Hague: Sarajevo siege trial continues

Hague: Sarajevo siege trial continues

The efforts of Belgrade attorney Branislav Tapušković to ask witness Vlastimir Glavaš about his arrest and detention in the Silos camp in 1992 were marred by frequent objections by the prosecution and interventions of the Trial Chamber.

The prosecution objected to the relevance of the questions on these topics, while the judges felt it was “strange” that the defense “focuses so much on the historical context to such an extent,” given that it will not affect their deliberations on the guilt or innocence of the accused general.

General Milošević is on trial for the artillery and sniper terror campaign in Sarajevo from the summer of 1994 to the end of August 1995.

His defense counsel believes that he is not dealing with “the context issues” but, as he puts it, “the fate of this man.” According to him, the prosecution's objections are “designed to make [him] lose patience and stop asking witnesses questions.”

At the end of the examination-in-chief, the defense counsel asked Glavaš about an incident on August 28, 1995, when intense shelling cut short his wedding in the Orthodox church in Ilidža.

According to Glavaš, the shells came from the direction of Mount Igman, from the territory controlled by the BH Army. Forty eight persons were wounded and his relative Jadranka Vitor was killed. A few hours before this incident, shells landed on the Markale market, killing 43 and wounding 75 people.

In a brief cross-examination, the witness confirmed that he “thought it was logical” that the shell had come from the territory controlled by the Bosnian Army because “they had Ilidža encircled.”

In the examination-in-chief of Slobodan Bjelica, the judges did not object to the irrelevance of his evidence, but they did note that the defense counsel “was close to cross-examining the witness,” because of the leading questions.

This was particularly apparent when Bjelica, an editor of Sarajevske Srpske Novine, a newspaper published in Grbavica, tried to explain what route he took from his home in Miljevici to Pale.

The defense counsel was trying to prove that the road to Pale was in hands of the Republika Srpska Army, but that it was constantly targeted by the Bosnian Army snipers and artillery from the Colina Kapa hill.

In the cross-examination, the prosecutor challenged the witness’s claim that the civilian buildings in Sarajevo had been targeted by the Bosnian Army, noting that the buildings had been targeted because there had been Sarajevo-Romanija Corps troops and weapons in there.

Bjelica, who has no military experience whatsoever, did not change his testimony, saying that it was impossible that fire was opened from those buildings, or that there were weapons there. These buildings, he explained, “were far from the front lines.”