During the war, more than a million projectiles of different caliber hit Sarajevo. The explosives experts there had plenty of opportunity to analyze various craters and other traces left by explosions. The explosives experts in Sarajevo were thus "the most experienced in the world". A protected witness said this as he gave evidence at the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic. General Milosevic is charged with the Sarajevo shelling campaign


Former member of the Bomb Squad in the BH Interior Ministry claims that the Sarajevo explosives experts who conducted the investigations at the sites where mortar shells and other projectiles impacted "were the most experienced in the world". The reason for it is very simple: “more that a million projectiles of different caliber hit Sarajevo during the war and nowhere else in the world was there such intense activity on analyzing craters and other traces of the explosions”.

The witness took part in several hundred investigations at sites where mortar shells and modified air bomb had exploded. Today, testifying at the trial of General Dragomir Milosevic with image and voice distortion as protective measures, he described in more detail the way in which the on-site investigations were conducted in some of the shelling incidents listed in the indictment against the former VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps commander.

On 28 August 1995, the witness was part of the team investigating the explosion site at the Markale town market when 43 persons were killed and 75 injured. He described the scene he had seen about 10 minutes after the explosion as "the last circle of Dante's Inferno: pools of blood, body parts, panic, fear…" Using photos and sketches taken at the crime scene he demonstrated how they analyzed the crater and shrapnel traces in the concrete and nearby buildings. He had signed the investigation report concluding that a 120 mm mortar shell had been fired from the south, from Trebevic. At the time, the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps artillery was deployed there. The projectile hit the road at an angle of 170 degrees and exploded. Most of the fragments scattered towards the sidewalk full of civilians.

Another incident the witness described today happened on 18 June 1995 in a torn-down school in Dobrinja district. A hidden water pump was located in the light shaft in the school. A shell hit the edge of a gym window and exploded some 3 to 4 meters above the ground. The shrapnel scattered around the impact site in the shaft killing seven and injuring 12 civilians. They were standing in line to get water. The report said that the on-sited investigation had showed that the shell had been fired from Nedjarici. According to the witness, the Serb "occupying" forces had positions in Nedjarici.

In his examination-in chief, the witness proudly said that the reports and conclusions of the Bomb Squad team were "never contested because we never claimed anything we were not absolutely certain of ". In the cross-examination tomorrow, General Milosevic's defense counsel will try to challenge the credibility of the witness's claims and the conclusions reached after the investigations he carried out.

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