MR. NICE CROSS-EXAMINES JOVANOVIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - February 22, 2005

Geoffery Nice continued to cross-examine Vladislav Jovanovic at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday.

The prosecutor asked the witness about information that was outside of his sphere of activities, and then accused him of being a liar when he did not know the answers to such questions.

Jovanovic was Yugoslavia’s representative to the UN, and Mr. Nice asked him about the personnel and salary administration policies in the Army. Jovanovic did not deal with military personnel administration and could not answer the prosecutor’s questions, so Mr. Nice accused him of being a liar.

Mr. Nice also asked the witness what he knew about the destruction of Dubrovnik, and the witness said that knew nothing about it. It is logical that the witness would not know about any destruction of Dubrovnik since the JNA has always denied that it shelled the old city. Videotape recorded in Dubrovnik’s old city after the alleged shelling proves that the city was never destroyed, in spite of the tribunal’s verdict against Gen. Strugar.

Mr. Nice resorted to insulting the witness. The prosecutor called his testimony “absurd”, and said that he was “leading the Chamber astray” because he wanted to protect Milosevic.

Jovanovic took offense to the prosecutor’s insults and said that Mr. Nice did “not have the right to call him a liar.” He offered the names of other witnesses who he said could corroborate his testimony and provide testimony about events that he did not have knowledge about.

Mr. Nice read out selective portions from stenographic notes taken at meetings of the governments of Serbia, Yugoslavia, and Republika Srpska. On many occasions the prosecutor would only read out fragments of sentences.

Mr. Nice’s tactic was to put the witness off balance by insulting him, and then to try and discredit him by reading fragments of sentences out of context. Undoubtedly everything will be put in its proper context when President Milosevic re-examines the witness on Wednesday.
 

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