THE HAGUE, Oct 8 (Hina) - During his trial before the UN war crimes tribunal, a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, on Tuesday accused the Croatian authorities of ethnically cleansing western Slavonia from Serbs in the end
of 1991 and in the beginning of 1992.
THE HAGUE, Oct 8 (Hina) - During his trial before the UN war crimes
tribunal, a former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, on
Tuesday accused the Croatian authorities of ethnically cleansing
western Slavonia from Serbs in the end of 1991 and in the beginning
of 1992. #L#
"Over one hundred villages in the municipalities of Podravska
Slatina, Orahovica, Daruvar, Pozega ... on 13 December 1991 were
ethnically cleansed and Serbs were expelled," the defendant
Milosevic said during the cross-examination of the prosecution's
witness, Djuro Matovina, from Slatina, who began testifying on
Monday as the third witness in the Croatian section of the trial of
the former Serbian autocrat accused of crimes in Croatia.
"The Serb population was not forced by the Croatian authorities to
leave... It is true that residents were withdrawing together with
paramilitary units," the witness Matovina replied, explaining that
the population withdrew together with Serb forces to the areas of
the future UN-protected zones.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) indicts Milosevic for the persecution of Croatian and other
non-Serb population in western Slavonia and for the massacre of 32
Croat civilians in Vocin, committed on 13 December 1991 by
retreating Serb volunteer forces.
Milosevic denied any tie between Serbia and the events in Vocin, but
the witness reiterated that the units of volunteers called the
White Eagles had arrived there.
Milosevic claimed that the casualties had been caused in the
explosion of a great amount of ammunition and explosive, which had
been "hauled up there from I don't know where".
The witness explained that the Catholic Church of the Blessed
Virgin Mary had been blown up in the explosion of a few tonnes of
explosive. Milosevic responded to this saying that "So, the
building which was used as an arms depot was blown up and what you
are talking about consequently happened in Vocin."
Milosevic asked the witness whether he knew anything about the
murder of hundreds of Serbs in western Slavonia from 11 October 1991
to 29 March 1992.
"It is not correct. I know nothing about it. Every case was
addressed in the legal manner. I know nothing about that figure,"
Matovina answered.
Milosevic claimed that tens of thousands of Serbs had been expelled
from western Slavonia.
(hina) ms