The first witness for the defence, Smilja Avramov, a retired international law professor from Belgrade, who in the 1990s was a close associate to Milosevic, said the war in the former Yugoslavia was caused by the secession of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which received assistance from abroad, and particularly by "the horrific massacres and crimes" committed against Serbs and members of the JNA by "Slovenes, Muslims, Albanians", and mostly by "Ustasha terrorists".
Avramov confirmed in her testimony that her expert opinions were part of the official policy of the Serb leadership in the 1990s, including the non-acceptance of the borders of the Yugoslav republics determined by the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in World War II, advocacy of the right to self-determination of the Yugoslav peoples, the proposal to Croatia for the joint administration of Krajina, etc.
She said that "Yugoslavia was in a crisis from 1945 to 1990, mostly due to the opposition of Ustasha emigrants, whose illegal groups and terrorist organisations carried out 400 attacks on Yugoslavia".
The chief prosecutor in the case, Geoffrey Nice, suggested during the cross-examination that the witness had nationalist views, a claim to which the witness greatly contributed by defending Milosevic's policy and the right of Serbs to a common state, calling Serb crimes "acts of retaliation, which should be viewed in the context of history".
Speaking about the most wanted Hague fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, accused of genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Avramov said that they were "the two brightest figures in the recent Serb history".
Milosevic reacted to Avramov's counter-productive testimony stating that the questions put by Kay were not in accordance with his line of defence and were detrimental to him. He also dismissed the possibility of asking "additional questions", requesting to be given back the right to defend himself on his own.
Judge Robinson reminded him at the end of the session that he should contact his defence attorney Kay and give him instructions, which Milosevic refused, stating that Kay was not representing him but the court and that he had nothing to do with him. Avramov is due to end her testimony on Wednesday.