THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - A former member of the military intelligence service (KOS), Slobodan Lazarevic, on Wednesday, in The Hague rejected any attempt by former Yugoslav president to impose the theory that Belgrade did not
command rebel Serb forces in Croatia.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - A former member of the military
intelligence service (KOS), Slobodan Lazarevic, on Wednesday, in
The Hague rejected any attempt by former Yugoslav president to
impose the theory that Belgrade did not command rebel Serb forces in
Croatia. #L#
It was not possible to identify any such line of command because it
did not exist, Slobodan Milosevic claimed aggressively during a
cross-examination of the witness.
"The command composition in the army in the republic of the Srpska
Krajina consisted of active Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) officers
and the JNA headquarters commanded those officers," Lazarevic said
explaining that daily contacts were maintained between JNA
commanders who were included in the rebel Serb units and
headquarters in Belgrade. Orders arrived from Belgrade every day
and supplies were constant.
Claims by the witness that Belgrade regularly supplied Croatian
Serbs with weapons were rejected by Milosevic who claimed that
Serbia only sent vitally required humanitarian aid.
Milosevic rejected claims by the witness that he (Milosevic) was
behind the expulsion of Croats from occupied regions in Croatia.
Give me at least an inkling of evidence, Milosevic said.
"You managed the politics in that country," the witness said noting
that any of the high ranking JNA and SDB (security) officers he had
spoken to, referred to Milosevic's politics both those in the field
and in Belgrade itself.
During the Croatian section of the trial against Milosevic for war
crimes, the witness described how propaganda and sabotage was used
in the aim of realising Belgrade and Knin's political objectives.
Specially trained members of Croatian Serb units incited incidents
so that the Croatian side could be accused of them and then used
these as justification to reject communicating with Zagreb, the
witness said. He testified that he had forwarded protests to the
international community's representatives over these incidents
accusing the Croatian side.
He then described how the Croatian Serb leadership before and after
negotiations in Zagreb regularly went to Belgrade to obtain
instructions that usually directed them to obstructing peace
efforts.
The witness said that they knew about the "Storm" operation
executed in August 1995 two days before it began and that the
information had been given from sources in the international
community and that they (Serbs) could have resisted, however it was
in someone's interest in Belgrade to leave this territory to
Croatia.
He described how, after fleeing before the Croatian forces, Serb
soldiers, including himself as a liaison officer between the UN and
Serb forces, were placed in a camp run by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan in
Erdut. In this concentration camp, as the witness labelled it, Serb
soldiers were surrounded with barbed wire and were regularly beaten
and abused and then sent back to the battle field.
If by chance anyone tried to retreat, Arkan's forces shot them in
the back, Lazarevic said.
The witness said that in May 1995 he saw the order to shell Zagreb in
case of any "provocation".
The ICTY's prosecutors indicted a Croatian Serb leader, Milan
Martic, for the shelling of Zagreb in 1995.
The witness asserted that General Mile Mrksic achieved what he
wanted with the slaughter of patients from Vukovar hospital in
1991, and Milosevic rejected this, asserting that Mrksic in fact
organised health care for Croats in that region deploying military
doctors for this purpose.
The ICTY has accused Mrksic for war crimes in Vukovar.
The witness who occasionally spoke in fluent English and Serbian
now has a new identity and has been re-located to whereabouts
unknown.
Milosevic said that no-one in KOS knew anyone by the name of
Slobodan Lazarevic.
(hina) sp