Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 09/02/2023
On the 29th anniversary of the massacre at Sarajevo’s Markale market, several media incorrectly claimed that members of the Army of the Republic of Srpska (Vojska Republike Srpske – VRS) were accused of this crime without evidence.
The 29th anniversary of the massacre at Sarajevo’s Markale market was marked on February 5, 2023. On that day, in 1994, a mortar shell fired from a position of the Army of the Republic of Srpska (VRS) killed 68 and wounded more than 140 citizens of Sarajevo.
These facts were confirmed by the verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Despite this, the narratives denying the responsibility of the members of the VRS for this crime, as well as for the Markale massacre in August 1995, were part of the war and post-war propaganda that still lives on in the statements of officials and the claims of the public media.
The recent anniversary was no different. On February 5, 2023, the web portal of Radio-television of the Republic of Srpska published an article with the following title:
Dodik: Markale is a crime for which Serbs were falsely accused twice
The article features a statement from the President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik who commented on the presence of the high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt at the commemoration of the 29th anniversary of the Markale massacre. The statement was published on his Twitter profile:
Markale is a crime for which the Serbs were falsely accused twice and was used as a pretext for the NATO bombing of the Republic of Srpska, which was then supported by Christian Schmidt, President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik pointed out today.
The RTRS article is concluded with the following sentence:
Today marks the 29th anniversary of the massacre at Sarajevo’s Markale market, for which members of the Republic of Srpska Army were blamed, although it was determined that there was no evidence that the missiles were fired from Serbian positions.
This claim was published in February 2023 in articles on the following web portals: Info Srpska, RT, Sve o Srpska, Fakta and others.
Citing the News Agency of the Republic of Srpska (Srna) as a source, the web portal Katera published a headline on the same day claiming that the Markale crime was “attributed to the Serbs” without evidence.
Markale – a crime attributed to Serbs without evidence
The article stated that the “Serbian side” denied responsibility, claiming that the crime was staged and that there was never an independent investigation into that crime, as well as that international commissions could not determine where the shells were fired from:
The Serbian side denied responsibility, claiming that the tragedy was staged by the government in Sarajevo under the control of SDA leader Alija Izetbegovic.
There was never an independent investigation into that crime, nor after the explosion which happened in almost the same place at the end of August 1995, which served as a cover for massive NATO air strikes on the Republic of Srpska.
In both cases, international commissions could not determine where the shells were fired from.
Who is the source of all these claims?
Through the search, we found that the claims from RTRS articles were originally published in Pink’s article on February 4, 2019. The article was published on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the massacre and includes the statements of “the bodyguard of Alija Izetbegović” who testified that the former president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina “ordered” the massacre.
PINK.RS REMEMBERS THE MASSACRE IN MARKALE, WHICH SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN BECAUSE OF THE TRUTH – Alija Izetbegovic’s bodyguard admitted that Alija ordered the killing of civilians!
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Markale massacre, one of the most serious crimes committed in the war in BiH, for which members of the Republic of Srpska Army were blamed, although it was established that there was no evidence that the missiles were fired from Serbian positions.
The article disputes the Hague verdicts in which the facts about the crimes in Markale were established.
The denial of the “Serbian side” with allegations of a staged attack, along with the statements of “the bodyguard of Alija Izetbegović”, were also reported by the News Agency of the Republic of Srpska in an article published on February 5, 2020.
Claims from Pink’s (and Srna’s) articles have been used almost as a template in the past three years on web portals, including those of public media (1, 2, 3), so they would be added to texts for each new anniversary of the Markale massacre (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
In addition, the quoted claims that can be seen in the RTRS article in 2023 were added during the past years to articles in which the statements of numerous actors (Milan Babovic, Dusko Miletic, Milorad Kojic, Miodrag Linta, Milorad Dodik and others) were shared as well. Their statements support the thesis of pointlessly accusing the Serbs of a crime committed by the Bosniak side to provoke NATO intervention against the VRS.
What are the facts?
The assessment of the accuracy of Milorad Dodik’s statement was carried out by our partner web portal Istinomjer in an analysis that you can read on this link.
The facts about the Markale massacre in 1994 were confirmed in the verdicts of the Hague Court, and according to the web portal Detektor, which reports on the prosecution of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former president of the Republic of Srpska Radovan Karadzic was convicted for the shelling of Markale on February 5, 1994, as well as Stanislav Galic, commander of the Sarajevo-Romanian Corps (SRK). Both were sentenced to life imprisonment.
In this analysis from 2018, we wrote about how the Hague court established the facts from where the fatal grenade was fired in the first-instance verdict against Stanislav Galic back in 2003.
In establishing the facts, the court considered the findings of “the local investigation team that went to the market at 1:20 p.m. on the day of the explosion” and whose “investigation lasted approximately a week”: the court panel considered “separate reports of expert members, among others, ballistics experts Mirza Sabljica, Hamdija Cavcic and Berko Zecevic”. The court then took into consideration the reports of “UN military observers and members of the team of the 4th UN French Battalion” and the findings of another UN team which continued “previous investigations (UN)” and was limited “to the analysis of the crater and technical aspects of the explosion”.
In the first-instance verdict against Galic, made on December 5, 2003, which was confirmed by the decision of the Appeals Council in this case from 2006, it is also stated that the UN investigators “considered the stories of the victims, representatives of the UN who were in Sarajevo that same day, and information about military equipment and the positions of units that they received from the ABiH and the SRK”. The report submitted on February 15, 1994, established that “an explosion occurred on February 5, 1994, between 12:10 and 12:15 p.m. in a crowded market in Sarajevo”, that “the explosion was caused by a conventional, factory-produced, mortar 120 mm shell” and established the direction from which the mortar shell flew.
After that, the court panel determined by the majority that “the 120 mm mortar shell which was fired at the Markale market on February 5, 1994, and killed more than 60 and wounded more than 140 people was beyond reasonable doubt deliberately fired from the territory under the control of the SRK -a”, that is, the Army of the Republic of Srpska.
The second massacre at Markale took place on August 28, 1995, after which NATO forces bombed the positions of the VRS, which shortly afterwards led to the Dayton Agreement and the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, notes Istinomjer.
In the first-instance verdict against Dragomir Milosevic on December 12, 2007, it was stated that “the Trial Chamber is convinced that the mortar shell that hit the street near the Markale market was fired from the territory controlled by the SRK and that it was fired by members of the SRK”. Istinomjer states that in the verdict of the Appeals Chamber, Milosevic was acquitted of the charges for this shelling, but the Appeals Chamber of the Tribunal did not question the established facts and relevant conclusions of the Trial Chamber in the first-instance verdict.
Detektor states that the conclusions that the Markale market was shelled from VRS positions in 1994 and 1995 were also confirmed in the proceedings of the former supreme commander of the VRS and the first president of the Republic of Srpska, Radovan Karadzic.
Therefore, the claims that there is no evidence that the deadly missile was fired from a position of the Army of the Republic of Srpska are completely unfounded.
Stanislav Galic and Radovan Karadzic were not only accused but also convicted for the crime in Markale in 1994.
Narratives that deny responsibility for the crime
The analyzed media articles once again indicate that, in addition to political actors, the media themselves feed the widespread narrative that the Markale massacre was not committed by the Army of the Republic of Srpska, but that it was a planted explosive and a staged tragedy to encourage international intervention.
As part of that narrative, the alleged impossibility of determining who fired the grenade, the absence of an independent commission to determine the circumstances, etc., is emphasized, from which allegations of “falsely accusing Serbs” or attributing crimes without evidence arise.
However, apart from confirming that the grenade was fired from the position of the SRK, in the verdict against Stanislav Galic, the Court stated that the claim of intentional targeting of civilians by the ABiH is unreasonable and contradicts the facts:
The majority believes that the claim that ABiH forces would target their civilians, as was the case here, is not only unreasonable but also contrary to proven legally relevant facts.
As Detektor wrote in its text from 2012, the thesis that the “Muslim side” is responsible for this crime was repeated in the courtroom by Radovan Karadzic.
The instrumentalization of crimes for political purposes, the denial of judicially established facts and the maintenance of baseless narratives in life, with media support, deepens divisions and disrupts the process of reconciliation in the post-conflict society of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We assess the statement claiming there was no evidence that a grenade was fired at Markale from the VRS position, published in Pink’s article, as fake news.
Other publications of this claim, as well as claims that it is a crime that was “attributed to the Serbs” without evidence, are assessed as the distribution of fake news.
