HAGUE: MILOSEVIC CONTINUES CROSS-EXAMINING PROTECTED WITNESS

ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 3 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday continued cross-examining the key witness in the Croatian part of the trial before the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, mostly trying to discredit the witness and present his interpretation of the causes of the war in Croatia. #L# Protected witness C-061, the prosecution's key witness, who in the 1990s held the highest posts in the rebel Croatian Serb authorities, was testifying for the ninth day at Milosevic's trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). For the largest part of the hearing Milosevic was trying to prove that Serbs had felt threatened after the democratic elections in the spring of 1990, when the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) came to power in Croatia. Richard May, the judge presiding the trial, interrupted Milosevic frequently, warning him to stop delivering political speeches and ask concrete questions. "Did not the HDZ's victory mark the start of a strong anti-Serb campaign, which manifested itself in the streets, at work places... people were laid off en masse, tortured and killed," Milosevic asked. "It was the HDZ's policy aimed at defining Croatia as a state of the Croat people in which the Serbs would be a minority. The Serb politicians felt it as an anti-Serb policy... I do not know which murders you are referring to," the witness said, adding that he did not recall any murders of Serbs in 1990. "Was not the policy of the Croatian government not only nationalist but also fascist?," Milosevic asked. "That was your terminology which we adopted at the time," said C- 061, who was testifying with his face hidden and voice electronically distorted. "Talks about cultural autonomy for Serbs were conducted with the Croatian government at the time... but it was never realised due to the escalation of conflicts which you caused," the witness added. Some of the questions Milosevic asked implied that the Croatian authorities falsified the results of the 1991 census. Milosevic also tried to discredit the witness claiming that he had embezzled almost 170,000 dollars which Serb emigrants had donated to the citizens of the so-called Krajina. "I never received the money," said the witness. "Do you remember that an investigation was conducted against you for embezzlement, that you were under investigation, and that inspector Vladimir Velebit, who was in charge of the investigation, was killed somewhere in Krajina?," Milosevic asked. "I don't remember," the witness replied. Milosevic then quoted a declaration Croatian Serbs adopted in July 1990 in the town of Srb (the Lika region, central Croatia). He asked the witness if he still agreed with the text of the declaration according to which Serbs in Croatia, who in the constitution of the former Socialist Republic of Croatia were treated as a constituent nation, have the right to self- determination as well as the right to remain in Yugoslavia. "I agreed with it at the time. Political circumstances, experience are different nowadays. It was good at the time, but there were many cases of abuse... the right to self-determination should have been exercised within the republics and there would be no war," the witness said. He stressed that the right to self-determination was "a matter of political dispute between Croatian Serb representatives and the Croatian government". "You got involved in that conflict the way I have already described," said the witness. The witness, whose testimony helped the prosecution to shorten the trial by giving up the testimony of 14 other witnesses, was closed for public several times today in order to protect the witness' identity. During the cross-examination, Milosevic ironically addressed the witness with "Mr. Croatia 61" as in previous days. The cross-examination should resume on Wednesday. (hina) rml sb