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Karadzic: Fear Pervaded Lives of Sarajevo Residents

Richard Mole

18 August 2010  A former United Nations military observer in Sarajevo told the trial of Radovan Karadzic that hundreds of projectiles hit the city every day in 1992.

Richard Mole, who worked in the city from September to December 1992, said that the Bosnian Serbs "implemented a long-term siege of Sarajevo” in order to pressure the city and fulfill their plans at other locations.  

“The noise never stopped in the city which was under the siege for such a long time. If the strike rate was about 100 projectiles per day, we would write down in our reports that the day was quiet. A rather active day was when between 400 and 500 projectiles hit the city while a day was extremely active when more than 600 projectiles were fired,” Mole said.
 
Karadzic, the former Supreme Commander of the Republika Srpska armed forces, is on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, for genocide, crimes against humanity and spreading terror among civilians in Sarajevo by implementing a sniper and shelling campaign from 1992 to 1995.
 
The indictment alleges that the VRS forces shelled and opened sniper fire against civilians while they performed their daily activities, killing and wounding thousands of civilians of all ages, including children and the elderly.  
 
Civilians were wounded and killed in their own homes. There was no gas, electricity or drinking water in the city and people had no choice but to leave their homes, increasing the risk of being killed.
 
Mole, who was testifying for the prosecution, said there had never been “a real ceasefire” in Sarajevo, because tensions would increase just a few days after the signing of ceasefire agreements.
 
“I cannot explain how many times I was exposed to direct fire. The same thing happened to other soldiers. Wherever you went and whatever you did, you were exposed to constant fear that your trip would end. If this was how I felt, then the fear was huge in the densely inhabited parts of the city, as people had no choice and they had to live there. Their lives were pervaded by fear,” Mole explained.
 
Answering Karadzic’s questions, the witness said that both Muslims and Serbs “undertook activities aimed at provoking a response by the other side”, adding that the international media reporting from Bosnia and Herzegovina often took an anti-Serb approach to the war.  
 
“I was always concerned about the fact that the evidence used by some media outlets was weak. Personally, I am convinced that media had an anti-Serb approach to the conflict. The same approach may have been applied in a much broader context, going all the way up to highly-ranking politicians whom I met in Sarajevo,” Mole said.  
 
 Karadzic will continue his cross-examination of Mole on August 18.