ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 19 (Hina) - During the testimony of one of the most important witnesses in the Croatian section of the Slobodan Milosevic trial on Tuesday, the trial chamber in this case decided to introduce secret recordings as
evidence. Those are the recorded conversations of the key actors of the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, including talks between Slobodan Milosevic as the president of Serbia at the time with the leader of Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 19 (Hina) - During the testimony of one of the
most important witnesses in the Croatian section of the Slobodan
Milosevic trial on Tuesday, the trial chamber in this case decided
to introduce secret recordings as evidence. Those are the recorded
conversations of the key actors of the war in Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina, including talks between Slobodan Milosevic as the
president of Serbia at the time with the leader of Bosnian Serbs,
Radovan Karadzic. #L#
Milosevic claimed that the recordings were mounted and illegally
obtained and as such were inadmissible.
Following a decision by the trial chamber, the ICTY prosecution
introduced the recordings via the protected witness C-061 who
recognised the voices on the recordings. It can serve as evidence of
Milosevic's and Karadzic's intentions in 1991 to 'put Yugoslavia in
order' with the assistance of the then Yugoslav Peoples' Army.
Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff said judges would hear
excerpts from about 12 recordings of the 50 obtained and one
conversation in its entirety.
"I clearly recognised the voices," witness C-061 said after he
listened to a recording from autumn 1991 in which Karadzic and
Milosevic spoke about territory in Croatia and Bosnia which was to
be retained with the help of the JNA and kept within Yugoslavia in
order to "protect" the Serb people.
Witness C-061, whose identity was protected, described himself as a
government official of the so-called "Republika Srpska Krajina".
He said he met with Milosevic more than a dozen times and spoke to
him over the phone as many times too. He also met Karadzic at least
ten times.
The witness' testimony which should last all the day was
interrupted on Tuesday with closed sessions in an effort to protect
his identity.
The witness described how, when he spoke with Milosevic about the
future of Yugoslavia, Milosevic told him that he excluded any
possibility of confederate relations between Zagreb and Belgrade.
During a meeting in Belgrade in 1991, when he asked Milosevic
whether Serbia and Croatia could establish confederate relations,
Milosevic answered that he did not want this and Croatia "could
go".
The witness quoted Milosevic as saying "I will go with Greece"
adding that he probably imagined going into a confederation with
Greece.
The witness said that a feeling was formed in Belgrade that Serbs
would not be a minority in Croatia and he personally believed this
was right however, he changed his opinion later. This was an
ethnically egotistical thesis which led to the conflict, the
witness concluded.
C-061 said that in 1991 Milosevic personally boasted that he had put
in place his own people in key offices in the media in Serbia and
described how media propaganda in Belgrade incited insecurity and
fear.
In support of these statements, the prosecution televised a
recording of former Croatian defence minister Martin Spegelj that
was used by Belgrade to instil fear in Croatian Serbs about the
plotting of the Croatian government against the JNA and Croatian
Serbs.
The witness described how in 1991 the leader of the radical Serbs,
Vojislav Seselj, came to Croatia and visited his volunteers and on
one occasion returned to Belgrade in a JNA helicopter. Witness C-
061 said Seselj led active politics to expel Croats from these
regions.
Dutch attorney Peter Mihael Miller also attended Tuesday's
testimony by witness C-061. The prosecution explained that this
legal representatives was present given that the witness was also a
suspect and an indictment would soon be issued against him.
(hina) sp sb