Former Serb paramilitary withdraws testimony against Milosevic

Former Serb paramilitary withdraws testimony against Milosevic
AFP - February 20, 2003 Thursday

THE HAGUE, Feb 20 - A former Serb paramilitary chief who fought in Croatia on Thursday went back on earlier declarations he made against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic at the former Yugoslav president's war crimes trial here.

Dragan Vasilkovic, better known by his nom-de-guerre of Kapetan Dragan, was called by the prosecution to testify that there were links between Milosevic in Belgrade and separatist Serbs fighting in the war in Croatia (1991-95). Milosevic has always denied that he was involved with Serbian paramilitary groups fighting in Croatia.

In earlier written statements Vasilkovic, who headed his own paramilitary unit in Croatia, had said that the Serbian government in Belgrade financed the war effort.

But on Thursday, during cross-examination by Milosevic, he recanted* all of his earlier statements.

"If I said that, I am sorry and I deny it," 'Kapetan Dragan' told judge Richard May, who appeared stunned by the witness' sudden change of heart.

The former paramilitary leader also denied that he had ever seen units of the Serb ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) fighting in Croatia.

Whereas Vasilkovic had spoken at length on Wednesday about several** representatives of Milosevic's security services being present in Croatia, he suddenly minimised their role in court Thursday, saying they were not really connected with the former president.

Milosevic continues his cross-examination of Vasilkovic on Friday.

The former Yugoslav president has been on trial since February last year on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Several witnesses, including the former counter intelligence chief of the Yugoslav army, have already testified that Milosevic's regime in Belgrade financed Serb separatists in Croatia and even trained and led paramilitary units to fight there in the early 1990s.

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* Contrary to what AFP writes here, Dragan Vasilkovic did not recant any of his previous statements. In order to recant a statement, you have to have made it in the first place. In this instance the prosecutor simply put something into his witness statement that he never said at all.

** Several representatives means four people in this case, and Vasilkovic simply clarified what they were doing in Krajina and how long they were in Krajina. They were gathering intelligence and they were there less than 3 days each, according to his testimony, and he has never said anything contrary to that.