ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 2 (Hina) - The key witness in the Croatian part of the trial against Slobodan Milosevic before the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague (ICTY) on Monday accused former the Yugoslav President of causing
the war in Croatia.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 2 (Hina) - The key witness in the Croatian
part of the trial against Slobodan Milosevic before the
International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague (ICTY) on Monday
accused former the Yugoslav President of causing the war in
Croatia. #L#
Milosevic continued his cross examination of protected witness C-
061 who, as could be deducted from his testimony, was a high ranking
official of the rebel Serb authorities in the early nineties.
Responding to Milosevic's question whether the war was a result of
the violent secession of Croatia and Slovenia or the variable
interpretation of a nation's right to self-determination, the
witness accused the former Yugoslav president of causing the war.
"You caused the war in Croatia by provoking incidents and dragging
the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) into the war... you caused damage
to the Croatians and Serbs in Croatia that were dragged into the
war," said witness C-061 who is testifying with a disguised
identity and an electronically distorted voice.
"You publicly advocated that Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina remain in Yugoslavia, in the country you were re-
organising...but what you did in reality was organise incidents in
regions where Serbs lived as a majority or minority and then
deployed the JNA to maintain these regions by force," the witness
told Milosevic.
"By provoking incidents and leading the war you motivated Croatia
and Slovenia to secede from Yugoslavia, or rather that they not be
included in the country you were creating," the witness added.
Witness C-061, who is the key witness and because of whom the
prosecution withdrew from bringing in 14 other witnesses in the
Croatian section of the trial, was often interrupted on Monday in an
effort to keep his identity confidential. During the questioning,
Milosevic ironically referred to the witness, calling him
"testimony Croatia 61".
During the questioning, the former Yugoslav president attempted to
refute claims by the witness according to which Milosevic
controlled the Yugoslav presidency and the JNA.
Milosevic claimed that he had no influence in appointing commanders
in the JNA and pointed out that the president of the Yugoslav
presidency at the time was a Croat, Ante Markovic, while his Defence
Secretary was General Veljko Kadijevic, also from Croatia.
"Formally the presidency commanded the JNA but since July 1991 you
took over the supreme command of the JNA and commanded it through
the rump presidency and through direct contacts with Kadijevic and
(the then chief-of-staff in the JNA Blagoje) Adzic," the witness
said.
Milosevic's cross-examination of protected witness C-061 should
continue on Tuesday.
(hina) sp it sb