MILOSEVIC QUESTIONS HIS FIRST DEFENSE WITNESS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 16, 2004

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Slobodan Milosevic questioned his first defense witness at the Hague tribunal on Tuesday. The witness, Mihajlo Markovic, a Serbian social sciences professor, testified about a number of topics, including a 1986 draft memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, which he helped to write.

A number anti-Serb propagandists, including the ICTY prosecution, have taken bits and pieces of this incomplete memorandum out of context, and tried to twist it into being some sort of platform for virulent Serbian nationalism.

The professor put a great many manipulations concerning this memorandum to bed. The memorandum explicitly states that all of the nationalities in Yugoslavia had to be equal. It stipulated that Yugoslavia could only survive if the principle of equality among peoples was respected.

The memorandum stated on a number of occasions that human rights and high democratic standards had to be rigorously adhered to.

In the context of the need for equality and human rights for everybody in Yugoslavia, the memorandum made note of the dire situation of Kosovo’s non-Albanian population, and observed that in the 1980s (much as today) the human rights of Kosovo’s non-Albanian population was not respected. The memorandum condemned the ethnic discrimination as being unacceptable anywhere in Yugoslavia.

Markovic destroyed any idea that the Albanian secessionism in Kosovo is the result of any of Milosevic’s politics. Markovic pointed out that Albanian secessionists attempted an insurrection in 1968 and that Tito had to send in the Army to quell it. He also pointed out that there were other secessionist outbursts by Albanians in Kosovo in the early and mid-1980s; before Milosevic ever came to power.

Markovic pointed out that each time the Kosovo-Albanian secessionists ramped up their activities, the non-Albanian population was subjected to increased pressure and violence which, already before Milosevic came to power, had led to an exodus of tens of thousands of non-Albanians from Kosovo. He pointed out that this expulsion of non-Albanians is what gave rise to the term “ethnic cleansing” in the first place.

In addition to Albanian secessionism in Kosovo, Markovic testified about Slovenian and Croatian secessionism. He pointed out that these secessionist movements also began before Milosevic ever came on the scene.

Markovic testified that Slovenia had already made up its mind to leave Yugoslavia in the mid-1980s. He spoke of a conference that he attended in Ljubljana in 1985 where eminent figures in Slovenian intellegencia and politics were already saying that “Yugoslavia was dead,” and that Slovenia only regarded Yugoslavia as “a transit station.”

Markovic noted that a Croatian secessionist movement was already well underway with the so-called “mass national movement” in 1971.

Markovic spoke of the HDZ’s 1990 congress. He said that secession was already foremost on the HDZ agenda, and that approximately 100 former members of the Ustasha attended the HDZ congress.

Markovic destroyed the idea that Yugoslavia collapsed because it was dominated by Serbs. In fact the witness observed that the opposite was true. Serbs, who were the largest ethnic group, were under represented in Yugoslavia.

At the time of Yugoslavia’s dissolution, in the early 1990s, the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia was a Croat, the Defense Minister was half Croat, the Foreign Minister was a Croat, and the President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia was a Croat. In the top echelons of the Yugoslav Military there were 16 Croats compared to only 2 Serbs. There was absolutely no Serb domination in Yugoslavia when the country broke apart.

Professor Markovic explained the origins of this propaganda about Serb domination. He traced it back to Soviet attempts to destabilize and take-over Yugoslavia. He said that the Soviet Union had a plan to take over Yugoslavia and annex it to the USSR.

The Soviet plan called for turning the other Yugoslav nationalities against the Serbs (the biggest group in Yugoslavia) by putting forward an idea that the Serbs were unfairly dominating the country.

Markovic said that the Soviet plan called for supporting nationalistic and secessionist groups, which would invariably arise in order to escape the phony Serb domination.

In this way, the Soviets hoped to subdue the biggest part of the Yugoslav population (the Serbs), by turning the other nationalities against them. Then, once Yugoslavia’s unity was destroyed and the Serbs were subdued, the USSR could walk in and take-over.

The Soviets never saw their plan bear fruit, but the Germans and the Americans did what the Soviets failed to do. They managed to destroy Yugoslavia by precisely the method laid-out in the Soviet plan.

Professor Markovic laid the thesis to rest that Milosevic had abolished Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989. Markovic pointed out that the constitutional changes that were adopted preserved Kosovo’s autonomy, and that those changes were agreed to by the Kosovo assembly, and by all of the other republics in Yugoslavia.

Markovic gave the results of the vote in the Kosovo Assembly when the constitutional changes were adopted. 180 out of 190 deputies were present, 10 voted against, 4 abstained, and 166 voted in favor of adopting the constitutional changes.

Professor Markovic was an eye witness to Milosevic’s famous 1989 speech in Kosovo. Many anti-Serb propagandists, including Mr. Nice, have manipulated and told lies about this speech, but Markovic’s testimony puts those people in their place.

Markovic testified that it was not a nationalistic speech, and that it did not incite ethnic intolerance. In fact that the speech did the opposite; the professor testified that the speech called for brotherhood and unity among the peoples of Yugoslavia.

In order to prove the tolerant nature of the speech, Milosevic read out excerpts from the speech and asked Professor Markovic to comment on them. Milosevic also provided the tribunal with the english translation of the speech (which he obtained from www.slobodan-milosevic.org). Milosevic also tendered a video tape of the speech in to evidence. 

Professor Markovic, who played an important role in defining the ideology of the Socialist Party of Serbia in the early 1990s, testified that there were more than 50,000 non-Serbian members of the SPS.

Markovic who is one of the drafters of the SPS platform, and a former vice-president of the party, cited internal party documents which show that the SPS and its leadership desired a political solution to the Kosovo crisis, and always insisted on full equality and rights for Kosovo’s Albanian population in spite of the problems with Albanian terrorism.

Markovic said that Milosevic, far from espousing any ideas about greater Serbia, would not even let the SPS expand outside of Serbia’s borders. In spite of the fact that the SDA (Bosnian-Muslim Party of Democratic Action) was allowed to establish branches in Serbia, primarily in the Raska district (Sandzak).

Markovic categorized the Hague Tribunal’s indictment against Milosevic as being untrue and illogical. Markovic observed that Milosevic was not a dictator, and that Serbia’s ethnic make-up remains the same today as it was in the 1970s, which is something that other former-Yugoslav republics can not say.

Professor Markovic’s examination was very successful for Milosevic. The fact that so much important evidence was brought forward in only one day proves that Slobodan Milosevic is the only one competent to lead his defense. Mr. Kay never would have done such a good job.

It is even more amazing that President Milosevic managed to elicit all of this evidence in spite of frequent interruptions and harassment both from the Judges and from Mr. Nice.

President Milosevic managed to conclude his examination-in-chief by the end of the day. Markovic will continue his testimony tomorrow with cross-examination from Mr. Nice.
 

# # #