Jarcevic, 63, who served as foreign minister of the Republic of the Serb Krajina (RSK), so fervently denied allegations by prosecution witnesses that Milosevic had to interrupt him when he went too far in distorting the facts.
When asked by Milosevic, who conducts his own defence, to comment on the allegation made by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in his testimony before the ICTY, that all Croats were expelled from the municipalities where the Serb Democratic Party came to power in 1991, Jarcevic said that "the departure of the Croats from the Krajina was organised by the Croatian state in order to create an impression that the Serbs were persecuting the Croats."
The witness said that 189,000 Croats had lived in the Krajina before the war and that he did not know how many stayed there. Challenging Mesic's statement that the fear among the Serbs in 1991 was exaggerated, he cited murders of Serbs in Gospic.
Commenting on the testimony by Petar Kriste, the first foreign minister of Croatia, that Dubrovnik was attacked for the purposes of creating a Greater Serbia, Jarcevic said that Dubrovnik had been a Serb city since time immemorial and that even today its inhabitants were not speaking Croatian, which prompted Milosevic to interrupt him.
When pressed by presiding judge Patrick Robinson to explain the purpose of the attack on Dubrovnik, Jarcevic said that "like elsewhere, its purpose was to protect the Serb people", adding that 2,200 Serbs had been expelled from Dubrovnik and that all the Serbs had been driven out of western Herzegovina.
Jarcevic also rejected as "incorrect" and "nonsense" the allegations by Milan Babic, former prime minister and president of the RSK, who in his testimony in November 2002 confirmed nearly all the counts of the indictment against Milosevic concerning Croatia.
Milosevic asked the witness to comment on Babic's allegations that the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) intervened in 1991 in accordance with Milosevic's policy, that the RSK army was dependent on the Yugoslav army, that Milosevic appointed commanders, and that before any negotiations Croatian Serb rebel leaders went to Belgrade to receive instructions from Milosevic.
"Your Honour, that is not true. Babic misinformed and deluded this court," Jarcevic said, insisting that the JNA was only protecting the Serbs.
The witness claimed that "the whole Croatian state structure participated in the expulsion of the Serbs", that "the Serbs in Croatia were stripped by decree of their citizenship and the right to buy apartments," and that more than 400,000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia.
During the cross-examination, prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff highlighted the fact that Jarcevic was born in Bosnia and lived in Belgrade since 1970, that he was appointed foreign minister in 1992 with an office in Belgrade and that he actually served as a liaison officer between the RSK and the authorities in Belgrade.
The prosecutor concluded by saying that for those reasons the witness could not testify first hand about the events from 1991, relations between the rebel Serb authorities in Knin and Milosevic, relations between the Serb Territorial Defence and the JNA, and steps taken by Babic, Mile Martic, Goran Hadzic and other Serb leaders. She also cited UN reports on the situation in the occupied areas of Croatia to prove that the witness's allegations were unfounded.
The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday when Milosevic will call a new witness.