Markale Blast Caused by Explosive, not Grenade

Testifying in defence of Radovan Karadzic, ballistic expert Zorica Subotic says that the killing of civilians at Markale open market in Sarajevo in February 1994 was not caused by a mine-thrower grenade, but by “statically activated” planted explosive.

Subotic said that a mine-thrower grenade could not have possibly caused the second explosion in front of Markale closed market in August 1995 without it being registered by an UNPROFOR radar and the firing sound being heard.
 
Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, RS, and Supreme Commander of its Army, is charged with terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by long-lasting artillery and sniper attacks.
 
The indictment alleges that the mine-thrower grenade, which killed 66 and wounded more than 140 citizens at Markale on February 5, 1994, came from the direction where VRS positions were located. According to the charges, the death of 43 persons and wounding of 75 citizens in front of Markale on August 28, 1995 was caused by another grenade fired by VRS.
 
Subotic’s conclusion that the explosion at Markale in February 1994 could not have been caused by a mine-thrower grenade was based on an assessment that the projectile could not have hit the ground at the location and under the angle determined through Sarajevo police and UNPROFOR investigations without previously hitting the roof of a market stall and exploding.
 
Subotic further said that it was “practically impossible” for the stabiliser and grenade tail to remain dug into the asphalt and buried under the soil following the explosion, as depicted on a recording taken by investigators.
 
While saying that it was “completely inexplicable in technical terms” and physically impossible, the Defence expert witness explained that, when a grenade hit the ground and exploded, its stabiliser “expels” the surrounding soil, so it could not be buried under it.
 
Using the recordings made during the crime scene investigation, Subotic said that, when determining the angle under which the grenade hit the ground, Prosecution expert witness professor Berko Zecevic from Sarajevo “totally arbitrarily” manipulated the stabiliser and crater from which it was dug out.
 
The expert witness considers that Zecevic wrongly sketched the stalls at Markale, showing that their roofs were slanting, not horizontal. As she said, he did this in order to show that the mine could hit the ground without previously hitting a stall roof.
 
“On the basis of all very detailed analyses and checks of the available materials, we have concluded that the mine could not have possibly come to that location without hitting a market stall roof. Static activation was the only possibility for it being activated at that specific location,” Subotic said.
 
She presented an assumption that the stabiliser was “previously buried under the ground and that a mine, which was activated from a remote location, was then installed on top of it”.  
 
According to assessments by Karadzic’s expert witness, the number of victims of the first explosion at Markale “exceeds the technical potential” of a 120mm mine-thrower grenade, whose “capacity is limited”. Subotic said that Zecevic confirmed to her that traces of another explosion, which “has not been mentioned anywhere”, were found at the market place.
 
Analysing the second explosion in front of Markale market in August 1995, Subotic pointed out that it was “impossible” for the grenade to fall at the location and under the angle determined through an investigation conducted by Bosnian authorities and UNPROFOR without it being registered by an international forces’ radar, which was active in the Sarajevo surroundings at the time.
 
The Defence expert witness denied the Prosecution’s allegation that the grenade “flew beneath the radar beam”, saying that it was “impossible”. Subotic denied the allegation that five mines exploded in the vicinity of Markale on that day and that the last one caused the murder of civilians, saying that none of the 70 witnesses “heard any of the explosions” and that such explosions “must have been heard”. “I assume that people would have run away had they heard the explosions nearby,” the witness said.
 
While saying that the explosion crater, which could be seen on a recording made by Sarajevo police, was “shallow and barely visible”, Subotic said that this meant that the grenade had low speed and less powerful explosive charge, which would imply that it was fired from a short distance. She said that, even if the grenade was fired from the minimal distance of 900 metres, where the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina positions were located, the firing sound must have been heard.
 
Speaking about the recordings made right after the explosion, the Defence’s ballistic expert said that it was “unexpected” to see “injured persons, sitting down and asking for help, only two meters away from the explosion center”. Commenting on a victim leaning over the fence, whose right part of the body was nearly totally destroyed, Subotic said:

“The injury shown on the recording could not have been caused by shrapnel pieces of a 120mm mine, because it acts in a beam that cannot possibly cut such a big part of the body.”

The witness pointed to recordings of circular injuries on victims’ bodies, which, as appeared to the witness, were caused by small beads. She said that mine-thrower grenades did not contain small beads.
 
Karadzic is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking international personnel hostage.
 
The trial is due to continue on May 16.