Mladic’s Order to Allow Passage of Humanitarian Aid

Veljovic, the then Operational Officer with the Sarajevo Romanija Corps of VRS on the hills around Sarajevo, said that the 12-mm mine-thrower crew, which belonged to his unit, was not even present on Trebevic in the summer of 1995, but it had been transferred to Trebinje in order to “support” the Herzegovina Corps.

According to the indictment charges Mladic – former VRS Commander – with terrorizing the local population in Sarajevo by conducting artillery and sniper attacks, a 120mm grenade, which killed 44 and wounded 75 citizens at Markale on August 28, 1995, was fired from Serb positions.

Mladic is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

According to a brief summary of his written statement, which was included in the case file and read by Mladic’s Defence attorney Miodrag Stojanovic in the courtroom, Veljovic said that VRS forces deployed in the Sarajevo surroundings exclusively defended themselves from attacks by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, which tried to break through from the city.

He said that the First Sarajevo Brigade of VRS never targeted civilians, but only military targets from which fire was opened. According to the witness’ testimony, civilian casualties could “only happen, when strong artillery fire was opened from the city” on Serb positions.

Veljovic said that Bosniak forces had “a mobile artillery group loaded onto trucks”, which moved from Kosevo hospital to Bascarsija and back and opened fire, “provoking us to open fire as well.”

“It happened more than 100 times over the course of those four years… They would go to Bascarsija and then to Kosevo. They would open fire, so we were not able to hit them,” the witness said.

As Veljovic said, chieftains in his unit were familiar with the very strict order not to open fire against civilians in Sarajevo, which was issued by the Main Headquarters. Besides that, they were given brochures about the international law on war.

The witness said that, in April 1993 he received an order from Mladic himself to allow the passage of a humanitarian convoy, transporting the wounded from Gorazde and Zepa, and “bring oranges, if you have any”, in order to offer them to the wounded.

The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Wednesday, June 25.