Former BH Army soldier testified with voice and image distortion as protective measures at the trial of Dragomir Milosevic, former VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander. He explained the difference, in his opinion, between "Chetniks" and Serbs in wartime Sarajevo


“Chetniks are extremists at the other side of the frontline, while all the other Serbs who stayed in Sarajevo were my neighbors and friends”, said a former BH Army soldier at the trial of Dragomir Milosevic, charged with the shelling and sniping campaign against the civilians in Sarajevo. Testifying with image and voice distortion as protective measures, he described the incident that happened on 22 December 1994 at the Sarajevo flea market in Bascarsija.

That day he heard the deadly grenade being fired from the direction of Vidikovac, on Trebevic. Several seconds later he heard the grenade explode as it hit Bascarsija, killing two and injuring seven persons. He immediately reported the incident to his command, and they forwarded the information to the police.

Defense counsel Branislav Tapuskovic claimed that a round fired from a cannon flew a lot longer than "several seconds": at least 45 seconds. He also referred to a report made by the peacekeepers where they concluded on the basis of physical evidence at the impact site that it was "most likely a mortar shell". This contradicts the witness's description in the examination-in-chief: he claimed it had been a cannon shell. Tapuskovic again contended that "all hills and ridges around Sarajevo" were controlled by the BH Army. The witness rejected this claim.

Tapuskovic brought up earlier statements the witness had given to the OTP where he had not specified the date of the incident. In response, the witness said that at that time, all the days in Sarajevo had been the same and that dates had not been of much importance to anyone.

[IMAGE]2518[/IMAGE]As the trial continued, Ekrem Suljevic testified about the same incident. At the time of the incident he worked for the Bomb Squad in the BH Interior Ministry and took part in the on-site scene investigations and expert analysis of the evidence found at the explosion sites. It was his task to determine the direction from which the projectiles had been fired.

The analysis of the physical evidence found at scene of the explosion at the Bascarsija flea market showed that the projectile had been fired from a 76mm cannon, from the direction of Trebevic.

Suljevic continues his evidence on Monday.

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