BBC Monitoring
International Reports - November 29, 2004
Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax-AVN web site
Moscow, 29 November: Col-Gen Leonid Ivashov, vice-president of the Geopolitical
Problems Academy, hopes that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) will acquit ex-president Slobodan Milosevic.
"Milosevic should be acquitted, and I hope that ICTY judges will return a
reasonable verdict in compliance with the law and conscience," Ivashov, who was
summoned by the ICTY as a witness for the defence last week, told Interfax-Military
News Agency today. According to him, all accusations against Milosevic are
far-fetched and too thin.
Ivashov said that Russian witnesses for the defence were trying to create the
real picture of the events in Yugoslavia. "We are trying to prove that Kosovo
was destabilized by terrorist attacks by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and
drug traffickers, who funded terrorist cells and mercenaries. All these facts
forced Belgrade to take steps to protect peaceful residents and destroy the KLA,
which had expanded to the size of a regular army," he said.
"Those who are being tried in The Hague are Serbs, their president and generals,
who were just discharging their duties," Ivashov said.
Ivashov, former head of the Russian Defence Ministry's international military
cooperation directorate, and Nikolay Ryzhkov, a member of the Federation Council
and former chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, were summoned by the ICTY
as witnesses for the defence of Milosevic, who is accused of genocide in Bosnia-Hercegovina,
as well as crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo.
Source: Interfax-AVN military news agency web site, Moscow, in English 1245 gmt
29 Nov 04
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