Djukic: The radius of destructive impact

Berko Zecevic, the Chief of the Defence Technology Desk with the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Sarajevo, testified at the trial of Novak Djukic as a Prosecution court expert. He claims that a 130mm shell, which was fired from Mount Ozren, hit Tuzla on May 25, 1995.

The Prosecution charges Novak Djukic, former commander of Ozren Tactical Group with the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), with having ordered an artillery squad, which was subordinate to him and located on Mount Ozren, of shelling Tuzla using M46 cannons on May 25, 1995. 

The indictment alleges that a 130mm projectile hit the part of the town known as Kapija, killing 71 and wounding 240 people.

“The radius of projectile’s destructive zone was as big as half of a football stadium. Each fragment was lethal, and one projectile breaks into 4,000 to 6,800 metal fragments. This type of projectile is very efficient when you have a large number of people in a small area, which was the case at Kapija square. What happened there is realistic,” said court expert Berko Zecevic.

He said that his findings were based on reports made by the UN and investigative judges in Tuzla, but he also undertook a “reconstruction of events” and derived his opinion from it. 

All reports he has reviewed indicate that the caliber of the projectile, which hit the old part of Tuzla town on May 25, 1995, was 130 mm and that it was fired from an M46 cannon. 

“The results of my analysis confirm the same projectile route, which was already determined by other investigative organs. My analysis fully corresponds to the reports made in 1995,” the court expert said, adding that he determined the caliber on the basis of fragments found at the explosion site. 

Bearing in mind all parameters he had analysed, Zecevic also said that he determined that the projectile could have been fired from Panjik village area on Mount Ozren. 

Nebojsa Pantic, Defence attorney of Novak Djukic, said he did not want to cross-examine this court expert, because the Prosecution had not included, as material evidence, any of the documents referred to by the expert, which “could be used as a basis for our examination”.

“I want to undertake a direct examination of Zecevic. He said he performed a reconstruction of events and, by law, the reconstruction should have been done by the body which had conducted the investigation. The lawfulness of this piece of evidence has therefore been brought into question,” Pantic said. After that, the Trial Chamber informed Zecevic that he would be invited to testify as a Defence witness at a later stage.

The trial is due to continue on April 22.