The President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik announced on Twitter during the past weekend, when the 29th anniversary of the Markale massacre was marked, that this crime was described with lies and that Serbs were falsely accused of it twice, which caused numerous reactions. These statements were compared with the court-established facts about the shelling of the Sarajevo market on February 5th, 1994.
After the anniversary of the Markale massacre, in which 68 people were killed and more than 140 wounded, was marked in Sarajevo on Sunday, February 5th, with the laying of flowers on the market and a commemoration attended by the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Christian Schmidt, Dodik on his Twitter account called the way in which this crime is described false.
”A false High Representative at the commemoration of the crime described in lies. The only truth about Markale is the innocent victims, whose killers will be known someday. Markale is a crime for which Serbs were falsely accused twice and was used as a pretext for the NATO bombing of RS. This is the truth that no one can deny. Christian Schmidt then supported the bombing of RS, which was carried out without a decision of the United Nations (UN) Security Council,” Dodik wrote on Twitter.
A part of Dodik’s announcement about the crime at Markale in February 1994 was checked and compared with the facts established by the court.
Repeated denial of responsibility for the crime
Dodik’s views on the massacre at Markale are similar to those from the earlier Report on the Suffering of Serbs in Sarajevo, which was problematized on more than 1.200 pages by the Commission for Researching the Suffering of Serbs in Sarajevo from 1991 to 1995, which was formed by the Government of RS on Dodik’s initiative.
For the shelling of Markale on February 5th, 1994, the former president of RS, Radovan Karadzic, and Stanislav Galic, commander of the Sarajevo-Romania Corps (SRK), were convicted. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the judgment against Karadzic, it is stated that 68 people were killed and more than 140 people were wounded.
The grenade, as determined by the verdicts, was fired from the position of the SRK in Mrkovici. Evidence, orders of the SRK, and expert reports were presented to the Tribunal in The Hague, according to which the Seventh Battalion of the First Romanian Infantry Brigade of the SRK had 120 mm mortars in Mrkovici, which is north-northeast of Markale.
In the final Hague verdict against Galic, it was stated that the 120 mm mortar shell that was fired at the Markale market on February 5th, 1994 was ”beyond reasonable doubt deliberately fired from the territory under the control of the SRK”.
Responsibility was established for both crimes at Markale
Dodik wrote on Twitter that ”Markale is a crime for which the Serbs were falsely accused twice” without stating in detail whether he means the two verdicts for the crime in 1994 or the other crime at Markale from August 1995, when 43 people, including three children, died from a shell that fell on the City Market.
The Hague verdict against SRK commander Dragomir Milosevic states that ”The Trial Chamber is convinced that the mortar shell that hit the street near the Markale market was fired from SRK-controlled territory and that it was fired by members of SRK on August 28th, 1995.”
During the trial of Milosevic, 139 witnesses were heard. The prosecution heard 84 witnesses, the defense heard 53, and the Trial Chamber heard two witnesses. In the proceedings against Milosevic, 1.411 pieces of evidence were presented, on the basis of which the Council reached the conclusion that SRK forces shelled Markale in both incidents at this location.
The conclusions that the Markale market was shelled from the positions of the Army of the RS (VRS) in 1994 and 1995 were also confirmed in the proceedings of the former supreme commander of the VRS and the first president of the RS, Radovan Karadzic, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
