SYNOPSIS: DAVID HARLAND CONCLUDES HIS TESTIMONY AT THE MILOSEVIC "TRIAL"
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 6, 2003

David Harland, the United Nations civil and political affairs officer in Sarajevo was recalled at the “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday. Mr. Harland was the longest serving UN official in Bosnia. He had originally begun his testimony on September 18^th. He returned on Wednesday to complete his cross examination.

First of all, here is a summary of Harland’s September 18^th appearance at the “Tribunal.”

While speaking of ethnic cleansing, Mr. Harland confirmed that Radovan Karadzic never challenged the rights of non-Serbs to live on Bosnian Serb territory.

Harland did, however, confirm that ethnic cleansing did take place, and that all three sides were guilty of perpetrating that crime.

Harland also affirmed that President Milosevic supported the Vance-Owen plan, and that his goal and the goal of Serbia was “for the Serb people to be free and equal, not more, not less than that.”

President Milosevic’s words at the Bosnian Serb assembly in Pale confirm that his aim in supporting the Vance-Owen plan was equality. President Milosevic said in his speech to the Bosnian Serb Assembly that "With this plan, the Serb people have restored their right to be treated equally as a constituent nation and with this plan its fate will be in its hands, as it will be in the hands of the other two peoples on an equal footing and in freedom."

Harland tried to say that the Bosnian Serbs wanted 70% of Bosnia for themselves, and so President Milosevic pointed out that the Bosnian Serbs had agreed to the Cutileiro Plan and also to the Contact Group plan, and that neither one of those plans envisioned 70% of the territory for the Serbs. Harland then admitted that it was correct that the Bosnian Serbs had accepted those plans and that neither of those plans called for 70% to go to the Serbs.

President Milosevic observed, and Harland grudgingly confirmed that Radovan Karadzic was constantly trying to bring the Muslims to the negotiating table.

When President Milosevic asked what goals that the Bosnian Muslims had Mr. Harland said, “I think that there was one group which felt that the Muslims are the largest community in Bosnia and Herzegovina and therefore they had an interest in keeping Bosnia and Herzegovina together as a single state in which they would not be threatened in any way because they would be almost a majority. And, in fact, of course there is -- there is language in Mr. Izetbegovic's Islamic declaration  which refers to the -- the role that will be played by a Muslim community once they become a majority in a -- in a given country.”

President Milosevic observed the contents of Izetbegovic’s Islamic Declaration in which it says that "there can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions" and "the Islamic movement must and can, take over political power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non-Islamic power, but also to build up a new Islamic one”.

In connection with what is stated in the Islamic Declaration of Alija Izetbegovic, President Milosevic asked the following question of Mr. Harland: “Do you then consider that the Serbs could have accepted a state conceived along those lines, the Serbs which had until then lived as a nation on a footing of equality with everybody else in the area? Could they have accepted that?”

Harland didn’t answer the question. Instead he decided to make accusations against the Serbs because he realized that the Bosnian war was the Muslims fault and he wasn’t ready to admit that. By then it was 1:45 and the September 18^th session ended.

When Harland returned to finish his cross-examination last Wednesday president Milosevic showed him an ethnic map of Sarajevo based on the 1981 census, and it was observed that the Serbs did not “occupy” Sarajevo. It could be clearly seen on the map that the Serbs were indigenous to Sarajevo, and Harland confirmed that the VRS positions around Sarajevo roughly confirmed to the territory that the Serbs were shown to be living on already by the 1981 census.

It was also confirmed by Mr. Harland that the 40,000 Serb civilians who were trapped behind Muslim lines in Sarajevo were not allowed to leave the theatre of combat. It was observed that it is a serious violation of international law to hold a civilian inside of a combat area against their will.

President Milosevic brought up the Mt. Igman agreement. In the agreement Ravovan Karadzic agreed to withdraw VRS troops from Mt. Igman and handover control of 13 checkpoints to UNPROFOR.

Harland confirmed that Karadzic had indeed made this agreement in order to get the Muslims to come to the negotiating table.

But what happened after Karadzic withdrew the VRS from Mt. Igman and the 13 checkpoints was that the Muslims moved in and took all of that over. The agreement was for UNPROFOR to take over Mt. Igman and the 13 checkpoints, but the Muslims violated the agreement and took it over for themselves.

Mr. Harland was in an unenviable position. He clearly wanted to attribute all of the blame to the Bosnian Serbs, but Slobodan Milosevic kept on bringing up facts that demonstrated that the Muslims were the ones who were prolonging the war, by violating ceasefires and refusing to negotiate a political settlement, and Harland had no option but to confirm those facts.

The Muslim side frequently and most often violated cease-fire agreements. In fact had Harland had to admit that the Muslims violated 514 of the cease-fire agreements that they had entered into with the Bosnian Serbs.

Harland also had to admit that the UNPROFOR Commander, General Michael Rose, felt that the Muslim policy of violating cease-fires came from Izetbegovic’s vice-president, Ejup Ganic.

Amazingly Harland tried to defend the Muslim policy of violating cease-fires. According to Harland it was understandable for the Muslims to violate the cease-fire because they didn’t want to freeze the confrontation lines.

In other words the Muslims wanted to prolong the war, and didn’t want a cease-fire at all. They just wanted to exploit the good will of the Serbs and use the “cease-fires” as an opportunity to regroup and launch fresh offensives in order to move the confrontation lines.

Another Muslim policy that Harland defended was their militarization of the so-called “safe areas.” Harland pointed out that the UNSC Resolutions that created the “safe areas” enshrined the rights of the Muslims to keep arms there.

The “safe area” idea has got to be one of the dumbest things that the UN Security Council has ever come-up with, right behind the Hague Tribunal. The Security Council prohibited one side from attacking the so-called “safe area,” while simultaneously allowing the other side to militarize the “safe area” and launch attacks out from it.

Harland also had to admit that he was aware of General Rose’s reports which stated that the Muslims were firing mortars on their own people from a mobile launcher and that they were carrying-out sniper attacks against their own people for propaganda purposes.

Harland himself confirmed that most of the Serbian shelling of Sarajevo was done in retaliation. Harland admitted that the Muslim strategy in Sarajevo was to fire shells at the Serbs from built-up civilian areas in hopes of provoking a Serb response that would be filmed by the media and presented to the world as some sort of “Serb aggression”.

He recounted one example when the Muslims fired mortars on Serbian artillery positions from the Kasova Hospital. Obviously the objective here was to get the Serbs to shell the position that the fire on them was emanating from – the hospital. 

The Markale Market massacre was brought up and Slobodan Milosevic had the UN report on the incident and it stated that the shell that fell on the market was fired from a range of less than 2,000 meters, which means that the shell came from inside - not outside of Muslim the lines.

In addition to killing their own people for propaganda, the B-H Army killed for the purposes of ethnic cleansing. Harland recounted how the 5^th Corps of the B-H Army attacked the Serbs in Western Bosnia.

Harland did his best to try and help the prosecution, but he failed. In a final blow to the prosecutor’s case Harland said that the Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale was angry with Milosevic because he refused to provide them with troops. At the same time Harland said that Croatia was openly sending uniformed regular army troops into Bosnia.

Another witness was also heard on Wednesday. The secret witness B-1531, who continued his testimony from Tuesday, concluded his testimony. Unfortunately, because of the extensive use of private sessions, and the extensive use of Rule 89(F) by the prosecutor I have no idea what he was getting on about.

B-1531 was appointed to some anonymous high office in Foca by the SDA, and he was apparently somebody close to the B-H Defense Minister, Hassan Chengic. Other than that I don’t know anything about him.

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