Mladic Witness Says Bosniak Forces Responsible for Markale Attack

“There was a widespread belief that Muslim forces were shelling their own people so they could blame Serbs and cause an international intervention to their benefit,” the intelligence officer said, testifying under the pseudonym GRM-037.

Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with terrorizing the local population in Sarajevo. Prosecutors at the Hague believe Mladic is responsible for the Markale Market attacks. In the first attack, a mine-thrower grenade killed 66 civilians and wounded more than 140 civilians on February 5, 1994.

GRM-037 served with the UNPROFOR Command in Zagreb as of November 1994. He said an American intelligence officer showed him a photo depicting a person throwing a mine-thrower grenade into the Markale Market from the window of a nearby building.

“The photographer was in the same room as the person who threw the grenade. The photograph was obtained from the Bosnian side. The American intelligence officer showed the photo to me and others during a joint meeting on the shelling of Markale. I was between 3 and 5 meters away from that soldier,” GRM-037 said.

Responding to questions from the prosecution, GRM-037 said he couldn’t see exactly what was in the photo, which the American intelligence officer presented only briefly. He said he believed the officer’s description of what the photo depicted.

In response to a question from presiding judge Alphons Orie, GRM-037 said he believed it was possible to target a mine-thrower grenade on the market from a three story building, which was one meter away from the explosion point.

When the judge presented him with photographs and drawings of the Markale Market, GRM-037 was unable to locate any three story buildings that were one meter away from the grenade crater.

Responding to the prosecution, GRM-037 confirmed he wasn’t familiar with the details and conclusions of the official investigation into the Markale case. He also said he had never participated in the analysis of grenade craters.

GRM-037 then addressed the second attack on the Markale Market, in which 43 civilians were killed and 75 were wounded on August 28, 1995. GRM-037 said it couldn’t be determined who fired the grenade in that attack, although the projectile was recorded by UNPROFOR radar.

While he was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, GRM-037 said members of UNPROFOR and NATO worked on determining potential targets in Republika Srpska for NATO airstrikes.

“Special forces, whose members guided bombs from NATO airplanes onto Serb targets were in the field as well,” GRM-037 said.

According to GRM-037 , UN military observers behaved “like James Bond,” because they collected intelligence data for their governments. He also compared them to the fictional action hero “Rambo,” because they were armed without permission. While being examined by the prosecution, he admitted these descriptions were exaggerated and “degrading” towards his former colleagues.

GRM-037 confirmed that weapons were delivered to the Bosniak side despite the international embargo.

“A Turkish C-130 airplane, escorted by American F-16 fighter planes, used to bring weapons to the Tuzla airport, which was controlled by the UN…I have personal findings that similar airplanes landed in Zagreb at least once a week. One of them even exploded, making all of Zagreb shake,” GRM-037 said.

The indictment also charges Mladic 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 on Monday, September 21.