RETIRED JNA GENERAL TESTIFIES AT MILOSEVIC TRIAL

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 11 (Hina) - A retired general of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), who is a prosecution witness at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, on Tuesday testified about financial assistance Belgrade had provided for Serb rebels in Croatia, the transformation of the Serbian Interior Ministry's troops into Milosevic's "Praetorian Guard", and the causes of the forcible disintegration of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). #L# Gen. Milosav Djordjevic was the head of a co-ordinating group for the so-called SAO Krajina (Croatian areas controlled by Serb insurgents) within the Serbian defence ministry in 1991. "Commands for alterations in the Territorial Defence (TO) of 'Krajina' were issued from the office for organisational issues of the federal defence ministry (SSNO)," the witness said. He explained that two thirds of TO members in occupied Croatian areas, who were not part of the then JNA, instead of salaries received "one-off financial grants", secured from the funds of the above-mentioned ministry (SSNO) and the Serbian finance ministry. The prosecutor presented a series of documents to corroborate this statement on the financial dependence of the Serb rebels' leadership in Knin on Belgrade. Djordjevic confirmed that in 1991 the Serbian defence ministry had been informed of crimes committed by paramilitary troops in Serb- held Croatian areas and that Milosevic knew of that too. The prosecutor presented as evidence an order of then JNA chief-of- staff Blagoje Adzic's on the prevention of crimes and several documents of the Serbian government and the SSNO on the deployment of Serbian volunteers within JNA troops. The witness spoke about plans for the intensive bombing of the Slovene capital of Ljubljana, but according to him, this was thwarted by then federal premier Ante Markovic, a Croatian. Cross-examining the witness, the defendant tried to get the confirmation for his usual claims about the causes of the war, which he ascribed to "the secession of Slovenia and Croatia, their paramilitary forces and the Serbs being endangered," but in vain. Djordjevic said Croatia "was legally established at elections but that it illegally won independence and that its armed forces were legitimate but not legal pursuant to Yugoslav laws." The witness said Slovenia and Croatia had not complied with the secession procedure under the SFRY constitution, and criticised Milosevic for accelerating the disintegration of the Yugoslav federation. He pointed the finger at politicians for the bloody break-up that followed. The witness cited excerpts from Borislav Jovic's memoirs, according to which "as early as 27 June 1990, he and Milosevic planned how to throw out Slovenia and halve Croatia." Milosevic tried to lead the witness to corroborate his assertion that "Croatia became a single-ethnic nation with the persecution of Serbs in the wake of the 1995 Storm operation, while minorities were not persecuted in Serbia." Djordjevic said that a great share of 270,000 ethnic Serbs fled Croatia in 1995, and added that ethnic Croats were expelled from the Serbian area of Sirmium (Srijem). Milosevic then asked: "Who did it? The authorities in Serbia did not." "Your coalition partner in the government and current colleague in Scheveningen," the witness retorted, alluding to ICTY indictee Vojislav Seselj. Milosevic tried to use this witness to confirm his claims that Serbia and the then JNA only defended themselves at the time. In this context he asked the general whether any attacks had been launched from Croatia against Serbia. The retired high-ranking JNA officer answered in the affirmative. "Yes. Three to four," he said, explaining that the targets were towns near the border -- Sid, Apatin, and Backa Palanka -- and that a group of commandos managed to reach Sombor. (hina) ms