Karadzic: Difficult Decisions to Save Lives

Hajir, Director of the War Hospital in Dobrinja, Sarajevo testified from the Bosnian capital via video link. He said that he admitted more than 100 wounded people in the space of just a few minutes on June 1, 1993.

“I think it was Eid. The morning was quiet. All of a sudden two or three grenades exploded. A large number of wounded people came to the hospital. We put those people in doctors’ offices and infirmaries, on the floor…

“It was not possible to walk through. The hospital was full of patients. The morgue was full. People were lying on top of each other. (…) We conducted surgeries for nearly three days. We sent about 40 people to the city to be treated by other physicians,” Hajir recalled.

Radovan Karadzic, the former President of Republika Srpska, is on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague.

The indictment against him, which includes a shelling and sniping campaign conducted in Sarajevo, mentions the incident that took place in Dobrinja, Sarajevo, on June 1, 1993.

According to the Prosecution, on that day two grenades were fired from territories controlled by the Republika Spska Army, VRS, at a group of about 200 people who were at a football game in a parking lot in Dobrinja. The indictment alleges that more than ten people were killed and about 100 were wounded on that occasion.

During the course of his testimony Hajir said that Dobrinja was isolated from the rest of the city, so it was necessary to have a hospital which could offer assistance to all patients.

“Dobrinja was surrounded on all sides. I had to make decisions about the evacuation of those people. Those were really difficult decisions to make in order to save someone’s life. (…)

“At the beginning, one could not say this was a fully-fledged hospital. We had almost nothing. I performed the first surgeries using dentistry instruments,” the witness explained.

The witness said that many people were killed in Dobrinja during the course of the war and they had to be buried in parks as there were no cemeteries.

“This was a sad story for the entire population and for all those people. We did not have cemeteries in Dobrinja where we could bury the dead. People buried their relatives in parks in front of their houses and at other places where they thought they could not be seen by snipers or hit by other things. After the war, those people were exhumed and buried at regular city cemeteries,” Hajir explained.

Prosecution witness Fahra Mujanovic was also examined via video link at this hearing. She said she was wounded during a shelling attack on Barice, near Sarajevo, where she lived, on June 8, 1992.

During the course of cross-examination Karadzic asked the witness if “Muslim forces” opened fire from the Barice area in June 1992. The witness said she “did not know”.

“Mr. Karadzic, I would like to ask you not to ask such questions. I am a civilian. I was not involved in those things. I was sitting in my house when I was wounded. I am not interested in that. I do not know anything about the attacks. I have no answer to those questions. I was not a soldier and I do not know,” the witness said.

Mujanovic said that local residents in that area only had hunting guns, adding they did not attack anyone but “protected their homes”.

Karadzic denied the witness’ claims, saying that Barice was “full of soldiers” and “Serb settlements were attacked” from that area.

After having completed the examination of this witness, the indictee said he was “overwhelmed with documents” sent to him by the Prosecution, calling on the Trial Chamber to “order it to reconsider its strategy”.

The Trial Chamber has warned Karadzic on several occasions because he presented witnesses with papers which they were unfamiliar with, adding he should bear in mind the timing set for individual examinations.

According to the Tribunal’s official timetable, the trial is due to continue on November 2.

A.A.