THE HAGUE THE HAGUE, Sept 29 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic on Tuesday will again, after 11 years, meet face to face a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Mesic, at The Hague, but this time their encounter will be with
their changed roles. Instead taking part in the talks at the equal footing like in a peace process, Mesic is now a witness, and Milosevic a defendant.
THE HAGUE, Sept 29 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic on
Tuesday will again, after 11 years, meet face to face a former
Yugoslav President, Slobodan Mesic, at The Hague, but this time
their encounter will be with their changed roles. Instead taking
part in the talks at the equal footing like in a peace process, Mesic
is now a witness, and Milosevic a defendant. #L#
On Monday, the Croatian head of state will arrive at The Hague to
give his testimony, as the second witness in the Croatian and
Bosnian section of the Milosevic trial before the UN war crimes
tribunal.
Mesic is to testify about a role of the man whom he described in his
political memoirs (entitled "How We Brought About Yugoslavia's
Fall) as an "arrogant" and "tenacious" politician "who, with his
acts, crowning them with his war first against Slovenia and then
against Croatia, made us abandon any form of Yugoslavia."
The first meeting between Mesic and Milosevic at The Hague happened
on 7 September 1991 in the building of the International Court of
Justice at the first in a series of many subsequent peace conference
on the former Yugoslavia.
They are going to meet again in court, but this time the venue of
their meeting is a courtroom of the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which indicts Milosevic for crimes
against humanity and violations of the customs and law of war and
serious breeches of the Geneva conventions, perpetrated in the war
in Croatia.
Eleven years ago, Mesic held the office of the president of the
collective presidency of the then Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (SFRY), and Milosevic was the president of Serbia.
Milsoevic was, Mesic wrote in his book, pulling all the strings and
used the pro-Serb block of the then presidency and also the
Montenegrin leadership and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav National
Army (JNA) to accomplish his own goals such as the conquering of
Croatia's areas, ethnically cleansed from non-Serbs.
Mesic's testimony should last two to three days.
Earlier this month, the Croatian president confirmed that he was
going to testify about the circumstances he had known of from the
times when he was a member and the president of the SFRY collective
presidency, including his knowledge about Milosevic's plans to
create a Greater Serbia.
According to some pre-trial documents in which prosecutors cite
witnesses, a witness, called B-1230 (no witness in the pre-trial
procedure is named), described how the pro-Serb block in the
presidency prevented Stjepan Mesic from taking over the office of
the presidency's president on 15 May 1991, and how, after Mesic
managed to take over the post, the then Yugoslav defence minister
Veljko Kadijevic and other JNA commanders ignored Mesic's orders,
although Mesic was the legally-appointed supreme commander of the
army as well.
Mesic is to testify how Milsoevic exerted his influence on the Serb
block and thus on the JNA which he used to launch aggression against
Croatia.
During the Kosovo section of the trial, the defendant Milosevic
accused Mesic of being "a wrecker of Yugoslavia".
He also holds that Mesic is one of those politicians who started the
war against Yugoslavia, and labelled him as a leader of "the regime
with Ustasha-leaning."
On Monday, the first witness in this section of the Milosevic trial,
should wrap up his testimony. This witness, whose identity is
completely protected, used to be a leader of the Serb Democratic
Party (SDS) in Slavonia (eastern Croatia) in early 1990s.