MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF SPENDS A WHOLE DAY PROVING THAT MILOSEVIC WAS THE PRESIDENT OF SERBIA
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – February 8, 2006

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Prof. Branko Kostic, Slobodan Milosevic’s forty-eighth defense witness, was cross-examined by Ms. Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff at the Hague Tribunal on Wednesday.

The prosecutor spent the balance of the day asking the witness to comment on text written in several books, including the writings of prosecution witness Borislav Jovic . The prosecutor was attempting use the writings to show that Milosevic exerted control over the JNA and the SFRY state presidency, but she didn’t have any evidence to back-up her thesis.

Many, if not all, of the material she read wouldn’t be incriminating even if proven true. Unfortunately a lot of it wasn’t true so the witness had to spend a great deal of time correcting her information.

The case that Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff was advancing was practically meaningless. For example, she produced a table to show that Milosevic had frequent meetings with JNA officials, Serbian leaders from Bosnia and Croatia, and SFRY presidency members.

Even if we accept Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff’s information at face value, it doesn’t prove anything. All it shows is that Milosevic had meetings with people. Why wouldn’t he have meetings? He was the President of Serbia; of course he had meetings.

The fact that Milosevic had meetings with people does not prove that he controlled them. Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff did not offer a single example showing that Milosevic exerted any effective control over anybody outside of Serbia. All she could offer were the opinions that other people wrote in their books, and none of those opinions were backed-up with any concrete facts.

Prof. Kostic testified that Milosevic, as the president of Serbia, had political clout but no control over the Krajina Serb or Bosnian Serb leadership. He said that Karadzic and Mladic were the ones who controlled Republika Srpska’s government and military, and that Martic and Babic had control and authority in Republika Srpska Krajina.

One could just as easily argue that George W. Bush, as the president of the United States has political influence in Egypt (not to mention many of other countries), but that doesn’t mean that he controls the Egyptian government or commands the Egyptian military.

The witness reiterated his testimony that the SFRY presidency (of which he was a member) controlled the JNA – not Milosevic.

Kostic did not deny that Milosevic had meetings with presidency members and JNA officials, but he said it was only natural for the president of Serbia (the largest republic in Yugoslavia) to have meetings with government and military officials because of the dire situation the country was facing.

As Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff’s lengthy cross-examination makes plain, Milosevic doesn’t have a case to answer for in relation to Croatia or Bosnia. There is not a single piece of evidence to show that he had command or control over any of the combatants in Bosnia or Croatia.

As far as Milosevic’s personal and legal responsibility is concerned, it doesn’t matter whether any of the specific crimes alleged by the Croatian and Bosnian indictments were committed or not. The combatants were not under his control, and no reasonable person could conclude that he should be held accountable for their alleged actions.

Practically the only thing that Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff managed to prove was that Milosevic was the president of Serbia.

At one point Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff sought to challenge the credibility of the witness, but she didn’t have any luck in that department either. She accused the witness of being prejudiced against Muslims and, just like Mr. Nice would have done, she cut the witness off when he tried to refute her accusations.

Prof. Kostic will continue his cross-examination when the trial resumes on Monday, February 13th.

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