Karadzic: Serious Dilemmas about Markale Investigation

Among other things, the indictment charges Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska, with having implemented terror against civilians in Sarajevo, including an explosion at Markale on February 5, 1994, when 66 citizens were killed and 140 wounded.

Karadzic’s Defence witnesses – retired Canadian colonel Stephen Joudry, major John Ruchel and general Michael Gaultier said that, on the basis of an investigation conducted by UNPROFOR, it was not possible to determine the exact location from which the grenade was fired or which of the conflicting parties was responsible for firing it.

Joudry and Ruchel suggested that the grenade could have been fired from positions held by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina or dropped at Markale from the roof of a nearby building. Ruchel, who participated in the investigation on that day, said that he was “personally of the opinion” that Muslim forces “targeted themselves”, but the investigation results could not confirm that. They could just confirm that the grenade could have been fired from any of the two conflicting sides.

Joudry, who worked with the UNPROFOR Command in Zagreb in 1993 and 1994, said that, after having analysed the results of the investigation about Markale, which was conducted by international forces, he “expressed serious dilemmas about the methods and results” to his superiors, although he personally did not visit the crime location.

Mentioning shortcomings of the investigation, he said that the crater was analysed for “hours and days” after the explosion and that the grenade remnant was removed from the crater prior to the completion of the investigation, so neither the fall angle nor the direction could have been reliably determined.

The witness said that the results of the examination of the crater were “not reliable for laying blame” on anybody, particularly because both conflicting parties “used tricks” during the war. Joudry said that even the deficient results of the investigation indicated that the grenade had come from the territories, which were “95 percent” under the control of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“If Markale was the target, it was not possible to hit it with one single grenade,” without any preceding mine-throwing actions on that day, said Joudry, adding that “the most efficient way for hitting the market would be to manually launch the grenade from the roof of a nearby building”.

While being cross-examined by Prosecutor Alan Tieger, Joudry confirmed that he did not conduct an investigation at Markale himself, adding that he neither examined physical evidence nor spoken to witnesses.

He accepted the suggestion that there were no grounds for him denying the statements given by eye-witnesses. The Prosecutor presented the witness with statements given by other UNPROFOR officers, who said that the grenade stabiliser was removed, but it was returned later on in order to determine the angle and direction from which the grenade came, but the witness stuck to his allegation that it was not done correctly.

Tieger said that witness’ allegation that most parts of the territories from which the grenade could have been fired was controlled by ABiH was based on incomplete data.

When asked by the Prosecutor to describe how the grenade could have been dropped from the building roof, Joudry said that it could be done by one or two persons “with the help of some mechanism or not”. The witness estimated that the grenade weighed about 60 kilograms, while Tieger said, on the basis of tables, that the projectile weighed about 12 kilograms.

“According to your statement, the persons, who dropped the grenade, then had to go down among the dead and dying people and put the grenade stabiliser into the crater under an angle that would indicate that the grenade flew by the building,” the Prosecutor asked. The witness answered affirmatively.

Witness Ruchel said that, after having examined the crater on the day of the explosion, he determined that the grenade must have come from a very close location due to the big angle under which it hit the ground.

He said that he determined that the projectile came from East-Northeast direction from a distance of between 300 and 5,500 metres. During the cross-examination Ruchel confirmed that he did not have much experience in analysing craters prior to the Markale investigation.

General Gaultier, who conducted an investigation at Markale six days after the explosion, said that the integrity of the crater was undermined by removing the grenade remnants and that three investigators separately concluded that it was therefore not possible to reliably determine the grenade fall angle, on the basis of which the exact distance from which the grenade had been fired could have been determined.

While being cross-examined by Prosecutor Caroline Edgerton, Gaultier confirmed that no permanent mine-thrower positions held by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina were located in the possible firing zone, as far as he knew.

The trial of Karadzic, who is charged with genocide in Srebrenica and seven other Bosnian municipalities, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking UNPROFOR members hostages, is due to continue tomorrow.
R.M.