MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: NOVEMBER 24, 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 24, 2003

Three witnesses testified at the so-called “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic today. The first witness was Mr. Ibro Osmanovic, a Muslim from the northeastern Bosnian town of Vlasenica.

Mr. Osmanovic testified that on April 23-24, 1992 members the Novi Sad Corps of the JNA came to Vlasenica. He said that the JNA troops who were there were commanded by an Albanian lieutenant.

According to Osmanovic the JNA was in Vlasenica for approximately three weeks. While the JNA was in town it collected weapons. According to Osmanovic, the JNA didn’t mistreat people, it didn’t shoot at anybody, and it didn’t hold any prisoners. In mid-May the JNA left Bosnia-Herzegovina, and so it left Vlasnica too.

After the JNA left, Osmanovic was arrested and sent to prison. Eventually he was shipped to the Susica camp and then to the Batkovic camp, and while he was there he was mistreated by, among others, a trio of Muslim soldiers.

According to Osmanovic this trio of Muslims doled out the most severe beatings. It was unclear why this trio of Muslims was beating prisoners at what he said was a Serb-run detention facility, but that was Osmanovic’s story. They were Muslims. They wore uniforms. They had their own car that they would come to the camp in, and they severely beat the detainees.

Osmanovic was released from captivity when he was exchanged. What his evidence, or any of the other evidence they heard today, has to do with President Milosevic, I have no idea. I guess the prosecutor is just trying to run out the clock.

The next witness was a secret witness codenamed “B-1746.” B-1746 was a Muslim from the municipality of Doboj in Bosnia-Herzgovina.

B-1746 didn’t see any killings take place, but B-1746 had heard about killings from other people. B-1746 had also heard from other people that Russian and Romanian volunteer units were in town and fighting on the Serb side.

According to B-1746’s witness statement “Arkan’s White Eagles” had attacked Doboj. Unfortunately for the witness, there is has never been any such thing as “Arkan’s White Eagles.” Arkan was the commander of the Serbian Volunteer Guard, also known as the Tigers. Arkan never commanded the White Eagles.

When President Milosevic confronted B-1746 with these facts, the witness responded by saying that they couldn’t be expected to keep the identities of all those paramilitaries straight. So in other words B-1746 had no idea who had attacked Doboj.

The prosecutor went into damage control mode. She explained that the witness had not had the opportunity to see the witness statement. Well then that puts it in a neat package; the witness isn’t responsible for what is contained in their statement for the simple reason that they’ve never seen it!

Regardless of the prosecutor’s efforts, the fact still remains that the witness said that they couldn’t keep the identities straight.

The term “red berets” was thrown around a lot. The idea was to imply that the JSO from Serbia had been involved. Because White Eagles wore red berets, President Milosevic asked the witness to describe the differences in the red berets that the JSO wore and the red berets that the White Eagles wore. The witness couldn’t. The simple fact of the matter is that this witness had no idea what they were talking about.

Seeing that things weren’t going well B-1746 began to get hysterical and say all sorts of dumb things. B-1746 claimed that the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina was totally unarmed. President Milosevic, in apparent disbelief that anybody could say something so stupid, asked the question again. He asked, “Are you claiming that the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina had no weapons?” The witness answered, “Yes that is what I claim.”

B-1746 also claimed that Serbs in Doboj had been forced to fight against their will. According to B-1746 Serb military commanders took Serb men to the front lines and forced them to fight in the trenches, and to keep them from running away they were tied up.

An astonished Milosevic asked the witness, how they could fight if they were tied up? The witness answered him that they were not actually tied up, but that they were tied together. That’s much better! I’m sure that all of these men being tied to one another were an effective fighting force. I would also like to know when the witness had access to the Serbian trenches to see such a spectacle. Oh well, maybe this is another one of those things that the witness heard from someone.

B-1746 explained a couple of things. B-1746 knew that Croats and Muslims didn’t respond to JNA call-ups and B-1746 knew that the JNA took over weapons from the T.O. throughout Yugoslavia. Although, B-1746 was convinced that the take over of weapons was some sort of JNA plot against Croats and Muslims, and so President Milosevic asked if B-1746 was aware that the JNA took over the T.O.’s weapons in Serbia as well. B-1746 was aware of that fact but it didn’t change their mind.

B-1746 eventually escaped the war in Bosnia, and where do you think B-1746 went? B-1746 went to Milosevic’s Serbia and guess what happened. B-1746 was able to live freely, and B-1746 received assistance from the FRY authorities. B-1746 was issued proper documents and a passport. One would think that B-1746 would be grateful for the help, but one would be wrong.

The next witness was Esed Velic, a member of the SDA from Bosanska Krupa. He was at the “tribunal” to testify about the activities of the SDS. He testified under his own name, but the “tribunal” put the facial distortion on the video anyway. Maybe the “tribunal” did this because the witness is so hideously ugly that they didn’t want anybody to see his face, or maybe they did this because this guy isn’t really who they say he is. I don’t know, but it doesn’t make any sense to hide the face and still use his name.

Belic is a 92-bis witness and so President Milosevic only gets 1 hour to cross-examine him. He got 20 minutes today, and will get the remaining 40 minutes on Wednesday. The “tribunal” won’t be in session tomorrow because it is a UN holiday.
 

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