THE HAGUE, June 14 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has accused NATO of having committed a war crime against Serbia and collaborated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which he claims had joint camps with the
Al Qaida in Kosovo.
THE HAGUE, June 14 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic has accused NATO of having committed a war crime against
Serbia and collaborated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),
which he claims had joint camps with the Al Qaida in Kosovo. #L#
"Isn't it correct that with this illegal aggression you committed a
war crime in Yugoslavia?" Milosevic asked cross-examining a former
NATO military committee chairman, Klaus Naumann, before the UN war
crimes tribunal at The Hague on Friday.
Milosevic asked questions about the civilian victims of NATO's air
raids on Serbia in 1999, for example during the bombing of the
Chinese Embassy, the building of the Serbian radio-television, or a
refugee column in Kosovo, and the use of cluster bombs and weapons
containing depleted uranium.
Milosevic used most of the cross-examination to prove that Serbia
had legitimately responded to the terrorist threat in Kosovo.
Nobody is contesting Serbia's right to defend itself, Naumann said,
adding that NATO had maintained that the force Serbia had used had
been disproportionate.
Milosevic claimed that during negotiations NATO had represented
the interests of the KLA and that a KLA headquarters in Malisevo had
been an Al Qaida camp. Naumann said there had been no communication
with the KLA and that he was not aware that Al Qaida had ever been
mentioned in the context of Kosovo.
During the cross-examination Milosevic said the Albanian refugees
from Kosovo had been "foreign workers".
Naumann said that hundreds of thousands of people were expelled
from Kosovo in the spring of 1999 and that Milosevic's troops had
done it.
Milosevic countered by saying that in 1999 some 200,000 Albanians
lived abroad. "They have been working in states like Germany,
Austria or Switzerland for decades," he said.
Naumann said the issue were not people who left Yugoslavia looking
for work abroad but people exiled by Milosevic's troops.
British judge Richard May intervened several times, prohibiting
Milosevic from making further questions.
The ex-Yugoslav head of state used the cross-examination as an
opportunity to discredit US mediator Richard Holbrooke, who should
make a closed-door testify.
"It's good that we heard that he had requested the NATO order for
action against Serbia... It's very good to see his hypocritical
role," said Milosevic.
Naumann said Holbrooke had requested a decision to that effect from
the NATO Council in order to force Milosevic to reach a peace
agreement.
Milosevic refuted Naumann's claim that during a visit to Belgrade
they had drunk plum brandy.
"We drank pear brandy and not plum brandy. I don't drink plum
brandy," said Milosevic.
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