Mladic: About 60 Corpses in Four Morgues

Suljic, who wrote a police report about the crime and criminal report against unknown perpetrators, stuck to his allegations that the ballistic findings and witnesses’ statements indicated that the grenade came from the direction where Republika Srpska Army, VRS positions were. The then VRS Commander Mladic is charged with terrorising civilians in Sarajevo through long-lasting shelling and sniping in the period from 1992 to 1995. According to the charges, 66 persons were killed and more than 140 were wounded in the explosion at Markale on February 5, 1994. Mladic’s Defence attorney Dragan Ivetic asked the witness whether the investigation examined the allegations that the grenade exploded above the ground surface and not upon hitting the ground. “No such comments were made. From my experience I know that it did hit the ground, because it left a rose-like mark, like the one I saw during other explosion investigations,” Suljic said. Attorney Ivetic suggested that citizens from the nearby neighbourhoods, who were examined by Suljic and other policemen, could not have heard the grenade firing, flight and explosion at Markale. Suljic responded by saying that, due to short distances, it was common for Sarajevo residents to hear firing and the flight of grenades.“I personally experienced that,” the witness said. When asked why there were only 35 photographs of victims, knowing that, according to a criminal report filed by the Safety Services Center in Sarajevo, 67 people were killed, Suljic said: “I can only say that I saw about 60 corpses in four rooms in the morgue”.He assumed that the remaining corpses were taken away by relatives before they had a chance to photograph them.Defence attorney Ivetic then presented him with documents indicating that 41 people were killed and some other documents mentioning 69 victims, while the police report said that 67 people were killed in the explosion. Suljic explained that “the data was collected until the end of the investigation” and, therefore, “it was subject to changes”.The witness denied the allegations that investigators were under pressure to blame the Serb side for the crime at Markale. The trial of General Mladic, who is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica and seven other Bosnian municipalities, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and taking UNPOROFOR members hostage, is due to continue on February 18. R.M.