MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: OCTOBER 9, 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - October 9, 2003

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

The Hague "tribunal" heard testimony from the retired British Army General Sir Rupert Smith today. Smith was the UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) commander in Bosnia in 1995, and he was the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of NATO from 1998 until 2001.

Immediately the objectivity of Smith is called into question. It was General Smith who "turned the key" on behalf of the UN to unleash NATO air strikes on the Bosnian Serbs after the so-called "Markale Market Massacre." It is also this same General Smith who was the Deputy Allied Commander of NATO at the time of NATO's criminal aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999.

So we can see right off the bat that General Smith has an interest in painting the Serbs as mad killers in order to justify his own criminal aggression against the Serbs.

To begin with General Smith clings to the notion that the Bosnian Serbs perpetrated the so-called "Markale Market Massacre" in Sarajevo in August 1995, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. This is not surprising since it was this alleged act by the Bosnian Serbs that lit the fuse for the NATO air strikes against them that General Smith personally authorized on behalf of the UN.

The UNMOs (UN Military Observers) issued a report stating that the deadly mortars were fired from inside the Muslim lines, a group of French engineers also conducted an investigation and they too concluded that the mortars had come from inside of the Muslim lines. The Sarajevo sector UNPROFOR commander also believed that the shells had emanated from inside of the Muslim lines. He even went on television and said that there was only a one in a million chance that the Serbs could have hit that spot.

In spite of the fact that all of the evidence indicated that the Muslims had massacred their own civilians. General Smith none the less dismissed all of the evidence in the first UN report, issued a second report stating that the Serbs did it, and authorized the air strikes. General Mladic even contacted Smith and asked that a joint investigation be carried out with the participation of Serb, Muslim, and UN investigators, but Smith who was apparently intent on waging war against the Serbs declined.

If the Muslims massacred their own civilians in order to get NATO to attack the Serbs, then the trick worked, because that is precisely what did happen.

The strategy of the prosecution is shameful. Mr. Nice and General Smith were observing examples when Milosevic negotiated the freeing UN personnel taken as hostages by the VRS, and when Milosevic negotiated the peace agreement at Dayton as being proof of his alleged "control" over the Bosnian Serbs. So here is President Milosevic working for peace, and this is used against him as some sort of "proof" that he is a war criminal. However, when Milosevic pressed Smith on this point; Smith was forced to admit that he didn't see any indication that Milosevic had any direct control over the VRS.

A meeting was also mentioned at which Mladic, Milosevic, Bildt, Stoltenberg, Akashi, and Smith were all present. This was seen as some sort of sinister conspiracy because here are Mladic and Milosevic at the same meeting together. Smith was however forced, under cross-examination, to admit that Mladic's attendance at the meeting was Carl Bildt's idea, and not any sort of a plan between General Mladic and President Milosevic.

Another interesting piece of information came when Smith was speaking about the Muslim enclaves in Eastern Bosnia (Srebrenica, Zepa, Gorazde, etc...) According to Smith the Muslims would use these enclaves, these so-called "safe areas" established by the UN, to launch attacks against the surrounding Serb areas.

President Milosevic asked if UNPROFOR had done anything to demilitarize the so-called "safe areas." Smith attempted to evade the question, and so President Milosevic asked Smith if he considered that it was the UNPROFOR's responsibility to demilitarize the "safe areas," and Smith said that it wasn't UNPROFOR's job to demilitarize it's own "safe areas."

So here we have UNPROFOR knowing that the Muslims are using it's "safe areas" as military bases from which to attack the Serbs from, and UNPROFOR doing nothing about it. But when the VRS is forced to protect it's people by retaliating against these attacks the VRS is accused of genocide.

Srebrenica was a matter of particular discussion. President Milosevic cited the April 2001 report issued by the Dutch Government which categorically stated that there was no political or military connection between Belgrade and the events in Srebrenica. General Smith then confirmed that he had no knowledge that would indicate that anybody from either Serbia or Yugoslavia had any involvement in any of the events at Srebrenica.

The Dutch Government report is of particular importance because Dutchbat soldiers were at Srebrenica when the enclave fell, and they saw nothing that could indicate Belgrade's involvement, and now we have the UNPROFOR commander saying the same thing.

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