Bosnian Snipers Killed Civilians

An ex-officer with the Bosnian Serb Army testified at his commander Ratko Mladic’s war crimes trial that Bosniak forces deployed snipers in Sarajevo but his brigade never targeted civilians.

Desimir Sarenac, former security officer with the First Sarajevo Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, told Mladic’s trial at the Hague Tribunal on Tuesday that his brigade never attacked Sarajevo during wartime, but just held Serb lines around the besieged city.

Sarenac said that Serb forces did not open artillery fire on civilian areas in the city, but the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina did sometimes and blamed it on the Serbs.

“As far as sniper activities by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina are concerned, they were very pronounced. The death of a 70-year old man, who was shot on the doorstep in the Dobrinja neighbourhood [of Sarajevo], was a particular example,” Sarenac said.

Mladic is on trial in The Hague for terrorising the population of Sarajevo by conducting artillery and sniper attacks against civilians, as well as genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Under cross-examination by the Hague Tribunal prosecution on Wednesday, Sarenac said he knew nothing about the fate of a group of prisoners from Hadzici near Sarajevo who were taken from the Slavisa Vajner Cica military barracks in Lukavica, which was under his command in June 1992, and were never seen again.

“I had no authority over this group of people. They came and they were taken away by buses, I think even on the second day following their arrival, because we did not have the capacity to guard them forever at that place. There is no way that somebody was separated and taken away from the military barracks,” he said.

“I am not an irresponsible man who would say that in regard to so many people. I would have known it, except if somebody had ordered it without me knowing about it,” he added.

The prosecution also asked the witness if he knew about the beating of prisoners and the fact that they were used for forced labour. Sarenac responded by saying that he had intervened after he heard about it.

“I proposed disciplinary measures to the commander and the removal of such persons from the unit, because such persons could not work with detainees. Disciplinary measures in terms of ordering a person into prison were not under my responsibility,” Sarenac said.

When asked whether he did anything to prevent the use of prisoners for forced labour, Sarenac said that he was not able to do so.

“My position at the Brigade’s command was not such… I was not in a position to order or prevent that,” he said.

The trial continues on Thursday.