THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Nov 19 (Hina) - Borisav Jovic, a member of the presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) from 1989 to 1992 and long-time close aide to former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, continued
his testimony in the Milosevic trial before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Nov 19 (Hina) - Borisav Jovic, a member of the
presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)
from 1989 to 1992 and long-time close aide to former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic, continued his testimony in the
Milosevic trial before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on
Wednesday. #L#
The chief prosecutor in the case, Geoffrey Nice, completed the
examination of Jovic, including his book, "The Last Days of the
SFRY", into the evidence file. The book contains portions that
discredit Milosevic and the Serbian leadership.
Responding to the prosecutor's questions, Jovic said that
Milosevic's efforts at the 14th congress of the League of
Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ) Milosevic were aimed at breaking up
the former Yugoslav federation.
The witness confirmed that the rump Yugoslav presidency ordered the
Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in 1991 "to protect" Serb-majority
areas in Croatia.
Footage was shown in the courtroom of JNA General Zivota Panic,
commander of the 1st Army, saying that after the occupation of
Vukovar in the autumn of 1991 the JNA's plan was to take Zagreb, but
that Milosevic and Jovic rejected the plan and decided that only
Serb-majority areas in Croatia should be protected.
Jovic said that the SFRY presidency had not discussed PANIC's plan
nor had it approved it.
"The political position of the presidency was that the JNA should
not be used to topple the Croatian government and occupy Croatia.
Its position was that the JNA should stand between the Croatian
paramilitary formations and the Serb territories until a political
solution was found," he said.
Prosecutor Nice quoted Jovic as saying in his book that in January
1991 Milosevic thought that "Croatia's secession should be
accepted, but that Krajina should be held militarily" and that the
JNA should "protect the borders of the new Yugoslavia".
Asked how he explained the fact that the government in Serbia
supported the right of the Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina
to self-determination, while at the same time it denied this right
to the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the witness said that the Serbs,
as "a constituent people" in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, had
this right unlike the Kosovo Albanians who are an ethnic minority.
Asked to explain how this right was applied in the case of Dubrovnik
or Eastern Slavonia, where the Serbs were in a minority, Jovic said
that "there is no evidence of Serbia ever trying to impose Serbian
authority on Dubrovnik."
Jovic, who is testifying under a subpoena as a witness for the
prosecution, was cited in the Milosevic indictment as one of the
participants in "a joint criminal enterprise". His testimony is
being monitored by his lawyer, Milan Vujin, for fear that he himself
might be charged.
(hina) vm sb