MR. NICE ATTRIBUTES A FALSE WITNESS STATEMENT TO RADE MARKOVIC IN A FAILED BID TO CONFUSE THE TESTIMONY OF GEN. FARKAS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – November 10, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

General Geza Farkas, the former chief of the Security Dept. of the Yugoslav Army, completed his testimony at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday.

Mr. Nice spent nearly the entire day cross-examining the witness. The prosecutor continued to question the witness about the alleged re-burial of corpses at Batajnica.

Mr. Nice claims that the prosecution has a statement from Serbia’s former state security chief, Radomir Markovic, in which he says that Vlastimir Djordjevic asks that Albanian corpses to be taken from Kosovo to eliminate evidence of civilian casualties that could be investigated by The Hague Tribunal. In this alleged statement, Milosevic is accused of instructing Vlajko Stojiljkovic to take measures to remove the corpses of Albanian civilians from Kosovo.

What Mr. Nice failed to mention was the suspicious origin of this statement. The statement that Mr. Nice relied on today was allegedly taken by prosecution witness Zoran Stijovic on June 1, 2002.

Mr. Stijovic testified at the Hague Tribunal on September 5, 2002, and during the cross-examination Milosevic asked him if pressure had been exerted on Markovic in order to make him give this false statement. To which Stijovic gave the carefully worded response, “I claim that I did not exert any pressure on him. Whether any pressure was exerted on him or not I cannot say.”

Mr. Stijovic went on to admit that Markovic had been held in solitary confinement, and that the statement was not given in the presence of an attorney.

In addition to the illegal circumstances it was allegedly taken under, there are serious doubts about the authenticity of the alleged statement itself. Ms. Olivera Antonic-Simic, the secretary who is supposed to have recorded the alleged statement refused to confirm the authenticity of the document that Mr. Nice was claiming today is Markovic’s statement.

When Markovic testified at the Hague Tribunal he said exactly the opposite of what Mr. Nice attributed to him today:

On July 26, 2002 Milosevic and Markovic had the following exchanges:

MILOSEVIC: Did anyone at that meeting mention that clean-up also involves removal of traces of crimes or any sort of cover-up? Did anyone say that crimes needed to be covered up?

MARKOVIC: No, nobody talked about crimes or covering them up.

MILOSEVIC: And even later, in the Ministry of the Interior, did anyone speak about the need to transfer some bodies from Kosovo to Serbia proper?

MARKOVIC: Not that I heard.

[…]

MILOSEVIC: Here, when you talked to two committees of the parliament of Yugoslavia, you say: "They asked me to accuse Slobodan Milosevic and to admit to criminal acts and to say that I was instructed by Slobodan Milosevic thereof." Is that correct?

MARKOVIC: That's correct. I was told that in that case I would not be the one who would be held accountable but that I could choose a country where I would live and that I could get a new identity and that it was indispensable to accuse you so that you would be tried in the country.

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Mr. Nice is keenly aware of the highly dubious nature of Markovic’s alleged statement, but in court today he stubbornly insisted on its truthfulness and accuracy. Mr. Nice even went so far as to accuse Gen. Farkas of lying when he testified that the army did not undertake any operations to hide corpses during the war.

Gen. Farkas was at exactly the same meeting where Markovic’s alleged statement says that Milosevic ordered Stojiljkovic to remove the corpses of Albanian civilians from Kosovo. Gen. Farkas said in very clear terms that no such orders were ever issued at that meeting, or any other meeting that he knew of.

Mr. Nice questioned Gen. Farkas about the role of the Joint Command and the Supreme Command Staff. The prosecution claims that the Supreme Command Staff and the Joint Command were bodies that Milosevic established in order to illegally seize control of the Army and police; the witness flatly rejected this thesis.

Gen. Farkas explained that the Joint Command was a body that was set-up to facilitate cooperation between the Army and the police. It did not factor anywhere in the military chain of command. He said that the Supreme Command was the same thing as the General Staff. According to the law on defense, when a state of war is proclaimed the General Staff becomes the Supreme Command.

At one point Mr. Nice alleged that the Army of Yugoslavia discriminated against non-Serbs. It is somewhat ironic that Mr. Nice would put that proposition to this particular witness, because Gen. Farkas is an ethnic Hungarian from Vojovodina – he is a non-Serb. He denied that non-Serbs were discriminated against, and said that racism and ethnic hatred were rare in the ranks of the army.

Mr. Nice wasted a great deal of time asking the witness questions about the activities of the police and the activities of civilian institutions. The witness had to remind the prosecutor that he was in the Army, and that the activities of the police and the civilian judiciary were not within his purview.

Mr. Nice frequently criticized Gen. Farkas for not having notes and documents to substantiate certain portions of his testimony. Normally this type of criticism would be acceptable, but Gen. Farkas’s office was bombed by NATO and his documents were blown to smithereens. If Mr. Nice has a problem with missing documentation then he should complain to NATO, and stop harassing the witness.

Gen. Farkas concluded his testimony after a brief re-examination by Milosevic. Milosevic will start with a fresh witness when the trial resumes tomorrow.

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