Karadzic Says Video Proves Markale Massacre Was Staged

www.slobodan-milosevic.org - June 23, 2010

 

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

 

Hearing Date: May 11, 2010

 

The testimony of David Harland, the former UN undersecretary for peacekeeping in Bosnia, concluded on Tuesday, May 11th.

 

Sarajevo

 

A large portion of Harland’s testimony dealt with the Sarajevo siege. He said, “By the time I arrived, there was no doubt that weapons were flowing into all three sides, but overwhelmingly, by far, the best armed side was the Serbs.”

 

Harland agreed with Karadzic that the shelling of Sarajevo was militarily justified, at least to an extent. He said, “I agree that there were many military targets in the city.  My concern was that much of the [Serbian] bombardment was not against those targets.  It was against the civilian populations for reasons simply designed to terrorize the poor innocent civilians.”

Harland also agreed with Karadzic that Muslim forces targeted and terrorized Serbian civilians in the Sarajevo neighborhoods of Hrasnica, Hadzici, and Grbavica.

 

Karadzic put his thesis to the witness that “the bulk of [Serbian] shells hit along the front lines” in Sarajevo because “had [they] been fired at Sarajevo [the city] would have looked like Dresden” He said, “We [didn’t] have so many infantry forces [as the Muslims], so in order to be able to recapture a feature; we would be using quite considerable artillery in order to do that.” Harland replied saying, “Yes, I would agree with that assessment.”

 

Karadzic asked the witness, “Are you aware that Muslims, from the beginning to the end of the war, the Muslim army, used this trick to open fire at us from sensitive spots so that we would retaliate and then have our name blackened because of that?” Harland answered, “Yes.”

 

Karadzic showed Harland several combat reports sent by the units of the ABiH stationed in Sarajevo to their central command. These documents (exhibits D182, D183, D184, D185. D186, D187, D188, and D189) detail the expenditure of ammunition by these units and show that the Muslim forces in Sarajevo fired thousands of shells at the Bosnian-Serbs.

 

Harland confirmed the accuracy of the documents and said, “We were aware that in the spring of 1995 they were preparing an offensive to break out of the city [of Sarajevo], yes”
 

Harland also contradicted the testimony of Fatima Zaimovic when he confirmed the presence of the 105th Mountain Brigade of the ABiH near the Kosevo Hospital in Breka. Karadzic asked the witness, “Do you recall that the area of responsibility of the 105th Brigade was above the hospital up there, Breka and towards Grdonj; is that right?” and Harland replied saying, “Yes, I think that is right.  Breka, yeah.”

 

Markale Market Massacre Video

 

Karadzic asked the witness questions about the Markale Market Massacres. The first question he asked was whether the witness was claiming the massacres were a Serbian act.

 

Harland answered saying, “There were two incidents at Markale, and on the first Markale massacre there were no conclusive empirical proof either way but some circumstantial evidence that pointed to the Serbs.

 

“The second Markale, there was an investigates which empirically demonstrated to the UNPROFOR commander that the shell was fired by the Serb, but this was disputed by one of our big artillery experts, Colonel Demurenko, who -- so again, it was not undisputed, but it indicated that it was probably the Serbs.”

 

Karadzic only dealt with the first Markale attack in his cross-examination. He put two documents to the witness. The first document was a report (exhibit D179) written by the UN Secretary-General dated February 16, 1994. The report said: “The distance of origin of fire clearly overlaps each side of the confrontation line by 2,000 meters.  Both parties are known to have 120-millimetre mortars and bombs to go along with them. There is insufficient physical evidence to prove that one party or the other fired the mortar bomb.  The mortar bomb in question could, therefore, have been fired by either side.”

 

The second document was Harland’s own report on the incident (exhibit P827) it said, “The circumstances surrounding the massacre at the Sarajevo marketplace on 5th of February, 1994, remain unclear.  UNPROFOR has conducted a second and more thorough investigation into the incident. The result of the investigation, however, remains that it is not possible to determine from which side of the confrontation line the bomb was fired.”

 

The most dramatic part of he hearing came when Karadzic showed clips of what he purported to be unedited video of the massacre site. The Tribunal refused to admit the video into evidence, but the clips he showed in court can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=___I3vGpmAQ

 

Karadzic said the video proved that the scene of the massacre had been fabricated.

 

The video showed a man holding an artificial leg at the market prior to the explosion. Karadzic said, “This is before the explosion. This is an artificial leg before the explosion that would need to be planted” He urged Harland to look at “the stalls and the stands [in the market] there is nothing on them. There are no people. There are no products. There is no explanation for the over 200 who were affected by the explosion. They have nothing to do at such a market.”

 

As the camera panned over the wounded and dead in the aftermath of the explosion Karadzic said, “And now after the explosion there is the leg that was ‘blown off’. This is the leg that we saw a little bit earlier.” As the camera panned over one of the bodies Karadzic asserted, “This is a dummy, Mr. Harland. It's a mannequin used for shop windows.” Another clip showed a man moving a body on a plastic sheet and Karadzic said, “He’s preparing the scene where the investigators are supposed to come.”

 

Karadzic claimed that bodies had been brought in from elsewhere. As the video played he said, “you can see them dragging this body which was held somewhere for a very long time. The arm is stiff” implying that rigor mortis had set in. Karadzic asserted, “These are bodies from the front.”

 

After Harland watched the video he said, “All I can say is that I spoke to our medical doctor and our military commander, and none of them came up with any of this weirdness that you are now offering us.” He said, "There was no suggestion from anybody who visited the site that 'the whole thing was rigged.' Also, there seems to be a contradiction. Either you say that it didn't happen and it was rigged, or that the Muslims did it to themselves, but it seems strange that you're simultaneously maintaining both things there. It's logically not compatible."

Actually, the logic is air-tight. If the Muslims prepared the scene with dead bodies and mannequins ahead of the explosion they would also have to be the ones who fired the fatal shell, otherwise how would they know that a shell was going to hit the market? They would have had no way to know ahead of time that the Serbs were going to fire a shell, so they would have had to be the ones who fired it themselves. 

 

Karadzic also played another video (exhibit D180) where David Owen is seen ascribing responsibility for the Markale Massacre to the Muslims.

 

The hearing ended with a 40-minute re-examination by the prosecution, thereby concluding Harland’s testimony. A complete transcript of the hearing is available at:

http://www.icty.org/x/cases/karadzic/trans/en/100511ED.htm
 


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