Milosevic Trial Part III

MILOSEVIC TRIAL, PART III Witness after witness came to the Hague to testify against Milosevic. Let us have a look at Milan Babic.

In an unprecedented step, judges in the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic revealed the identity of a key witness. Milan Babic first appeared as a secret witness, but all of Yugoslavia knew who he was.

The man, who has so far been referred to as Witness C-61, was named as Milan Babic, a former senior Croatian Serb leader and former ally of Mr Milosevic. Mr Babic has been giving evidence in secret for three weeks. When he was not testifying behind closed doors, his face and voice were disguised.

However, his identity was widely known as Mr Milosevic - conducting his own defence - had several times revealed it during his cross-examination.

Babic claimed that he had gone to the Hague to help the Balkans find reconciliation.

Clashing with Mr Milosevic in open court for the first time, Mr Babic said that the former Yugoslav leader played a key role in the Croat Serb uprising in 1991 after Croatia proclaimed its independence.

Mr Babic, a former mayor of Knin and self-proclaimed president of the Serb Republic of Krajina, said Mr Milosevic had used his political and military levers to maintain his grip over the Serb minority in Croatia. Mr Milosevic denied the allegations.

Instead he has been seeking to prove that the Serb rebellion was a spontaneous reaction to attacks by the Croatian authorities and so far has been able to do so. Various low profile witnesses have confirmed his assertions that the Croatian government was largely responsible for instilling fear in the region. Milan Babic, ex-president of the rebel Serb entity in Croatia, Republika Srpska Krajina, Mr. Babic was very vague. Here is an example of his account.

Uertz-Retzlaff: "In which period of time was this detention facility in Knin functioning?"

C-061: "I don't know exactly, in 1991." Uertz-Retzlaff: "What was its capacity?"

Uertz-Retzlaff: "How long the POWs were kept there on the average?" C-061: "I don't know exactly."

When Milosevic got his chance to ask some questions, Mr. Babic decided he would reveal his identity. When asked why C-061 together with his family fled Krajina for Belgrade three days before the Operation Storm, May closed the session for the next hour.

Babic and Milosevic openly crossed swords during cross examination for the first time today. Babic's image had previously been scrambled on courtroom closed-circuit television monitors. Milosevic accused Babic of fanning the flames of conflict with Croatia in the autumn of 1991 and of playing into the hands of Croatia's then-president Franjo Tudjman by giving Zagreb an excuse to attack Serbs in the region.

"Is it clear to you, Mr Babic, that it was evident to me then that you were actually helping Tudjman with your vehement radicalism which went against the interests of the Serbian people in the Krajina," Milosevic said. As the day dragged on, Milosevic became more and more aggressive towards the witness.

C61 was at a loss when Mr. Milosevic read the UN Secretary General report on the plan and its provission to keep the krajina under the protection of the UN blue helmets, outside of Croatian jurisdiction until a resolution could be reached. Before that C61 came under scrutiny again about his alleged misappropriation of the US$169,000 collected from the Serbian diaspora.

Mr. Milosevic asked Milan Babic what he discussed in Geneva with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, "did she conveyed to you President Clinton support for Croatia's operation Storm to take the krjina ?". Babic confirmed it was so.

To prove Babic wrong, Milosevic shortly described numerous examples of attacks on the unarmed Serb villages by the Croatian police, arrests and killings of civilians in towns, all happening months before any real fights, finishing each example with a rhetorical question 'So, the Serbian side is to be blamed for what happened?'

The unfortunate Babic tried to escape in a similar way as the Albanian witnesses denied KLA activities: "I don't know those details", "I don't remember the specific details".

But there were so many of these examples, one more gruesome than the other, many already publicly known, so Babic slowly changed his line: "I have been told about this case", "I heard that a large number of Serbs got killed".

Of course, Milosevic didn't miss the opportunity to mention again the case of the witness' extended family member killed, only now the names were not hidden and an ugly story came out: someone informed Babic about an intercepted radio communication of the Croatian police, preparing a raid on one village, aiming to kill the most distinguished villagers, and specifically Babic's family.

When Babic with the Serbs from Knin arrived to that village, it was already too late: his house had been burned, his father-in-law Boza Skrbic killed; fortunately, his mother and mother-in-law managed to escape. This was too much for Babic, of course, and when asked again the same 'So, the Serbian side is to be blamed for what happened?' he fell silent for a while, then feebly said "I don't know to which side do you refer…" Milosevic finally showed some mercy by moving to another question.

The second allegation, broadly presented by Babic throughout his testimony, was that the YU Army had been controlled and manipulated by Milosevic to clash with the Croats with no real reason, through a series of provocations by the local Serbs against the Croats, into which the Army would step in heavily.

To this torrent of examples Babic tried to remain vague as he was when testifying: "I've heard there were some blockings, but I don't know the details."

Milosevic ridiculed him: "All right, you were not even interested in the events, you were more like a passive observer back then."

Milosevic: "Already in 1991 there were more than 100,000 Serb refugees from Croatia who came to Serbia."

Babic: "Yes, it was the first large Serb exodus, which coincided with the withdrawal of JNA from Western Slavonia."

Milosevic: "There was an article in the 'New York Times' in 1993 talking about 10,000 mine-blasted Serb houses in Croatia, outside Krajina; Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic admitted to only 7,000; there were whole families in Zadar blasted together with their houses. Are you familiar with that?"

Babic: "I know about the Zec family." [the notorious case in Zagreb, of a Serb family of four - father, mother, a teenage boy and a girl, abducted and brutally murdered by the Croat police, the event admitted even by Mesic]

Milosevic: "So, you make 10,000 cases to come down to the Zec family, to this one tragic event?"

Babic is the one who was most hostile towards Milosevic, probably blaming him for removing him from the presidency, for stealing him an election, and for selling out the Krajina. Any treasonous testimony of this kind can only be out of spite and hatred for Milosevic

Another written statement was presented, which was faxed to Milosevic by yet another 2 former Krajina officials, denying Babic's allegations and calling him 'former friend'.

As a parting gift, Milosevic gave Babic a detailed list of some 5,000 names and years of birth of the Serbs killed in Krajina; he also gave the judges a book on genocide against the Serbs in Croatia in 1941-45 and 1991-92, saying 'maybe this could be of help to you'. Embarrassed, May mumbled that 'these two documents will be marked for identification, to be argued later on'. This year Mr. Banic received a thank you from the tribunal. He was indicted for war crimes. I guess he didn’t do a good job.

Former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic was arrested and flown to the Netherlands to testify against Milosevic. He was president of the Yugoslav federation from 1993 to 1997, when Mr Milosevic took over.

The prosecution hoped that this former government official would speak against Milosevic. The prosecutor tried to get Lilic to say something on Srebrenica, but it was the exact opposite of what they wanted.

The prosecution suffered from another big disappointment when Slobodan Milosevic's predecessor - former Yugoslav president Zoran Lilic - testified in The Hague on June 17. Lilic stated that Mr. Milosevic had not been involved in the Srebrenica massacre. The next day media headlines announced "Srebrenica »outraged« Milosevic".

Slobodan Milosevic asked Lilic point-blank if he knew of any order or any de-facto policy emanating from the Government of Serbia or Yugoslavia, or any officials of those governments that the Army or Police personnel should commit any crimes against anybody. Lilic said that there was absolutely not any such policy, and that the Army and the police were under the strictest orders to combat crime regardless of who the perpetrator was, even if the perpetrator was a soldier or a police officer.

The prosecution also alleges that the Serbia and FRY authorities formed and supported paramilitaries and sent them to Bosnia and Croatia, and that Milosevic is responsible for this. Lilic’s testimony again proves otherwise. Lilic stated, and he produced the documents to prove it that the SDC (which Milosevic served on) took a decision that paramilitaries should be disarmed and abolished.

The apex of Kangaroo court sham was the testimony of Wesley Clark.

Briefly:

1. Clark had commited perjury under oath by saying that NATO countries did not support KLA terrorists before the war.
Clark demonstrated he posses the qualitues of an Arkansan Democrat and Rhodes scholar even before he became POTUS

3. "Court" demostrated it's circus qualities. Prosecutor allowed Clark to breach Court's own Rule and contact outside world during the testimony. Clar called Bill Clinton to obtain fax describing how great person he was. Clinton's fax was then admitted as court evidence against Court's own rules.

To paraphrase famous Reagan words,

Tear down this circus Mr. Bush!

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