Ballistics Expert Tells of Markale Mortar Evidence

Velma Šarić

IWPR-trained journalist

Friday, 25 February, 2011

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The Hague trbunal trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic heard testimony this week from a ballistic expert regarding the mortar which was fired on the Markale market in Sarajevo on February 5, 1994.

Berko Zecevic said that a 120 millimetre calibre artillery mortar was shot at the market located in central Sarajevo, from a distance of some 4.9 to 6 kilometres, from the north, an area which was then under the control of the Bosnian Serb army.

Karadzic, the first president of Republika Srpska, RS, and supreme commander of the RS armed forces, is charged with the incident which occurred in and around the city’s busy Markale market on February 5, 1994, and in which more than 60 people were killed and over 140 injured.

Karadzic has also been charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the massacre of almost 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

The indictment alleges that Karadzic was responsible for crimes of persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which “contributed to achieving the objective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian Serb-claimed territory”.

Prosecutors also accuse him of orchestrating the 44-month campaign of sniping and shelling of the city of Sarajevo, which resulted in nearly 12,000 civilian deaths.

After years as a fugitive, Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade on July 21, 2008. His trial started in October 2009 and should resume in March next year.
At the beginning of his testimony this week, the witness related how he took part in an investigation the day after the Markale incident.

“I worked with three colleagues,” he said. “I volunteered because I considered that there were some flaws in the statements given the day before, so I went with my colleagues to collect some new information. The investigating judge appointed me as a commissionary expert who will create an analysis on his behalf, and that analysis was written by us within 36 hours.”

In the Bosnian legal system, as well as in the former legal system of Yugoslavia, a commissionary expert is one authorised to carry out research on behalf of and for the official investigating authorities.

Explaining his expertise when it came to artillery as well as modified, airborne and aerosol bombs, the witness said he had worked between 1975 and 1992 at Pretis, a production plant in Vogosca, close to Sarajevo, which produced artillery weapons, rocket ammunition and airborne bombs.

He added that since 1976, he had been teaching at the Sarajevo faculty of mechanical engineering and since 1980 had published more than 50 academic articles and several books on ballistics.

“I am well aware of how mine-throwers work because my factory used to produce 120 millimetre projectiles, and my task was also to develop a ‘propaganda mine’ of the same calibre. It is a mine which is supposed to lower the enemy’s morale and was based on a mine-thrower projectile with 120 millimetre caliber,” the witness explained.

“I am well familiar with all elements of the production, design and use of such projectiles,” he added.

“Who measured the shell’s impact angle at Markale market? How was that done,” asked prosecutor Fergal Gaynor.

The witness said that that he had measured it himself.

“I positioned the carrier for the stabiliser in the tunnel which was made by its impact, I took a device called an artillery quadrant, which is used to determine the angles of weapon impact, and I positioned it onto the foreside of the stabiliser and determined an angle of 60 degrees, but to be certain, I noted the angle was in a range between 55 and 65 degrees,” he continued.

Asked by the prosecutor, he also confirmed that he was “completely certain that he had positioned the stabiliser in the correct way into the hole”.

“It may mean nothing to you, but 60 metres per second or some 200 kilometre per hour is the speed with which that stabiliser carrier burst through the material, which is the same as if a car driving at 200 km/h would hit an obstacle with that speed and the impact would destroy both the car and the obstacle,” he continued. “That is the speed with which this carrier burst through the material, ie the ground.”

Karadzic who is defending himself, later cross-examined the witness asking why he thought he could do a better analysis than the police and the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNPROFOR.

The witness answered that he had 17 years of work in the military industry, and that he considered that it was possible to determine the direction from which the projectile flew into the Markale market.

Asked by Karadzic whether the scene had been cleaned, and thus significantly modified, by the time he arrived at the site, Zecevic answered that it had been.

“For example, I was told that a UNPROFOR soldier had removed the stabiliser carrier from the surface,” Zecevic added. “I asked them to bring it to me, I looked into the opening in which it was positioned and tried putting it into the opening, and succeeded without any major effort.

“I then removed that stabiliser carrier myself, noted the depth of the impact, made a sketch, repositioned the stabiliser carrier and determined the impact angle.”

Apart from the Markale incident, Zecevic also made a report on the use of modified airborne bombs with aerosol filling used by the VRS in Sarajevo during 1994 and 1995, about which Karadzic questioned him in detail.

The expert testimony by Zecevic on the type, calibre and direction of the projectile which caused the first Markale massacre in 1994 was included onto the record.

The trial continues next week.

Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist.