Siege of Sarajevo Conviction Upheld

Appeals judges in the case of a former Bosnian Serb general have upheld his conviction for atrocities - including ordering the shelling of the civilian population - during the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.



Dragomir Milosevic was commander of the Bosnian Serb army’s Sarajevo Romanija Corps, SRK, from around August 10, 1994 until the end of the Sarajevo siege campaign in November 1995.



The Hague tribunal’s appeals chamber this week confirmed the trial judges’ conclusions that troops under Milosevic’s command were responsible for the sniping and shelling of the Sarajevo area, resulting in the killing and serious injury of numerous civilians.



“Milosevic did more than merely tolerate the crimes as a commander,” Italian judge, Fausto Pocar, said in handing down the appeals judgement on November 12. “In maintaining and intensifying the campaign directed at the civilian population in Sarajevo… he provided additional encouragement to his subordinates to commit the crimes against the civilians.”



However, appeals judges reduced Milosevic’s prison sentence from 33 to 29 years after acquitting him of responsibility for certain shelling incidents in the city.



As many as 12,000 civilians were killed during the three-and-a-half year siege from 1992 to 1995 – a campaign of sustained terror that saw Milosevic’s predecessor in charge of the SRK, Stanislav Galic, sentenced to life imprisonment by the tribunal in November 2006.



The SRK was positioned in the hills above Sarajevo and, under Milosevic’s command, carried out a 15-month campaign of sniping and shelling against the city’s inhabitants.



“The city was still under siege, no electricity, no regular water supply, no regular energy supply; under shelling and sniping continually. Life was not normal in any way for the residents of Sarajevo,” one witness testified during the trial.



Another told how the city’s bread contained bullets after the delivery truck had been fired on by Bosnian Serbs.



Milosevic was convicted at trial of five counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war including terror, murder and inhumane acts. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.



Appeals judges confirmed Milosevic’s guilt for ordering the shelling of the city of Sarajevo using modified air bombs. Trial judges had concluded that in using the inaccurate and destructive modified air bombs Milosevic was “playing with the lives of the civilians in Sarajevo”.



“The appeals chamber is of the opinion that it was not unreasonable for the trial chamber to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that all the shelling involving modified air bombs and mortars fired by the SRK in Sarajevo during the indictment period could only occur pursuant to Milosevic’s orders,” Judge Pocar said this week.



The five-judge appeals bench rejected Milosevic’s argument on appeal that that trial judges had not established beyond reasonable doubt that SRK attacks were targeted at civilians.



“The appeals chamber finds no error in the definition of civilians and of civilian population expounded by the trial chamber and rejects Milosevic’s argument that the trial chamber presumed the civilian status of the victims,” judges ruled.



Milosevic had also contended on appeal that trial judges had not considered areas of Sarajevo held by the Bosnian army as military zones, however the appeals chamber this week decided that in this vein Milosevic’s logic was flawed. It ruled that crimes were assessed not according to whether particular areas of Sarajevo were classified as either military or civilian but on the basis of whether the target in each attack was civilian or military.



The defence had also argued at trial that the actions of the SRK were a legitimate response to those of the Bosnian army and the conflict as a whole and did not amount to an attack on the civilian population.



But referring to the specific areas of Vojnicko Polje, Alipasino Polje, Dobrinja, Sedrenik, Hrasnica, and Marin Dvor, the appeals judges affirmed the trial judges’ judgement handed down on December 12, 2007.



“The appeals chamber is satisfied that the trial chamber correctly established that the population of these neighbourhoods of Sarajevo had civilian status at the time of the attacks targeting it,” Judge Pocar said.



Delivering the final verdict in the case, judges also rejected the prosecution’s bid to increase Milosevic’s sentence to a life term. They ruled that prosecutors had not shown that the trial judges’ had wrongly used their discretion in deciding the 33-year prison sentence.



Despite dismissing most grounds of Milosevic’s appeal, the appeals chamber overturned his conviction for a number of individual incidents, including the shelling of the Markale Market on August 28, 1995 - an attack which killed 34 civilians and wounded 78.



Judges ruled that as Milosevic was in hospital in Belgrade between August 6 and September 10 that year there was insufficient evidence provided by the prosecution to conclude that he had ordered his deputy, Cedomir Sladoje, to carry out such an attack.



Following the same logic, judges further acquitted Milosevic of shelling the BITAS building on August 22, 1995.



The trial chamber had previously ruled that the SRK was responsible for the Markale market shelling, dismissing the defence’s argument that the carnage was staged by the Bosnian army in order to persuade international forces to intervene on their behalf.



The appeals chamber also acquitted Milosevic of the shelling of the Bascarsija flea market on December 22, 1994. Trial judges had concluded from the prosecution’s evidence that the shelling had come from an SRK position but appeals judges ruled that the lower court had failed to adequately explain why it had ruled out other possibilities and could therefore not conclude this was the case.



Milosevic’s conviction for planning the campaign of sniping and shelling of civilians was also overturned.



“The appeals chamber is not satisfied that the trial chamber established beyond reasonable doubt the existence of a positive act required…. showing that Milošević instructed his troops to perform a campaign of sniping and shelling of civilian population in Sarajevo as a whole,” judges ruled.



Appeals judges made a distinction between Milosevic ordering these attacks and actually planning them, concluding that trial judges had convicted him of planning them only on the basis of evidence that he had ordered them to be carried out.



“It is unclear from these findings whether Milosevic was found to have participated in the design of the military strategy concerning the ongoing campaign as such or whether he planned each and every incident for which he was held responsible by the trial chamber,” Judge Pocar said, adding that Milosevic’s criminal responsibility only ran to ordering the shelling incidents “and thus does not warrant a conviction for planning the same crimes”.



However, judges ruled that although they quashed his conviction for planning attacks, due to the seriousness of the confirmed convictions, this did not merit a reduction in the sentence.



In spite of the acquittals, Judge Pocar also underlined Milosevic’s responsibility for some of the worst crimes of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.



“These findings do not change the fact that the entire population of Sarajevo was the victim of the crime of terror committed under Milosevic’s command,” he said.



Appeals judges also upheld Milosevic’s conviction for the sniping by troops under his command, although they did not support the trial judges’ finding that he had ordered sniping attacks. By using a different legal framework of command responsibility, appeals judges established beyond reasonable doubt that, rather than order and control the sniping attacks, Milosevic had failed to prevent them or punish his troops for carrying them out.



Despite the confirmation of atrocities inflicted on the people of Sarajevo, the appeals judgement has met with criticism from some victims groups in Bosnia who feel a life sentence would have matched Milosevic’s crimes.



According to some estimates, during the siege of Sarajevo some 1,600 children were killed and President of the Association of Murdered Children of Sarajevo, Fikret Grabovica, told IWPR that the 29-year sentence was inadequate.



"I think it is sufficient to say that in 63 different incidents three or more children were killed. This did not happen by accident,” Grabovica said. “In most cases, those innocent creatures were killed while they were playing outside, with toys in their hands. Because of that, Milosevic's sentence is absolutely inadequate. He should have been sentenced to life in prison, like his predecessor Stanislav Galic."



President of the Bosnian branch of the Association of Endangered Peoples, Fadila Memisevic, told IWPR that judges should not have reduced Milosevic’s original sentence.



"What citizens of Sarajevo had lived through will be remembered as the most horrible terrorising of civilians in a besieged city in recent history. I think Milosevic was guilty of all crimes he had originally been charged with and his [33-year prison] sentence should have been confirmed on appeal," Memisevic said.



Milosevic surrendered to the tribunal on December 3, 2004. His 106-day trial ran from January 7 until October 10, 2007. He will remain in the United Nations detention unit in The Hague awaiting transfer to a state where he will serve his prison sentence.



Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. RFE reporter in Sarajevo, Zana Kovacevic, contributed to this report.