MR. NICE CROSS-EXAMINES PROFESSOR MARKOVIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 17, 2004

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Professor Mihajlo Markovic was cross-examined by prosecutor Geoffrey Nice in the Hague Tribunal's proceedings against Slobodan Milosevic today.

Mr. Nice was remarkably unprepared for the task of cross-examination. Mr. Nice wanted to question Markovic about articles and papers that he had written, but he didn't have the texts of the documents. What Mr. Nice attempted to do instead was pass off what somebody else had written about Markovic's writings as if that material was what Markovic had written.

Mr. Nice's cross-examination was so sloppy that it drew a rare rebuke from Judge Bonamy, who accused the prosecutor of wasting time.

Mr. Nice was completely unable to discredit any of Markovic's testimony. Mr. Nice failed miserably in all of his attempts to use Markovic's testimony as a vehicle to incriminate Milosevic. In fact, Mr. Nice's cross-examination only brought out more details that favored Milosevic.

Markovic testified in cross-examination that Milosevic opened the doors to freedom of speech in Serbia. Markovic noted that the League of Communists under Ivan Stambolic had pursued what he called a "witch hunt" against the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Markovic said that Milosevic ushered in a new era of free speech and democracy in Serbia. He testified that Milosevic ended the witch hunt against Serbian intellectuals, that Milosevic abolished laws pertaining to so-called "verbal crimes," and that Milosevic freed all political prisoners who were held by the communists.

Mr. Nice, realizing that his cross-examination was in a shambles, turned his attention to Kosovo and asked the witness if tanks had been sent in to Kosovo in order to intimidate deputies in the Kosovo assembly to vote for the constitutional changes that were adopted in 1989. Markovic refuted the testimony of an earlier prosecution witnesses and said that there were no tanks.

Un-phased by the fact that the complete texts of both, the 1986 memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences and Milosevic's 1989 speech at Gazimestan, had been provided and extensively quoted from the previous day Mr. Nice none-the-less tried to manipulate these documents.

For example, Nice quoted an article from an obscure Slovenian newspaper that reported negatively on Milosevic's 1989 speech. Nice treated the newspaper's opinion about the speech as if it were a better indicator of the speech's content than the actual transcript of the speech itself.

Markovic answered Nice's intellectually dishonest questions with poise and dignity. Markovic simply quoted from the memorandum and the speech, and all of Nice's attempts to obscure the truth were defeated.

The only time that professor Markovic showed the slightest hint of anger towards Mr. Nice, was when Nice made the absurd suggestion that the Serbs were "provoking" the Albanians by celebrating the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, as if the Serbs have no right to commemorate the anniversary of a significant event in their history.

Mr. Nice's cross-examination was so ineffective that Milosevic didn't have the need to ask a single question in re-examination.

But to be fair, Mr. Nice was at a major disadvantage. First of all, professor Markovic is clearly much smarter than Mr. Nice. This fact was demonstrated repeatedly over the course of the cross-examination, Nice repeatedly tried to confuse and trick the witness with misleading questions and was beaten every time.

Secondly, professor Markovic only told the plain and simple truth, whereas Mr. Nice has the near impossible burden of keeping all of his lies straight. There was no contest, Mr. Nice never stood a chance.

The only bad thing about what happened today is the fact that Mr. Nice wasted an entire day of the time allotted for Milosevic's defense case, which has been limited to a mere 150 days (as opposed to the nearly 300 days that the prosecution was given).

The proceedings have been adjourned until next Monday's late session.

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