THE HAGUE, Oct 8 (Hina) - At the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal, a former Montenegrin Foreign Minister, Nikola Samardzic, on Tuesday described how Milosevic had pulled the strings in the Serb bloc of the
collective Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
THE HAGUE, Oct 8 (Hina) - At the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before
the UN war crimes tribunal, a former Montenegrin Foreign Minister,
Nikola Samardzic, on Tuesday described how Milosevic had pulled the
strings in the Serb bloc of the collective Presidency of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). #L#
"At the time I had the opportunity to hear from President (Momir)
Bulatovic that Branko Kostic, Jovic and Bajramovic ... acted
completely in line with what Slobodan Milosevic demanded and that
they were doing what he wished to be done," Samardzic said, adding
that during 1991 the then Montenegrin President, Momir Bulatovic,
reiterated this several times.
According to the witness, during a 1991 discussion on declaring a
state of emergency, Milosevic, who was at the time Serbian
President, not only ordered them to offer their resignations but
later told them (members of the Serb bloc) to withdraw them.
"When Milosevic asked them to come back (to the SFRY Presidency),
Bucin did not want to return," Samardzic said. Nenad Bucin was the
Montenegrin representative to the SFRY Presidency at the time.
The incumbent Croatian President, Stjepan Mesic, who testified in
the Milosevic trial last week, said the same thing.
Samardzic said that in compliance with the Constitution, the
subsequent Montenegrin representative to the SFRY Presidency,
Branko Kostic, should have received instructions from the
Montenegrin parliament, but that he never came to that parliament.
"What he (Kostic) did was at the order of Slobodan Milosevic... He
would arrive in Podgorica (from Belgrade) only to improve the
discipline of Montenegrin officials in accordance to what Belgrade
decided," Samardzic said, labelling Kostic as ultra-nationalist.
The witness said that during a private conversation Bulatovic
condemned Kostic's departure to Borovo Selo (east Croatia) in May
1991 after the killing of Croatian police officers, where Kostic as
a member of the Yugoslav Presidency gave support to Serb
paramilitaries who had conducted that action.
Asked about the idea of a Greater Serbia and the Virovitica-
Karlovac-Karlobag line (the western line of that would-be state),
which Milosevic denies, the witness said all the politicians had
talked about it and he described it as "the basic line of the Greater
Serbia chauvinism".
The witness labelled Milosevic's "All Serbs in One Country" syntagm
as "fascist ideology" led by Milosevic.
Samardzic said that in September 1991, a Zagreb university
professor, Hrvoje Kacic, told him in a concerned tone in The Hague
that the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was going to attack
Dubrovnik.
"I did not believe him then," the witness admitted.
Besides Milosevic, Momir Bulatovic is also charged in the Milosevic
indictment with the persecution of the local population in the
Dubrovnik area from 1 October to 7 December 1991, when the area was
exposed to attacks from land, air and sea.
In the attacks 43 citizens were killed, a large number was wounded,
while private property and the historical heritage were damaged.
The old town of Dubrovnik, protected by UNESCO, was hit by a
thousand shells, although no military targets existed in this
southern Croatian town.
The indictment reads that Bulatovic mobilised and offered
substantial assistance to Montenegrin units that were deployed in
Croatia and committed war crimes.
(hina) ms