Mladic: Passersby Shot Intentionally

Protected witness RM-055 said that the VRS snipers’ actions were “professional and rational considering their goals”, explaining that he considered that their goals were to “block the city” and “destroy the population’s morale”.

“This means that, for an attacker who did not have any ethnic scruples, it would be reasonable to use sporadic and random artillery and sniper fire against civilians,” he said.

The French Officer confirmed that the VRS fired modified air-bombs on Sarajevo, adding that he personally saw such a bomb hitting the Sarajevo Television building on June 28, 1995.

Mladic, former VRS Commander, is charged with terror against civilians in Sarajevo through a long-lasting shelling and sniping, genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

RM-055 said that, on August 28, 1995 he “very clearly heard a mine-thrower volley”, which hit the street in front of Markale open market. When he arrived at the location of the explosion about ten minutes later, he said that “the last corpses and parts of human bodies were being carried away and the cleaning of the street had just begun”.

According to the charges against Mladic, the projectiles that killed 43 and wounded 75 citizens at Markale were fired from positions held by VRS.

Responding to questions by Mladic’s Defence attorney Branko Lukic, RM-055 confirmed that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina had “a maximum of 150” pieces of heavy artillery in Sarajevo and that Bosniaks obstructed UNPROFOR’s efforts to bring the weapons under control.

“Both of the conflicting parties tried to hide their weapons,” RM-055 said.

According to the witness, the First Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina had “between 7,000 and 8,000 soldiers” in Sarajevo. After Defence attorney Lukic told him that, according to ABiH’s documents, the Corps consisted of 35,000 soldiers, witness RM-055 said that not all of them were in the city.

Responding to a suggestion by Mladic’s Defence attorney, RM-055 confirmed that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted attacks from Sarajevo and that the VRS “reacted” to those attacks. However, he denied that civilians in the city were “collateral victims” of the exchange of fire, pointing out that “fire” was opened at “passers-by intentionally”.

The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Tuesday, January 22.