Dodik Pledges New Probe into Sarajevo, Tuzla Massacres
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Thursday that verified international experts would conduct a new investigation into the wartime massacres in Sarajevo and Tuzla and, on the basis of scientific and expert analyses, determine whether they were “terrorist acts” or war crimes.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina can only live if the truth is reached,” Dodik said. It is yet to be determinded who the experts will be and under which scope they will work.
According to previous verdicts of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, ICTY, more than 100 citizens were killed in the two incidents at Markale market in 1994 and 1995.
It was determined that the artillery projectiles were fired from positions held by the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS. However, Bosnian Serb leaderships have challenged the verdicts, blaming Bosniaks for the attack.
Twenty-eight people were killed in the massacre in Vase Miskina Street in Sarajevo in 1992, but nobody was ever sentenced for the crime.
Bosnia’s state court, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in June 2014 sentenced Novak Djukic, the commander of the “Ozren” Tactical Group of the VRS, to 20 years in prison for the attacks at Kapija in Tuzla in which 71 people died.
Speaking about the 1995 crime in Tuzla, Dodik said: “All elements indicate that the grenade could not have come from Serb-held positions, as they were too far away”.
“Even if it came from those positions, it would not have had such strength. The expert examinations will show whether an explosive device was planted,” Dodik said.
The Republika Srpska President said: “The story about Markale is also suspicious”.
