Zorica Subotic, defence witness at Rako Mladic trial

The trial of Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Republika Srpska Army Main Staff, continued with the evidence of Zorica Subotic, a ballistic expert from Belgrade. Through Subotic's testimony the defense will try to contest the allegations related to the artillery terror campaign against Sarajevo and its citizens. In the first part of the examination the defense focused on the attack on the bread queue in Vase Miskina Street on 27 May 1992. Twenty-six persons were killed and 108 were wounded in the incident.

The Vase Miskina Street incident is not listed among the incidents Mladic is charged with. The prosecution has referred to the massacre in the course of its case as being illustrative of the artillery terror against Sarajevo. At the beginning of the defense case Milorad Bukva, a security officer from the VRS military barracks in Lukavica, argued that an explosive device planted across the road from the shop had caused the massacre. Now the defense's ballistic expert claimed that an 82-mm mortar shell had been fired from the distance of about 100 to 120 meters, from the territory under the BH Army control.

In her expert report Zorica Subotic noted that the evidence on the Vase Miskina Street incident collected by the Sarajevo investigators was deficient. According to her, the police report on the incident was not written at the crime scene. It was in fact signed after the scene was cleared and it was attached to the incident file only in August 1992. Also, the expert claimed that two shells had fallen in Vase Miskina Street while the documents she was able to consult in the course of her research mentioned only one shell. Also, Subotic established that there were 'discrepancies' as regards the number and identity of the victims between the police report and the memorial erected at the site of the incident.

The defense played a video of the crime scene taken by the police on the day of the massacre. The shell crater in the footage was not the same the crater Subotic and her assistant examine in September 2010. Subotic and her assistant came to the same conclusion when they compared the photo of the crater taken by the Sarajevo police and the crater seen in the footage made when cello player Vedran Smajlovic performed in Vase Miskina Street.

The defense also showed a TV report on snipers firing at the scene while the injured were receiving first aid. The incident took place among 'high-rise buildings', the witness noted. In Subotic's opinion, it was therefore impossible for the location to be targeted by Serb snipers. According to the witness, the nearest Serb positions were about 1,700 or 1,800 meters away.

As Zorica Subotic continued her evidence she talked about her findings on the Dobrinja incident on 1 June 1993, when football players and fans were shelled during a football match. Subotic will continue her testimony tomorrow.

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