SYNOPSIS: LORD OWEN TESTIFIES AT THE MILOSEVIC "TRIAL"
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 5, 2003

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Lord David Owen, former chief negotiator of the European Union, and author of the book “Balkan Odyssey” testified at the so-called “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Lord Owen did not testify as a prosecution witness, in fact he refused to testify as a prosecution witness, rather he testified simply as a witness for the court.

He was examined first by Mr. Nice, then by President Milosevic, and finally by the Amicus Curiae Mr. Kay.

Lord Owen as the E.U.’s chief negotiator was in frequent contact with Milosevic, and he believed that President Milosevic was totally committed to the Vance-Owen plan. Owen also said that President Milosevic insisted on a solution that was equal to all three sides.

Owen testified that President Milosevic supported various peace plans. For example President Milosevic supported: the Cutileiro plan in March of 1992, the Vance-Owen plan in May of 1993, the Owen-Stoltenberg plan (a.k.a. the “invincible plan”) in September of 1993, the European Union Action plan in December of 1993, the Contact Group plan in July of 1994, and ultimately the Dayton peace plan in 1995.

Lord Owen also testified that President Milosevic entreated the Bosnian Serb leadership to accept all of these plans. Owen also confirmed that without the contribution of Serbia, and President Milosevic in particular that Dayton never would have happened. In fact it was Slobodan Milosevic who cast the deciding vote for peace at Dayton.

According to Owen the Bosnian Serb leadership was not a pack of mindless automatons operating at the whim and will of Milosevic. First of all the politics were different in Pale than in Belgrade, for example Slobodan Milosevic is a communist and Radovan Karadzic is not a communist.

Indeed the Bosnian Serbs acted against the will of President Milosevic when the Republika Srpska Assembly rejected the Vance-Owen plan, and also the Contact Group plan. Lord Owen confirmed that President Milosevic traveled to Pale and did everything he could, short of using force, to convince the Bosnian Serbs to accept the Vance-Owen plan. And according to Owen this episode damaged Milosevic politically and significantly reduced what influence he did have in Pale.

According to Lord Owen, President Milosevic was “very helpful” in the peace negotiations. Owen explained that President Milosevic would use logic and put forward arguments to try and influence the decisions made by Pale, but that he would acquiesce and tell them that at the end of the day it was up to them to decide what course they would take. This was Owen’s main problem with Milosevic. Owen considered that Milosevic should have used force with the Bosnian Serbs, and forced them to accept his point of view.

This is a rather dramatic blow to the prosecution’s case. Here is one of the highest international officials to be on the scene in Bosnia during the war and he is upset with Milosevic, because Milosevic *did not* control the Bosnian Serb leadership.

Not only did Milosevic *not* control the Bosnian Serb leadership, but he also did *not* control the Krajina Serb leadership. Owen had a low opinion of Milan Martic, and explained that he saw on numerous occasions that Slobodan Milosevic would also be frustrated and angry with Mr. Martic. It has been said in the past that Milosevic controlled Martic. Owen’s account blows that idea to pieces. Why would Milosevic be frustrated and angry with somebody, if he was the one controlling them?

Owen considered that Milosevic was somewhat afraid of his nationalistic political opposition in Belgrade; namely Seselj and Draskovic. If we follow Lord Owen’s position then perhaps we can see what would have been done to Milosevic if he had attempted to use force against the Serbs in Bosnia. I emphasize that this is just hypothetical because Slobodan Milosevic would never have used force against the Bosnian Serbs in the first place. The point of this hypothesis is to demonstrate that even if he had wanted to, President Milosevic could not have used force against the Bosnian Serbs, because he would have been overthrown if he had tried.

President Milosevic did of course exert pressure; he blockaded the Drina River when the Bosnian Serbs did not adopt the Contact Group plan.

Owen explained to a disappointed Mr. Nice that Slobodan Milosevic is not a racist, and never was a racist. According to Owen, President Milosevic, and his wife Mira Markovic are repulsed by ethnic racism. Owen said that the ethnic make-up of Serbia proves that President Milosevic is not now, and never has been a racist. As Owen explained there are Muslims, Croats, and people of all ethnicities who lived and are still living freely in Serbia. Indeed, Serbia is the most ethnically mixed part of the Balkan Peninsula.

As for this business of a so-called “greater Serbia” plan. According to Owen, Milosevic was reconciled with the idea that Krajina Serbs would live in Croatia, and Bosnian Serbs would live in Bosnia.

Owen said that he didn’t know what Milosevic’s position on “greater Serbia” was before he got there, so Milosevic reminded him of the fact that he had supported both the Cutileiro plan and the Vance Plan. With that Owen admitted that President Milosevic’s support for the plans indicated that he never had any ideas about creating any “greater Serbia.”

A document was exhibited in “court” that was signed both by Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman. The document denied that the so-called “Karadjordjevo meeting” had ever taken place. According to the document, the two men had never had any plan or conspiracy to divide Bosnia up between the two of them, and indeed Owen confirmed that President Milosevic had never said that he wanted even an inch of territory in Bosnia. But Owen said that Tudjman openly claimed Herzeg-Bosna as Croatian territory and openly sent troops into Bosnia from Croatia.

To completely and totally refute this “greater Serbia” propaganda President Milosevic presented the 1992 declaration of the FRY government stating that the FRY made no territorial claims on any of the former SFRY republics.

Lord Owen denounced the so-called “safe-areas” (Srebrenica, Zepa, Gorazde, etc…) as a scam and a farce. The UN had inadequate troops and resources to protect them, and the Muslims refused to demilitarize the safe areas and indeed carried out attacks from them. The whole thing was a joke.

When President Milosevic examined Lord Owen one of the first things that was established was that Belgrade did *not* control the VRS.

To drive the point home President Milosevic showed a report written by former UN Secretary General, Butros Butros Ghali (exhibit D-91) to Lord Owen. The report was dated 30 May 1992, and stated in no uncertain terms that the VRS was not under the control of Belgrade.

The report said that the VRS was formed out of the JNA troops who were originally from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The report stated that on 4 May 1992 Belgrade authorities ordered the evacuation of the JNA from Bosnia and that on 18 May 1992 all JNA personnel who were not originally from Bosnia-Herzegovina were withdrawn from Bosnia Herzegovina, except in limited cases when hostile forces prevented the JNA’s immediate withdrawal, by measures such as the blockading of barracks.

Owen stated that he believed the Secretary General’s report to be accurate. President Milosevic then noted that in spite of the Secretary General’s report, which clearly placed the VRS outside of Belgrade’s control that in spite of that on the same day as the report was issued that the Security Council imposed sanctions on the FRY.

President Milosevic claimed that there was no aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina that it was a civil war, and to any normal person this can clearly be seen.

Slobodan Milosevic said that the JNA did not occupy Bosnia. The JNA had always been in Bosnia, because Bosnia was part of Yugoslavia, and the JNA was Yugoslavia’s national army. Lord Owen agreed.

Slobodan Milosevic observed that the Bosnian-Serbs were not occupying Bosnia. They had always lived there, and that the VRS was made-up of Bosnian-Serbs, and again Lord Owen agreed.

President Milosevic said that since there was no occupation, and the fighting was between the people who lived in Bosnia then the war was a civil war and not a war of aggression. Lord Owen disagreed.

The bottom line according to Owen was that Bosnia was the UN Security Council’s creation. Owen had to explain that the UN Security Council had recognized Bosnia as an independent country, and that it had recognized Alija Izetbegovic’s government as the legitimate government. Therefore, anybody who was at war with Izetbegovic and his regime was technically engaged in aggression, even if they did live in Bosnia.

It is interesting to note here that in the beginning everybody supported keeping Yugoslavia as one united country. The EC, the OSCE, and the United States all initially supported keeping Yugoslavia as one united country. Lord Owen indicated that this all changed when Clinton took office.

In the opinion of Lord Owen it would have been better had the SFRY not dissolved. He said that the recognition of Bosnia was premature, and was a catastrophic mistake. Lord Owen also said that Cyrus Vance shared his opinion and viewed the premature recognition as being an absolute scandal, and a tragic mistake.

The premature recognition of the secessionist Yugoslav republics was scandalous. President Milosevic read out a quote from Lord Carrington in which it states that they were near reaching a political solution with Croatia regarding Slavonia and Krajina, but that the premature recognition of Croatia toppled the peace process. Carrington considered that the recognition was “a treacherous act” by the Security Council.

As for the allegations that Serbia was arming the Bosnian Serbs, Owen said that he had no proof of that. According to Owen the Bosnian Serbs had the ability to produce their own weapons and their own ammunition.

Lord Owen spoke of the roll that the Washington D.C. based public relations firm Ruder-Finn played on behalf of the Muslims and Croats. How Ruder-Finn would pay people to write editorials and letters to the editor, how Ruder-Finn would arrange for Western journalists and politicians to speak with Muslim and Croat officials.

According to Lord Owen, Ejup Ganic was the mastermind behind Muslim propaganda. Owen said that the strategy of the Muslim propaganda was to portray themselves as the victims in the hopes that the United States would intervene on their side militarily.

Indeed Owen confirmed that Ganic used all means to achieve his goals. He even said that Ganic preferred to have Sarajevo under siege.

Owen also confirmed that Milosevic wanted the siege stopped. In fact Owen acknowledged that President Milosevic wanted to send the International Red Cross into Bosnia. So here we have Milosevic who wants to stop the siege and bring in the Red Cross, and Ganic who wants the war to continue because it helps him in his drive to portray the Muslims as the victims.

While there is no doubt that President Milosevic wanted peace. The United States and the Clinton Administration in particular are a different story. According to Lord Owen the United States was hostile to the Vance-Owen Peace plan, and to the peace process in general. The United States would encourage the Muslims to make absurd demands in order to derail the peace process.

Lord Owen confirmed that the United States was pro-Croat. President Milosevic read out a quote from Stoltenberg where he said that Tudjman was preparing an offensive with the approval of the White House, and this was during a cease fire when nobody was supposed to be mounting offensives. Of course everybody knows, and it was confirmed by Lord Owen that the biggest ethnic cleansing operation in all of those Balkan wars was the "operation storm" that was perpetrated by Croatia against the Krajina Serbs.

All in all the testimony of Lord Owen was very interesting, and rather educational. For the record I note that the full text of the Cutileiro plan was exhibited, and its exhibit number is D-209.

The main thing that was established by Lord Owen’s testimony is that President Slobodan Milosevic is a man of peace. The prosecution is almost finished presenting its case and it is clearer now than it ever has been that Slobodan Milosevic is not a war criminal. After seeing the prosecution’s total lack of evidence, and after observing the underhanded tactics that they employ all I can say is: Congratulations Ms. del Ponte! If you wanted to convince me that Slobodan Milosevic is a hero then you’ve certainly been successful.

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