Former UNPROFOR Officer Describes Markale Investigation at Mladic Trial

Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo. Prosecutors at the Hague allege that Mladic is responsible for the Markale Market attacks, in which grenades were fired from Bosnian Serb Army positions onto the market from the hills above Sarajevo. The first Markale Market attack on February 5, 1994, killed 66 civilians and wounded 140 more.

Michael Gaultier led the UNPROFOR team which conducted a crime scene investigation six days after the explosion. Gaultier said it wasn’t possible to determine the exact position from which the grenade was fired or which of the warring factions was responsible for the attack.

Testifying via video link from Canada, Gaultier confirmed they were only able to determine that the grenade was fired from the northeast, from a distance of approximately 300 to 5,500 meters.

Gaultier said the Bosnian Serb Army and Bosnian Army both had mine-throwers and grenades that were used in the Markale Market attacks. He said both sides were within range of the market, and weapons could have easily been hidden on both sides.

Mladic’s defense attorney, Dragan Ivetic, asked Gaultier whether his team discussed the possibility that the grenade could have been fired by the Bosnian Army.

“I cannot remember any concrete information in that context that would be useful for us,” Gaultier responded.

Responding to questions by prosecutors, Gaultier agreed that he wasn’t an expert on the analysis of mine-thrower grenade craters or ballistics. Gaultier excluded the possibility that a planted mine or a mine-thrower grenade launched from a nearby building could have been responsible for the attack.

“It was obvious that a 120mm mine-thrower grenade, which was launched using a firing needle, exploded at that location,” Gaultier said.

He also accepted a prosecutor’s suggestion that, unlike the Bosnian Serb Army, the Bosnian Army didn’t have mine-thrower positions in the direction from which the grenade fell.

“We could not reject the possibility that the grenade was fired from the Bosnian side, but we could not find evidence that it was,” Gaultier said.

Gaultier said that months before the explosion the Bosnian Serb Army had prohibited the UN’s military observers from accessing mine-thrower positions. Gaultier’s investigation determined that the grenades fell from the direction of Bosnian Serb Army positions.

Mladic has also been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (which reached the scale of genocide in six municipalities), and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

The trial will continue tomorrow, September 22.