THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 16 (Hina) - One year after the beginning of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the former Yugoslav president is facing a huge amount of highly incriminating evidence
in the form of testimonies by victims and his closest associates, which the prosecution used to support charges of war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and genocide in Bosnia.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 16 (Hina) - One year after the beginning of
the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before the U.N. war crimes tribunal
in The Hague, the former Yugoslav president is facing a huge amount
of highly incriminating evidence in the form of testimonies by
victims and his closest associates, which the prosecution used to
support charges of war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and genocide in
Bosnia. #L#
A total of 149 witnesses have testified in the trial, which entered
its second year last Wednesday, revealing, each from their own
perspective, not only numerous crimes but Milosevic's role in
them.
With unflagging energy as on the first day of the trial and using
materials fed to him by an invisible apparatus, Milosevic has tried
to discredit witnesses, offering at the same time his own version of
the truth about the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.
The trial, which the tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte
described as the tribunal's most important trial, started on
February 12, 2002 before a three-member trial chamber presided by
judge Richard May. The trial has received extensive media coverage,
with hundreds of reporters following it. So far, it has seen 148
sessions, 149 witnesses and tens of thousands of pages of evidence
material.
In the first part of the trial, the chief prosecutor in the case,
Geoffrey Nice, presented evidence about crimes committed in
Kosovo. Until September 11 last year, when the presentation of
evidence was completed, a number of senior Kosovo and international
officials took the witness stand, but most witnesses were from
among the 800,000 Albanians expelled from Kosovo or people who
witnessed some of the massacres committed by Serbian forces in
1999.
Crucial evidence was provided by Milosevic's closest associates
from the Yugoslav State Security Service and the Serbian Interior
Ministry - Radomir Tanic, Radomir Markovic and Dragan Karleusa, who
confirmed that at a meeting in March 1999 Milosevic had ordered
removing traces of crimes committed in Kosovo.
In late September 2002 the presentation of evidence for crimes in
Croatia began. More than 25 witnesses testified at 51 sessions,
including Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, a former defence
minister, Petar Kriste, a former Montenegrin foreign minister,
Nikola Samardzic, Croatian Serb rebel leader Milan Babic, Serbian
reporters and intelligence officers, members of Serbian forces and
Croatian soldiers.
The trial chamber allowed that 71 witnesses testify about crimes in
Croatia. They are part of a group of 177 witnesses testifying about
crimes in Croatia and Bosnia. The prosecution should complete the
presentation of evidence by May 16, 2003, when Milosevic is to
present his defence.
Regarding the Croatian part of the indictment, Milosevic is charged
with crimes against humanity and grave violations of the Geneva
Conventions and the laws and customs of war, committed through the
expulsion of (around 170,000) Croats and other non-Serbs from
around one third of Croatia's territory between 1991 and 1992. He is
also charged with massacres committed at Ovcara, Vocin, Skabrnja,
Celije, Nadin, Dalj, Lovas and Erdut and with the shelling of
Dubrovnik.
During his three-day testimony President Stjepan Mesic described
how Milosevic had instrumentalised the Presidency of the former
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Yugoslav
People's Army (JNA) and Croatian Serbs to seize parts of Croatia's
territory and annex them to Great Serbia.
The prosecutor stated that Babic's testimony, which lasted 12 days,
was so convincing that he decided not to question 14 other
witnesses. Babic's testimony revealed Milosevic as the man who
orchestrated ethnic cleansing in Croatia. Babic and other
witnesses spoke about how Serbia had been fully involved in crimes
in Croatia in terms of military, political and financial assistance
and how Milosevic had controlled events.
Currently underway is the testimony of Aleksandar Vasiljevic, a
retired general and former head of the JNA's counter-intelligence
service, who is testifying about Milosevic's influence on military
and police security services. According to the potential of his
testimony, Vasiljevic could replace Babic as the key witness.
For the time being, both men have avoided being indicted in exchange
for testifying against Milosevic.
Milosevic's defence is based on the theory that Serbs waged a
defence war, while the conflict was instigated by outside forces
with the help of secessionists in the country. He uses the tactic of
discrediting witnesses and has proven skilful in twisting theories
and negating the reality as well as totally insensitive to the
tragic stories of hundreds of victims of his policy.
The trial was interrupted six times due to his health problems, so
the trial chamber introduced a four-day break every two weeks.
As he refused to recognise the court and be given legal counsel and
decided to defend himself, the tribunal appointed three friends of
the court (amici curiae) to assist him during the trial.
(hina) rml