ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - Ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began cross-examining his predecessor at Yugoslavia's helm, Zoran Lilic, at the Hague's war crimes tribunal on Wednesday. Milosevic tried to prove his peace-building
policy in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - Ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
began cross-examining his predecessor at Yugoslavia's helm, Zoran
Lilic, at the Hague's war crimes tribunal on Wednesday. Milosevic
tried to prove his peace-building policy in Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo. #L#
The cross-examination mostly comprised of Milosevic's lengthy
statements to which Lilic gave brief affirmative replies.
Lilic confirmed Milosevic's claim that nobody from the former
socialist Yugoslav federation, later the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, had in any way taken part in pre-war events in Croatia -
- "the intimidation of Serbs, their dismissals, silent
liquidations" -- which Milosevic said was "a reminder of the
Ustasha conduct in World War Two".
Lilic also agreed with the claim that Croatian Serbs had taken up
arms for "elementary self-defence" and had never attacked any
territory on which they had not lived for centuries. Lilic went one
step further, saying that before the war, Serbs had made up 22% of
Croatia's overall population, while today they made up only two
percent, the rest being expelled after Operations "Flash" and
"Storm".
Lilic confirmed statements Milosevic had given at the start of the
war in Bosnia that "Serbs and Muslims are brothers" and that "Serbia
will support any consensual solution for Bosnia". He also confirmed
that Milosevic had advocated the adoption of the "Vance-Owen plan"
and exerted strong pressure on the Republika Srpska leadership to
accept the plan without dispute.
Lilic supported this with examples of sessions of the Republika
Srpska parliament in Pale outside Sarajevo at which Milosevic had
spoken to MPs several times so as to convince them to accept the
plan, as well as an example of a blockade of the border crossing at
Drina River when Milosevic failed in his attempt.
Lilic also confirmed Milosevic's claim that relations between FRY
authorities and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the
Republika Srpska leadership and the Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia
were poor.
During the cross-examination it was said that officials in Belgrade
had often used the term "those crazy Serbs from Pale", especially
after the Srebrenica massacre.
Lilic said nobody from FRY or Serbia had ever had any influence over
the events in Srebrenica, a UN safe-haven, and that without
Milosevic, Bosnian Serbs would have never conceded to the Dayton
accords.
Milosevic's predecessor also confirmed that Milosevic had
advocated the solving of the Kosovo issue by political means and the
principle of ethnic equality, as well as that there had never been a
policy or plan to displace Albanians from Kosovo.
He also agreed with Milosevic that the lives of non-Albanians in
Kosovo had been endangered by Albanian terrorism. Lilic confirmed
an alleged request by Milosevic that Albanian terrorists not be
assaulted if that meant jeopardising the lives of civilians and
that all possibly committed crimes against Albanians should be
investigated and punished.
Milosevic asked that Lilic explain his reply to yesterday's
question from the prosecution when he said that the FRY had
financially helped the armies of Republika Srpska and "the Republic
of Serb Krajina" in Croatia.
"Is it correct to say that the financial assistance was intended for
former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) members who remained outside of
the FRY, i.e. to provide for their social and health insurance
rights," Milosevic asked. He was given an affirmative answer.
Lilic will continue to respond to Milosevic's questions tomorrow.
(hina) lml