MR. NICE ATTEMPTS TO MISLEAD THE TRIBUNAL, BUT ITS MILOSEVIC WHO GETS REPRIMANDED
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 16, 2004

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Mr. Nice concluded his cross-examination of Professor Popov at the Hague Tribunal on Thursday. The prosecutor had turned a number of things around in his cross-examination. For example, he exhibited a magazine called ”EPOHE,” Nice claimed that this was some sort of official magazine of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), even though nobody from the party has heard of it, and the official magazine of the SPS is called “SMISAO” not “EPOHE.”

In this “EPOHE” magazine, Nice found a map and showed it on the overhead projector. The map was somebody’s idea of “Greater Serbia,” and Nice used this map to make the claim that the SPS was advocating some-sort of “Greater Serbia” plan.

In the re-examination, Milosevic read out from the magazine article that accompanied the map. It turns out that the article was attacking the map, and attacking the idea of “Greater Serbia.” The map had only been printed so that it could be attacked by the magazine. Professor Popov agreed that the text of the article was a clear attack on the map.

Milosevic observed that it was a “manipulation,” on the part of the prosecution, to use this map to falsely impute some sort of “Greater Serbia” conspiracy to the SPS, when the magazine is attacking the map, and the whole idea of “Greater Serbia.”

Judge Robinson did not appreciate this observation in the least. He told Milosevic that it was unacceptable to accuse the prosecution of manipulating the evidence.

This incident clearly shows the double standard that is afoot at the tribunal. The prosecutor obviously manipulated the evidence. He attempted to use a magazine article that clearly and forcefully attacked the idea of creating “Greater Serbia” in order to falsely attribute “Greater Serbian” aspirations to the SPS.

Mr. Nice is the one who exhibited this magazine in the first place, this is his exhibit, he had to know what it said. But instead of reprimanding Mr. Nice for what was a clear attempt to mislead the court, the Judges reprimanded Milosevic for merely pointing out that Nice was misleading them.

The Judges also refused to issue subpoenas summoning Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder and Rudolph Scharping, to be witnesses, thus rejecting the request that President Milosevic made in February and then again in October.

After Professor Popov concluded his evidence, Milosevic called another expert witness. Dr. Kosta Mihajlovic, an economist who was one of the writers of the famous 1986 draft-memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU).

Dr. Mihajilovic focused his testimony on the myth of Serbian domination in the former Yugoslavia. Mihajilovic pointed out that in the period after World War II up until 1991 wages in Serbia were, on average, 5% below the Yugoslav national average.

In spite of Serbia’s lower wages, the Yugoslav Government invested more in Croatia and Slovenia than in Serbia. According to Dr. Mihajilovic, the “policy to slow down Serbia’s development was openly pursued”, while Slovenia and Croatia constantly improved their economic position.

Dr. Mihajilovic also pointed out that the Hungarian minority in Serbia’s northern Vojovodina province had a higher per capita income than the Serbian average.

Dr. Mihajilovic noted that the policy of “weak Serbia, strong Yugoslavia” was pursued by Croatian and Slovenian representatives in the League of Communists, and to bear this out he read from transcripts of meetings that Croatian and Slovenian representatives had with Tito and Kardelj in the mid 1960s. 

The essence of Dr. Mihajilovic’s evidence is that Serbia did not dominate the rest of Yugoslavia. In fact it was Serbia who was being dominated. This is important because the republics that seceded from Yugoslavia and set off the wars, justify their actions by claiming that Yugoslavia was dominated by the Serbs.

Dr. Mihajilovic will conclude his evidence on Friday, and the tribunal will adjourn for its annual three-week Christmas break.
 

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