic, former VRS Commander, is charged with having terrorised civilians in Sarajevo through long-lasting shelling and sniping. According to the charges, on August 28, 1995 Serb forces fired a 120mm mine-thrower grenade, which killed 43 and wounded 75 citizens in front of Markale.
 
Besides that, the Hague Prosecution charges Mladic with genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
 
During the cross-examination Prosecutor Milbert Shin mainly focused on the structure of VRS artillery on the Sarajevo battlefield.
 
Responding to the Prosecutor’s questions, Skrba said that, during the war he tried to avoid opening artillery fire on civilian buildings, like schools and hospitals, in Sarajevo.
 
“I was born in Sarajevo. I know where those buildings are… We did try to avoid those buildings. I think that we were 99 percent successful in that,” the witness said.
 
Mladic’s Defence attorneys are due to continue presenting evidence on Thursday, May 22.