Mladić's witness: The capture of Sarajevo would have been suicide

The defense witness in the trial of Ratko Mladić stated on Wednesday that the capture of Sarajevo for the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (SRK VRS) would have been suicide, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.  

- An attacker must have three times the strength. That was out of the question in this case. The SRK would have committed suicide - said Ratomir Maksimović, who was in the command of the SRK, in the department for moral, legal, and religious affairs, reports BIRN - Justice Report.

According to his testimony, the SRK had 22,000 men under arms, and only 12,000 of them were "fighters who could be counted on," who were "engaged in guarding the lines." During cross-examination, the prosecution tried to challenge the witness's claim, who began giving his testimony yesterday, that the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) left weapons in the "Marshal Tito" barracks in Sarajevo and other barracks when it withdrew.

The witness was presented with "My Confession" from the weekly magazine NIN, in which Milutin Kukanjac, then commander of the JNA's Second Military District in Sarajevo, states that upon seeing what was being prepared, they moved all property. Witness Maksimović disagreed with prosecutor Adam Weber's statement, stating that he did not know the exact amount of weapons left in the barracks, and that he actually concluded this when he later saw that the opposing side had those weapons, reports BIRN. 

Maksimović confirmed that young soldiers received basic shooting training at the beginning. The prosecutor was particularly interested in whether the SRK trained soldiers on M-48 rifles and the M-76 semi-automatic sniper rifle, but the witness said he was not precisely aware of the pace and process of training, but also that they "of course learned."

- That contingent that was trained is very small. For the entire corps, there were perhaps 100 young men, and the rest were not, which is why I say that combat readiness was poor - explained Maksimović.

He confirmed to the prosecutor that, in addition to being in the SRK command, he also served as deputy commander of the Third Sarajevo Brigade, and that he was in the command of the Vogošća Tactical Group. Mladić is being tried for participating, as commander of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), in the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from 15 municipalities under the control of Serbian forces, including Rogatica.

Mladić is accused of terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo through a campaign of artillery and sniper attacks, as well as for genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, and for taking UNPROFOR members hostage, BIRN reminds. At the end of today's hearing, Mladić's defense presented Mileta Ujić, former head of the Executive Board of the Municipality of Rogatica, who spoke about the arming of the Bosniak population in the Rogatica area.

In his statement, he said that the war in Rogatica began with the murder of a Serb on May 22, 1992.

- Muslims returned his body. After that, it was no longer safe to walk around - said Ujić. The trial of Mladić continues on Thursday, October 16, BIRN announced.