THE HAGUE, Oct 10 (Hina) - The cross-examination of former Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nikola Samardzic, whose both legs were amputated, ended on Thursday with the question of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic: "Mr.
Samardzic, do you know that old Serbian saying 'liars are short-legged'?".
THE HAGUE, Oct 10 (Hina) - The cross-examination of former
Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nikola Samardzic, whose both legs
were amputated, ended on Thursday with the question of former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic: "Mr. Samardzic, do you know
that old Serbian saying 'liars are short-legged'?". #L#
Presiding Judge Richard May told the witness he did not have to
bother answering the question.
In the last hour of cross-examination, Milosevic made Samardzic
face his own statements in which he had defended the then official
policy of Podgorica and Belgrade, namely the policy of Miomir
Balutovic and Slobodan Milosevic. Samardzic dismissed those claims
saying that all this was "a set-up".
In Samardzic's opinion, everything was a set-up -- starting with
his statement to Podgorica's daily "Pobjeda" that Prevlaka was
Montenegro's territory, to diplomatic notes that his own ministry
had prepared for Bulatovic, which tackle the theses for the defence
of Montenegro's policy on the international plan, and which also
include claims on the genocidal nature of Croatia's policy towards
Serbs.
Milosevic tried to discredit the witness by suggesting that instead
of defending the interests of Montenegro, he defended those of the
West and Croatia.
Milosevic also accused Samardzic of robbery, citing a former
Yugoslav Army captain who told the "Pobjednik" daily that Samardzic
approached him in Herceg Novi in 1991 and invited him for drinks in
order to get to know each other better. The Yugoslav Army official
said that Samardzic demanded of him to steal a camping trailer from
the Dubrovnik region, "the bigger the better", offering 300 German
marks for his services. Milosevic said in court today that
Samardzic had said that the house of Croatian singer Tereza
Kesovija was full of valuables and that one had a lot to take from
it.
Apart from holding a ministerial chair and a seat in the Montenegrin
parliament, Samardzic at the time was also the director of one of
the largest Montenegrin companies - "Jugooceanija".
Samardzic refuted Milosevic's claims as "nonsense".
(hina) it sb