TRIALS BEFORE ICTY RESUME

ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Jan 8 (Hina) - The genocide trial of a doctor from Prijedor, Milomir Stakic, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) marked the resumption of trials before the Hague-based court after a two-week holiday recess. #L# The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo will resume on Thursday. The last witness to testify for the prosecution last year was Pero Poljanic, the war-time mayor of Dubrovnik. During the trial referring to crimes in Croatia, which started in September, the prosecution has called to the witness stand a total of 16 witnesses, including Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, former Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nikola Samardzic, Croatian Serb leaders, Serbian reporters and secret agents and members of Serb forces. A former leader of Croatian Serb rebels, Milan Babic, whose identity was concealed at the beginning of his testimony, provided such convincing evidence that the prosecution stated it would give up the questioning of 14 other witnesses. The witnesses, mostly Serbs, described Serbia's military and financial involvement in crimes in Croatia and Milosevic's control over events. The former Yugoslav president, who considers the ICTY an illegal institution, insisted that the war in the former Yugoslavia was imposed from outside (by the Vatican-Bonn-Washington axis) with the assistance of internal secessionist forces that had been defeated in WWII, while the Serbs only "defended themselves". During the trial for crimes in Kosovo the prosecution called to the witness stand 124 witnesses. The trial of Milosevic started on February 12 last year. It was interrupted several times due to Milosevic's health problems so the trial chamber decided to conduct the trial at a slower pace, with four-day breaks every two weeks. (hina) rml