MARKALE ONE - CRIME THAT WAS, WITHOUT EVIDENCE, ATTRIBUTED TO SERBS

BIJELJINA, FEBRUARY 4 /SRNA/ – 68 people were killed at the Sarajevo marketplace "Markale" on February 5, 1994, as a result of an explosion, allegedly caused by "a single mortar shell".

The Serbs were accused in order to achieve, as it later turned out, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from around Sarajevo. The Serb side denied responsibility, claiming that the tragedy was staged by the Sarajevo government under the control of SDA leader Alija Izetbegović. The then UNPROFOR commander, General Michael Rose, stated that it could not be determined from where the shell had been fired. A later and more thorough UNPROFOR report revealed errors in the initial findings. Republika Srpska requested that this international military mission establish an investigative team that would include members of the Republika Srpska Army and forces under Izetbegović’s control, but this proposal was rejected. An independent investigation into that attack was never conducted, nor after the explosion at almost the same location in late August 1995, which served as a pretext for massive NATO air strikes against Republika Srpska. Former UN special envoy Yasushi Akashi stated in 2011 that it was "unclear who committed the massacre at the Markale marketplace in 1994."