THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 22 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday attempted to refute the prosecution's claim that volunteer soldiers of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) had committed war crimes in Croatia in
1991.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 22 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday attempted to refute the
prosecution's claim that volunteer soldiers of the Serb Radical
Party (SRS) had committed war crimes in Croatia in 1991. #L#
"They (SRS) claim that they had no paramilitary units," Milosevic
said at the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal during
the cross-examination of a protected witness, registered as C-60.
"I had the opportunity to see the document which speaks about the
fact that a group 17 of volunteers was mobilised and came to western
Slavonia," said the witness, a former member of local armed troops,
known as the Territorial Defence, who today lives in Croatia.
A Belgrade reporter, Dejan Anastasijevic, who testified in the
trial against Milosevic earlier, described how SRS volunteers had
gathered in downtown Belgrade and in an organised manner left for
Croatia.
Witness C-60 began his testimony on Monday with a description how he
had seen volunteers of the Serb Radical Party in western Slavonia in
the autumn of 1991, and had heard that "Beli Orlovi" (White Eagles)
paramilitary troops were in Vocin. He testified to hearing some
residents of Vocin say that these volunteers had killed most of the
town's population in December 1991. The witness also said that the
volunteers had fought under the command the Territorial Defence.
In the part of the trial pertaining to Croatia, a former police
official from Podravska Slatina, Djuro Matovina, had earlier
testified that an investigation he had carried out established that
members of the White Eagles, Vojislav Seselj's radicals, had
committed war crimes in Vocin.
"You live in Croatia .. you speak identically of crimes as ... Djuro
Matovina," Milosevic told witness C-60, trying to suggest that the
witness had personal interest to testify falsely.
The tribunal's prosecution believes Milosevic responsible for the
murder of 32 residents of Vocin on December 13, 1991.
The trial continues with the testimony of a new protected witness
who will be speaking about crimes committed in eastern Slavonia.
(hina) lml sb