Mladic Witness Claims More Than 3000 Serb Victims in Sarajevo

Tusevljak, a former Bosnian Serb police official who researched war crimes committed against Serbs, told the Hague Tribunal that 3300 civilians were killed in ten Sarajevo municipalities. He submitted a list of names to the tribunal.

Tusevljak said that 700 Serbs were killed in the municipality of Grbavica during the first two years of the war. He said those civilians were killed by Bosnian Army snipers and mortars.

Mladic’s defense then showed a video recording depicting the bodies of two eight year old girls who were allegedly killed by Bosnian Army snipers.

“It was determined that the snipers belonged to the Bosnian Army and were located around 200 meters away, which means that whoever shot could have seen that they were kids. The two girls were playing in front of their house,” Tusevljak said.

Tusevljak also claimed that 126 camps and detentions sites detained Serbs in the Sarajevo area.

Tusevljak said the Bosnian Serb police force filed 280 criminal complaints to the state prosecution regarding crimes committed against Serbs in Sarajevo.

During cross examination, prosecutor Caroline Edgerton argued that Tusevljak’s list contained the names of Serb victims killed by Bosnian Serb forces around the city.

Edgerton said the names of victims from the Markale massacre and the mortar attack on Dobrinja in 1994 were on Tusevljak’s list. According to the indictment, Bosnian Serb forces killed 66 and wounded 140 persons in an attack on Markale in February 1994. Three grenades killed eight civilians in February 1994 in Dobrinja, according to the charges.

Tusevljak said he didn’t know why those names were on the list, and said he received the data from the Belgrade Center for the Research of War Crimes against Serbs.

“You are trying to reduce a list of 3300 names to two events. I can’t agree with that,” Tusevljak said.

Tusevljak then stated that the list was preliminary and was still being reviewed. “The goal is to find the truth. It’s an open book for those with the goodwill to document crimes committed against Serbs in Sarajevo,” Tusevljak said.

Edgerton also disputed that the victims presented by Tusevljak were all from Sarajevo, claiming that some were from Olovo, Kladanj, Rogatica and Konjic.

Edgerton also said some of the listed victims were Bosnian Army soldiers. Tusevljak said that the list does did contain the names of Bosnian Army soldiers who were casualties of Bosnian Army attacks.

“At the time of death they were not active soldiers,” he explained.

When asked by Edgerton if Tusevljak’s list was incomplete and outdated, Tusevljak said, “This is what we had in 2007 and 2008 and so I’m saying that the research continues.”

Mladic, the former general of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (which reached the scale of genocide in six municipalities), terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

The cross examination of Tusevljak will continue on Tuesday, September 1.