THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, June 12 (Hina)- A former Lieutenant Colonel of the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) and the Bosnian Serb army (VRS), Osman Selak, on Thursday testified against ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war
crimes tribunal at The Hague. Selak spoke about the complete logistic, financial and command dependence of the VRS on the authorities in Belgrade during the entire time of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, June 12 (Hina)- A former Lieutenant Colonel of
the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) and the Bosnian Serb army (VRS),
Osman Selak, on Thursday testified against ex-Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
Selak spoke about the complete logistic, financial and command
dependence of the VRS on the authorities in Belgrade during the
entire time of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L#
In his testimony, the witness described the experiences he had as
the commander of a logistic base of the JNA and VRS in Banja Luka
through which weapons, equipment, fuel and financial funding that
arrived from Yugoslavia were distributed.
"Without the support from Belgrade, I would not have been able to
run my base," Selak said describing how he had contacts with the
Yugoslav army's technical service on a daily basis.
Selak confirmed the authenticity of several documents relating to
deliveries of military equipment from Serbia to Republika Srpska as
well as transcripts from the authorities in Serb municipalities and
the JNA regarding weapon deliveries.
Also introduced as evidence were graphs on achieving logistic
support from Belgrade as well as the witness' log describing on
meetings of the army.
Selak said that officers in the VRS received their pays from
Belgrade during the entire war.
During the cross examination the witness firmly dismissed
Milosevic's attempts to refute his testimony.
Milosevic's claims were mostly geared to describing "humanitarian
aid for a million of people west of Brcko which Selak refuted with
data about one hundred tanks, armoured transport vehicles and other
weapons and thousands of tonnes of ammunition and fuel that arrived
from Yugoslavia.
Milosevic virtually gave up on trying to refute Selak's statements,
shifting to questions on pressure on Serb nationals in Visegrad -
the witness' home town - in 1991 and the position of Bosniaks in the
JNA.
Selak testified at the trial against Dusan Tadic, Radoslav
Brdanin and Momir Talic and sections of these testimonies were
introduced as evidence in the Milosevic trial at the proposal of the
prosecution.
(hina) sp it sb