Babic, who was sentenced last year by the Hague war crimes tribunal to 13 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the persecution of Croat civilians in Croatia's formerly occupied areas in 1991/92, said today that Serbs were the first to start using violence in Croatia.
Describing the political situation in Croatia after the first democratic elections in 1990, Babic said that the conflict between the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) had escalated into an open war in late 1991.
"As far as I know, the Serb side was the first to start using force," Babic said when asked by the prosecutor who was more responsible for the war.
Martic became famous among Serbs after he said, at talks with Croatian officials on the normalisation of the situation in August 1990, that the Croatian checker-board flag would not be hoisted on the fortress overlooking Knin as long as he lived, the witness said.
Martic became the leader of the rebellion on August 17, when misinformation about the arrival of Croatian police caused the Serb leadership in Knin to declare a state of war and start distributing weapons, Babic said.
Babic said that he declared a state of war due to misinformation provided by Martic's associate Dusan Orlovic, who was close to the Serbian State Security Service, and that he withdrew his decision on the same day after he saw Martic and Orlovic distributing weapons in Golubic near Knin.
"This is when road blocs were first set up in the Serb municipalities of northern Dalmatia and Lika, and when a headquarters in charge of the road blocks was set up in Golubic, with Martic at its helm," Babic said.
A couple of weeks later, Martic was heading the People's Resistance Council, which included members of police and the SDS who blew up shops owned by Albanians and Croats living in Knin and raised tension in order to provoke an intervention by the Yugoslav People's Army, Babic said.
Asked by the prosecutor why they did it, Babic answered "in order to support the policy of Milosevic, Borisav Jovic and Veljko Kadijevic, who asked that a state of emergency be declared in Croatia, that the Croatian government be toppled and a military government set up".
Babic went on to say that Martic supported Milosevic's policy of Serbs from Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia living in one state.
The witness continues his testimony on Thursday.