February 27, 1996
Web posted at: 10:45 p.m. EST (0345 GMT)
From Correspondent Patricia Kelly
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CNN) -- The War Crimes Tribunal, which is pushing ahead with hearings on alleged atrocities in the Balkans, wrapped up testimony Tuesday on a Croatian Serb leader accused of ordering a vicious rocket attack on the heart of the Croatian capital.
Seven people were killed and more than 200 injured in the assault on Zagreb last May.
Milan Martic wasn't in court to face the charges, but the tribunal heard graphic testimony of how rockets fitted with cluster bombs ripped through a children's hospital, a home for the elderly, and an international dance academy.
Martic, president of the former self-proclaimed Serb Republic of Krajina in Croatia, is believed to be in Bosnia. Prosecutor Eric Ostberg said Martic's whereabouts are unclear, but that there are indications he might live in Banja Luka.
In newspaper and television interviews, Martic has said he bombed Zagreb to stop Croatian army attacks on a different part of Serb-held territory.
Whether that's true -- that the Serbs acted in self-defense -- is one of the questions the tribunal must decide. Depending on how they see it, the judges could decide to either indict Martic and issue an international warrant for his arrest, or cross him off the list of suspected war criminals. Their ruling is expected next week.
Two of the several expert witnesses for the prosecution who testified Tuesday asked that their faces not be revealed.
One, Marijan Petric, who was described to the court as a pyrotechnician, told how his men attempted to defuse many of the hundreds of tiny bombs that hit Zagreb during the two-day attack.
"Was it dangerous?" asked prosecutor Gregory Kehoe.
"One of my officers was injured," Petric said. "His left arm had to be amputated, and one of my officers was killed in an explosion."
The cluster bombs, the prosecution contends, were deliberately aimed at a civilian area where there were no military installations.
"Zagreb was lucky," Ostberg said. "Using this weapon in the way it was used, it should have made more damage. I am surprised that many more people did not die in the attack."
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