THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 26 (Hina) - Lieutenant Colonel Colm Doyle, chief of the European Commission's observer mission and special envoy in Croatia and Bosnia in 1991 and 1992, testified for the prosecution in the trial of former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal on Tuesday.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 26 (Hina) - Lieutenant Colonel Colm Doyle,
chief of the European Commission's observer mission and special
envoy in Croatia and Bosnia in 1991 and 1992, testified for the
prosecution in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic at the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal on Tuesday.
#L#
Doyle spoke about his efforts to stop the then Yugoslav People's
Army (JNA) attacks on Dubrovnik and his subsequent peacekeeping
activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He testified how a JNA general, Pavle Strugar, had confessed to him
during a meeting in December 1991 that the JNA was attacking
Dubrovnik, justifying it as an act of revenge following the death of
his soldiers. He, however, refused to talk about the killings in
more detail, Doyle said.
The witness met with Strugar again on December 6, on the day of the
worst shelling of Dubrovnik in which 16 people were killed.
Most of Doyle's testimony focused on his experience in the European
Community monitoring mission (ECMM) at the beginning of conflicts
in Bosnia in the spring of 1992, and his subsequent position as EC
envoy and representative of European peace mediator Lord
Carrington.
Doyle testified about his meetings with representatives of all
three conflicted sides in Bosnia -- Croats, Serbs and Muslims --
particularly Radovan Karadzic and other Bosnian Serb leaders, as
well as Milosevic himself.
Doyle said Carrington had complained to him that it was difficult to
negotiate with all Bosnian parties because, he said, they all
lied.
Karadzic was the indisputable leader of Bosnian Serbs who said in
late February 1992, ahead of a referendum of Bosnia's independence,
there would be war if Bosnia proclaimed its independence, Doyle
said.
Immediately after the results of the referendum were made public,
Serbs blocked Sarajevo with barricades, which had obviously been
previously planned, he said.
Doyle said that at the beginning of May the same year another
Bosnian Serb hard-line leader, Biljana Plavsic, had told him that
Serbs should be given 70 to 75 percent of Bosnia's territory and for
this goal it was worth sacrificing three million lives.
Doyle spoke how EC observers had been prevented from even
approaching the town of Foca where ethic cleansing was going on at
the time.
On July 16, 1992, Milosevic assured Doyle that Sarajevo was a Muslim
city and Serbs did not need to shell it, as well as that Belgrade
supported the international community's peace efforts, the witness
testified.
He said that during peace talks in Lisbon led by Portuguese diplomat
Jose Cutileiro in late May 1992, participants had received news
about a massacre of people who had been standing in line for bread in
Sarajevo.
Karadzic immediately said it was not Serbs who had done that, Doyle
said, adding that Karadzic had later acted surprised after seeing
photographs of prisoners of the Omarska concentration camp
published in London's Times.
During his cross-examination of Doyle, Milosevic claimed it was
Muslims who had carried out the massacre in Sarajevo with the aim of
placing the blame on Serbs and getting an excuse to withdraw from
peace negotiations.
Milosevic also claimed Bosnian Serbs had accepted Cutileiro's
peace plan in March 1992 and that Bosnian Muslim leader, Alija
Izetbegovic, had signed the agreement only to withdraw his
signature later on.
The witness did not corroborate Milosevic's claims.
Doyle will wrap up his testimony tomorrow when he will be asked to
identify voices from audio tapes of tapped conversations between
Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leaders.
(hina) lml