COURTSIDE: Sarajevo Trial

The prosecution in the trial of General Stanislav Galic last week continued calling victims and eyewitnesses of the shelling and sniping campaign against the Sarajevo's civilian population as witnesses.

The former commander of Sarajevo-Romania corps of the Bosnian Serb army is accused of crimes against humanity for his commanding role in the campaign. The defence maintains he did not know about, or could not get information on, civilian suffering in the besieged city.

Galic's ignorance will not be easy to prove, given the number of killings resulting from shelling and sniping. Last week, the chamber heard about the targeting of a group of people waiting in the open air for humanitarian aid in the Dobrinja area in February 1994.

They were hit by three mortar grenades, which killed eight and wounded more than 20. The prosecutor says the grenades were fired from Bosnian Serb positions only 300 meters away.

Eldar Hafizovic, then aged 17, recalled running out onto his balcony after hearing the first explosion and being wounded by shrapnel from a shell that followed. It was the third time the teenager was wounded. On each occasion he was hit in his flat and had to move out because the apartment was destroyed in the explosion.

He recalled one such incident, standing on the balcony with his grandmother. "A tank grenade hit the building a meter from the place we were standing," he said. "Luckily, only a part of it exploded and I was partially protected by a fridge next to me, but the flat was completely destroyed". The trial continues.

Vjera Bogati is an IWPR special correspondent at The Hague and a journalist with SENSE News Agency.