Zorica Subotic, defence witness at Rako Mladic trial

The defense continued the examination of their ballistics expert Zorica Subotic today in a bid to challenge the prosecution’s evidence on the indiscriminate shelling of Sarajevo during the 44-month siege of the city from 1992 to 1995. The indictment qualifies the crimes as part of one of the four joint criminal enterprises involving General Ratko Mladic. Today, the witness again tried to convince the Trial Chamber that the Bosnian Serb army and its commander who is now on trial could not have been responsible for the artillery incidents that were part of the prosecution’s case.

The first incident discussed today was the artillery attack on Dobrinja on 4 February 1994. As alleged in the indictment, a shell fell among the people queuing for humanitarian aid in Oslobodilaca Sarajeva Street. Soon afterwards, two more shells hit a makeshift market place nearby. Eight Sarajevans were killed and at least 18 were wounded. The defense witness challenged the prosecution's case that the Serb side was responsible for the attack, claiming that the Bosnian investigators were wrong by 60 degrees when they measured the direction from which the shells had been fired. As a result, all the conclusions reached by the Bosnian investigators were wrong. According to the witness, the shell was fired from the BH Army positions.

The next incident on the list was the attack on the Bascarsija flea market on 22 December 1994, in which two persons were killed and seven were injured. The Bosnian police made mistakes in their investigation of the incident too, the expert claimed, because ‘the traces in the ground didn’t correspond with the weapon that was used according to them’. Subotic established that the incident had been ‘staged’. In her opinion, all the evidence pointed to the conclusion that ‘no projectile had impacted on the flea market’.

The witness analyzed the results of the Bosnian investigation of the attack on the water queue in the Simon Bolivar school in Dobrinja on 18 June 1995, noting that she found ‘an astonishing number of inconsistencies and errors’. The witness contested the allegation that Mladic’s army was to blame for the shelling of civilians in Livanjska Street in Sarajevo on 8 November 1994. Zorica Subotic recalled that UNPROFOR was prohibited from investigating the incident in the immediate aftermath. UNPROFOR officials were able to examine the scene the following day and they determined that the BH Army was responsible for the attack.

The attack on Dobrinja, which was discussed at the beginning of the hearing today, is the only incident which is actually listed in the indictment against Mladic. Because the prosecution called evidence on the other incidents Mladic is not charged with, the defense wanted to respond to this evidence. Most of the hearing today was consequently just a warm-up before the defense ballistics expert really got down to the real issue: the two artillery attacks on the Markale town market. Defense counsel Branko Lukic indicated that the incidents would be on the agenda tomorrow.

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