THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 8 (Hina) - Witness for the prosecution Milan Milanovic, one of the former rebel Serb leaders in eastern Croatia's Slavonia, confirmed before the Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday
that the accused, ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, had a decisive influence on the waging of the war and the creation of a parastate in that region in the 1990s.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 8 (Hina) - Witness for the prosecution Milan
Milanovic, one of the former rebel Serb leaders in eastern
Croatia's Slavonia, confirmed before the Hague war crimes tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday that the accused, ex-
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, had a decisive influence on
the waging of the war and the creation of a parastate in that region
in the 1990s. #L#
Milanovic said that in 1991, Serbian troops in eastern Slavonia
were commanded by Serbian Interior Ministry officer Radovan
Stojicic aka Badza, who briefed Milosevic about the war, in the
witness' presence, on a regular basis.
In 1991 "official authorities in Belgrade" sent Stojicic with
equipment and Serbian Interior Ministry personnel to eastern
Slavonia, where he was appointed Territorial Defence commander,
said Milanovic, former assistant defence minister in rebel
Croatian Serbs' self-styled Republic of Serb Krajina and chief Serb
negotiator for the Erdut Agreement in 1995.
The witness described the armament of Serbs in the area and the
founding of a Serb National Council for the purpose of "keeping
Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium within Yugoslavia".
He spoke about attacks by the former federation's army, the JNA, on
Vukovar and Croat- and Hungarian-populated villages and the mass
expulsion of locals.
Milanovic said that the Serbs' political leader in eastern
Slavonia, Goran Hadzic, exercised his influence only because he was
"very close to Milosevic" but had no required skills.
The witness confirmed that Milan Babic and Milan Martic, Serb
leaders in southern Croatia's Knin, would often meet with
Milosevic.
Answering questions from prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Reztlaff,
Milanovic said power in the region of eastern Slavonia was in the
hands of the JNA which took the Serbian side in August 1991. He added
that troops of the Novi Sad Corps, the Belgrade Guard Brigade,
Serbia's Territorial Defence and Interior Ministry, Arkan's Tigers
and other paramilitary units led by Serbia's State Security took
part in the war.
Illustrating Milosevic's order-giving role in the Yugoslav Army
(VH), the witness described an event from 1993, when the troops
withdrew from the border separating Slavonia and Serbia. Milosevic
asked via his "personal friend" Stojicic that the decision on the
withdrawal be altered.
From Milanovic's flat, Stojicic phoned Milosevic, who rang General
Momcilo Perisic ordering that the troops return to the borders,
which Perisic did, said the witness.
The witness went on to say that from 1991 to 1996, when he was
assistant defence minister of the "Serbian Autonomous District of
Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium", he was employed as a
civilian in the VJ and was on its payroll. He added this was the case
with everyone at his ministry as well as with Serbia's Territorial
Defence command, which was comprised of officers from the JNA and
the VJ.
Milanovic said the Serb parastate in Croatia and its troops were
financed via "government" accounts in banks in Serbia. Said troops
were regularly sent equipment from the JNA and the VJ, including "50
tanks from Perisic," he added.
The Milosevic trial resumes on Thursday when he is due to cross-
examine Milanovic. The next witness will be British General Rupert
Smith, UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995.
(hina) ha