MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: BORISLAV JOVIC COMES TO THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 18, 2003

The secret witness B-1524 finished his testimony at the Hague Tribunal today. He finished his examination-in-chief last week, and he was cross-examined today. B-1524 was a resident of Zvornik, a reserve officer in the T.O., and a high official in the municipal government.

According to B-1524 everybody was armed. He said that black market arms dealers came into Zvornik and sold weapons to the population there regardless of their ethnicity. The the Muslims were not unarmed. They could buy weapons from blackmarketeers as easily as the Serbs could.

B-1524 said that armed Muslims congregated around the mosques, and in the city of Zvornik itself. He also said that at the same time as the Muslims were arming that the Serbs were also arming and that they mainly occupied the suburbs. B-1524 confirmed that the conflict in Zvornik was between locals. He also said that the SDA and the SDS jointly toppled the League of Communists, but that neither one was competent to govern.

B-1524 said that 10,000 residents of Zvornik, primarily Muslims, fled the city as refugees and went to seek shelter in Serbia. This is an important point. Muslims fled to Serbia in order to escape the civil war in Bosnia. This fact alone demonstrates that Serbia wasn’t waging any sort of aggression against Bosnian Muslims. If Serbia had been pursuing a policy of genocide against Muslims then certainly they wouldn’t have sought shelter in Serbia.

B-1524 also said that the JNA did not attack Zvornik. He claimed that illegal paramilitary formations attacked Zvornik.

The next witness was Borislav Jovic. As Serbia’s representative, Borislav Jovic was the president of the SFRY presidency in 1989 and 1990. He was the president of the SPS in 1991 and 1992 and was later the vice-president of the SPS from 1992 until 1995 when he was asked to resign his position. He has written 2 books, one entitled “The Death of the SFRY” which was compiled from his diary, and another book he wrote in 2000 about his opinion of Slobodan Milosevic’s personality.

In its typical underhanded fashion the Prosecution didn’t provide Jovic’s witness statement to President Milosevic until 6 o’clock the previous night.

Mr. Jovic first explained to Mr. Nice that his books only represent his personal views and assessments, and that their contents could be challenged. Jovic went on to explain to a disappointed Mr. Nice that Slobodan Milosevic didn’t control the SFRY presidency, or the JNA.

Stepjan Mesic had testified earlier that Jovic would leave SFRY Presidency meetings in order to call Milosevic and receive instructions from him. Jovic flatly denied this.

Jovic also said that Serbian volunteers fighting in Croatia and Bosnia were not under Milosevic’s control. According to Jovic volunteer units and individual volunteers were suborned to the army and that when they did not adhere to military discipline they were regarded as paramilitaries.

Jovic said that President Milosevic regarded Arkan as a criminal, and said that he told him, at a time when they had good relations that Arkan was not in any way associated with the Government of Serbia.

Jovic denied that the JNA had shelled the old city of Dubrovnik. According to Jovic only 2 shells fell on the old city by accident. Mr. Nice tried to counter Jovic’s assertion by playing a video that showed 1 damaged building in the old city, where as the rest of the old city was unscathed.

After playing a video tape of news story from ITN, and that other rather unimpressive video, Nice asked Jovic again if he still believed that only 2 shells fell on Dubrovnik, and Jovic said that he did.

Mr. Nice asked Jovic if the JNA had perpetrated a massacre at Vukovar and Jovic denied it. Jovic said that the JNA was ordered to protect civilians.

Nice, becoming increasingly frustrated, then began to threaten Jovic reminding him that he was the commander-in-chief of the JNA at the time of Dubrovnik and Vukovar. This was clearly a veiled threat from Mr. Nice, a signal that if Jovic didn’t “play ball” that he would be indicted himself. Jovic none the less stood his ground, and why shouldn’t he? Milan Babic testified against Milosevic, he did exactly what the prosecution wanted him to do, and they’ve indicted him anyway. In fact they just indicted him today.

Jovic also denied that the infamous Karadjorjevo meeting had ever taken place. Jovic said that it had always been Serbia’s position that Bosnia should not be divided. Jovic said that Mesic had invented the Karadjorjevo meeting in order to inflict political damage on Franjo Tudjman in Croatia, because the two of them were having a dispute at the time.

Mr. Jovic clearly does not like Slobodan Milosevic as a person, and so Mr. Nice spent a lot of time dwelling on things that Jovic found objectionable in Milosevic’s personality. However, none of this has anything to do with whether or not Slobodan Milosevic is a war criminal. It was clear that Mr. Nice was only getting Jovic to say negative things about Milosevic’s personality so that the OTP’s cronies in the media and at CIJ would have something bad they could say about President Milosevic.

On the key issue Jovic came through for President Milosevic. Jovic vehemently denied that Slobodan Milosevic was a nationalist. Jovic said that it was always President Milosevic’s position that all people had to be equal no matter what their ethnicity was. Jovic said that President Milosevic would never agree that anybody could be mistreated or denied rights because they weren’t a Serb.

Mr. Nice will complete the examination-in-chief tomorrow, and then President Milosevic will have the opportunity to cross-examine Jovic.
 

# # #