Mladić Witness: Taking Sarajevo Would Have Been Suicide

A defence witness at the trial of Ratko Mladić stated on Wednesday that capturing Sarajevo for the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS SRK) would have been tantamount to suicide, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.  

- An attacker must have three times the strength. In this case, that was out of the question. The SRK would have committed suicide - said Ratomir Maksimović, who was in the SRK command, 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, but only 12,000 of them were “fighters who could be counted on,” who were “engaged in guarding the lines.” During cross-examination, the prosecution sought to challenge the witness's claim, who began giving his testimony yesterday, that the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) left weapons in the “Maršal Tito” barracks in Sarajevo and other barracks during its withdrawal.

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, seeing what was being prepared, they initiated the withdrawal of all property. Witness Maksimović disagreed with the position of prosecutor Adam Weber, stating that he does not know exactly how many weapons remained in the barracks, and that he actually concluded this when he later saw that the opposing side had that weaponry, reports BIRN.  

Maksimović confirmed that young soldiers initially had basic marksmanship training. The prosecutor was particularly interested in whether the SRK conducted training for M-48 rifles and the M-76 semi-automatic sniper rifle, but the witness said he was not precisely familiar with the pace and process of the training, but also that they “of course learned.”

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

He confirmed to the prosecutor that, in addition to 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 on trial for, as commander of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), participating in the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from 15 municipalities under the control of Serb forces, including Rogatica.

Mladić is charged with terrorising the citizens of Sarajevo through a campaign of artillery and sniper attacks, as well as genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, BIRN recalls. Mladić's defence at the end of today's trial called Mile Ujić, a former head of the Executive Board of the Rogatica Municipality, 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.

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