THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 31 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday quoted a former rebel Croatian Serb leader, Borislav Mikelic, to refute claims by witness Slobodan Lazarevic that the Croatian Serb army had
been under direct command from Belgrade.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 31 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday quoted a former rebel Croatian Serb
leader, Borislav Mikelic, to refute claims by witness Slobodan
Lazarevic that the Croatian Serb army had been under direct command
from Belgrade. #L#
"Borislav Mikelic, former Prime Minister in the Republika Srpska
Krajina government... denies that Krajina's Serb army was under the
command of Momcilo Perisic or the Yugoslav army," Milosevic said
quoting Mikelic's promptly obtained reaction to Lazarevic's
testimony.
Lazarevic, a former intelligence official, over the past two days
spoke about the chain of command which existed between the Croatian
Serb army and the general staff of the former Yugoslav army (JNA)
between 1991 and 1995. General Perisic was JNA chief-of-staff at
the time.
Milosevic is charged with war crimes committed in Croatia in 1991-
2. Those crimes, with which he is charged on command
responsibility, were committed by Croatian Serb rebel units and the
JNA in an attempt to create ethnically pure areas.
The former Yugoslav president tried to suggest that Lazarevic had
been bribed to testify against him, which the witness refuted.
The trial at the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague continues.
(hina) ha sb