ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 22 (Hina) - On Thursday, the fifth day of the testimony of protected witness C-061, the prosecution in the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on
Friday presented secretly recorded conversations to prove Milosevic's crucial influence on the Croatian Serb rebel leadership during the 1991-5 war in Croatia.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Nov 22 (Hina) - On Thursday, the fifth day of the
testimony of protected witness C-061, the prosecution in the trial
of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war
crimes tribunal in The Hague on Friday presented secretly recorded
conversations to prove Milosevic's crucial influence on the
Croatian Serb rebel leadership during the 1991-5 war in Croatia.
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Witness C-061 identified at the request of the prosecution the
voices of participants in the conversations and explained the time
frame and circumstances in which the conversations took place.
Most recordings are of conversations between Milosevic and Bosnian
Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
One recorded in July 1991 confirms that Milosevic planned to create
a Great Serbia by seizing parts of Croatia's and Bosnia-
Herzegovina's territory.
"They should be allowed to secede, but along the lines that suit
us... I would let Slovenia break away immediately, and the others
after their borders with us are determined... We have to radicalise
and speed things up," Milosevic tells Karadzic in the recording.
Asked what Milosevic meant when he said that things had to be
radicalised, the witness said: "He wanted to force Slovenia and
Croatia to leave Yugoslavia so that what was left... be considered
the state Milosevic was creating".
It is possible to conclude from the testimony of witness C-061, who
is testifying with his face hidden and voice distorted, that he held
high positions in the Croatian Serb rebel leadership.
The trial chamber on Thursday decided to allow the introduction of
secret recordings of conversations of key figures in the war in
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The prosecution is trying to prove with the secret recordings of
conversations between Milosevic and Karadzic that in the summer and
autumn of 1991 Milosevic requested Karadzic to ensure unobstructed
passage of JNA units - mobilised in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia -
through Bosnia-Herzegovina to Serb-held territory in Croatia.
"The JNA brigades were from Vojvodina, Cacak... and other areas,
and they were deployed in Banija, Kordun and Lika... I had insight
into that on the ground," the witness said.
The prosecution also played recordings from which it can be
concluded that Milosevic used his influence to secure the release
of former Knin police commander Milan Martic, who was arrested and
taken into custody at the police station in Otoka near Bosanska
Krupa in Bosnia-Herzegovina in September 1991.
The prosecution today presented a number of documents showing that
between 1992 and 1995 Yugoslavia had provided help to rebel Serb
forces in Croatia. The witness confirmed the authenticity of those
documents.
The testimony was declared closed for public a number of times at
the prosecution's request to protect the identity of the witness.
The testimony of witness C-061 should continue on Monday.
(hina) rml sb