Milosevic Trial,

Various sources ^ | January 3 | Dan2001

[Dan2001]

Every few months, the Hague prosecution likes to call former or current presidents to testify against Milosevic. Today, it was Stjepan Mesic’s turn. The former Croatian president was actually glad to be able to enter the court room and confront the Accused, but the question many had in mind, since he could dish it out, could he take it?

Enter Mr. Mesic

Ironically, the first stage of the trial of Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, which was devoted to Kosovo, concluded on September 11. Mesic is the first head of state to testify at the tribunal. He was president of the former Yugoslavia in 1991. His presidency lasted less than a year before Yugoslavia was broken up.

Mesic described Milosevic as an “emotionless warmonger.... I never saw him show any emotions, all he had was the goal he was implementing. He could have desisted from the option of war, but he never took any action to stop it.”

Mesic held Milosevic responsible for creating a “Greater Serbia”.

Mesic’s testimony provoked a fierce response from Milosevic, who began to cross-examine him on the second day of his evidence. He accused Mesic of being responsible for crimes committed by Croatian troops against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). He said to Mesic, “You betrayed Yugoslavia, you contributed to its dissolution.” He went on to accuse Mesic of atrocities and ordering the burning of Serb villages.

"You are testifying here that I was the one who broke up Yugoslavia and that you were in favor of Yugoslavia. And any child in Yugoslavia knows?," began Milosevic, before Mesic interrupted him.

During the trial Milosevic accused Mesic of being recruited by Croatian secret services whilst in prison. Mesic denies this.

But under cross-examination, Milosevic said: "I see you have a real hang-up about (me). You mentioned me in every other sentence yesterday.

"According to your instructions Serb villages (in Croatia) were destroyed.

"I think that we can reach agreement on one thing very quickly here. I am not the person on trial here," said Mesic.

"Well that's the point!" said Milosevic. Milosevic was no less complimentary about Mesic, either, referring to his "personal criminal role in the breakdown of Yugoslavia" setting the stage for Wednesday's bruising head-to-head.

The two men's enmity lies in the recent bloody history of the Balkans. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, starting the break-up of Yugoslavia. The two men commenced verbal sparring at such a rate that presiding Judge Richard May had to ask them to slow down for the sake of the translators. While Mr Mesic looked only at Judge May, and referred to his cross-examiner as "the accused", the pair ended with shouted exchanges.

The clash of the presidents did not bring to light other details. Mesic was accusing Milosevic of breaking up Yugoslavia, despite Mesic being on record stating “I will be the last president of Yugoslavia.”

After Mesic, another president decided to appear in the Hague. It was the president Milan Kucan, but he helped the defense in many aspects once starting to tell the court why he came.

Enter Milan Kucan

Milan Kucan, the former communist leader who became Slovenia's first elected president, told the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Wednesday that Milosevic had warned if Yugoslavia broke up, the borders of its republics could be changed by force. He was referring to a speech Milosevic gave on the Kosovo field.

Milosevic accused Slovenia of starting the war. "You opted for violence. You had the decisive role," he told Kucan. "Why did you opt for war? Why did you attack the JNA?" he asked, referring to the Yugoslav People's Army.

But in a setback for the prosecution, Mr Kucan said the 10-day war that led to Slovenian independence was a conflict with the Yugoslav Army and that he knew nothing of Serbian involvement.

He made more serious allegations - that Slovenia provided Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo with weapons. Mr Kucan denied all the accusations, but the most critical moment came when Milosevic said Kucan should also be in the Hague, but the most critical moment came when Milosevic said Kucan should also be in the Hague. Then, Milosevic turned to Kucan again, embarking upon the case of execution of 3 POWs on 28 June 1991 at the Holmec border crossing.

Kucan said: 'If you're asking whether they have been captured and shot, the answer is no.'

Milosevic then produced a thick swath of documents from the Slovenian courts and some international NGOs, re that case. Kucan boldly stated that 'all this only goes to prove that SLO behaved as the lawful state'.

May ordered the documents to be given to Kucan to read them, he briefly skimmed through some of it and timidly said: 'I've claimed that these soldiers and civilians were not executed as POWs, but it seems that they were.' So, Kucan was bombarded with questions about these atrocities perpetrated by his forces, under his command responsibility, for which questions he had been specially prepared, and what did he do?

He failed miserably. He first tried to deny: 'Ne, tega nismo storili. = No, we didn't do that.'

Then he admitted that 'perhaps it happened' that the private trucks in transit had been taken, that 'some civilians had been hurt'. Milosevic then summed up: 'I have given only a few examples, but it's obvious that in this so-called attack by the JNA were killed many times more JNA soldiers than Slovenes. [44 as opposed to 8] Jovic told you that if you want your independence, go on, but do not kill our sons. Why was this war necessary to you?'

It was very obvious that these two men were former colleagues and they both decided to still hold something back and not go out and reveal all the dirty details that one may know about the other. One thing was clear; it was another setback for the prosecution.

Once The Hague was done with some Balkan insiders, it was time to call some British officials.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Dan2001]

This is part four of a larger Milosevic trial analysis. Parts 1-3 can be found on freerepublic as well.

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[bobo1]

I never thought that we should have ever entered that particular war.

Iraq, yes. Why in the world did we ever attack the Serbs? And where were the peace mongerers then? Liberals are great hypocrites and always align themselves against the common good and choose evil.

Blessings, bobo

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Milosevic is not a nice guy but it was none or our business.>>

Genocide. Europe.

Damned straight it was our business. And remains so.

Shoot Slobo.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Why in the world did we ever attack the Serbs? >>>

Serb Genocide at Srebrenica. Up until that point we believed Serb lies about how it was an "internal matter" and "not our concern." Then we saw the truth.

Too bad 7000 helpless prisoners had to die to provide Clinton with a clue.

[bobo1]

Tis true. I have no respect for Milosevic, though I have great respect for the Serbian people that had in times past supported the United States and freedom.

I am a black and white kind'o guy. The Muslim fighters deserve no more than a noble death so they can go to their heaven (whatever that might be) so they can meet their 91 virgins (whatever they may look like) and the sooner the better.

I consider the Clinton war in Kosovo to have been a farce and something that the United States should have never been involved in.

I am anti-war, cuz I have been there. But I agree with President Bush that we should have went into Afghanistan and Iraq (and Iran?) to protect the lives of Americans.

blessings, bobo

[bobo1]

Nah, reading such places as stratfor, and numberous other places and personal e-mail from Yugoslavia, methinks that this should have been handled much differently than given the golden ring to Muslim terrorists.

Blessings,

bobo

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Nah, reading such places as stratfor, and numberous other places and personal e-mail from Yugoslavia, methinks that this should have been handled much differently than given the golden ring to Muslim terrorists. >>

We've hardly done that. In spite of certain paranoid fantasies by certain FR posters, Al Qaida has not carried out a single strike against Americans on either Bosnian or Kosovan soil.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Which is indistinguishable from the objective truth. Your welcome.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

So what is your obsession with the Eastern European Muslims. Are you a Muslim. You just seem to be a one issue kind of guy, and an obsessed one at that. >>

I just spent the better part of a couple of years serving the US Government in Bosnia making sure that the murdered at Srebrenica got a decent burial, making sure that the surviving widows and orphans were taken care of, and making sure that the perpetrators of the massacre behaved themselves on my watch, until such time as we could snag their worthless butts and send them to trial in the Hague.

I'm not one-issue, it just seems that way. I DO post on other subjects. (I especially like to annoy neo-confederates and Ann Randites, but that's a different story.)

It's just that our Serbocrazy Freepers have a habit of coming out of the woodwork about once a week and posting some sort of exterminationist propaganda or another, and I feel I have a duty to answer it. Whenever somebody posts something like, "My sister's husband's best friend's cousin's workmate talked to someone on Email who said that Srebrenica never happened," it needs to be answered by someone who saw the dead and the burial sites and the execution sites et al.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

ROTFLOL@U>>

You say that as if I would care.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

"send them to trial in the Hague."

Yeah, let the UN and World Court (Hague) handle it. LOL That explains you.>>

Well, I know Bosnia. Alternative is to try them in Bosnia. Which will have the following result:

1) If the jury is all-Muslim, the perps die slowly.

2) If the jury is all-Serb, the perps get medals.

3) If the jury is all-Croat, the perps get 1) or 2) depending on highest bidder.

4) If the jury is all made up of all three groups, you'll have a hung jury. All members of the jury will hang each other.

If an international tribunal is out, I'm certain welcome to any other suggestions.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

PS. The World Court in The Hague has nothing to do with the war in Bosnia. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was created by a Security Council mandate in 1992.