THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Jan 13 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia resumed on Tuesday after a three-week holiday break with the testimony of
Belgrade journalist Nenad Zafirovic.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Jan 13 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia resumed on Tuesday after a three-week holiday
break with the testimony of Belgrade journalist Nenad Zafirovic.#L#
The witness worked for Belgrade's Radio B92 and for Voice of America
in the early 1990s. Today he described Milosevic's influence on the
Bosnian Serb leadership, which he said ranged from the frequent visits
Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Momcilo Krajisnik paid to Belgrade
to the "complete control" the accused had over them during peace
negotiations.
"Everything depended on him," Zafirovic said about negotiations in
Geneva in 1993 which he covered.
The 285th witness for the prosecution spoke about reporting from a May
1993 session of the Bosnian Serb entity's parliament, at which
Milosevic asked for the adoption of the Vance-Owen plan for
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Part of his speech from the closed-door session, in which he urges the
MPs to adopt the plan as it guarantees "45 percent of reserved areas
which will grow bigger and where Serb authority will stabilise," was
heard in the courtroom today.
"We have concluded in Geneva that there is no confederation in the
world with less authority than in (Bosnia)," Milosevic said at the
session. "It's impossible for us to get tricked or for Serb interests
to be brought into question," he said.
"We aired that material because the accused said 'us' instead of 'you'
in (Republika Srpska), which clashed with the official stance that
Serbia was not at war. That's proof of his involvement in events in
(Bosnia)," the witness said today talking about the speech which B92
aired at the time.
Zafirovic also spoke about an attack Arkan's troops launched on
Bijeljina, which he covered, and about ties between Serbia's State
Security Service and Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic) and other paramilitary
leaders.
During cross-examination the witness confirmed that "Karadzic, Mladic,
Krajisnik and (Biljana) Plavsic planned the April 1992 attack on
Bijeljina together with Milosevic", when the war broke out in Bosnia.
The prosecution today questioned another witness, whose testimony was
given behind closed doors. The trial resumes on Thursday.
(Hina) ha sb