Civilians on Frontlines
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Just like the majority of the previous witnesses, Guzina denied the allegations that the VRS deliberately opened artillery and sniper fire against civilians in Sarajevo.
The witness, who commanded of the battalions with the VRS Ilidza Brigade at that time, said that he had a standing order from a superior command “not to open fire against civilians” and that he respected the mentioned order.
According to a summary of his written statement, which was read by Mladic’s Defence attorney Miodrag Stojanovic, Guzina did not know of any cases of fire against civilians.
His soldiers only opened fire at positions held by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, which he considered legitimate military targets.
According to the witness’ testimony, Muslim forces situated in the city used mine-throwers and machine guns mounted on vehicles and opened fire from those weapons from civilian neighbourhoods.
“We were exposed to artillery and infantry fire from the direction of Butmir, across the airport, from the very first day of the war,” said Guzina.
Mladic, the then Commander of VRS, is charged with mine-thrower and sniper attacks against civilians in Sarajevo, as well as genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout BiH, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities, and taking UN “blue helmets” hostage.
Witness Guzina denied that his unit was responsible for the wounding of 16-year old Sanela Muratovic, while she was walking on a street in Sarajevo on June 26, 1994.
He said that “a civilian walking on the frontline was a non-understandable situation”, underlying that he did not have snipers in that area.
“Muslim forces lied that we targeted civilians with snipers,” the witness said, pointing out that, for that reason his Battalion invited UNPROFOR to come to some of those buildings in order to “personally verify those lies.”
The VRS Main Headquarters ordered its forces to ensure uninterrupted passage of humanitarian convoys traveling to Sarajevo. Guzina said that he respected the order, although he found a large quantity of weapons in one of the UNPROFOR’s convoys.
The witness specified that 167 members of his Battalion were killed and that about 400 men were wounded, adding that he was wounded “four times”.
The prosecutors are due to cross-examine Guzina tomorrow, June 11.
