THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 24 (Hina) - Cross-examining a U.S. historian at his trial before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accused the witness of minimising, selecting and
distorting Serbian history to prove "that Serbs are to blame for everything".
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, July 24 (Hina) - Cross-examining a U.S. historian
at his trial before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday,
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accused the witness
of minimising, selecting and distorting Serbian history to prove
"that Serbs are to blame for everything". #L#
"Mrs. Budding, by selecting facts you have been claiming the whole
time that Serbs are to blame for just about everything," Milosevic
said at the end of the lengthy cross-examination and was
immediately admonished by presiding judge Richard May.
Audrey Helfant Budding, a historian who received her doctor's
degree at Harvard for a thesis on Serbian intellectuals and the
national issue, made for the prosecution a study on Serbian
nationalism in the 20th century.
Milosevic said he was puzzled by the fact that Budding had managed
to trace the roots of events from the end of the 20th century to mid-
19th century Serbian nationalism.
Budding replied that the idea of uniting all Serbian countries
surfaced in the middle of the 19th century and that the link with the
late 20th century was that Serbian aspirations to the same
territories resurfaced in the 1980s.
Milosevic also accused Budding of having relied too much on foreign
historians in writing her study.
He reproached her for reducing the number of all Yugoslav victims in
World War Two. He claimed the figure stood at 1.7 million while
Budding said it was around one million. He also disagreed with her
as to the number of Serbs killed in Jasenovac, a Croatian WWII
concentration camp, claiming the figure stood at 700,000 while
Budding said it was 300,000.
Milosevic asked Budding why she viewed Ustasha emigrants as a minor
group when, he said, they were able to establish a fascist state,
rule it for four years and commit genocide against Serbs. The
witness responded that the Ustasha had come to power with enormous
help from Germany and Italy and that they did not control a large
part of their territory at all.
Milosevic shrugged off judges' warnings that he was spending too
much time on facts from distant history and failed to cross-examine
Budding about events from recent history. He was denied more time,
which he said was as an act of violence in a trial in which "time is
the key factor".
The prosecution then called Stanko Erstic, a Croat from Medvedje, a
village in southern Croatia with a mixed population before the
early 1990s war.
According to a statement Erstic gave before, there was a cafe in
Medvedja where a sign was put up after Croatia declared
independence reading that Croats and dogs were banned from
entering.
Erstic was arrested by Croatian Serb rebel Mile Martic's units in
October 1992 and detained in nearby Knin for a month. He was beaten
and had two ribs broken. He said in court today that at the Knin
prison he saw Martic, Ratko Mladic, Captain Dragan, and reservists
of the former Yugoslav army.
Erstic continues testifying on Friday.
(hina) ha ms