ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 9 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina resumed on Monday before the Hague-based tribunal with the testimony of protected witness
C-25, a member of the Serb Crisis Centre, who spoke about the situation in Baranja during the war.
ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Dec 9 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina resumed on Monday before the Hague-based tribunal with
the testimony of protected witness C-25, a member of the Serb Crisis
Centre, who spoke about the situation in Baranja during the war.
#L#
Answering the questions by ICTY Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice, witness
C-25 said that members of the Territorial Defence (paramilitary
troops) in Baranja had been receiving weapons from military
reserves which was distributed with the help of the Serb Democratic
Party (SDS). He said that high ranking JNA officers from Belgrade
helped organising Territorial Defence crisis centres in Baranja.
C-25 said that politicians from Serbia, and he named Vojislav
Seselj, had been arriving in Baranja in order to "encourage the
national awareness of local Serbs".
The witness said that also present in Baranja were units of the
State Security Service from Serbia, the so-called Red Berets, which
the witness had personally seen for the first time in the interior
Ministry building in Beli Manastir in which they had been
accommodated for a while. According to the witness, the Red Berets
implemented terror in Baranja in order to prevent the departure of
the Serb population, organised training centres for young men
capable of serving military and control the movement of people and
goods on the Batinski Bridge connecting Croatia and Vojvodina. They
were under the command of Colonel Vasilije Miovic and the unit was
also engaged in smuggling in the region, the witness said.
During the cross-examination, Milosevic attempted to discredit the
witness, labelling him as an associate of the Croatian Counter-
Intelligence Service (POA). With several dozen questions,
Milosevic tried to get the witness to say that at meetings with
members, even heads of the POA, he had been receiving instructions
how to testify at this trial. C-25 refuted Milosevic's
allegations.
At today-s cross-examination, Milosevic accused Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) official Branimir Glavas of handing out
explosive devices in Slavonia villages to be planted in Serb
houses. C-25 did not confirm these claims. Asked "whether he had
information that Serbs were killed and their bodies were thrown in
the Danube and Drava rivers", the witness said he knew about seven
or eight cases of murder of reputable Serbs in the region.
C-25 also confirmed Milosevic's claim that members of the National
Guard Corps (ZND) in Branja's village of Torjanci in two separate
operations which took place in April 1991 "first slaughtered a
group of the Romany and then killed another 25 civilians".
A large part of the testimony and cross-examination of witness C-25
was held in a closed part of the session. The trial will resume on
Tuesday with additional cross-examination of the witness by the
prosecution.
(hina)it sb