THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - Protected witness B-050, a police commander in the so-called Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina confirmed in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday that the highest
officials of the Serbian State Security Service (SDB) had participated in the organisation of Croatian Serb rebel forces.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - Protected witness B-050, a
police commander in the so-called Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina
confirmed in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic on Tuesday that the highest officials of the Serbian
State Security Service (SDB) had participated in the organisation
of Croatian Serb rebel forces. #L#
The prosecution today also called protected witness B-1701 from
Bosnia-Herzegovina, who spoke about a massacre in his village,
which he managed to survive.
The largest part of witness B-0500's testimony was closed to the
public, especially during his cross-examination by Milosevic.
In short intervals that were open to the public, the witness said
that Franko Simatovic Frenki from the SDB had organised "the first
round of recruitment of the Krajina police" in April 1991.
He said that apart from Simatovic, he had frequently seen in Knin
Jovica Stanisic, the head of the SDB and one of Milosevic's closest
associates. "Stanisic said on several occasions that he had seen
'the boss', meaning Milosevic," the witness said.
The witness said that he had spent five months in a training camp for
special police forces, becoming himself a police instructor. The
camp in Golubic where special police from Knin were trained was
headed by the controversial Dragan Vasiljkovic, aka Captain
Dragan, also linked with the SDB, he said.
Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic indirectly confirmed the
involvement of the SDB in Knin in 1991, when he asked the witness if
"Frenki ever ordered you to commit a crime", to which the witness
replied no. The basic idea of the training camp was "the protection
of one's country and one's people," Milosevic said, and the witness
confirmed it.
In the continuation of the trial, instead of calling to the witness
stand witnesses to crimes in Skabrnja, Bacin and Dalj in Croatia,
the prosecution called protected witness B-1701, who spoke about a
massacre committed by Serb forces in the village of Glogova,
Bratunac municipality, eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, in May 1992.
As the introduction of evidence in the Croatian part of the trial is
being wrapped up, the prosecution is gradually calling witnesses
from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
B-1701, who said that he was "an illiterate man and forest worker",
spoke about the horrors of the Bosnian war, which claimed more than
200,000 lives.
Visibly shaken and excited, often speaking through tears, the
witness recalled the attack of Serbian forces on his (Muslim-
populated) village, in which some 70 residents were killed while he
managed to survive the massacre.
Two days before the attack, the village was surrounded by tanks,
APC's and soldiers wearing Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) uniforms
and traditional southern Serbian caps, demanding that the
residents hand over their hunting rifles. The attack started in the
morning of May 9, when the Serbian forces started burning houses in
the village. The witness said that soldiers with masked faces
rounded up residents in the centre of the village, after which they
killed from pistols a number of them, including two disabled men.
None of the residents were armed or put up resistance, he said.
The witness said that the execution was commanded by a man called
Miroslav Deranjic and that there was a woman among the executors and
she wore no mask.
The witness was in a group of 26 residents who were ordered to carry
the bodies to a nearby river, into which they were later thrown. The
soldiers then lined up the people who carried the bodies near the
river and started executing them. The witness said he fell into the
river uninjured and hid in the water under other bodies until the
soldiers left the village.
The witness said that 72 villagers had been killed and all houses
had been burned.
According to Milosevic's indictment, some 60 people were killed in
Glogova.
Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic tried to confuse him by
asking him if he had counted the bodies himself and pointing to
differences in statements the witness gave to the Bosnian
commission for war victims in 1995 and ICTY investigators in 2002.
The witness initially refused to answer Milosevic's questions, but
judge Richard May told him the accused had the right to cross-
examine him and he should allow him to do so. The cross-examination
continues tomorrow.
(hina) rml