BALLISTICS EXPERT TESTIFIES AGAINST MILOSEVIC

ZAGREB, Jan 16 (Hina) - A ballistics expert testified against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Friday, focusing on a mortar attack on Sarajevo's Markale open market and military cooperation between Bosnian Serb-controlled arms factories and those in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.#L# The 2 February 1994 attack on the Markale market claimed the lives of 68 Sarajevo residents and left 264 wounded. Most of today's testimony consisted of Milosevic's cross-examination of Berko Zecevic and the defendant's attempts to contest Zecevic's expert findings and technical data regarding the firing of the missile on Markale. Milosevic tried to contest that the missile had come from Bosnian Serb positions as indicated by Zecevic's findings. Speaking of the ballistics findings, the expert said he had established on the basis of technical data that the market could have been shot at from six locations, five of which were controlled by Bosnian Serbs. An additional analysis made at the Hague tribunal's request indicated that the missile could have come from a distance of 4,900, 5,400 or 6,400 metres, while the closest positions of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina were 1,900 metres away, Zecevic said. Answering the prosecution's questions earlier in the day, the witness spoke about cooperation within the Yugoslav military industry, saying that contracts on cooperation between Bosnian Serb-controlled arms factories and those in the then Yugoslavia corroborated his claim that they had cooperated during the Bosnian war despite a U.N. embargo banning Bosnia from importing weaponry. The Milosevic trial resumes on Tuesday. The Prosecutor's Office has announced that former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman's chief of staff Hrvoje Sarinic will take the stand on Wednesday. (Hina) ha sb