Grenade Fired at Markale Produced in Serbia

A mine-thrower grenade, which exploded in front of Markale open market in August 1995, killing and wounding tens of Sarajevo citizens, was made in the “Krusik” factory in Valjevo, Serbia, two years before, says Emir Turkusic, the then Investigator with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, testifying at Ratko Mladic’s trial.

Turkusic, who was member of a Counter-diversion Protection Team with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which undertook an investigation into the explosion at Markale, said that a KV-9307 mark was discovered on the grenade stabiliser, which meants that the projectile was made in “Krusik”, Valjevo, in July 1993.
 
Four other grenades, which exploded in the vicinity of Markale in Oslobodilaca Sarajeva Street, a couple of hundreds of metres away, on that same day had the same mark.
 
The then Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, General Mladic is charged with having terrorised civilians in Sarajevo by long-lasting shelling and sniping from 1992 to 1995. According to the charges, the VRS fired the grenade, which killed 43 and wounded 75 citizens at Markale on August 28, 1995.
 
Turkusic said that the angle and direction from which the grenade came, as determined through the investigation conducted by Sarajevo police, showed that the projectile came from a location 2,400 metres away, where VRS positions were located. According to the witness, only radars could have determined the exact firing location, while the investigators were neither able nor tasked to do it.
 
Through more than 100 investigations into explosions in Sarajevo, Turkusic determined that grenades fired from VRS positions “mostly” hit civilian buildings.
 
Turkusic said that he had “absolutely never come across authentic evidence”, confirming that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, targeted its own citizens with grenades.
 
At the beginning of cross-examination Mladic’s Defence attorney Branko Lukic asked the witness if he heard about a statement by Nedzad Herenda, member of secret police of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who said that he chose civilians in the Sarajevo downtown area as sniper targets.
 
“I have not heard such a statement. In case it is completely true, it does not deny my statement at all,” Turkusic said.
 
When asked by Mladic’s Defence attorney whether he heard that, on November 9, 1993 the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina fired “two grenades on Trg Zavnobih”, which “killed four boys and a teacher”, the witness said that he had never heard about that before.
 
“I think that is a part of propaganda used in each war, switching theses and untruths. That too is war ammunition,” Turkusic said. After that presiding judge Alphonso Orie warned him by telling him that it was enough for him to just say that he had not heard about the incident.
 
The Defence is due to continue cross-examining witness Turkusic on August 28.
 
General Mladic is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities, and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.