Serbian ex-army chief Mladic launches defense case at UN genocide trial
19 May 2014, 15:09 -- Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic's defense case opened at the Yugoslav war crimes court on Monday, with the testimony of a former Serb army officer who claimed he was never ordered to fire on civilians in the besieged Bosnian capital during the country's bloody war. The officer, Mile Sladoje, told the three-judge panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where Mladic faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, that his troops 'never were snipers' during the notorious 1990s siege in which 10,000 people died.
'All our activities (in Sarajevo) were defense activities,' Sladoje said in a statement read by Mladic's lawyer Miodrag Stojanovic before questioning began.
'There were standing orders, fire could only be returned in response to enemy fire,' said Sladoje, an assistant logistics commander in the Bosnian Serb Army, who was saluted by Mladic as he walked into the courtroom.
The testimony of Mile Sladoje, a wartime Serb military commander in Sarajevo, likely set the tone for Mladic's attempt to clear his name of charges that he was responsible for a string of Serb atrocities throughout the bloody 1992-1995 conflict.
Mladic's 11-count indictment alleges that he was the military mastermind behind a deadly Serb sniping and mortar campaign in Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica.
He denies the charges and insists his forces were trying to defend Serbs during the conflict that left some 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million others homeless. Mladic faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
Presiding Judge Alphons Orie has given Mladic's lawyers 207 hours to question witnesses - the same amount of time given to the prosecution, who finished their case earlier this year, the ICTY said in a statement.
There was no restriction on the number of witnesses defense lawyers could call, it added.
Serbs deny systematically targeting civilians with mortars and sniper rifles during the siege of Sarajevo, saying that they were shooting at Bosnian Muslim forces holed up in buildings throughout the city.
Mladic was first indicted in 1995 but went into hiding after the war and was not arrested until May 2011. The former general's trial started a year later and prosecutors wrapped up their case in February.
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