Karadzic: Civilian Victims in Sarajevo

Stanislav Galic, the commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, accepted that there might have been “casual civilian victims” in the city. 

Responding to questions by Prosecutor Caroline Edgerton, Galic, who testified in defence of Karadzic, said the Corps attacked only military targets in Sarajevo, and never attacked civilians.
 
In 2006 the Hague Tribunal pronounced a second instance verdict against Galic, sentencing him to life imprisonment for terrorizing the local population in Sarajevo by conducting a campaign of artillery and sniper attacks. 
 
The indictment against Karadzic, who was wartime president of Republika Srpska and supreme commander of its army, charges him with terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo.
 
During the cross-examination, Prosecutor Edgerton presented Galic with a series of protest letters submitted to him by UNPROFOR due to mine-thrower and sniper attacks in Sarajevo in which civilians were killed and wounded. 
 
Galic responded by saying that he checked the information with subordinate commands, which informed him that they either “responded to fire” from the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, or did not shoot at all.
 
The witness denied that his forces took revenge against civilians due to ABiH attacks in other areas, claiming that “the fire was directed towards sources of fire” in the city.
 
As he said, protest letters sent by “blue helmets” did not offer sufficiently precise information about the incidents. He said that it was “hard to investigate what was happening” in the city, adding that “up to 45,000” members of the ABiH confronted his Corps in the city.
 
“When opening fire at a military target, we knew that it might cause civilian victims. There may have been civilian victims,” Galic said. 
 
While saying that there were “many correct reports, indicating that excessive fire” was opened from VRS positions, the witness said that he initiated the procedure for dismissal of two of his subordinate officers as a result.
 
Commenting on Galic’s allegation that ABiH units were present in the Cengic Vila neighbourhood, Sarajevo, where a 13-year old boy was wounded in July 1994, the prosecutor confronted the witness with a statement given by his officer Blagoje Kovacevic, who previously said in his defence testimony at the Karadzic trial that no enemy soldiers were present in that neighbourhood and that no military conflicts happened there. 
 
“I found out about these things later on. At that time I did not have those pieces of information. I am sorry about that guy. He was a child…I am saying again that I feel sorry for each victim,” Galic said, suggesting, however, that an ABiH “command center” was located in Cengic Vila and asking “who opened fire and from where”.
 
Despite his allegations that the VRS did not have any sniper units, Galic said that it was “possible” that individual snipers were gathered into groups in order to carry out specific tasks.
 
The witness confirmed that VRS snipers were situated in tall buildings in Grbavica, like Metalka building, but he said that their task was “to respond to attacks by ABiH snipers”. 
 
“All the activities were directed towards military targets,” the witness said, adding that he issued and received such orders. 
 
Commenting on data produced by a demographic expert, who said that 253 civilians were killed and 1,296 wounded by snipers in Sarajevo over the course of two years, Galic said that “nobody has verified” the data.
 
However, he said that according to the data, “the civilian losses” in Sarajevo were “big”, but he wondered why nobody had counted civilian victims on the Serb side.
 
When asked about a grenade explosion at the Markale open-air market on February 5, 1994, which killed 66 and wounded 75 citizens, Galic stuck to his statement that his Corps did not fire the projectile. He said “it was nearly impossible” to hit the marketplace “with just one grenade”.
 
Commenting on UNPROFOR reports that allege that the VRS “deliberately” opened fire on “blue helmet” checkpoints, Galic said he “guaranteed” that they were not true, but he did not reject the possibility that fire was opened at Muslim forces located in the vicinity of those checkpoints.
 
Karadzic is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
 
The trial is due to continue on May 8.