Bosnian Serb Army Not Responsible for Sarajevo Sniper Attacks, Says Mladic Defense Witness

Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with a series of sniping and shelling attacks during the siege of Sarajevo. He is also on trial for the genocide in Srebrenica and other municipalities, the persecution of non-Serbs and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Testifying before the Hague Tribunal, Mile Poparic presented a report he’d written based on data from the Sarajevo police and other sources regarding 17 sniper attacks described in the indictment. Poparic said it wasn’t possible for the sniper attacks to have come from the Bosnian Serb Army.

Poparic denied that the Bosnian Serb Army could have been responsible for the wounding of three year old Anisa Pita, who was shot while playing near her house in December 1992.

Poparic said her location was not visible from Bosnian Serb positions on Stijena Baba, which is where the shot came from, according to the prosecution.

“The girl was not visible from Stijena Baba and she was not targeted intentionally,” Poparic said.

Poparic also said the Bosnian Serb Army wasn’t responsible for the death of Munira Zametica, who was shot while collecting water from the Dobrinje River.

Poparic said it was completely impossible that Zametica was shot near the river, which had a concrete wall on one bank, with a bullet fired from a Serb church 1,100 meters away.

The trial continues tomorrow.