THE HAGUE, Oct 2 (Hina) - Armed with piles of papers, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is standing trial at the Hague-based war crimes tribunal for war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia, on Wednesday started
cross-examining Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, accusing him of having ordered, upon coming to power, the execution of a number of people, including his former fellow inmates at the Stara Gradiska prison.
THE HAGUE, Oct 2 (Hina) - Armed with piles of papers, former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is standing trial at the
Hague-based war crimes tribunal for war crimes in Croatia and
Bosnia, on Wednesday started cross-examining Croatian President
Stjepan Mesic, accusing him of having ordered, upon coming to
power, the execution of a number of people, including his former
fellow inmates at the Stara Gradiska prison. #L#
"After the HDZ's victory, you ordered... the liquidation of Milanko
Orescanin," Milosevic said, starting to enumerate names.
"This is the first time I have ever heard of that name," Mesic
answered, adding that his involvement in the killings was equal to
his involvement in "Lincoln's assassination".
"Mr. Mesic, there are witnesses," Milosevic said.
"You are probably spending a lot of time with them then. I know
nothing about that," Mesic said.
Milosevic then continued cross-examining the witness by claiming
that Mesic had been recruited first by the Croatian state
intelligence service and later by the military counter-
intelligence, which Mesic dismissed as "a figment of somebody's
imagination". He also dismissed Milosevic's claims that he had been
involved in white slave trade.
Responding to Milosevic's accusations that he had personally
ordered the destruction of Serb villages, Mesic said those claims
had nothing to do with the facts.
"I was told about it by President Tudjman," Mesic said, resuming
after a short while, "who you also kept company with," a remark
which made Milosevic smile.
As the cross-examination continued, Milosevic grew more and more
agitated, frequently gesturing and looking most of the time at the
witness, while Mesic answered calmly, repeating persistently his
answers without looking at Milosevic.
Mesic is the first head of state to testify at the Milosevic trial.
Their verbal duels repeatedly caused barrages of laughter in a
packed court gallery.
Milosevic attacked Mesic with questions such as whether Mesic had
been more radical than Tudjman, and continued with a series of
questions about crimes committed against Serbs in Croatia, the
nationalist rhetoric in the Croatian parliament, the laying off of
Serbs working in the police, health sector and the media.
Mesic said that there had been inadmissible statements, as well as
unnecessary dismissals, which had indeed caused damage to Croatia,
but, he added, this should have been solved within the framework of
the law-based state and not responded to with attacks on Dubrovnik,
Vukovar and other towns.
Asked about the crimes, from the murder of the Zec family from
Zagreb to the killing of Gospic Serbs, Mesic said that crimes had
happened and that "people responsible for them are being tried in
Croatia".
He added that he had always supported the functioning of the rule of
law and the individualisation of guilt.
The president of the trial chamber, Richard May, intervened many
times in Milosevic's cross-examination, asking that Mesic be
allowed to respond and examining the relevance of Milosevic's
questions for the indictment and the trial and warning Milosevic to
refrain from holding political speeches.
Milosevic accused Mesic that he was testifying against him to evade
responsibility for crimes, as he was the second most important
person in Croatia during the war. At one moment, Mesic responded
that he considered Milosevic guilty of what he was charged with.
Responding to Milosevic's statement that "the only question here is
who is the criminal", Mesic said this was easy to agree about, and
added "It is not me who is standing trial here".
Answering Milosevic's questions on the involvement of the Croatian
army in the war in Bosnia, Mesic said he had not known about it but he
had been told by former President Franjo Tudjman and the Defence
Minister that the only troops which went to Bosnia "were
volunteers, born in Bosnia-Herzegovina".
After Milosevic enumerated the names of Croatian Army units in
Bosnia, Mesic said: "I can see that the defendant is very well
informed about the Croatian units in Bosnia-Herzegovina and it
would be good if he could also enumerate the names of Serbian units
which came from Belgrade to destroy towns".
Milosevic then quoted statements by international politicians and
reactions by the Security Council regarding the presence of
Croatian Army troops in Bosnia.
"The Security Council knew about it... and you, who were the
Parliament President, do not know and claim you did not know about
it," he said.
Mesic and Milosevic also argued over whether the constitution of
the former Yugoslavia granted the right to disassociation to the
republics or the peoples, with Mesic insisting that the right was
granted to the republics and Milosevic that it was granted to the
peoples.
During the cross-examination the witness and Milosevic exchanged
several ironic compliments.
"That is a great piece of information you have" or "It is excellent
that the defendant is expressing regret over the suffering of
Muslims, which is commendable", Mesic said, while one of
Milosevic's comments was "This is worthy of admiration, this
explanation of yours".
(hina) rml