Former commander of the VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps pleads not guilty to the “second round” of the shelling and sniping campaign against civilians in Sarajevo between August 1994 and November 1995

At the pre-trial conference in the case against General Dragomir Milosevic, on the eve of the trial, the parties were told that the prosecution case should end by April and the trial by the summer recess, in mid-July

As the prosecution notes in its opening statement, General Dragomir Milosevic “inherited” the campaign of terror against Sarajevo and Sarajevans waged by General Stanislav Galic. Milosevic then went on to “elaborate” and “enhance” the campaign by introducing modified bombs, known for their imprecision and destructive power

David Harland, longest-serving UN official in BH, says that the objective of the artillery and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo was to inflict the greatest possible suffering on the civilian population in order to force the Bosnian authorities to accept the Serb demands, while not pushing it too far in order not to risk an intervention by the international community

David Harland, prosecution witness at the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic, says in his cross-examination that on 28 August 1995 he advised General Rupert Smith to state that “it is unclear who fired the shells” on the Town Market in Sarajevo in order “not to alarm the Bosnian Serbs”, possibly alerting them to the impending NATO air strikes

A UN monitor from Norway confirms the terror campaign in Sarajevo was “enhanced” with the use of modified air bombs after General Dragomir Milosevic took over command of Sarajevo-Romanija Corps command. This confirms the prosecution’s allegations

Chief UN Military Observer in BH Ghulam Muhammed Mohatarem gives evidence at the trial of Dragomir Milosevic. He says that the whole world watched the Sarajevo theatre of war. He claims he spoke to the accused general “at least twice” about the sniping and shelling of civilian targets in Sarajevo, but that Milosevic and the other officers in the Bosnian Serb Army simply didn’t care

Dzenana Sokolovic testifies today ay the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic. She described how she was hit by a sniper in the Sarajevo city center in November 1994. The bullet that passed through her stomach hit her seven-year old son Nermin in the head. The defense counsel claims the victim doesn’t know where the fatal bullet was fired from

At the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic, former VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander, the court hears testimony of victims and eye-witnesses of the sniper terror campaign. In addition to the sniping, Milosevic is charged with the shelling of Sarajevo

Dutch general Nikolai, former UNPROFOR Chief of Staff in Sarajevo testifies about the protest letters he sent to the accused Dragomir Milosevic and his superior Ratko Mladic in 1995. The protests concerned the shelling of Sarajevo and sniper attacks on civilians. In the cross-examination, the witness confirms the defense argument that the Bosniaks “shelled their own people”, “provoked Serb snipers” and that “all men and boys in Sarajevo had arms”

In the cross-examination of former UNPROFOR Chief of Staff in BH, the defense counsel of General Dragomir Milosevic put it to the witness that the Markale 2 massacre on 28 August 1995 had been caused by planted explosive devices. General Nikolai says that “a thorough investigation” had determined that the shells had been fired from Serb positions “with 99 percent reliability”. The prosecution witness “clarifies” some of the claims he made yesterday which seemed to confirm the defense arguments

Dr. Bakir Nakas thinks that the State Hospital in Sarajevo was shelled "on purpose, with the intention to destroy its vital parts". It was a military hospital, so the attackers were acquainted with its layout. At the trial of general Dragomir Milosevic, the court heard the evidence of two sniper victims, wounded in November 1994

A Sarajevo crime lab technician took the stand at the trial of Dragomir Milosevic today. He did on-site investigations at the scenes of artillery and sniper attacks. The Trial Chamber admitted into evidence photos and sketches he made at the crime scenes in 12 Gete Street and the RTV building. The latter was hit by a modified air bomb in June 1995

Dragomir Milosevic's defense counsel accuses a protected prosecution witness today that he had set up the firing of the projectile that had hit the Sarajevo TV building in June 1995, adding that he had done that either alone or together with other members of the investigation team at the explosion site. In the re-examination, the prosecution produced a document in which General Mladic congratulates the Serb artillery their accurate targeting of “the center of the media fabricating lies against the just struggle of Serb people"

Three witnesses testify about the sniper attack on a Sarajevo tram on 23 November 1994. One person was killed and six injured in the attack. The defense counsel challenges their evidence, claiming that "there were constant clashes and exchanges of fire between the two sides in that part of Sarajevo"

Two witnesses describe how they were wounded in sniper attacks in December 1994 and December 1995. Their evidence confirms the allegation of the indictment that even everyday, routine tasks, such as getting firewood or riding on a tram were not safe in Sarajevo under siege

Witnesses of a sniper attack on a Sarajevo tram reject the claims made by General Dragomir Milosevic's defense that they were shot by stray bullets in an exchange of fire between "the two warring sides". They are sure the shots were fired from the direction of Grbavica and that they were fired by "only one warring side"

“If one Serb civilian got killed in Sarajevo, we could expect ten Muslims to be killed soon afterwards,” Canadian general David Fraser said, describing the disproportionate Serb response to the BH Army attacks. Did the accused General Milosevic have nightmares because of "targets with civilians all around them"?

The witness who took the stand today at the Dragomir Milosevic trial today was a tram driver in Sarajevo in 1994. He testified about several sniper attacks and an artillery attack on trams he drove in 1994. To describe the situation he and his passengers were in during those days, he said "You could plan you’d go there, but not that you’d come back”

The shell that hit Markale in August 1995 was fired from the territory controlled by Bosnian Serbs, says UN military observer Tom Knustad. The shell was fired from the direction where the UN had its observation post. The witness was at the post at the time of the explosion

Dragomir Milosevic's defense counsel demonstratively refused to examine the prosecution witness. The witness gave evidence in the same jacket he wore 12 years ago when he was injured by a sniper. The defense counsel thought this showed that the Sarajevo police did not investigate the incident in a professional manner and that there was no need for him to cross-examine the witness

Mohamed Asam Butt, a lieutenant colonel from Pakistan, described an incident in which a French UNPROFOR soldier was killed by a sniper near the Holiday Inn Hotel in April 1995. Soon afterwards, he himself was targeted by Grbavica snipers. On his arrival in Sarajevo, the witness was expelled from the territory controlled by Bosnian Serbs, because “Muslims are not welcome”, even if they were UN military observers

Sanjin Hasanefendic, Sarajevo police crime scene technician, described how civilians had been killed in several shelling incidents in Novo Sarajevo in 1994 and 1995. General Dragomir Milosevic's defense counsel maintained that nobody had been killed in those incidents, claiming that the bodies had been brought there from other places and that the witness took part in the staging of the incidents

During the war, more than a million projectiles of different caliber hit Sarajevo. The explosives experts there had plenty of opportunity to analyze various craters and other traces left by explosions. The explosives experts in Sarajevo were thus "the most experienced in the world". A protected witness said this as he gave evidence at the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic. General Milosevic is charged with the Sarajevo shelling campaign

According to General Dragomir Milosevic's defense, the explosion at the Markale town market in August 1995 was not caused by a mortar shell but by "a planted explosive device". Nobody was hurt in the explosion. The bodies shown on TV had been killed elsewhere and brought to Markale

Most of the 44 photos taken after the Markale 2 massacre on 28 August 1995 are so "disturbing" that they were not shown in court. Sead Besic, a crime scene technician with the BH Interior Ministry claims that 70 persons got killed in the incident. Dragomir Milosevic's defense counsel maintains that a “few people were injured" and that the rest of the bodies were "planted", as he said

Former US marine and Sarajevo firefighter describes his three-year service in the UN fire brigade and speaks of a sniper incident listed in the indictment against Dragomir Milosevic

On 8 November 1994, three shells landed in Livanjska Street in Sarajevo in just three hours. Six persons were injured; two died of shrapnel wounds. Lejla Hodzic was one of them. She was not more then 14 years old

Former BH Army soldier testified with voice and image distortion as protective measures at the trial of Dragomir Milosevic, former VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander. He explained the difference, in his opinion, between "Chetniks" and Serbs in wartime Sarajevo

General Dragomir Milosevic and his predecessor at the post of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander General Galic waged war differently, says Ismet Hadzic, former commander of the 1st Dobrinja Brigade. The question is: was the BH Army in Sarajevo “provoking” the other side or “defending the city against the aggressor and fighting for survival”?

Testifying at the trial for the shelling of Sarajevo and the sniper campaign against its civilians, General Rupert Smith, former UNPROFOR commander, confirms he "heard the allegations" that the BH Army would open fire on their civilians but he was never "shown a single piece of evidence to corroborate them”

Per Brennskag, former UN military observer, claims that the projectile that hit the Sarajevo TV building on 28 June 1995 was fired by the VRS. However, the UNPROFOR report written the day after the incident states that the projectile was "most likely fired from the BH Army positions”. According to the witness, some of the information in that report "was not correct"

Three teams conducted separate on-site investigations after the Markale 2 incident. The Sarajevo police department, The French battalion and the UN military observers reached the same conclusion: the mortar shell was fired from the territory controlled by the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps

Dragomir Milosevic’s defense counsel claims that the former UN military observer in Sarajevo lacks medical expertise to tell when “a person is dead”. A 120mm mortar shell “could not have killed so many people”, he says, and it did not come from the territory controlled by the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps. The witness begs to differ

Although General Milosevic's defense counsel said that he would wanted to keep his view of the incident in Bascarsija in which 2 persons got killed and 7 seriously injured on 22 December 1994 "for his closing argument", in the end, at the judges’ insistence, he said it had been yet another "staged explosion"

At the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic, a Sarajevo police inspector describes the details of the on-site investigation after the explosion of three shells in the Livanjska Street in Sarajevo on 8 November 1994. Three persons – two of them children – died in the incident. Video recordings of the craters and explosion marks in the concrete were shown in court. The people of Sarajevo call them “roses” or “paws”

In the cross-examination of American historian Robert Donia, the defense for Dragomir Milosevic, former Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander, covered all the arguments about the universal hatred towards the Serbs, from the time before Christ to the war in Sarajevo. Defense counsel Tapuskovic once again quoted the fugitive general Ratko Mladic

Luka Dragicevic came to The Hague as a prosecution witness but in his testimony he corroborated General Dragomir Milosevic’s defense case. Saying that “there was no such thing as a siege” he added that the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps had in fact been encircled by the BH Army. The Sarajevo-Romanija Corps had to respond to the provocations and ceasefire violations by the BH Army, which enjoyed UNPROFOR protection

Vahid Karavelic, who commanded the 1st Corps of the BH Army during the war, took the stand today at the trial of Dragomir Milosevic. Former VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps is on trial for the shelling and sniper campaign targeting Sarajevo civilians from August 1994 to the end of war

General Milosevic’s defense uses a number of BH Army combat reports to argue that the BH Army snipers fired the bullets that killed citizens of Sarajevo, not the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, commanded by the accused. Vahid Karavelic, former commander of the BH Army 1st Corps, labels such claims “monstrous”

The issue of relevance of the documents tendered into evidence by General Milosevic’s defense divided the Trial Chamber. Judge Robinson and Judge Mindua were in favor of admitting BH Army combat reports into evidence, while Judge Harhoff found the documents “interesting but not relevant” to the case. The prosecution on the other hand is not opposed to the admission of the documents

Dutch colonel Van der Weijden claims that in most cases the snipers are able to distinguish between civilians and soldiers, and military and civilian targets. If this is not possible, they are not supposed to fire

Captain Hansen came to The Hague to clarify his report, where he had stated that the Sarajevo TV building had been hit by a missile fired from the BH Army controlled territory. Yet he was not of much assistance to the Trial Chamber, as he had neither seen nor heard the projectile being fired. In fact, he based his report on “second-hand” information

A Sarajevo forensic technician testifies about the on-site investigations he conducted after the explosions of modified air bombs on several locations in Sarajevo in 1994 and 1995. The scenes and damage at the explosion sites reminded him of ‘places of evil"

The Sarajevo-Romanija Corps artillerymen modified air bombs using the Russian method. According to the prosecution expert witness Berko Zecevic, they could then launch them from the ground. The launcher technology was developed in the Military Technical Institute in Belgrade. The air bombs were used in Sarajevo in the same way that the Russians had used them in Grozny, Chechnya

General Dragomir Milosevic’s defense argues that Sarajevo was not shelled by modified air bombs, but that casualties and damage to property were caused by “ordinary explosives” planted by the BH Army and activated by remote control

Milomir Soja, former VRS member, testified about his contribution to the modification of the electronic system on the air bomb launcher in the Ilidza Brigade. According to him, modified air bombs are inaccurate and unreliable projectiles that were positioned by the Serbian army on four positions near Sarajevo

General Dragomir Milosevic’s defense claims that taking photos and securing the crime scene is “the police’s sacred duty”. Vekaz Turkovic, former crime scene technician in the Sarajevo Security Services Center, believes that human lives are the priority. Turkovic is a prosecution witness called to prove that the terror campaign in Sarajevo was systematic and wide-spread

British war correspondent Martin Bell testified at the trial of General Milosevic. After his report on the Markale massacre on 28 August 1995 was shown in court, he admitted that to this day the fact that he couldn’t portray the real scale of the bloodshed made him unhappy. The reason why he couldn’t do that was the editorial policy of BBC: the reports were not to upset the public too much. Bell believes that BBC “should be ashamed because of that”

Only life sentence would ‘fully reflect criminal responsibility of the accused’ charged with ‘some of the gravest crimes ever tried before the Tribunal’, notes Stefan Waespi, senior trial attorney for the prosecution, in his closing argument today

In its closing argument at the trial of former VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander, his defense again resorts to the strategy of total denial of the charges for artillery and sniping campaign against Sarajevo and its civilian population

Dragomir Milosevic, former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, was found guilty of the shelling and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo and its citizens from August 1994 to late 1995. Milosevic was sentenced to 33 years in prison

In the appellate brief, the prosecution calls for life sentence for General Dragomir Milosevic. In the judgment delivered in December 2007, the Trial Chamber sentenced former SRK commander to 33 years in prison

At the appellate hearing in the case of former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps Dragomir Milosevic, sentenced to 33 years for artillery and sniper campaign in Sarajevo, the prosecution asked that this ‘patently inadequate’ sentence be changed to life in prison. The defense called for the acquittal of the accused or a much milder sentence

On 12 November 2009, the Appeals Chamber will deliver the final judgment to VRS general Dragomir Milosevic. The Trial Chamber sentenced Milosevic to 33 years for the artillery and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo. The prosecution has labeled the Trial Chamber’s judgment inadequate, calling for life sentence, while the defense asked for the acquittal or for a milder sentence

The Appeals Chamber today reduced the sentence for the commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps from 33 to 29 years in prison, quashing his convictions for the shelling incidents that occurred in August 1995, when he was undergoing medical treatment in Belgrade