ZAGREB, Jan 15 (Hina) - The last Prime Minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Ante Markovic, on Thursday once again took the witness stand in the trial of former Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic
before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
ZAGREB, Jan 15 (Hina) - The last Prime Minister of the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Ante Markovic, on Thursday once again
took the witness stand in the trial of former Serbian and Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic before the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).#L#
Markovic gave his main testimony last October but he was called again
so that the defendant could finish cross-examining the witness.
The new confrontation of the two political opponents from the times
before and at the beginning of the war in the former Yugoslavia was
marked by Milosevic's attempts to make the witness liable for the
start of the war, namely the Yugoslav People's Army's intervention in
Slovenia and the break-up of the former federation. Dismissing
Milosevic's accusations, Markovic said that accusations were
fabricated and that Milosevic was the main culprit.
The defendant insisted that in the summer of 1991 Markovic, as Federal
prime minister, ordered the JNA intervention in Slovenia after
Ljubljana proclaimed independence, which is how the war started.
Markovic refuted Milosevic's claims and stressed that his government
ordered the federal Interior Ministry to establish control over border
crossings in Slovenia in cooperation with JNA border units.
"Neither the federal police nor border military units were used.
Somebody else ordered the army to come out of the barracks in
Slovenia, even Croatia, and to invade the territory. The federal
government was unable to do that because it had no constitutional
control over the army," Markovic said.
According to Markovic, Milosevic had the control of the JNA command
and used it to "push Slovenia out of the SFRY"
The main culprit for the war is sitting over there, said Markovic
pointing at Milosevic.
Milosevic is not charged with war in Slovenia but genocide and war
crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
The witness said that while withdrawing from Slovenia, the JNA was
transferred to Bosnia where Milosevic "organised the war" in agreement
with the then Croatian president Franjo Tudjman.
"You and Tudjman made a deal in Karadjordjevo to divide Bosnia and
continue to live happy lives," Markovic reiterated.
He stressed that as prime minister he had nothing to do with the 1991
war in Croatia, the attacks on Vukovar and Dubrovnik, and that he
tried to stop it.
The witness and the defendant engaged in a heated debate about the
causes of the break-up of the former federation, Serbia's incursion
into the domestic payment system, illegal arms import, blockades and
other issues, exchanging sarcastic remarks.
(Hina) it sb