Category:Market Attacks

Before Syria

Markale Market attacks, 1994 and 1995, Yugoslavia

• French General Truth About NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia 1999, youtube, in 2 parts, Eng. sub., November 9, 2011 (text version)

  A retired Brigadier-General Pierre Marie Gallois of French army testifies in the front of a camera of his involvement in a secret meetings held in Germany. He explains the long existed plan for the destruction of Yugoslavia.

  ...The fabrication went on, from bomb explosion in Vasa Miskin street, to the Markale Market massacre which was blamed on Serbs, even though Muslims were targeting their own, on purpose, in order to accuse Serbs of this crime. A myth was also concocted on how Serbia army invading Sarajevo, getting ready for an imminent destruction which was absolutely necessary to prevent, of Sarajevo being occupied and demolished by the Serbs. All this was a lie, and I personally one of the witnesses

• BBC version of Markale Market massacres (there were two, in 1994 and 1995) - Sarajevo massacre remembered, BBC, February 5, 2004. 1994: A report by United Nations peacekeepers at the time was inconclusive, although there have been persistent rumours that a secret UN report later pointed the finger of blame at the (Muslim-led) government.
• Report of the Secretary General pursuant to GA resolution 53/35, A 54/549, 15 November 1999, p. 31 (1994 event), p. 94 (1995 event). Ambiguous blame in 1994 event. "A confidential report to the UNPROFOR commander" said to blame Serbs in 1995; NATO strikes authorized by a temporary replacement UNPROFOR commander, who deceived the Serbs in order to withdraw UNPROFOR patrols before the strikes.
• Russian Wikipedia refers to a study (Karović, Merisa, MASAKR ISPRED GRADSKE TRŽNICE MARKALE 28. AUGUSTA 1995. GODINE, page 151 ) which states that the 1995 report was prepared by "G-2 security service". G-2 is apparently US military intelligence (?) Temporary commander named in that study, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Smith Rupert Smith (British). FWIW.
• Heretic’s Musings on the Chemical Strike in Damascus, by Yossef Bodansky (wikipedia), ISPSW Strategy Series: Focus on Defense and International Security, September 2013
  • on 28 August 1995, around 11:00 am, a mortar shell hit the Markale in Sarajevo – killing 38 people and wounding another. Russian colonel Andrei Demurenko, then the commander of UN Forces in Sarajevo, immediately rushed with an UNPROFOR team to the supposed Bosnian-Serb mortar positions and ascertained that neither could have been used to fire the shells. Demurenko’s report stated that the Bosnian-Serb forces were falsely blamed for the attack on the Markale. Nevertheless, ostensibly in response to the massacre, NATO launched the air campaign against Bosnian-Serb forces and shortly afterwards decided the war in favor of the Bosnian-Muslims.
  • Between 30 August and 20 September 1995, NATO's 'Operation Deliberate Force', involving 400 aircraft and 5,000 personnel from 15 nations.
  • On 31 August 1995, Jean Daniel, then Editor of the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, wrote an article titled “No more lies about Bosnia.” In the article, Daniel recounted an exchange he had just had with French Prime Minister Eduard Balledur about the NATO air campaign and the motivations for it. “They [the Muslims] have committed this carnage on their own people?” Daniel asked. “Yes,” confirmed Balledur without hesitation, “but at least they forced NATO to intervene.”
  • Later, Andrei Demurenko testified for the defense in Yugoslavia war crimes trials (for some bad press, see eg here).