DEFENSE CASE: SERBS IN BOSNIA AND CROATIA WERE ACTING IN SELF-DEFENSE AND RESPONDING TO PROVOCATIONS BUT OUTSIDE OF MILOSEVIC’S CONTROL
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - February 22, 2006

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Prof. Dr. Marko Atlagic completed his examination in chief at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday. Atlagic was a deputy representing Benkovac in the Croatian Sabor from 1990 until 1992.

Prof. Atlagic testified that Tudjman’s Croatia was a resurrection of the fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH) from World War II. To prove his thesis Atlagic read-out quotes written by several Croatian intellectuals.

According to several Croatian intellectuals, Tudjman’s goal was the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs and the rehabilitation of the Ustasha. Atlagic even produced a quote from Ante Pavelic’s daughter who said that anti-Serb prejudice was even more rampant in Tudjman’s Croatia than it was during the reign of the Ustasha in World War II.

It emerged today that the judges don’t understand Milosevic’s defense case regarding the Croatia and Bosnia indictments. Milosevic’s defense is simple; a person would have to be about as dumb as a bucket of dirt not to understand it.

Milosevic’s case is that the Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia were acting in self-defense and responding to violent Muslim and Croat provocations. As far as Milosevic’s personal responsibility is concerned he has none because he did not control any of the troops in Croatia or Bosnia.

The prosecution has no case against Milosevic, even their employee admitted as much on the witness stand. The Prosecution hired Renaud Theunens, a Belgian intelligence officer, as an expert witness to try and prove that Milosevic controlled the Bosnian and Krajina-Serb forces.

When Theunens testified on January 27, 2004, Milosevic asked him if he could show the tribunal any orders to prove that he exercised any command over any forces outside of Serbia. Theunens reply was: “the fact that we don't have orders don't [sic] mean that they don't exist.”

Milosevic responded by saying, “There are none, that's why you haven't got one.” At that point Judge May jumped in and rescued the witness by ordering Milosevic to move on to something else.

Theunens, was an employee of the prosecution with access to all of the evidence at the Tribunal’s disposal, the fact that he could not produce a single order to show that Milosevic commanded anybody outside of Serbia flushes the entire prosecution case straight down the toilet.

After taking about a half-hour out of the examination-in-chief to explain his defense to the judges, Milosevic continued his examination of Prof. Atlagic, which was aimed at showing that Tudjman’s fascist government provoked the Krajina-Serbs to rebel against Croatia in self-defense.

Atlagic testified that the Croatian parliament did nothing to stop the resurgence of fascism in Croatia. He said that some Croatian parliamentarians even helped to spread fascism.

He testified that Croatia began establishing illegal paramilitary forces in 1990, well before the war broke out.

Atlagic said that Croatia provoked the Krajina-Serbs to rebellion by carrying out armed attacks against Serbian civilians, purging Serbs from the police, stripping Serbs of their status as a constituent people in the Croatian constitution, suspending Yugoslav law, assassinating the Yugoslav officials (such as the ambassador to Sweden), and attacking the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA).

Being from Benkovac, Milosevic asked the witness questions about allegations in the indictment that were said to have taken place in the area.

The indictment says that Krajina-Serb police massacred twenty-eight Croatian civilians in Skabrnja on November 18, 1991. Atlagic said that an armed conflict broke out when the Croatian ZNG attacked the Krajina-Serb police in the village. He said that several civilians lost their lives in Skabrnja because the ZNG used them as human shields during the attack. He said that he was given this information by sources that he divulged during private session.

Another crime that the indictment alleges against the Krajina Serb police is the killing of nine Croat civilians in the town of Bruska. Atlagic confirmed that ten civilians (nine Croats and one Serb) were killed on December 21, 1991, but not by the police. He said that an illegal Serbian paramilitary group from Medveja came into the town carried out the killings. He said the killings caused great fear among the Croatian population and that most of the Croats left Bruska because of the fear engendered by the killings.

It was on that sad note that Milosevic ended the examination-in-chief. Milosevic, who has high blood pressure, complained of a severe roaring noise in his ears prevented him continuing the examination-in-chief.

At that point Mr. Nice cross-examined the witness. Mr. Nice claimed that “Serbs make much of their suffering” in order to provoke violent nationalism.

The witness was somewhat taken aback by Mr. Nice’s absurd suggestion and asked who could ignore their own suffering?

In addition to being racist, Mr. Nice’s suggestion is dead wrong. Serbs do not make a big deal about their suffering.

I visited Serbia in 2003, and I found that the Serbian people are generally ashamed to talk about their suffering. Serbian victims generally seem humiliated by the fact that they couldn’t defend themselves, and they attach a stigma to living as a refugee who lost everything in a war.

Unlike the Bosnian-Muslims and the Kosovo-Albanians, who are only too happy to wave the bloody shirt and call as much attention as possible to their suffering, Serbian victims generally suffer in silence.

The tribunal ordered Milosevic to undergo medical tests on Wednesday afternoon. The trial is scheduled to resume on Thursday.

In other trial news the judges refused to extend the time available for Milosevic’s defense case, they evaded the issue of subpoenaing Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark, and they announced that they would rule on his request to be given medical treatment in Moscow later this week.

If the tribunal does not reconsider the issue and extend Milosevic’s time, then the defense case could be cut-off within the next month.

# # #