Posted on 05/14/2002 6:37:45 AM PDT by ABrit
Defence lawyer accuses military of obstructing RTS trial
BELGRADE, Tuesday Yugoslavias military authorities have refused to allow a key witness in the trial of Serbias former state television chief to reveal state secrets in his testimony to the court, the defence lawyer told B92 today.
Colonel Petar Pajcin, reportedly a key witness, yesterday failed to attend the trial of former Radio Television Serbia (RTS) director Dragoljub Milanovic. Defence lawyer Slobodan Sisic said Pajcin had not been given clearance to reveal state secrets.
Milanovic is charged with responsibility for the deaths of sixteen RTS employees when the station was hit by a NATO rocket during the 1999 bombing campaign. It is reported he had prior warning of the strike.
His lawyer said the testimony of Pajcin, who at the time was responsible for communication between the federal ministry of defence and RTS, would be crucial to the case. Sisic said the court would request that the military leadership, i.e. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, allow Pajcin to testify. (B92)
Did the Serbs bomb themselves?
I strongly believe that local school districts should be perfectly free to do what they, even if the rest of the world correctly perceives that they are not working in their own self-interest, let alone the commonweal.
In other words, I'll make sure that my local school district hires the best teachers (they do, although these days it is not saying much), but you make your own decisions.
Obviously not - instead the theory holds that the Serbian leadership was informed that RTS would be bombed and then pulled the big fish out of the target and let the low level workers be sacrificed to score political points.
The State Secret in this case is the knowledge that the building was going to be targeted and when, and it's being kept a secret due to obvious implications for the officers who's careers spanned the gap from Milosevic's regime to the present government in Belgrade.
'Least that's the way I read it.
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