14 Oct 2010 / 02:53
In his testimony at the trial of wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, a prosecution witness spars with the defendant over the locations from where sniper bullets were fired in Sarajevo during the war.
Dragana Erjavec
As his cross-examination continued for a third day on Wednesday, Mirza Sabljica, former ballistics expert with the Safety Services Center, SSC, in Sarajevo, said the ballistic investigations of individual tram sniping incidents in November 1994 showed that the bullets had probably been fired from a white skyscraper in the Grbavica district of Sarajevo, which was controlled by the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.
As his cross-examination continued for a third day on Wednesday, Mirza Sabljica, former ballistics expert with the Safety Services Center, SSC, in Sarajevo, said the ballistic investigations of individual tram sniping incidents in November 1994 showed that the bullets had probably been fired from a white skyscraper in the Grbavica district of Sarajevo, which was controlled by the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.
“The ballistic investigations conducted during the course of the war cannot be considered a hundred percent correct. We worked in very difficult conditions. Our equipment was outdated. However, given the fact that ‘sniper nests’ were found in the white building, I am convinced the sniper fire was opened from that particular building,” Sabljic explained.
Radovan Karadzic, the former president of Republika Srpska, RS, and supreme commander of its armed forces, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.
Among other things, the indictment alleges that Karadzic participated in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of spreading terror among the civilian population in Sarajevo by conducting a sniping and shelling campaign.
He is charged with 15 sniper incidents that took place in Sarajevo between 1992 to 1995, killing two and wounding more than 20 people.
At this hearing the indictee presented the witness with a report on an incident that happened in November 1994. The report, which was prepared by French UNPROFOR soldiers, alleges that the sniper bullet came from the territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, between the Serb positions and the tramway.
“Mr. Karadzic, this would mean that the ABiH was situated in the Wilson Boulevard. You know very well that there was nothing but a division line in that boulevard at the time. There were not even any birds flying over it during the course of the war,” the witness said.
He added that this was the first time he had heard about the UNPROFOR investigation results, so he could not comment on them.
He added that this was the first time he had heard about the UNPROFOR investigation results, so he could not comment on them.
This witness participated, in 1994 and 1995, in investigations into several sniping and shelling incidents mentioned in the indictment against Karadzic, including about ten investigations of attacks on trams in Sarajevo.
At the indictee’s request, the witness again explained the methodology applied by investigative team members when inspecting the locations of artillery and sniper incidents.
The trial is due to continue on October 14, when the indictee will complete his cross-examination of this witness.
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