MILOSEVIC USES PROSECUTION'S WITNESS TO CONFIRM HIS THEORIES

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 14 (Hina) - In the trial against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the defendant, who is acting as his own defence attorney, on Friday continued his cross-examination of a witness for the prosecution, a former head of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) counter-intelligence service, General Aleksandar Vasiljevic. #L# During the two days of cross-examination, all Milosevic's attempts to discredit the witness's testimony usually turned against him, since Vasiljevic would add even more harmful claims. On Friday, however, Milosevic changed his tactics. He asked Vasiljevic to confirm information gathered by his service in 1990 through 1992, which are in favour of Milosevic's chief defence theory -- that Serbs had waged a defence war. He asked for confirmation of intelligence reports on plans by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party on Croatia's forceful secession, the formation of volunteer units and the National Guard Corps, the armament of Croatia, attacks on the JNA, the removal from posts of Serbs at the interior ministry and the making of a film on former defence minister Martin Spegelj. The prosecutor objected, stating that the questions were outside the framework of the main examination, but presiding judge Richard May allowed the questions, saying that the trial chamber had heard about how Serbs had got arms, so it could hear about how Croats had got theirs as well. Vasiljevic not only confirmed more than 60 of Milosevic's questions, but corrected erroneous quotations from reports he knew very well. He confirmed allegations by the defendant about the armament of certain groups in Osijek in mid-1990 and the existence of groups for the "silent liquidation" of prominent Serbs. He also cited examples of the distribution of weapons to members of the HDZ in Sinj, Split and Kasteli. Milosevic sought confirmation to the thesis that Serbs began to take up arms only after they had become threatened by the armament of Croats, which the witness partially corroborated. Vasiljevic spoke about the armament of Croats on the HDZ - interior ministry line via "six channels" and 192 million US dollars available, about shipments from Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Uganda. He spoke about how the British Foreign Office had warned the Bulgarian authorities that weapons for Croatia were being transported from Varna port by ships Lipa and Karolina, but the delivery was not interrupted. At the request of the defendant, Vasiljevic confirmed that he had personally organised and participated in the making of the film on Spegelj. He said 19.5 hours of video material and 120 hours of audio material had been recorded. He described the film as authentic, edited to combine public statements by Croatian politicians and his own secret recordings. The Spegelj film was to serve as an excuse to disarm Croatia. Vasiljevic confirmed that on December 3 and 4, 1990, an operation had been prepared to arrest 40 persons connected with the distribution of weapons. Milosevic wanted the general to confirm that "everything indicated that Croatia's secession was forceful," but judge May disallowed the question. Vasiljevic spoke about the "Kanal" operation when his agency followed preparations for the delivery of weapons to Croatia by two ships from the Rumanian port of Constanza in August 1991. The weapons, 50,000 pieces of AK-47 machine guns, various cannons and ammunition, were paid for, but never delivered, he said. The witness also described some individual incidents, such as those in Pakrac, Plitvice Lakes and others, claiming that the JNA had only separated conflicted sides. He justified JNA's attack on Vukovar with a blockade of the city's military barracks. Milosevic was frequently heard as saying: "I did say this was a useful witness". The trial chamber granted Milosevic another day of cross- examination on Monday. (hina) lml