THE HAGUE, June 16 (Hina) - The prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague will prove the responsibility of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for crimes in Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina with a number of secret recordings of Milosevic's conversations with his closest associates, secret documents, as well as official decisions of Croatian and Bosnian Serb institutions and the testimonies of still unknown politicians.
THE HAGUE, June 16 (Hina) - The prosecution of the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague
will prove the responsibility of former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic for crimes in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina
with a number of secret recordings of Milosevic's conversations
with his closest associates, secret documents, as well as official
decisions of Croatian and Bosnian Serb institutions and the
testimonies of still unknown politicians. #L#
A pre-trial statement of the prosecution on Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina, written on more than 300 pages, brings quotes from
phone conversations between Milosevic and his closest associates,
including Radovan Karadzic, Jovica Stanisic, Blagoje Adzic, and
General Uzelac, in the second half of 1991.
In a conversation with Karadzic about a JNA operation in eastern
Slavonia, on July 1, 1991, Milosevic says that the operation has
been carried out successfully, that the Croatian side has suffered
a large number of casualties, and that "it is time for a serious
operation that we have discussed..."
"I believe that all the steps I have taken so far have yielded
results," Milosevic said during the conversation.
Later the same month, during another conversation with Karadzic,
Milosevic orders that "the centres of the Croatian Democratic
Union" in Bosnia-Herzegovina be blocked and promises that Bosnian
Serbs "will be given arms and whatever they need".
The prosecution claims that Milosevic, at the time the President of
Serbia, controlled the Serbian bloc in the collective Yugoslav
state presidency and army, thus abusing the institutions.
Milosevic is also charged with having controlled the Montenegrin
leadership, and the leadership of Croatian and Bosnian Serbs in
implementing a plan of ethnic cleansing and annexation of occupied
Croatian and Bosnian areas.
The prosecution claims that Milosevic also controlled the finances
of Croatian and Bosnian Serbs and provides as evidence Milosevic's
complaint to his being detained in April 2001 in Belgrade:
"Assistance was given to those who needed it the most and that was my
firm orientation and directive. As regards funds spent for weapons,
ammunition and other needs of the armies of Republika Srpska and the
Republic of Srpska Krajina, those costs constituted a state secret
and could not be stated in the budget law".
The prosecution will also use Milosevic's statements, like the one
he gave in an interview with the NIN paper, when he said that he had
ordered the mobilisation of Serbian police forces to protect
Serbia's interests as well as "the interests of Serbs living
outside Serbia".
The prosecution also quotes statements by Milosevic's close
associates, including Jovan Raskovic, who said that Milosevic was
the protector of Croatian Serbs, and Karadzic, who in 1990 said that
Bosnian Serbs "will never allow" the establishment of a border
between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.
To be used in the trial are also official documents, including
minutes taken at the sessions of the former Yugoslav presidency and
the presidencies and parliaments of Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, at
which ethnic cleansing was openly advocated, as well as their
decisions, regulations and laws.
Unlike the Kosovo statement, the prosecution's pre-trial statement
on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina does not include any witness
names. The chief prosecutor in the trial, Geoffrey Nice, has
announced that he will submit a list of witnesses for the first
three-four months of the Croatia trial by the end of the week.
The part of the trial referring to Kosovo should end on July 26,
after which the presentation of evidence for Croatia should start.
Prosecutor Nice has asked the trial chamber for more time to
complete the Kosovo trial.
The statement on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina includes the names
of "insider" witnesses, who are to testify about Milosevic's
influence on and control over events in the two countries.
Individual crimes committed in Croatia and Bosnia will be described
by dozens of witnesses.
(hina) rml