No Shelling of Sarajevo Civilians, Mladic’s Witness Says

A former Bosnian Serb Army officer told the war crimes trial of his commander Ratko Mladic that his brigade had no heavy weapons to attack Sarajevo and didn’t use its sniper bullets for sniping.

Defence witness Mihajlo Vujasin, who was deputy commander of the Rajlovac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992, told Mladic’s trial at the Hague Tribunal on Tuesday that Serb forces situated around Sarajevo “conducted defensive activities only” and did not attack civilian targets.  

He said that his brigade’s role was simply “to block the First Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

He said that the brigade did not have heavy weapons or trained snipers, and that he had never heard any order to attack civilians or public transport in Sarajevo.

“As we did not have heavy weapons, it was not possible to open fire on the city,” the witness said.

During cross-examination, Hague prosecutors presented Vujasin with a document in which his Rajlovac Brigade requested 9,000 sniper bullets, and asked him why it needed the bullets if it had no sniper rifles or trained snipers.

“The sniper bullets are more precise and better manufactured. If they were used in the rifles we had, the rifles performed better and were more precise. However, this did not make them sniper rifles,” the witness responded.  

Mladic is charged with having terrorised the population of Sarajevo with artillery and sniper attacks against civilians during the 1992-95 siege of the city. He is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, as well as taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The trial continues on Wednesday.