ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Feb 12 (Hina) - Retired French General Philippe Morillon told the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday he had cautioned the defendant, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, in March 1993 about the
hunger and penury in Srebrenica and the horrible tragedy that would occur unless he exerted some influence on the Bosnian Serb army. A tragedy did eventually happen two years later.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Feb 12 (Hina) - Retired French General Philippe
Morillon told the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday he had
cautioned the defendant, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,
in March 1993 about the hunger and penury in Srebrenica and the
horrible tragedy that would occur unless he exerted some influence on
the Bosnian Serb army. A tragedy did eventually happen two years
later.#L#
"You already have one stain, Vukovar, on your flag, and if you don't
help us defuse the time bomb in Srebrenica, you'll have another stain.
The international community won't forgive you for that and Serbs will
be demonised," said Morillon, commander of the U.N. Protection Force
in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992-93, speaking about his meeting with
Milosevic in Belgrade in March 1993.
The witness said that after the meeting Milosevic had exerted his
influence on Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, albeit only
"temporarily".
The 66-year-old general confirmed that in 1993 the assistance the
Yugoslav Army was giving Bosnian Serb troops had been direct and
obvious, citing mortar attacks on eastern Bosnia's Srebrenica coming
from Yugoslav positions across the Drina river as well as air
support.
The defendant asked if the Bosnian Serb population, notably in the
Srebrenica area, had had reason to fear for their lives and if the
Srebrenica tragedy might be ascribed to that fear, citing crimes
committed by Muslim units under Naser Oric's command.
Morillon said he thought that was correct and that the July 1995
Srebrenica massacre had been a reaction to a slaughter of Serbs Oric's
troops had committed on Orthodox Christmas two and a half years
before. The witness added, however, that he did not wish to justify
the crimes committed by Serbs.
He regretted not having evacuated the people from Srebrenica, saying
that at that time he firmly believed in the Vance-Owen plan.
Morillon agreed with Milosevic's claim that the Bosnian Presidency had
not allowed people to leave Srebrenica. "I wanted no part in ethnic
cleansing... because when you take human beings out of their
environment, that's ethnic cleansing. And the Serbs wanted that area
clear of Muslims," he said.
Morillon described former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic as a
"mad supporter of ethnic cleansing" and accused Milosevic of
"disseminating fear".
Speaking about the nature of the Bosnian conflict, the witness agreed
with Milosevic's assessment, covered in great detail in the David Owen
book "Balkan Odyssey", which the defendant referred to a number of
times during previous witness testimonies, namely that there had been
no aggressor and victim in the Bosnian war. Morillon said, however,
that his mandate had envisaged impartiality and that he had not been
allowed to take sides.
Milosevic's responsibility for the mass killing of more than 7,000
Muslims in Srebrenica is one of the key elements in proving his
culpability for genocide. On the occasion of the eighth anniversary of
that tragedy, the biggest in Europe after WWII, U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said that the world body's inability to prevent that
heinous crime would haunt the U.N.'s history forever. The U.N.
declared Srebrenica a safe haven in April 1993 and it had been
Morillon who told the population under siege, "I will never abandon
you".
(Hina) ha sb