Milosevic "trial", synopsis Sept. 11-20, 2003
1. "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: 12 SEPTEMBER 2003
2. "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2003
3. “TRIAL” SYNOPSIS SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
4. MILOSEVIC TRIAL SUSPENDED AGAIN ON HEALTH GROUNDS
=== 1 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg091203.htm
"TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: 12 SEPTEMBER 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 12, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Robert J. Donia testified as an "expert witness" against President
Milosevic today. Dr. Donia has served as a consultant for the U.S.
Miliatry, and during the Bosnian war (which is what he was testifying
about) he worked as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch. Maybe next
week the tribunal can get somebody from Bank of America to testify
about events in Croatia. In 1981 Dr. Donia wrote a book entitled
"Islam under the Double Eagle: The Muslims of Bosnia and Hercegovina,
1878-1914."
Dr. Donia has a history of testifying at the Hague Tribunal. He has
testified there 8 times, and always against Serbs and Croats -- never
against Muslims, in spite of the fact that the book he wrote was about
Muslims. However, as Mr. May pointed out, the Tribunal has yet to
prosecute a Muslim.
At any rate has spent so much time either testifying at the Hague
Tribunal, or consulting the Hague Tribunal that he has decided to
teach a class about the Hague Tribunal at the University of Michigan
entitled "Inside the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal."
The Croatian media claims that Dr. Donia set-up a foundation through
with he solicited money from Islamic countries, and then had the money
deposited into Bosnian (Muslim) government bank accounts. Dr. Donia
denied the accusations. He admitted that he had set-up a foundation,
but claimed that he was the only one who gave it any money and that he
only gave the money out to universities.
Call me crazy, but I don' t believe that somebody go to the trouble of
setting-up a foundation just to have themselves be the only donor. If
he wanted to give money to universities then why didn't he just write
them a check?
Dr. Donia compiled a report for the prosecution. He took the minutes
and the transcripts of the Republika Srpska parliament sessions, and
compiled a report from that material. The formula he employed to write
the report was to write a summary, a headline for the summary, and
then cite quotations from the transcripts and the minutes of the
parliament sessions in order to confirm his summary and headline.
In his report Dr. Donia took quotes out of their proper context, and
wrote headlines designed to mislead the reader. President Milosevic
spent a large portion of the day reading out full quotations, and then
demonstrating how the full quotation refuted the thesis that Dr. Donia
was trying to construct with his summaries and headlines.
The most important part of Dr. Donia's testimony dealt with the 30th
session of the RS Assembly. Dr. Donia claimed that President Milosevic
had advocated a "greater Serbia" policy when he traveled to Pale to
try and convince the RS Assembly to accept the Vance-Owen Plan.
Dr. Donia read part of President Milosevic's 2nd speech to the
parliament when the President spoke of the Vance-Owen plan being the
way for the Serbian people to reach their "ultimate goal."
Dr. Donia said that the goal was left undefined in the speech. Based
on this Dr. Donia concluded that President Milosevic must be speaking
of "greater Serbia," when he spoke of reaching the undefined goal.
Impeccable logic indeed.
Dr. Donia attempted to claim that this speech of Milosevic's was held
in a secret closed session of the RS Assembly. However, President
Milosevic pointed-out that the session was public, and he proved it by
producing a newspaper that at the time the speech was given, printed
the full text of the allegedly secret speech.
Moreover, it is untrue when Donia claims that the "goal" Milosevic
spoke of was undefined. President Milosevic gave two speeches that
day, and in the first speech he was very explicit. He quite clearly
defined the goal of the Serbian people as being: peace, freedom, and
equality. And looking at President Milosevic's other public statements
form the time it is clear that his number one priority was to help
bring an end to the bloodshed. It is clear from his statements that
peace, freedom and equality were always defined by him as the goal of
the Serbian people.
In case you doubt what I am saying about Milosevic's position at the
time of the Vance-Owen Plan, please read the interviews at the
following two web addresses:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic050293.htm
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic051493.htm
President Milosevic has demonstrated with both his words and his
actions a rejection of the whole "greater Serbia" idea. (See:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic080791.htm ) Dr.
Donia's testimony is pure and utter nonsense.
President Milosevic usually has a good "poker face." He usually shows
no emotion when listening to prosecution witnesses testifying, but
when Donia started saying that by speaking of an "undefined goal" that
Milosevic must be speaking of "greater Serbia;" President Milosevic
could be seen having a good chuckle at this.
President Milosevic has 45 more minutes to complete his
cross-examination of this so-called "expert." The witness will return
at an as-yet undetermined date to complete his testimony.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg091503.htm
"TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 15, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
A secret witness testifying under the pseudonym of "B-179" testified
against President Milosevic today. B-179 allegedly held a certain
position in the Association of Emigrant Serbs also known as "Matica"
(Matica is the Serbian word for association). The Matica is one of the
oldest and most respected Serbian charities, it is financed by the
Serbian Government and by private donations. It is well known that the
Matica delivered humanitarian aid to war ravaged areas in Bosnia and
Croatia.
B-179's alleged position in the Matica was kept secret from the
public, but President Milosevic had contacted the Matica, and asked if
the position that the witness claimed to hold even exsisted. The Matica
responded and said that the position in question had ever existed.
Another secret that was kept from the public was the nature some court
proceedings that were taken against the witness. Apparently this
witness must be some kind of criminal, maybe he is a drug dealer, or a
rapist, or possibly a robber, who knows? All that is known is that
there were some kind of proceedings.
What is known about this witness is that he joined the SPO in 1998.
The witness claimed that his motivation for joining the SPO was his
desire to overthrow Milosevic. So right off the top we can see that
here is a witness who has a political motivation for telling lies
against President Milosevic.
B-179 claimed that the Matica transported arms from Serbia to the
battle front in Bosnia and Croatia. He claimed that arms and munitions
would be taken from a military warehouse in Bubanj Potok and shipped to
various locations in both the RS and the RSK.
B-179 arrived at the tribunal with a number of documents. Of course
none of them proved any of what he was saying.
As far as weapons were concerned, B-179 had receipts issued by the
Serbian Ministry of Defense proving that the Matica was issued
approximately 15 light weapons (rifles, pistols, etc...). The document
was very explicit in saying that these weapons were issued so that the
Matica could defend itself while shipping humanitarian supplies
throughout the war zone.
The only other document that he had regarding weapons didn't prove
anything. The document dealt with an alleged shipment of some 82mm
shells. The only signature on the document was the witness's signature.
Nobody from either the government of Serbia, or the Government of
Yugoslavia signed any part of the document.
The only other documents that the witness had were normal things that
anybody delivering humanitarian supplies would have: fuel receipts,
vehicle registration papers, Red Cross documents, etc...
The witness explained that he used to have more proof, and that he
used to have some other documents, but that some people came to his
house and took those things away. He said that the VJ would also have
such documents, but that they burned the documents, which is why they
don't have any such documents now.
The witness claims to have his knowledge about the scope of the
alleged arms shipments and the alleged burning of documents on the
basis of what he heard while eavesdropping on other people's
conversations.
Not only did this guy claim that Milosevic was arming the Serbs, but
he claimed that Milosevic was arming the Croats too!
B-179 professed to know all about Milosevic. In his statement, B-179
said that Milosevic would start his day, everyday, by going to the
headquarters of the Serbian state security and planning out where to
ship weapons to. However, in his testimony he said that Jovica
Stanisic and Milan Prodinic would always talk about "informing 'dad'
(meaning Milosevic)" about their arms trafficking activities.
Therefore the natural question is, why should they inform "dad" if
"dad" was supposed to be taking part in the planning of these same
activities on a daily basis? Wouldn't he already know?
B-179 completely failed to prove that he received any weapons from the
JNA, the VJ, or the Serbian MUP (except for those 15 light weapons
specified for the defense of Matica humanitarian aid shipments). B-179
could not produce a single document to prove that he had received even
one weapon. B-179 also could not produce even a single document to
prove that he had delivered any weapons. Not only could he not produce
any documents, but he couldn't name even one recipient of any of the
alleged weapons.
The only useful thing about B-179's testimony was his admission that
the Matica gave humanitarian assistance to all of the wars' victims
regardless of their ethnicity. That the government of Serbia was
actually financing shipments of humanitarian aid to Croats and Muslims
as well as Serbs.
After B-179 withdrew, Baron Arnot Van Linden took the witness stand.
Van Linden was a reporter for the British Sky news service. The
prosecutor readout Van Linden's 92-bis summary, and then the session
ended for the day.
Van Linden is apparently going to testify about the so-called "siege
of Sarajevo." One interesting admission that was made was the
admission that members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina would not
always wear uniforms. The admission was made in an effort to
demonstrate how poor the Muslims must have been since they didn't even
always wear uniforms.
For the Muslims to be conducting war operations without uniforms is a
violation of the Geneva Conventions. Simply put, by engaging in war
operations without uniforms they made it nearly impossible for the army
they were fighting against to distinguish between them and the
civilians. Therefore, they endangered precisely their own civilians,
because they made it hard for the opposing army to tell the difference
between a civilian and an enemy soldier.
It may be interesting to read the following in view of Van Linden's
testimony. It is Slobodan Milosevic's interview with Van Linden that
was taken back in 1991:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic080791.htm
=== 3 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg091603.htm
“TRIAL” SYNOPSIS SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 16, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Baron Arnot Van Linden, a correspondent for the British “Sky”
television network testified against President Milosevic today
regarding the so-called “siege of Sarajevo.”
The one thing that should be remembered about the shelling of Sarajevo
is the same thing that should be remembered about the war in Bosnia as
a whole. The Muslims instigated the fighting – they were the
aggressors, not the victims.
On May 27, 1992 the Muslim army (so-called ABiH) attacked JNA soldiers
attempting to withdraw from Sarajevo. The Muslims fired on unarmed
columns of JNA soldiers as they were withdrawing from the Jusuf
Dzonlic barracks and the Marshal Tito barracks in Sarajevo.
It was only after the Muslims launched their barbaric attack on the
JNA that retribution was visited upon them. It should also be
mentioned in connection with the retaliation that Radovan Karadzic and
the VRS repeatedly offered safe passage for any civilians who wished
to flee the Sarajevo war zone, but that Izetbegovic decided that he
would rather keep the population of Sarajevo as hostages than allow
them to leave the war zone.
Van Linden reluctantly confirmed that not a single shell fell on
Sarajevo until after the Muslim's barbaric attack on the barracks of
the JNA. Now that the sequence of events is clear we can speak about
the rest of Van Linden’s testimony.
The “evidence” that he bought with him to court was nothing but his
own edited news stories that he had filed with Sky News. He did not
bring any raw footage, only the edited pieces that he produced.
Van Linden testified about an interview that he conducted with General
Ratko Mladic. A tape was played of this so-called “interview.” The
so-called “interview” consisted of a couple of brief sound-bytes from
Gen. Mladic. The rest of the so-called “interview” was Van Linden
himself paraphrasing what Gen. Mladic had allegedly told him.
The question here is why did Van Linden have to paraphrase what Mladic
told him? A camera crew was filming the interview, so why didn’t Van
Linden simply play the unedited videotape of the interview? The answer
is simple, what Mladic said was not convenient for the agenda that Van
Linden was trying to advance, therefore Van Linden rephrased what
Mladic said, in order to advance his anti-Serb propaganda campaign.
Van Linden also did an interview with President Milosevic in 1991. Van
Linden didn’t have any tape of this interview either, nor did he have
a transcript of it, but he did paraphrase it for the “court.” He said
that on the basis of the interview, he concluded that Milosevic wanted
to export the war in Croatia out to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Well, even if Van Linden didn’t have it, we have a transcript of the
interview, and you can read it at:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic080791.htm
Read the interview and judge for yourself whether or not any sane
person could conclude from it that President Milosevic wanted to
export war anywhere.
Why didn’t Van Linden play a tape of the Milosevic interview? Simple,
if he played the tape then it would speak for itself, and he wouldn’t
have had any opportunity to tell lies about the contents of it.
Van Linden claimed to have interviewed Radovan Karadzic too. Again,
even though video tapes were allegedly made, none were played. And
again we have Baron Van Linden putting words into Dr. Karadzic’s
mouth. Van Linden made Karadzic out to be some sort of genocidal
bigot. Saying that Karadzic called the Muslims by racial slurs, and
that he wanted ethnic purity, and that he even wanted to build a sort
of Berlin Wall through Sarajevo.
Van Linden claimed that the embargo that Serbia placed on the
Republika Srpska after the rejection of the Vance-Owen Plan was
regularly violated. He claimed that he saw trucks crossing the border
and violating the embargo a number of times. Again, since he was there
with a camera crew, why didn’t he make a video tape of this? And for
that matter, how come the international observers that were monitoring
the border didn’t see any of this?
Van Linden also claimed to interview Captain Dragan, and again this TV
newsman had no tape, but he did paraphrase what he says that Captain
Dragan told him. According to Van Linden Captain Dragan said that
Milosevic was controlling the Serbs in Croatia. Milosevic asserted
that Captain Dragan had never said that and Van Linden stammered that
Captain Dragan was not referring to operational control or anything
like that, but that he was saying it in a metaphorical sense or
something.
An example of Van Linden’s “stellar reporting” came in one of the
tapes that he did play. The tape showed a number of graves that were
decorated with Orthodox crosses, but Van Linden in his voice-over,
called them “Bosnian graves.” The graves were obviously Serb graves,
President Milosevic confronted Van Linden with this, and Van Linden
admitted that they were Serbs, but since they were Serbs from Bosnia
he called them “Bosnians.”
It is common knowledge that the Serbs in Bosnia never call themselves
“Bosnians.” Only the Muslims call themselves “Bosnians,” which is
nothing more than a cynical effort by them to create the illusion that
they have some sort of claim to Bosnia, over that of the Serbs and
Croats. Even Van Linden during his testimony was referring to Muslims
as “Bosnians” and Serbs as “Serbs.”
Van Linden was clearly trying to mislead his viewers into thinking
that they were looking at Muslim graves, and not Serb graves. After
all, Serb graves would confuse everything that the Baron was saying.
Van Linden says that he never saw the Muslims doing any shooting,
obviously these Serb graves would seem to conflict with that.
Therefore it was necessary for the lying Baron to conceal the fact
that these were Serb graves.
Van Linden’s tapes also showed footage of the unarmed JNA soldiers who
were massacred by the Muslims while attempting to withdraw from
Sarajevo, but of course Van Linden neglected to mention that the
Muslims killed them, or that those JNA soldiers were shot while they
were unarmed and withdrawing from the city.
Van Linden’s testimony exposed the nature of television news coverage.
In one instance a video was shown. Van Linden was talking about Bosnia
in his voice-over commentary, but the video on the tape was from
Kosovo and had nothing to do with what Van Linden was saying.
Van Linden, upon seeing that the Albanian writing on the posters on
the footage, came up with the excuse that he didn’t edit the video
that somebody else did. When he was asked about other video sequences
he explained that he was using other people’s footage, and so he
wasn’t always sure what exactly was being shown on his video tapes.
TV news is ideal for propaganda. As Van Linden’s testimony
demonstrated the video you are looking at doesn’t necessarily have
anything to do with what the reporter is saying. At the beginning of
the proceedings there were technical problems at the tribunal and the
video could not be seen clearly, and as “Judge” May complained, not
being able to see the video caused “the evidence lose all of its
impact.”
After Van Linden was concluded President Milosevic took sick, and the
proceedings were adjourned early.
President Milosevic complained of fatigue, and high blood pressure
which he says is brought on by the excessive pace of the so-called
“trial.”
Again the so-called “judges” attempted to foist some sort of legal
assistance onto President Milosevic and again he rejected it.
It is not yet known whether the so-called “trial” will be conducted
tomorrow or not.
=== 4 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp091803.htm
Milosevic trial suspended again on health grounds
Agence France Presse - September 18, 2003
THE HAGUE - The UN war crimes court in The Hague has cancelled hearings
scheduled for Friday and Monday in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic due
to the former Yugoslav president's ill health, the court said on
Thursday.
The former head of state, 62, suffers from high blood pressure and is
thought to have a high risk of heart problems.
His trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes has
often been halted on health grounds since it began on February 12 last
year.
Milosevic is on trial for his role in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo that broke up the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The prosecution is due to finish presenting its case against Milosevic
by the end of the year.
Milosevic has been given three months to prepare his defence case,
which he will begin presenting to the court in the spring of next
year. The trial is expected to last at least until 2005.
September 18, 2003 Thursday 3:23 PM Eastern Time
SECTION: International News
Copyright 2003 Agence France Presse
Posted for Fair Use only
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/icty092203.htm
ICTY PRESS RELEASE
The Hague, 22 September 2003 P.I.S./PA129
MILOSEVIC TRIAL:
HEARINGS CANCELLED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS WEEK
Please be advised that the hearings in the Milosevic trial have been
cancelled for the remainder of this week (Tuesday 23 to Friday 26
September 2003) due to the ill health of the accused.
Copyright 2003 ICTY Press Office
Posted for Fair Use only
1. "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: 12 SEPTEMBER 2003
2. "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2003
3. “TRIAL” SYNOPSIS SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
4. MILOSEVIC TRIAL SUSPENDED AGAIN ON HEALTH GROUNDS
=== 1 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg091203.htm
"TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: 12 SEPTEMBER 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 12, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Robert J. Donia testified as an "expert witness" against President
Milosevic today. Dr. Donia has served as a consultant for the U.S.
Miliatry, and during the Bosnian war (which is what he was testifying
about) he worked as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch. Maybe next
week the tribunal can get somebody from Bank of America to testify
about events in Croatia. In 1981 Dr. Donia wrote a book entitled
"Islam under the Double Eagle: The Muslims of Bosnia and Hercegovina,
1878-1914."
Dr. Donia has a history of testifying at the Hague Tribunal. He has
testified there 8 times, and always against Serbs and Croats -- never
against Muslims, in spite of the fact that the book he wrote was about
Muslims. However, as Mr. May pointed out, the Tribunal has yet to
prosecute a Muslim.
At any rate has spent so much time either testifying at the Hague
Tribunal, or consulting the Hague Tribunal that he has decided to
teach a class about the Hague Tribunal at the University of Michigan
entitled "Inside the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal."
The Croatian media claims that Dr. Donia set-up a foundation through
with he solicited money from Islamic countries, and then had the money
deposited into Bosnian (Muslim) government bank accounts. Dr. Donia
denied the accusations. He admitted that he had set-up a foundation,
but claimed that he was the only one who gave it any money and that he
only gave the money out to universities.
Call me crazy, but I don' t believe that somebody go to the trouble of
setting-up a foundation just to have themselves be the only donor. If
he wanted to give money to universities then why didn't he just write
them a check?
Dr. Donia compiled a report for the prosecution. He took the minutes
and the transcripts of the Republika Srpska parliament sessions, and
compiled a report from that material. The formula he employed to write
the report was to write a summary, a headline for the summary, and
then cite quotations from the transcripts and the minutes of the
parliament sessions in order to confirm his summary and headline.
In his report Dr. Donia took quotes out of their proper context, and
wrote headlines designed to mislead the reader. President Milosevic
spent a large portion of the day reading out full quotations, and then
demonstrating how the full quotation refuted the thesis that Dr. Donia
was trying to construct with his summaries and headlines.
The most important part of Dr. Donia's testimony dealt with the 30th
session of the RS Assembly. Dr. Donia claimed that President Milosevic
had advocated a "greater Serbia" policy when he traveled to Pale to
try and convince the RS Assembly to accept the Vance-Owen Plan.
Dr. Donia read part of President Milosevic's 2nd speech to the
parliament when the President spoke of the Vance-Owen plan being the
way for the Serbian people to reach their "ultimate goal."
Dr. Donia said that the goal was left undefined in the speech. Based
on this Dr. Donia concluded that President Milosevic must be speaking
of "greater Serbia," when he spoke of reaching the undefined goal.
Impeccable logic indeed.
Dr. Donia attempted to claim that this speech of Milosevic's was held
in a secret closed session of the RS Assembly. However, President
Milosevic pointed-out that the session was public, and he proved it by
producing a newspaper that at the time the speech was given, printed
the full text of the allegedly secret speech.
Moreover, it is untrue when Donia claims that the "goal" Milosevic
spoke of was undefined. President Milosevic gave two speeches that
day, and in the first speech he was very explicit. He quite clearly
defined the goal of the Serbian people as being: peace, freedom, and
equality. And looking at President Milosevic's other public statements
form the time it is clear that his number one priority was to help
bring an end to the bloodshed. It is clear from his statements that
peace, freedom and equality were always defined by him as the goal of
the Serbian people.
In case you doubt what I am saying about Milosevic's position at the
time of the Vance-Owen Plan, please read the interviews at the
following two web addresses:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic050293.htm
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic051493.htm
President Milosevic has demonstrated with both his words and his
actions a rejection of the whole "greater Serbia" idea. (See:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic080791.htm ) Dr.
Donia's testimony is pure and utter nonsense.
President Milosevic usually has a good "poker face." He usually shows
no emotion when listening to prosecution witnesses testifying, but
when Donia started saying that by speaking of an "undefined goal" that
Milosevic must be speaking of "greater Serbia;" President Milosevic
could be seen having a good chuckle at this.
President Milosevic has 45 more minutes to complete his
cross-examination of this so-called "expert." The witness will return
at an as-yet undetermined date to complete his testimony.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg091503.htm
"TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: SEPTEMBER 15, 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 15, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
A secret witness testifying under the pseudonym of "B-179" testified
against President Milosevic today. B-179 allegedly held a certain
position in the Association of Emigrant Serbs also known as "Matica"
(Matica is the Serbian word for association). The Matica is one of the
oldest and most respected Serbian charities, it is financed by the
Serbian Government and by private donations. It is well known that the
Matica delivered humanitarian aid to war ravaged areas in Bosnia and
Croatia.
B-179's alleged position in the Matica was kept secret from the
public, but President Milosevic had contacted the Matica, and asked if
the position that the witness claimed to hold even exsisted. The Matica
responded and said that the position in question had ever existed.
Another secret that was kept from the public was the nature some court
proceedings that were taken against the witness. Apparently this
witness must be some kind of criminal, maybe he is a drug dealer, or a
rapist, or possibly a robber, who knows? All that is known is that
there were some kind of proceedings.
What is known about this witness is that he joined the SPO in 1998.
The witness claimed that his motivation for joining the SPO was his
desire to overthrow Milosevic. So right off the top we can see that
here is a witness who has a political motivation for telling lies
against President Milosevic.
B-179 claimed that the Matica transported arms from Serbia to the
battle front in Bosnia and Croatia. He claimed that arms and munitions
would be taken from a military warehouse in Bubanj Potok and shipped to
various locations in both the RS and the RSK.
B-179 arrived at the tribunal with a number of documents. Of course
none of them proved any of what he was saying.
As far as weapons were concerned, B-179 had receipts issued by the
Serbian Ministry of Defense proving that the Matica was issued
approximately 15 light weapons (rifles, pistols, etc...). The document
was very explicit in saying that these weapons were issued so that the
Matica could defend itself while shipping humanitarian supplies
throughout the war zone.
The only other document that he had regarding weapons didn't prove
anything. The document dealt with an alleged shipment of some 82mm
shells. The only signature on the document was the witness's signature.
Nobody from either the government of Serbia, or the Government of
Yugoslavia signed any part of the document.
The only other documents that the witness had were normal things that
anybody delivering humanitarian supplies would have: fuel receipts,
vehicle registration papers, Red Cross documents, etc...
The witness explained that he used to have more proof, and that he
used to have some other documents, but that some people came to his
house and took those things away. He said that the VJ would also have
such documents, but that they burned the documents, which is why they
don't have any such documents now.
The witness claims to have his knowledge about the scope of the
alleged arms shipments and the alleged burning of documents on the
basis of what he heard while eavesdropping on other people's
conversations.
Not only did this guy claim that Milosevic was arming the Serbs, but
he claimed that Milosevic was arming the Croats too!
B-179 professed to know all about Milosevic. In his statement, B-179
said that Milosevic would start his day, everyday, by going to the
headquarters of the Serbian state security and planning out where to
ship weapons to. However, in his testimony he said that Jovica
Stanisic and Milan Prodinic would always talk about "informing 'dad'
(meaning Milosevic)" about their arms trafficking activities.
Therefore the natural question is, why should they inform "dad" if
"dad" was supposed to be taking part in the planning of these same
activities on a daily basis? Wouldn't he already know?
B-179 completely failed to prove that he received any weapons from the
JNA, the VJ, or the Serbian MUP (except for those 15 light weapons
specified for the defense of Matica humanitarian aid shipments). B-179
could not produce a single document to prove that he had received even
one weapon. B-179 also could not produce even a single document to
prove that he had delivered any weapons. Not only could he not produce
any documents, but he couldn't name even one recipient of any of the
alleged weapons.
The only useful thing about B-179's testimony was his admission that
the Matica gave humanitarian assistance to all of the wars' victims
regardless of their ethnicity. That the government of Serbia was
actually financing shipments of humanitarian aid to Croats and Muslims
as well as Serbs.
After B-179 withdrew, Baron Arnot Van Linden took the witness stand.
Van Linden was a reporter for the British Sky news service. The
prosecutor readout Van Linden's 92-bis summary, and then the session
ended for the day.
Van Linden is apparently going to testify about the so-called "siege
of Sarajevo." One interesting admission that was made was the
admission that members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina would not
always wear uniforms. The admission was made in an effort to
demonstrate how poor the Muslims must have been since they didn't even
always wear uniforms.
For the Muslims to be conducting war operations without uniforms is a
violation of the Geneva Conventions. Simply put, by engaging in war
operations without uniforms they made it nearly impossible for the army
they were fighting against to distinguish between them and the
civilians. Therefore, they endangered precisely their own civilians,
because they made it hard for the opposing army to tell the difference
between a civilian and an enemy soldier.
It may be interesting to read the following in view of Van Linden's
testimony. It is Slobodan Milosevic's interview with Van Linden that
was taken back in 1991:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic080791.htm
=== 3 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg091603.htm
“TRIAL” SYNOPSIS SEPTEMBER 16, 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 16, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Baron Arnot Van Linden, a correspondent for the British “Sky”
television network testified against President Milosevic today
regarding the so-called “siege of Sarajevo.”
The one thing that should be remembered about the shelling of Sarajevo
is the same thing that should be remembered about the war in Bosnia as
a whole. The Muslims instigated the fighting – they were the
aggressors, not the victims.
On May 27, 1992 the Muslim army (so-called ABiH) attacked JNA soldiers
attempting to withdraw from Sarajevo. The Muslims fired on unarmed
columns of JNA soldiers as they were withdrawing from the Jusuf
Dzonlic barracks and the Marshal Tito barracks in Sarajevo.
It was only after the Muslims launched their barbaric attack on the
JNA that retribution was visited upon them. It should also be
mentioned in connection with the retaliation that Radovan Karadzic and
the VRS repeatedly offered safe passage for any civilians who wished
to flee the Sarajevo war zone, but that Izetbegovic decided that he
would rather keep the population of Sarajevo as hostages than allow
them to leave the war zone.
Van Linden reluctantly confirmed that not a single shell fell on
Sarajevo until after the Muslim's barbaric attack on the barracks of
the JNA. Now that the sequence of events is clear we can speak about
the rest of Van Linden’s testimony.
The “evidence” that he bought with him to court was nothing but his
own edited news stories that he had filed with Sky News. He did not
bring any raw footage, only the edited pieces that he produced.
Van Linden testified about an interview that he conducted with General
Ratko Mladic. A tape was played of this so-called “interview.” The
so-called “interview” consisted of a couple of brief sound-bytes from
Gen. Mladic. The rest of the so-called “interview” was Van Linden
himself paraphrasing what Gen. Mladic had allegedly told him.
The question here is why did Van Linden have to paraphrase what Mladic
told him? A camera crew was filming the interview, so why didn’t Van
Linden simply play the unedited videotape of the interview? The answer
is simple, what Mladic said was not convenient for the agenda that Van
Linden was trying to advance, therefore Van Linden rephrased what
Mladic said, in order to advance his anti-Serb propaganda campaign.
Van Linden also did an interview with President Milosevic in 1991. Van
Linden didn’t have any tape of this interview either, nor did he have
a transcript of it, but he did paraphrase it for the “court.” He said
that on the basis of the interview, he concluded that Milosevic wanted
to export the war in Croatia out to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Well, even if Van Linden didn’t have it, we have a transcript of the
interview, and you can read it at:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic080791.htm
Read the interview and judge for yourself whether or not any sane
person could conclude from it that President Milosevic wanted to
export war anywhere.
Why didn’t Van Linden play a tape of the Milosevic interview? Simple,
if he played the tape then it would speak for itself, and he wouldn’t
have had any opportunity to tell lies about the contents of it.
Van Linden claimed to have interviewed Radovan Karadzic too. Again,
even though video tapes were allegedly made, none were played. And
again we have Baron Van Linden putting words into Dr. Karadzic’s
mouth. Van Linden made Karadzic out to be some sort of genocidal
bigot. Saying that Karadzic called the Muslims by racial slurs, and
that he wanted ethnic purity, and that he even wanted to build a sort
of Berlin Wall through Sarajevo.
Van Linden claimed that the embargo that Serbia placed on the
Republika Srpska after the rejection of the Vance-Owen Plan was
regularly violated. He claimed that he saw trucks crossing the border
and violating the embargo a number of times. Again, since he was there
with a camera crew, why didn’t he make a video tape of this? And for
that matter, how come the international observers that were monitoring
the border didn’t see any of this?
Van Linden also claimed to interview Captain Dragan, and again this TV
newsman had no tape, but he did paraphrase what he says that Captain
Dragan told him. According to Van Linden Captain Dragan said that
Milosevic was controlling the Serbs in Croatia. Milosevic asserted
that Captain Dragan had never said that and Van Linden stammered that
Captain Dragan was not referring to operational control or anything
like that, but that he was saying it in a metaphorical sense or
something.
An example of Van Linden’s “stellar reporting” came in one of the
tapes that he did play. The tape showed a number of graves that were
decorated with Orthodox crosses, but Van Linden in his voice-over,
called them “Bosnian graves.” The graves were obviously Serb graves,
President Milosevic confronted Van Linden with this, and Van Linden
admitted that they were Serbs, but since they were Serbs from Bosnia
he called them “Bosnians.”
It is common knowledge that the Serbs in Bosnia never call themselves
“Bosnians.” Only the Muslims call themselves “Bosnians,” which is
nothing more than a cynical effort by them to create the illusion that
they have some sort of claim to Bosnia, over that of the Serbs and
Croats. Even Van Linden during his testimony was referring to Muslims
as “Bosnians” and Serbs as “Serbs.”
Van Linden was clearly trying to mislead his viewers into thinking
that they were looking at Muslim graves, and not Serb graves. After
all, Serb graves would confuse everything that the Baron was saying.
Van Linden says that he never saw the Muslims doing any shooting,
obviously these Serb graves would seem to conflict with that.
Therefore it was necessary for the lying Baron to conceal the fact
that these were Serb graves.
Van Linden’s tapes also showed footage of the unarmed JNA soldiers who
were massacred by the Muslims while attempting to withdraw from
Sarajevo, but of course Van Linden neglected to mention that the
Muslims killed them, or that those JNA soldiers were shot while they
were unarmed and withdrawing from the city.
Van Linden’s testimony exposed the nature of television news coverage.
In one instance a video was shown. Van Linden was talking about Bosnia
in his voice-over commentary, but the video on the tape was from
Kosovo and had nothing to do with what Van Linden was saying.
Van Linden, upon seeing that the Albanian writing on the posters on
the footage, came up with the excuse that he didn’t edit the video
that somebody else did. When he was asked about other video sequences
he explained that he was using other people’s footage, and so he
wasn’t always sure what exactly was being shown on his video tapes.
TV news is ideal for propaganda. As Van Linden’s testimony
demonstrated the video you are looking at doesn’t necessarily have
anything to do with what the reporter is saying. At the beginning of
the proceedings there were technical problems at the tribunal and the
video could not be seen clearly, and as “Judge” May complained, not
being able to see the video caused “the evidence lose all of its
impact.”
After Van Linden was concluded President Milosevic took sick, and the
proceedings were adjourned early.
President Milosevic complained of fatigue, and high blood pressure
which he says is brought on by the excessive pace of the so-called
“trial.”
Again the so-called “judges” attempted to foist some sort of legal
assistance onto President Milosevic and again he rejected it.
It is not yet known whether the so-called “trial” will be conducted
tomorrow or not.
=== 4 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp091803.htm
Milosevic trial suspended again on health grounds
Agence France Presse - September 18, 2003
THE HAGUE - The UN war crimes court in The Hague has cancelled hearings
scheduled for Friday and Monday in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic due
to the former Yugoslav president's ill health, the court said on
Thursday.
The former head of state, 62, suffers from high blood pressure and is
thought to have a high risk of heart problems.
His trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes has
often been halted on health grounds since it began on February 12 last
year.
Milosevic is on trial for his role in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo that broke up the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The prosecution is due to finish presenting its case against Milosevic
by the end of the year.
Milosevic has been given three months to prepare his defence case,
which he will begin presenting to the court in the spring of next
year. The trial is expected to last at least until 2005.
September 18, 2003 Thursday 3:23 PM Eastern Time
SECTION: International News
Copyright 2003 Agence France Presse
Posted for Fair Use only
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/icty092203.htm
ICTY PRESS RELEASE
The Hague, 22 September 2003 P.I.S./PA129
MILOSEVIC TRIAL:
HEARINGS CANCELLED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS WEEK
Please be advised that the hearings in the Milosevic trial have been
cancelled for the remainder of this week (Tuesday 23 to Friday 26
September 2003) due to the ill health of the accused.
Copyright 2003 ICTY Press Office
Posted for Fair Use only