BELGRADE, April 28 (Hina) - Milan Martic, the former president of the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina (RSK), Croatian territory formerly occupied by Serb rebels, who has been charged by the Hague war crimes tribunal with the May
1995 shelling of Zagreb, told Nedeljni Telegraf daily of Sunday he "naively believed RSK would unite with Serbia" and that there would "be some rump Yugoslavia."
BELGRADE, April 28 (Hina) - Milan Martic, the former president of
the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina (RSK), Croatian territory
formerly occupied by Serb rebels, who has been charged by the Hague
war crimes tribunal with the May 1995 shelling of Zagreb, told
Nedeljni Telegraf daily of Sunday he "naively believed RSK would
unite with Serbia" and that there would "be some rump Yugoslavia."
#L#
"Nobody can save me anymore. Lifetime imprisonment awaits me," said
Martic, admitting to having personally ordered the shelling of
Zagreb to help Serb refugees from western Slavonia cross the Sava
river into the Bosnian Serb entity and reach Serbia.
"If I hadn't done that, another 10,000 Serbs would have perished
during the retreat from Croatia," he said.
Martic said his 1994 running for RSK president was a political
mistake. Nedeljni Telegraf says Martic is still puzzled as to how it
was possible for the "mother country to trick its people." Official
Belgrade was trusted too much, said Martic.
"I didn't want the authority. Circumstance threw me at the helm of
developments. I naively believed we would unite with Serbia, that
there would be some rump Yugoslavia," he told the daily.
Martic said he would not testify against former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague tribunal, but added that "eye
to eye, I wouldn't spare him."
"If I only knew that my imprisonment would be of some use to the
Krajina population, that would make me happy. I would even agree to
being shot for that," said Martic, adding that he could not allow
himself to hide in caves or "kill (himself) like Vlajko"
Stojiljkovic, a senior Serbian official charged with war crimes who
recently committed suicide.
Nedeljni Telegraf says that in seven years of hiding, Martic spent
four in a village in Serbia's Sumadija region under the false name
of Dragan.
Martic has recently volunteered to surrender himself to the Hague
tribunal.
(hina) ha