THE HAGUE, Oct 6 (Hina) - The prosecutors of the UN war crimes tribunal will on Monday call new witnesses in the process of proving the responsibility of a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, for war crimes perpetrated in
Croatia.
THE HAGUE, Oct 6 (Hina) - The prosecutors of the UN war crimes
tribunal will on Monday call new witnesses in the process of proving
the responsibility of a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan
Milosevic, for war crimes perpetrated in Croatia. #L#
Next week (as of 7 October), the war-time police chief in western
Slavonia, Djuro Matovina, a witness, Slavko Kucuk, and a former
Montenegrin official will take the witness stand in the trial of
Milosevic before the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia) in the Hague.
It is not an usual practice of the tribunal's prosecution to
announce the names of witnesses in advance, but the defendant
Milosevic disclosed their names this week when he complained about
a change in the schedule of the appearance of the witness, which, as
he said, made it more difficult for him to prepare himself for the
cross-examination.
Milosevic's predecessor in the office of the Yugoslav President,
Zoran Lilic, is likely also to take the witness stand in the trial
soon. Last week the tribunal gave the green light for his testimony
in the presence of two official representatives from Belgrade, as
to protect Yugoslavia from disclosing data which, according to
Yugoslav authorities, could jeopardise Yugoslavia's position
before another Hague-based court, International Court of Justice
(ICJ). Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia have sued Belgrade before
the ICJ for the violation of the convention on the prevention of
genocide.
The ICTY has indicted Milosevic for crimes against humanity and
serious breaches of the Geneva conventions and the customs and law
of war committed between August 1991 and June 1992 in Croatia and
for genocide committed against the Muslim population in Bosnia in
the period between March 1992 and the end of 1995.
(hina) ms