THE HAGUE, July 25 (Hina) - The former chief of Serbia's State Security Service (SDB), Radomir Markovic, described in The Hague on Thursday how former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic personally ordered that military equipment
for Serbia's state security units be purchased using finances collected through Yugoslav customs.
THE HAGUE, July 25 (Hina) - The former chief of Serbia's State
Security Service (SDB), Radomir Markovic, described in The Hague on
Thursday how former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
personally ordered that military equipment for Serbia's state
security units be purchased using finances collected through
Yugoslav customs. #L#
"The State Security Treasury (RDB) was financed from the budget but
this was not sufficient," Markovic said at the trial against
Milosevic, who is charged with war crimes in Kosovo. Markovic is one
of the key witnesses for the prosecution. He described how the
remaining funds were secured by the then head of the Yugoslav
Customs Administration, Mihalj Kertes.
In order to obtain the money, it was necessary to have Milosevic's
approval, Markovic said, describing how Milosevic phoned Kertes
and told him what the Interior Ministry required.
The SDB operated within the Serbian Interior Ministry, as did the
Public Security Service. The prosecution charges the SDB and the
Yugoslav Army with participation in crimes committed in Kosovo.
Both the army and Public Security Service were financed in such a
manner, Markovic said, describing how "cash, in foreign currency"
was taken to the Interior Ministry building in Belgrade and then to
a bank, which was controlled by a long-time friend of Milosevic's
and from where payments were made to purchase equipment ordered
from abroad.
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice then introduced as evidence two
statements given by Markovic during investigation in Belgrade over
the past two years in which he described in detail how Milosevic,
Kertes and the then Yugoslav Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic
and Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic arranged the purchase of
equipment, for example, helicopters and mortar shells.
Markovic spent the 18 months in custody in Belgrade, among else, for
the attempted assassination of Serb politician Vuk Draskovic.
The witness then described how equipment for the RDB was obtained
from Israel, and added that the service had at its disposal
equipment from Europe and the United States. Equipment obtained
from Russia was organised by Borislav Milosevic, the brother of the
accused.
Markovic described how during his time at the head of the SDB
between late 1998 and 2000, Milosevic and his closest associates
received daily reports marked as state secret about the situation
in Kosovo.
Makovic said that the reports were supposed to be returned after
they had been read, and then destroyed.
Later Nice produced one of these reports whose authenticity was
confirmed by the witness.
Markovic will continue to testify on Friday.
(hina) sp ha