FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT REFUSES TO TESTIFY
AT ICTY WITHOUT STATE APPROVAL
Belgrade, 14 February: Former Yugoslav president Zoran Lilic has told Belgrade's
B92 TV that he was on Thursday 14 February subpoenaed by the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to testify at the trial of
Slobodan Milosevic, but that he will
not go to the Hague until he receives a confirmation that the Supreme Defence
Council has agreed with the Yugoslav government's decision to declassify
confidential documents.
Lilic said he was aware that he might pay a 100,000-euro fine and serve a
seven-year prison sentence, but that he would not testify until the state bodies
pinpointed the documents for which he would be exempt from keeping the state and
military secrets. He said he could not see "why we here cannot see what the
state has given to the tribunal", if all persons employed at the tribunal had
seen it, and these documents had thus become public.
"I really do not wish to be in The Hague, I don't even have the need to explain
anything; I only wish to protect the data and the truth about this state. I want
to know what was sent there and that these documents are original," Lilic said
and added that the "state really has the obligation to take care about its
citizens, regardless of their status in The Hague".
Lilic was the president of Yugoslavia between 1993 and 1997.
Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1730 gmt 14 Feb 03
BBC International Monitoring Service
Posted for "Fair Use" only!