Written by: Merisa Karović-Babić
Source: Stav.ba
The market and the open Markale market across from it, a place with a trading tradition of more than a hundred years, was on several occasions the target of shelling during the siege of Sarajevo from the positions of the Sarajevo-Romanian Corps of the Army of the Republika Srpska (SRK VRS). Given that many shops, supermarkets and grocery stores in the city were closed, the markets were almost the only places where citizens could get basic food, and at the same time the places where they gathered en masse, exchanging their survival experiences, war recipes and buying not so cheap products.
On February 5, 1994, a few minutes after noon, a grenade was fired from the position of the SRK from the direction of Mrković and exploded on the asphalt surface inside the Markale green market at a time when several hundred citizens were present in the market. According to records from the Clinical Center, the State Hospital and the French Battalion Hospital in Sarajevo, a total of 67 civilians were killed and 139 wounded as a result of the explosive and shattering effects of the grenade, while one more person died as a result of injuries while being treated in Hamburg.
After this massacre, the market was moved to the passage across the street from Markala, which was cramped and unconditioned, and the sale of groceries spread to stalls in haustors, passageways of nearby residential buildings, and on the sidewalks behind the Markala market.
However, the "relocation" of the market failed to prevent new mass crimes in this area, since it was one of the most frequented locations in the city. On August 28, 1995, at 11:00 a.m., a grenade was fired from the SRK position in the direction of Trebević, which exploded on the asphalt surface behind the Markale market. As a result of its explosive effect, 23 civilians were killed on the spot and 81 civilians were wounded. On the way to the hospital, after the operation, and as a result of severe wounding, on the same day or in the following days, another 20 civilians died, so the total number of victims with a fatal outcome was 43 civilians. Almost simultaneously with this one, in the immediate vicinity of the National Theatre, four more shells exploded, as a result of which eight civilians were wounded.
Three high school students, then student Sabaheta Vukotić and her father Ajdin Vukotić are some of the mentioned 43 victims. As part of the investigation, the CSB photographer of the RBiH MUP took photos at the massacre site, which contained very moving scenes of children's feet, sneakers, the index of the mentioned student and numerous other personal belongings of the victims. Among the victims who succumbed to severe injuries after the operation was, for example, Ismet Klarić. Together with his wife, Mesuda Klarić, he bought flowers for his daughter-in-law, whose birthday was that day. After the grenade exploded, both were wounded, and Mesuda heard her husband tell her that he had lost his arm.
"Only when they lifted my husband to put him in the trunk, I realized from what I saw that he was seriously wounded. His foot had been cut off and was hanging on only by a piece of skin. He had another very serious wound on his groin, the flesh was torn and I could see the bone. Another wound was in the heart area, but I couldn't see how serious that wound was, because he was wearing a shirt. All I saw was a big bloodstain. So they drove us to the hospital. They immediately took us to surgery. Since there were many wounded people that day, we sat on the floor. There wasn't enough room for us. The medical staff did everything to help us as soon as possible. They even gave us blankets to put on the floor and sit like that, because the morning was cold. They put a bandage on my wound. I still have pieces of shrapnel in my body. (…) After they treated all the wounds I had, they moved me from surgery to the orthopedic clinic. Before leaving, while I was waiting for the ambulance, I saw my husband being taken out of surgery and taken to the morgue. (…) All the wounds have healed, only my husband is gone." – (Mesuda Kladić, 23.2.1996). Razija Čolić also died as a result of being wounded at the Markale market, eight days after the massacre. After the occupation of Žepa and forced relocation from this area, she was placed together with her husband Mustafa in one of the collective centers in Sarajevo.
Shocking footage after the massacre in Markale was broadcast on many TV stations in the country and around the world, and the crime itself was met with numerous reactions from both international and domestic officials. But, “…under the rules of benevolent care for viewers, only a few of those recordings could be shown on the BBC.” - (Martin Bell).
In the report on the investigation made by the High Court in Sarajevo and the MUP of RBiH, the gruesome scenes that the investigators found immediately after the massacre are described: "Around the very center of the explosion, large traces and pools of blood are visible, and these traces and pools of blood spread over the entire area with the width of the street, and along the street on both sides in a line of 50-60 m. In front of the market entrance, there is a woman's foot with painted nails on the sidewalk, and a man's foot one meter away.
About ten meters from the entrance to the Market on the sidewalk, a foot with part of the lower leg in a black sock and many other parts of the human body (hands, brain and internal organs) located in several places. In addition to this, there are various personal items everywhere: handbags, documents, bills (domestic and foreign), various food products, various types of cigarettes, lighters, bulk tobacco, 2 bicycles with visible damage and flat tires, parts of shoes and clothes, on the street where a motorcycle was knocked down from the tram tracks, a man's summer sandal and a human brain in front of it, and a spilled brain 2 m away..." - (Excerpt from the Record of Investigation, High Court in Sarajevo, 28/08/1995).
This massacre was the reason for military intervention, i.e. the bombing of VRS positions by NATO, which followed only after the publication of the official results of the UNPROFOR investigation into responsibility for this crime, according to which the conclusion was undoubtedly reached that the shells were fired from the SRK position from the direction of Trebević and Lukavica. However, the results of this investigation were kept secret until all members of UNPROFOR were secured in the field or evacuated from the crisis areas.
Namely, the leader of the UN military observer team, Lt. Col. Konings, on several occasions, in the following period, testified to the ICTY investigators that he and his two colleagues came to the conclusion that "the grenade was fired by the Serbs" during the investigation, on the face of it places in Markale, but that the superior observers from the UN forbade him to say anything about the "incident" or the report in which his team's opinion is stated "that it was fire that came from Bosnian Serbs", so he was cautious and he refrained from making any statement.
However, UNPROFOR Commander General Rupert Smith was verbally informed of the "real" results of the investigation, after which he made the decision to launch a bombing campaign together with the Commander-in-Chief of Sector South (CINCSOUTH). However, on the advice of David Harland, General Smith, although he knew at the time that the shells had been fired from positions under SRK control, was cautious in making statements in order to "not alert the Bosnian Serbs and buy time" for UN personnel to - was evacuated from Goražde. Therefore, he decided to wait for a more favorable moment for the publication of the mentioned results of the investigation, i.e. after providing members of UNPROFOR, especially the British battalion in Goražde, which was supposed to retreat to Zagreb late in the evening of August 28 via Belgrade.
That day and the following day, Smith held three interviews with General Ratko Mladic, then suspected of crimes against humanity and international law, who, referring to the SRK report, denied VRS involvement in the attack. The next day, on August 29, 1995, the Intelligence Service (G2) submitted a "confidential" report, "for use within the UN only", in which it states that it was concluded " beyond any doubt that the firing position for all five mortar projectiles was located on the territory of the VRS, between Lukavica and Miljević", with the assessment that the place where the grenade was fired from Markal was between 3000 and 5000 meters away, i.e. deep in the territory that was under controlled by SRK.
After receiving the written results, General Smith forwarded the details of the investigation to the UNPROFOR commander in Zagreb, and UNPROFOR civilian spokesman Aleksandar Ivanko announced the results of the investigation at a press conference, announcing that "all options are possible, including attacks from the air”. In contrast to the previous period, such a determined attitude of UNPROFOR, which left the final decision to NATO, caused a reaction from all opponents of the bombing of VRS positions. The Russian political leadership and public opinion reacted particularly violently, and UNPROFOR member, Russian citizen Andrei Demurenko, head of the Sarajevo Sector, decided to conduct his own investigation "so as not to allow the Serbs to be accused of everything, without any impartiality".
Although conducting investigations was not within his competence, noting that he is a soldier, a colonel, and that this is "a job for a special investigation and special researchers that will include experts, prosecutors and members of the military court", Demurenko, after the investigation that lasted from From August 29 to 31, he stated that he visited the positions of the VRS and that "there is no possibility that a grenade could be fired from this position at the position where it fell".
However, after the ICTY Prosecutor's Office at the trial of SRK commander General Dragomir Milošević showed Demurenko a photo that he had taken with his own hand at one of the positions he visited during his investigation, he agreed that "it was possible to operate from there with a mortar or even a tank directly around the city". After the conclusion of the President of the Trial Chamber Judge Robinson that he based his testimony on assumptions, Demurenko defended himself that he is not "a high-ranking specialist in legal matters or the anti-terrorist fight". After the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, after returning to Moscow, Colonel Demurenko received the Order of Republika Srpska, which is dear to him, "because someone remembered the Russian colonel who wanted the world to know the real truth about Markale".
The final report of the UNPROFOR Special Engineering Unit, Sarajevo Sector, was completed on September 6, 1995. After analyzing the tail wing, the head of the investigation came to the conclusion that it was a 120 mm grenade, Serbian production, without markings and paint, with an untreated steel surface. , "which corresponds to the current type used by Bosnian Serbs", from positions located in the wider area of Trebević - Lukavica (Blizanci place), which was under the control of the SRK. The report of all UNPROFOR investigations into this massacre, which was compiled at the request of the UN in New York, was prepared by Colonel Baxter on September 8, 1995. With a prior appeal to discretion, after analyzing all available UN data, it was concluded that all investigations agree that the mortar projectiles were "fired from Bosnian Serb territory", and in the final and comprehensive report this was taken as an "indisputable" element.
Twelve years after this crime, at the trial of SRK commander General Dragomir Milošević, while denying responsibility for the massacre, the entire thesis of the defense was based on trying to prove that "the shell flew at a low speed or that its detonation was carried out in static conditions ”, and the defense expert for forensic medicine, Ivica Milosavljević, “assumes” that the bodies of the victims were subsequently placed at the scene of the crime and that they were moved from one place to another.
The Trial Chamber considers that the conclusions of the defense experts are "not convincing", that they used methods that are "unreliable", as well as, given the fact that none of them were at the site of the explosion and did not perform measurements on the spot, unlike of the investigator whose results they disputed, "sees no reason to question" the measurements carried out by members of the MUP of the RBiH, UN and UNPROFOR observers. Therefore, in the first-instance verdict against Dragomir Milošević, it was stated that the Trial Chamber was "convinced that the mortar shell that hit the street near the Markale market was fired from the territory under the control of the SRK, and that it was fired by members of the SRK", which the Appeals Chamber confirmed in the said case.
However, despite the fact that Dragomir Milošević was in the position of commander of the SRK from August 1994 until the end of the siege of Sarajevo, the ICTY Appeals Chamber accepted the evidence of the defense that the accused was undergoing treatment in Belgrade during August and early September 1995, which is why overturned the conviction for the shelling of the Markale market, and stated that Čedomir Sladoje, the SRK chief of staff, took over Milošević's duties and "issued orders representing the commander".
(Merisa Karović-Babić, Mass killings of civilians in Sarajevo during the siege 1992-1995, UNSA Institute for Research on Crimes against Humanity and International Law, Sarajevo, 2014. 209-234.)