MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: THE RETURN OF TIHIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 3, 2003

Three witnesses testified at the so-called “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic today. Sulejman Tihic was recalled today. Tihic was recalled because President Milosevic had questions about his diary, which was not properly disclosed to him until after the witness was already giving his testimony yesterday. President Milosevic was given only 20 minutes to go over the 65 page diary, and he made good use of the 20 minutes he had.

From Tihic’s diary it emerged that Tihic himself was engaged in the developing war plans and arming the Muslims before the war. According to Tihic’s diary the SDA formed a crisis command and developed war plans before the war ever started. It also emerged that Tihic himself was sending Muslims for sabotage training. Tihic’s diary described 6 separate instances of arms smuggling by the Muslims before the war.

The SDA’s plans to destroy the multiethnic structure of the JNA also emerged from Tihic’s diary. According to Tihic’s diary, the SDA spread rumors and distributed leaflets with the goal of identifying Muslim JNA members and branding them as traitors. This scheme worked in tandem with appeals from Alija Izetbegovic that Muslims should not join the JNA either as reservists or to perform their military service.

Tihic described Muslim members of the 4^th detachment of the T.O. in derogatory terms. He called them “traitors”, “criminals”, and “people from mixed marriages”.

It also turns out that Tihic was not with the SDA from the beginning as he had previously stated. Apparently he had reservations about joining the party because he felt that the membership were illiterate hardliners.

I’m sure that more interesting tidbits could be found in Tihic’s diary, but President Milosevic only got 20 minutes.

The next witness to testify was Ahmet Zulic, a Muslim from Sanski Most. Mr. Zulic is a self-confessed liar. He gave one statement to the B-H authorities in 1994 and another statement to the ICTY in June of 2001. President Milosevic asked him if the statements were both true and Zulic said that neither one of the statements was true.

Matters concerning the untruthful nature of the statements were dealt with by the so-called “tribunal” in private session. At one point Mr. Kwon indicated that the witness had admitted to lying to ICTY investigators in one of the private sessions.

The fact that the witness clearly admitted to lying in the statements did not stop the prosecutor from trying to assert that the ICTY witness statement was true. And after the prosecutor claimed that the ICTY statement was true; this self-confessed liar who was occupying the witness stand agreed with the prosecutor that the statement was true, even though on two previous occasions he clearly said that it was not true.

Zulic’s explanation to Mr. Kwon was that he had made a mistake, when earlier on the same day, he clearly said on two separate occasions that he was not telling the truth in either of his witness statements.

Zulic claimed to be the victim of some mistreatment. But he had 3 different versions of the same mistreatment. In one version people’s throats were being slashed and then a pistol was put into his mouth, in another version the pistol was placed in his mouth and then people’s throats were slashed, and in a third version the pistol was in his mouth while the throats were being slashed. The sequence of events changes in each instance. His diary had one version, his statement another, and there was another version still in his testimony in the Brdjanin and Talic case.

Another interesting point that came up was that Seselj’s men and the White Eagles were not one in the same unit. This is a common misconception. Seselj’s men joined the Army and the T.O. as volunteers; they did not have their own units. The White Eagles were a totally separate group. President Milosevic brought up this point, but the Zulic couldn’t differentiate between any groups he said that they were all the same to him. Therefore who mistreated him?

In the Talic case he said the following about the people who allegedly mistreated him “They wore olive-grey uniforms” and when asked what unit they belonged to he said “I really am unable to tell which unit they belonged to, whether they were Chetniks or the regular army, regular troops, because they were behind some willow trees, so that we just saw some soldiers. I couldn't see them properly.”

All of this happened in Bosnia, so what is this testimony about some unidentified unit, accused of this alleged massacre, supposed to prove against Milosevic? Apparently nothing.

After Zulic left, a secret witness codenamed “B-1021” took the stand. B-1021’s testimony was a big secret since it all took place in closed session.
 

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