THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - The trial of indictee Slobodan Milosevic resumed before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday with the further presentation of evidence backing charges in the
Croatian section of the indictment and with a testimony of a witness for the Bosnian section of the indictment. The witness called B-1003, as he had his real identity protected, spoke about the war events in the north-eastern Bosnian city of Bijeljina in spring 1992 and about the set-up of local Serb authorities with the help and co-ordination from Belgrade.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - The trial of indictee Slobodan
Milosevic resumed before the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday with the further
presentation of evidence backing charges in the Croatian section of
the indictment and with a testimony of a witness for the Bosnian
section of the indictment.
The witness called B-1003, as he had his real identity protected,
spoke about the war events in the north-eastern Bosnian city of
Bijeljina in spring 1992 and about the set-up of local Serb
authorities with the help and co-ordination from Belgrade. #L#
The witness, who was a member of local police, testified about the
attacks launched by Serb paramilitaries and the then Yugoslav
People's Army (JNA) at that city on 31 March and 1 April in 1992,
which was one of the first armed clashes in the war in Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
The ICTY prosecution is wrapping up the presentation of evidence
for the Croatian section of the indictment issued against the
former Serbian and Yugoslav president. Of 71 announced witnesses in
this part of the trial, about 15 are yet to take the witness stand.
Witnesses to crimes in Bosnia have already begun to appear.
Prosecutors said that they would not be able to complete the hearing
for all three sections of the indictment (referring to crimes in
Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia) until the deadline set for 16 May, as
they had lost about 50 days due to defendant's health problems.
Witness B-1003 also spoke about troops led by a notorious
underground mobster Arkan, that launched the first attacks on
Bijeljina. According to the witness, after two days of clashes
"corpses of 48 civilians aged between 10 to 70" were brought into
the morgue of the Bijeljina hospital. There were more causalities,
but some of those killed were immediately buried, he added.
According to the indictment the ICTY issued against Milosevic
charging him with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
in Bosnia, he is accused of the death of 48 civilians during the
attack on Bijeljina.
The defendant's thesis about the Muslim having been armed and their
barricades and attacks on Serbs in Bijeljina was rebutted by the
witness during his cross-examination. He rejected such claims
labelling them as the local Serb crisis committee's arbitrary
interpretation of the events.
(hina) ms sb