THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 14 (Hina) - The prosecution of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Monday called a protected witness, registered as B-050. The
witness was a member of the police forces of the so-called Krajina in the formerly occupied central Croatian areas. His testimony was for the most part closed to the public.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 14 (Hina) - The prosecution of the U.N. war
crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the trial of former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Monday called a protected
witness, registered as B-050. The witness was a member of the police
forces of the so-called Krajina in the formerly occupied central
Croatian areas. His testimony was for the most part closed to the
public. #L#
During the open part of the session, the witness spoke about Milan
Martic's control over security services in Krajina, the chain of
command in the police and tensions between Martic, the then head of
the Knin police, and Ratko Mladic, at the time the commander of the
Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Knin Corps.
He described how JNA Lieutenant Colonel Ratko Mladic in 1991
stopped local Serb troops from occupying the town of Skradin, which
from today's perspective is fairly incredible.
"Martic told us to occupy the town, but then Mladic came along with
tanks, set up a buffer-zone and forbade us to occupy Skradin. Mladic
was at the time Yugoslav-oriented and did not allow cockades in his
units," said the witness.
Things changed in the summer of 1991 and Mladic's troops took part
in the attack on Drnis as soon as August, the witness said.
Judging by questions posed by Milosevic during the cross-
examination and his comments in the open sections of the session,
one could discern that most of the witness's statements were
connected to the role of Serbian security services in the training,
equipping and commanding of Knin troops.
The witness spoke about a training camp in Golubic near Knin, which
was headed by Dragan Vasiljkovic, known as "Captain Dragan", about
visits by security officials from Belgrade, who were led by Franko
Simatovic aka Frenki, and the equipment which they brought in.
According to a pre-trial motion by the prosecution, which reporters
were shown before Milosevic's trial started, witness B-050 should
testify to the fact that Franko Simatovic had also organised the
training of Croatian Serbs at a JNA training ground near Belgrade.
The prosecution said witnesses of the massacres in Skabrnja, Bacin
and Dalj, would take the stand in the Croatian section of the trial
in the next few days.
(hina) lml