ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 20 (Hina)- Protected witness C-061 at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague-based war crimes tribunal on Wednesday said that during the conflict in Croatia in 1991, Serb
forces had two lines of command and Milosevic headed both.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 20 (Hina)- Protected witness C-061 at the
trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the
Hague-based war crimes tribunal on Wednesday said that during the
conflict in Croatia in 1991, Serb forces had two lines of command
and Milosevic headed both. #L#
One line of command went from the presidency of Yugoslavia, the
Yugoslav Peoples' Army and Territorial Defence, while the other
went through the Serb police, the militia in the 'Krajina' and
volunteer units, witness C-061 said.
Milosevic was at the helm of both lines while they co-ordinated
joint actions in the field, the witness said.
Witness C-061, whose identity is disguised and his voice distorted,
identified himself at Monday's session as a high ranking official
of the government of the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina.
Explaining how Milosevic, as the then president of Serbia, could
have been at the helm of the military structure of the federal army,
the witness said that he was the main political figure, the most
powerful man in the country with political initiatives.
The army was formally commanded by the presidency of Yugoslavia but
in reality it was headed by Slobodan Milosevic, the witness said.
C-061 said that the local commander of the police in Knin, Milan
Martic, was under Milosevic's direct command.
Martic was influenced by the State Security Service in Serbia (SDB)
or rather, Milosevic the witness said.
He also said that the SDB participated in setting up training camps
for special military units and volunteers in the Serb para-state in
Croatia.
During the testimony, witness C-061 several times confirmed that
the JNA was under the control of the SDB and actively participated
in taking control of Croatian territory which aimed at expelling
the Croatian population while their property was looted and
destroyed.
C-061 added that in these regions, Serbs and the JNA were not under
any threat of danger.
The testimony was disrupted frequently by closing parts of the
trial to the public.
Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff presented several documents
during the testimony that should shed light on the circumstances
that led to creating the para-state in Croatia and prove Belgrade's
influence on Knin.
Prosecutor Uertz-Retzlaff asked the presiding judge Richard May to
extend the period allowed for C-061 to give his testimony because as
a high-ranking official in the Serb para-state in Croatia, he was a
special witness, the only of his kind in the Croatian section of the
trial.
She said that the if trial chamber sustained her motion she would be
willing to give up from the testimonies of lower ranking officials
in the Serb para-state.
(hina) sp it sb