WITNESS: ATTACK ON DUBROVNIK WAS MONTENEGRO'S BIGGEST DISGRACE

THE HAGUE, Oct 8 (Hina) - The attack from Montenegro on Croatia's Dubrovnik had no military justification at all and was one of Montenegro's biggest disgraces, a former Montenegrin foreign minister said at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague on Tuesday. #L# "That was a conquering war, that was an unfair war against Croatia, a war in which Montenegro disgraced itself by hitching to the policy of (ex-Yugoslavia's federal army) JNA and Slobodan Milosevic. No worse thing has ever been done in the history of Montenegro than the attack on Dubrovnik," said witness Nikola Samardzic. He recalled that until then the southern Croatian seaport "had not been attacked for a thousand years." According to the Milosevic indictment, the persecution of people from the Dubrovnik area, for which former Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic is charged alongside Milosevic, began on 1 October 1991 with attacks from land, sea, and air, resulting in the death of 43 people in Dubrovnik alone. Private property and the historical heritage were destroyed and pillaged. The witness said that on that day, the Montenegrin government held an extraordinary session in Titograd, with the entire Montenegrin leadership, headed by Bulatovic, and JNA generals attending. "It was said that Croatia had launched an attack on Montenegro... (that) 30,000 Ustasha were headed for Montenegro to seize Boka (Kotorska) and that we should defend ourselves," the witness said, relaying what Bulatovic and Gen. Pavle Strugar said at that session. He added that the chief purpose of that news was to create a climate favouring mobilisation. That same day Bulatovic issued the first order to mobilise the police, said Samardzic. The prosecution introduced as evidence several orders Bulatovic issued to mobilise combat troops on the Croatia-Montenegro border. The witness said that more than 30,000 people had been mobilised, of which most were sent on Dubrovnik under JNA's command. There they were visited by Bulatovic and Branko Kostic, the Montenegrin representative in the former federation's collective presidency, as well as by Chetnik leader Vojislav Seselj which, Samardzic said, was a big disgrace for the JNA. The witness said the majority of the population believed that Montenegro had been attacked, and that television and "Pobjeda" daily had a big part in that. Subsequent events proved the truth was different, he said. "Nobody was attacking anybody from Dubrovnik... The goal was to seize as much Croatian territory along the coast as possible," Samardzic said, adding that the general idea was to seize territory all the way to Karlobag in the north, in line with Greater Serbia plans. Samardzic said that Bulatovic incensed Milosevic at an October 1991 peace conference in The Hague by accepting Lord Carrington's peace plan on the recognition of the independence of the former federation's republics, with protected rights for Serbs in Croatia. At that conference, Milosevic "vehemently rejected the plan" with the explanation that if Croats had the right to live in their country so did the Serbs in Croatia, said the witness. He added that Milosevic on that occasion threatened Bulatovic by saying that Montenegro would never be independent and sovereign. Samardzic said that when he returned to Montenegro, Bulatovic withdrew his signature from the peace deal following a visit by Yugoslav presidency members Borislav Jovic and Branko Kostic who, Bulatovic told Samardzic, threatened with bringing in new people which, the witness said, at that time meant "losing one's life." Samardzic is one of the key prosecution witnesses. He had personal meetings with the defendant and direct knowledge of Milosevic's policy and influence on the closest associates at the time covered in the part of the indictment referring to war crimes committed in Croatia. The witness said that when Milosevic and former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman met in Igal in 1991 to negotiate a cease-fire, Generals Veljko Kadijevic and Bozidar Adzic acted as "Milosevic's yes-men." The prosecution claims that Milosevic controlled not only the former federation's collective presidency via its Serb bloc, but the JNA as well. Speaking about JNA's activity in the Dubrovnik area, Samardzic said it was soon found out that paramilitary units were committing crimes and that the federal army was implicated in the organised pillage of the area. The paramilitary units were organised by Trebinje mayor Bozidar Vucurevic, he added. The witness also spoke about a Montenegrin October 1991 initiative to peacefully settle the issue of Prevlaka, a peninsula in southern Croatia. He said the initiative, which proposed a cease-fire, was supported by Bulatovic and Milo Djukanovic but failed after being rejected in Belgrade. Bulatovic discussed the initiative with Tudjman in The Hague that same month, on which occasion the then Croatian President said Prevlaka would not be a problem in peacetime but "now that we are at war, I don't have the right to cede Prevlaka to you," the witness said. The prosecution introduced as evidence a letter the Serbian government sent to Zagreb a couple of days before the attack on the Dubrovnik area began. The letter threatened that the JNA would be engaged to defend Dubrovnik, whence "foreign mercenaries and black legions are attacking Herzegovina." The witness said the letter was a document "of ultimate cynicism of which Goebbels would be proud." Samardzic resumes his testimony on Wednesday. The Macedonian member of the former federation's presidency at that time, Vasil Tupurkovski, was at the Hague tribunal today as well. He told reporters he had arrived for preliminary talks for a testimony to be given possibly by the end of the year. (hina) ha