BOSNIAN DIPLOMAT TESTIFIES AT MILOSEVIC TRIAL AT THE HAGUE

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - Prosecution witness Edin Pasic said at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday that in 1992 the then president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dobrica Cosic, wanted to prevent the killing of Bosnian Muslims but could not because of "the despot Milosevic". #L# Pasic, who was at the time an interpreter in the bodies of the Yugoslav federal government in Belgrade, said that in the summer of 1992 Cosic was planning to appoint him as his advisor on Islamic issues and that he told him that "the brutal killing of our Balkan Muslims, Sunnites, is impermissible". Pasic, who is currently the ambassador of Bosnia-Herzegovina to Kuwait, told the tribunal that he had appealed to Cosic "to save Bosnian children" but Cosic's response was that he would do so but could not because of the despot Milosevic "who does not allow me (Cosic) to open my mouth". According to the witness, Cosic said he had no powers at all. Pasic confirmed that at that time Milan Martic, Radovan Karadzic, Biljana Plavsic and other rebel Serb leaders from Bosnia and Croatia would come to Cosic's office for consultations. The witness said that in 1994 he fled Belgrade to Hungary and later departed for Cairo. Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic said that Pasic's testimony was incorrect and that this could be confirmed by Dobrica Cosic. He also objected to the witness's "humiliating manner" in which he spoke about Cosic. Asked by the accused why he had declined Cosic's offer to become his adviser, Pasic replied that he had refused it "for moral reasons". "As Cosic was your puppet, had I accepted (the offer), I would also have become your puppet," the witness said. Milosevic retorted that this was "an insult against Cosic and in bad taste". (hina) ms sb