Crimes against Serbs in Sarajevo

Witness GRM-311, who is a Serb, said that he worked in a hand-bomb factory in a building in Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994. He said that, during that time some unknown masked persons kidnapped him on his way to work 11 times, showing him victims of their crimes and threatening him by saying that he too would be killed unless he continued working in the factory.
 
“Unknown persons took me away 11 times in order to intimidate me…They kept asking me with whom I co-operated and whom I informed of names of Muslims, who should be killed,” the witness said.
 
GRM-311 specified that masked persons took him to “a hole in Pofalici”, in which he saw “ten corpses”, on January 5, 1993. As he said, he saw body of a headless child, on which a cross-like sign was carved, on the top of the pile.
 
As he said, the attackers “broke my hand and leg” and threatened him that he would be killed in case he failed to appear at work.
 
The witness said that Muslim youths used to throw hand bombs in the city, “killing their own people in order to increase the number of victims”. He suggested that hand bombs, which he made, were thrown “in a school building in Marijin Dvor”, adding that he had previously seen those bombs “in school bags” carried by three boys.
 
GRM-311 said that mine-throwers of the Army of BiH shelled Svrakino Selo and Hrasno Brdo neighbourhoods, which were inhabited by Bosniaks, from positions near the TV building every day, but the media accused Serbs of doing it.  
 
Mladic, former Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with having terrorised the local population in Sarajevo through an artillery and sniper campaign. He is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats and terrorising citizens in Sarajevo.
 
During the cross-examination the prosecutor pointed to the fact that, in his previous statements, the witness said that he was taken to the hole in Pofalici in October and November 1992, not in January 1993, and that he failed to mention that incident in his previous testimonies before The Hague Tribunal.
 
GRM-311 responded by saying that “somebody made a mistake” when writing down the dates, confirming that he did not mention the incident during his previous testimony.
 
When asked if he worked with a broken hand and leg in the period from January 1993 to June 1994, he answered affirmatively. He confirmed that he was paid for his work and that nobody threatened him at work.
 
The witness described that, on his way to work on April 27, 1993 a man “with long beard and shaved head” forced him to get into a car and drove him to “the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration in Novo Sarajevo”.
 
“Three cut human heads were hanging on the church door… He told me that he too was a Serb…’Look what they are doing to us’, he said,” GRM-311 recalled, adding that he then saw dogs, “who had human heads tied around their necks”, who were attacked by “other dogs”, who “tried to bite those heads”.
 
The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Friday, June 6.