Mladic Witness Blames Bosnian Army for Markale Massacre

Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo, genocide in Srebrenica, the wartime persecution of Bosniaks and Croats across Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Testifying for the defense, John Russel, a former senior officer of UNPROFOR protection forces, said it wasn’t clear if the mortar shell that fell on Sarajevo’s Markale market on February 5, 1994 came from Bosnian Serb positions. Russel said he believed the Bosnian Army had fired on the Markale market.

Russel said that on the day of the explosion he took part in the investigation and analyzed the crater in the Markale market, and concluded that “both sides could have fired the missile.”

“Both the Serb and Bosnian armies had positions in the line from which the missile was fired,” Russel said.

Russel said the exact distance from where the missile was fired couldn’t have been determined, which is why it wasn’t possible to determine which side had fired.

Russel’s personal log of the attack was read aloud in the courtroom. Russel said he believed Bosnian Army forces had bombed the market. He said many people in Sarajevo refused to accept this version of events due to the number of victims involved.

When asked to define what he meant by “many,” Russel clarified that almost all of his UN colleagues didn’t agree with his version of events. Russel also said CNN reports on the Markale massacre which depicted Bosnian Serb forces as the perpetrators of the attack were “propaganda,” because CNN’s reporting preempted the UN’s report on the attack.

Russel said he believed the mortar had been fired from a steep rocket projector from Bosnian Army positions.

“That was my opinion and I wrote it down. However, my official report says that we couldn’t conclude who fired the missile,” Russel said.

Russel said that before the Markale investigation he had only analyzed craters from mortars four times. He said that he had attended two-day course in Knin before arriving to Sarajevo.

During most of the cross examination prosecutor Adam Webber read UN reports on the unproportional artillery attacks of Bosnian Serb forces on Sarajevo, published during the period of time Russel worked in Sarajevo.

Russel agreed that a lot of mortar fell on Sarajevo and that he saw attacks from both sides. He also conceded that the Bosnian Serb use of force was unproportional and that civilians were killed as a result.

The trial continues on Tuesday.