THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 3 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal resumed on Monday with the testimony of a former UN high-ranking official at the UN
mission in Croatia.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 3 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav and
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague-based UN war
crimes tribunal resumed on Monday with the testimony of a former UN
high-ranking official at the UN mission in Croatia. #L#
Charles Kirudja was a civil co-ordinator in Sector North in Croatia
with his office in Topusko between 1992 and 1994. In 1994 he was
appointed as special representative of the UN mission's head,
Yasushi Akashi, in charge of contacts with authorities in Belgrade
and had met Milosevic on a few occasions.
On Monday, the prosecution continued introducing pieces of
material evidence, which were Kirudja's reports and memoranda
forwarded to his superiors at the time and his correspondence, as
well as excerpts from his diary he was obliged to keep at the time.
There were 18 pieces of evidence of such kind whose authenticity was
confirmed by Kirudja himself.
A prosecutor gave particular importance to the witness's analyses
of his meetings with Milosevic, and according to Kirudja, he met the
indictee at list six times.
Kirudja described Milosevic as a man with exclusive power at
negotiations, who knew the issues about which negotiations were
held in detail. The witness testified that Milosevic and his aides
had exerted crucial influence on Serb rebels in Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina and voiced his impression that there had been a high
level of connection between Serb leaders in Bosnia and Croatia.
He asserted that Yugoslav forces (the then JNA) had been directly
engaged in conflicts in Croatia.
The UN official spoke in detail about the events in UN Sector North
concerning the ethnical cleansing of Muslims and other non-Serbs
from north-western Bosnia (the area bordering with the Croatian
region where he was at the time) in the second half of 1992.
Before the trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), he talked about plunder, mass
killing, harassment and intimidation as well as about the set-up of
Serb-run concentration camps in the areas of Bihac, Bosanski Novi,
Sanski Most, Prijedor and Banja Luka, after which refugees flooded
into the Croatian area which was then UN Sector North. In this
context he pointed to the importance of the Croatian government's
decision to offer shelter to tens of thousands of refugees and of
the bureaucratic order from UNPROFOR command about non-
interference in the developments in Bosnia.
The witness spoke about an agreement which the renegade Muslim
(Bosniak) leader Fikret Abdic reached with Milosevic -- the so-
called Belgrade declaration -- under which, with the approval of
the then Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, it was allowed that the
self-styled Autonomous Province of West Bosnia be established in
the area of western Bosnia (a wider Velika Kladusa area).
While cross-examining the witness, the defendant Milosevic sought
confirmation about the JNA's co-operation with the UN, and his
"peace-making policy", or the Serb fulfilment of the Vance plan.
The witness, however, stood by his statements.
The trial chamber's president, Judge Richard May, interrupted
Milosevic several times reiterating the rules in the procedure and
warning him about his waste of time, reserved for cross-examination
and his defence.
On Tuesday, Milosevic will be given 90 minutes to wrap up his cross-
examination of the witness Kirudja.
(hina) ms sb