VOJISLAV SESELJ – DAY 5: THE PROSECUTION’S SO-CALLED “JOINT CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE” HAS NO OBJECTIVE
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - August 30, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic resumed on Tuesday with the continued testimony of Serbia’s former deputy prime minister, Dr. Vojislav Seselj.

Seselj began his testimony today by answering questions related to the war objectives of the Serbian side during the civil wars in Bosnia and Croatia.

The prosecution claims that Milosevic masterminded a criminal conspiracy to unite all Serbs in a single state. They allege that the leadership of the Krajina Serbs and the leadership Bosnian Serbs were co-conspirators, and together with Milosevic they implemented a so-called “joint criminal enterprise” in the pursuit of an enlarged Serbian state.

Seselj testified that the Bosnian and Krajina Serbs were motivated by self-defense, not by the pursuit of some nebulous criminal plan.

Seselj explained that, for the Krajina Serbs, World War II was in living memory. The Tudjman regime caused great fear among the Serbian population when it revived the fascist symbols of Croatia’s World War II era pro-Nazi Ustasha regime, and brought Ustasha émigrés back to Croatia to serve as ministers in the government.

The Krajina Serbs, Seselj explained, were motivated by the desire to defend themselves from the fascist regime of Franjo Tudjman – not by some desire to expand Serbia’s borders. He said that the Krajina Serbs only tried to secede from Croatia after Croatia illegally revoked their status as a constituent people and illegally proclaimed its secession from Yugoslavia. The Krajina Serbs were forced to go to war because their well-being was directly threatened by the fascist Croatian regime.

The situation is similar to that when West Virginia seceded from Virginia during the American civil war. Virginia seceded from the United States, but West Virginia seceded from Virginia and stayed in the United States.

Seselj testified that on March 31, 1991, a full year before the war began; the Bosnian Muslims established their so-called “Patriotic League” paramilitary group. He corroborated his testimony with the fact that March 31st is celebrated as “Patriotic League Day” in the B-H Federation.

The fact that the Muslims established armed formations long before the war demonstrates that they indented to provoke a war.

Seselj testified that if, as the prosecution claims, the Serbs had wanted to expand Serbia’s borders, then the Bosnian-Serbs would not have signed the Cutliero Plan for Bosnia. Under the Cutliero Plan the Bosnian-Serbs would have controlled 44% of Bosnia’s territory, which is less than they got under Dayton.

Milosevic asked Seselj why the Cutliero plan failed. Seselj explained that the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims all signed the plan initially, but it failed when the Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic withdrew his signature.

Seselj added that the war broke out after Izetbegovic reneged on the peace agreement, when Bosnian-Muslim terrorists attacked a Serbian wedding procession in Sarajevo.

Seselj testified that the Serbian government supported the Cutliero Plan. If Milosevic had been pursuing a conspiracy to expand Serbia’s borders, then he would not have supported the Cutliero plan, which would have made Bosnia a separate state.

Milosevic also supported the Vance-Owen plan. This fact was first confirmed when David Owen testified, and Seselj corroborated that fact today. Seselj opposed the plan because the three cantons that would have been controlled by the Bosnian Serbs would not have been connected.

The fact that Milosevic supported the Vance-Owen plan completely refutes the prosecution’s case that he masterminded a conspiracy to create an enlarged Serbian state.

Seselj gave some interesting testimony regarding the Vance-Owen plan. He said that the plan caused fighting between the Croats and the Muslims, because the Croats only had a relative majority in some of their proposed cantons, so they undertook operations to ethnically cleanse the Muslims from those areas in order to secure their majority.

The Owen-Stoltenburg plan was another plan that Milosevic supported. The Bosnian Serbs supported this plan too, but it failed because the Muslims rejected it. This plan also envisioned that Bosnia would be a separate state from Serbia.

Still another plan that Milosevic supported was the Contact Group Plan. The Bosnian-Serbs refused to sign this plan, so the Serbian government imposed a blockade on the Drina River in an attempt to force the Bosnian-Serbs to sign the agreement. Milosevic even invited international observers to come and verify that the border was blocked.

The entire prosecution case relies on the existence of a conspiracy. Without the existence of a conspiracy they have no way to link Milosevic to any of the specific crimes alleged by the indictment. The indictment holds Milosevic responsible for crimes committed in the pursuit of the alleged conspiracy, but if there was no conspiracy then there’s no link between Milosevic and the alleged crime. No evidence has been presented to indicate that Milosevic ever ordered a crime to be committed.

To prove that a conspiracy or “joint criminal enterprise” existed the prosecution must show that the alleged co-conspirators at least worked towards a common goal. The prosecution claims that the common goal was the expansion of Serbia’s borders.

Seselj’s testimony, and the testimony of several previous witnesses, has conclusively shown that the expansion of Serbia’s borders was not a goal that Milosevic was working towards.

Milosevic’s words and deeds demonstrate that he could not have been part of a conspiracy to expand Serbia’s borders. A conspiracy is defined by the dictionary as “a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement” or “to act in harmony toward a common end.”

Seselj is accused, together with Milosevic and the Bosnian and Krajina Serb leadership, of being a member of the conspiracy, or as the indictment calls it the “joint criminal enterprise.” Seselj flatly denies that he entered into a secret agreement either with Milosevic or the Bosnian or Krajina Serb leadership.

In order to have a conspiracy the participants need to be acting in harmony. Seselj explained that there were not harmonious relations between Milosevic and the Bosnian or Krajina Serb leaders.

Milosevic openly fought with Milan Babic over the adoption of the Vance Plan in Croatia, and he had rocky relations with Radovan Karadzic. Seselj explained that Karadzic was very close to Milosevic’s political opposition, especially to Zoran Djindjic and Vojislav Kostunica. Serbia’s Democratic Party (DS/DSS) was the sister party of Karadzic’s Serbian Democratic Party (SDS).

The indictment claims that ethnic cleansing was a technique employed by the Serbian leadership to accomplish their alleged objective of expanding Serbia’s borders.

To prove that ethnic cleansing was not the policy of the Serbian leadership, Milosevic read from the orders that Radovan Karadzic issued. In particular Karadzic issued a proclamation stating that any agreements where non-Serbs had agreed to abandon their property were null and void.

Karadzic explicitly forbade any acts that could constitute ethnic cleansing. He ordered the humane treatment of POWs, and strict adherence to international humanitarian law.

Seselj said that he had cordial relations with Karadzic. He claimed to have spoken to Karadzic about Srebrenica in 1996. Seselj said that Karadzic told him that he believed that 1,000 Muslims had been executed, but that those responsible were not under his control, and that an investigation was underway.

Karadzic told Seselj that Mladic had offered to let the Muslim population remain in Srebrenica, but the Muslim representatives demanded to leave the enclave anyway, so Mladic procured busses and had them evacuated to Muslim held territory.

Seselj said that Karadzic vehemently denied that 8,000 Muslims were executed in Srebrenica. Karadzic told him that several Muslims had been killed in the fighting and that some even died fighting with each other. He said the total death toll could not be more than 1,200.

The indictment makes several claims that are outright false. One claim is that Serbia sent members of the MUP to fight in Bosnia and Croatia. Seselj explained that some members of the MUP temporarily left their jobs and volunteered to fight, but nobody in the MUP was ordered to go to Bosnia or Croatia.

Some prosecution witnesses have claimed that the Serbian police’s Special Operations Unit (JSO) was sent to Bosnia and Croatia. Seselj noted that this unit was not even established until 1996 – one full year after the wars were already over with.

Another falsehood alleged by the prosecution is that Milosevic commanded the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA). Seselj explained that Milosevic was the President of Serbia and did not figure anywhere into the JNA’s chain of command.

Another allegation is that Milosevic provoked crimes by disseminating hate propaganda in the media. Seselj explained that the state only controlled Radio-Television Serbia, which generally could not be seen by Serbs in Bosnia or Croatia. Furthermore, a board of directors controlled RTS, and some of them were members of opposition parties. Milosevic did not control RTS personally.

Seselj said that the media was free in Serbia. He said that most of the media was in the hands of the opposition and that foreign media from the West was freely available in Serbia. He said that you could buy copies of The Washington Post and The New York Times or you could watch BBC and CNN on satellite TV.

Seselj could only think of one example of the government banning a publication and that was when the Serbian Government banned the publication of “The Protocols of Zion.” He said that the Serbian Government banned the book because it was deemed to be anti-Semitic.

Seselj’s testimony has been quite effective for Milosevic, which is why the judges frequently intervene to cut it off. It is interesting to watch how things are unfolding in the courtroom. Judge Robinson raises more objections to the testimony than the prosecution. And when Mr. Nice does object he often does so on the grounds that the Judges will not find the testimony helpful. Mr. Nice frequently speaks as if he was one of the Judges. The discourse between the bench and the prosecution clearly shows that the prosecution and the judges are players on the same team; both share a common objective – to convict Slobodan Milosevic.

Seselj will continue his testimony when the trial resumes on Wednesday.

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