Ballistics Expert Testifying at Mladic Trial Says Bosnian Serb Army Only Attacked Military Targets

Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with terrorizing the inhabitants of Sarajevo with long-lasting artillery and sniper attacks. The indictment states that modified air bombs fired by the Bosnian Serb Army were not precise and often hit civilian targets, causing deadly casualties.
 
At today’s hearing at the Hague Tribunal, Mladic’s defense attorney Branko Lukic listed six incidents from the indictment in which modified air-bombs were used to attack Sarajevo. Ballistics expert Zorica Subotic claimed that in all six instances the targets were Bosnian Army command centers or munition and military material factories.

“In these incidents, the modified air bombs proved to be very precise,” Subotic said.
Eleven people died in the six attacks listed in the indictment, four more were severely injured and 39 suffered minor injuries.
 
Subotic commented on the explosion which took place on Dositejeva Street on June 16, 1995. She said the Bosnian Army First Corps command, the Sarajevo Flight center, which housed eight pilots at the time, and the Bosnian presidency were only 150 meters away during that attack.
 
Subotic then commented on a modified missile attack on the ninth floor of a residential building on the same street on June 28, 1995. She said the attack was accidental, and that the intended target was a nearby wire factory.

“Civilian victims were clearly accidental…the missile accidentally hit the building,” Subotic said.

Subotic also commented on an attack on Sarajevo’s television station, which employed the same kind of missile and occurred on the same day. She said one of the rooms of the television station was a command center for the First Corps of the Bosnian Army.

Subotic will continue her testimony on Thursday.
 
Mladic has also been charged with genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.