Karadzic: General Overjoyed with ABiHs Knowledge
This post is also available in: Bosnian
In 2009 The Hague Tribunal sentenced general Milosevic to 29 years in prison for terrorising civilians in Sarajevo. Milosevic was brought from Estonia, where he is serving his sentence, to The Hague in order to testify in defence of Karadzic.
Milosevic said that the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, SRC exclusively defended itself from attacks by the 12th Division of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose forces tried to break through from Sarajevo.
They called it the unblocking of Sarajevo, but it was not an attempt to unblock Sarajevo, but destroy the SRC, the witness said, adding that he was overjoyed with the military knowledge of his opponents because of the way they positioned their defence forces.
Milosevic said that, in the city itself there was a total of 275 command locations of the First Corps, the 12th Division and other ABiH units. According to him, those command places were situated in civilian buildings, while one of them, according to ABiH documents, was situated in Kosevo hospital.
The command of the First Corps of ABiH was in Danijela Ozme Street. They bragged about the fact that the command had never been hit, but they did not say that the location should not have been targeted at all, because it was located in the downtown area, Milosevic said.
As he said, ABiH forces had about ten howitzers, between 140 and 150 mine-throwers, three tanks and 18 different cannons in Sarajevo.
The indictment charges Karadzic, former President of RS, with crimes against civilians during the siege of the Bosnia and Herzegovina capital, genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout the country and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
General Milosevic said that, by conducting constant attacks from Sarajevo, ABiH tried to cut the road between Pale and Vogosca, which was of strategic importance for the VRS.
When we responded to their fire…they would say that we targeted the city. We did not open fire at the city, but at their positions, he said.
He told the Tribunal that, during one of the offensives in September 1994 he began crying, when he saw seven ABiH soldiers, who were killed by a mine at one location.
They sent those people to death…Whoever sent those people, Milosevic said.
He denied the allegations that snipers, who were under his command, shot civilians in the Sedrenik neighbourhood from their positions at Spicasta stijena.
The distance between them is so big that it would have been illusory to use any other weapons but artillery, the witness said.
When asked by Karadzic if there were any exclusively civilian zones without any legitimate targets in Sarajevo, the witness answered negatively.
There were no such areas in Sarajevo… They had no other option but to position their manpower and weapons to those locations, Milosevic said, adding that ABiH occupied schools, kindergartens, business buildings, private houses hospitals.
As he said, despite that, we neither could nor wanted to shell the civilian areas.
Responding to Karadzics suggestion, Milosevic confirmed that in some cases ABiH targeted its own positions, laying the blame on technical errors or confrontation between clans.
The witness said that the forces deployed in Sarajevo opened fire at their own people, trying to accuse Serb forces located around the city.
Milosevic is due to continue testifying tomorrow after the prosecutors have cross-examined previous Defence witness Milenko Indjic.
R.M.
