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MILOSEVIC "TRIAL"
SYNOPSIS FOR JUNE 04 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - June 4, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
It seems to me that Mr. "C-47" is a secret witness
simply because he is not who and what he professes to be. He
is one of many false witnesses who have testified against Milosevic.
As I said yesterday, this secret witness claimed to be a member
of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and a Chetnik volunteer.
The first thing that Slobodan Milosevic did in the cross-examination
was set the record straight regarding the treatment of Croats
and Hungarians by the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). This "C-47"
person tried to say that the SPS was collaborating with the SRS
to intimidate Croats and Hungarians in Vojovodina. Milosevic
explained that this was nonsense because the SPS had hundreds
of Croat and Hungarian members in Vojovodina and that the SPS
chairperson in Vojovodina was a Hungarian woman. It is quite
illogical that the SPS would want to threaten its own members.
For a member of the SRS this "C-47" seemed to know
remarkably little about the party. For example this so-called
"C-47" claimed that he had joined the SRS in 1990,
and that he had even spoken with Vojislav Seselj in the autumn
of 1990 about matters pertaining to the party on an occasion
when Mr. Seselj came to his village.
As Slobodan Milosevic pointed out there are 2 problems here.
The first problem is that the SRS was not founded until 1991,
and so there was no Serbian Radical Party for the witness to
join in 1990. The second problem is that Vojislav Seselj was
in jail when this secret witness claims to have talked to him
about the still nonexistent SRS.
When President Milosevic confronted the witness on these points
this secret witness asked to go into closed session.
The next point is that the witness spoke about the SRS presidency
in Vojovodina. President Milosevic pointed out that the problem
here was that there is no SRS presidency in Vojovodina, because
(unlike the SPS) the SRS opposes the existence of provinces and
favors one unified Serbia with no provinces. Therefore, the SRS
has only one presidency for all of Serbia. So it is impossible
for this witness to have had anything to do with the SRS Presidency
in Vojovodina because that is something that doesn't exist.
Another false claim from this secret witness was that the SUP
controlled the SRS. The witness arrived at this conclusion, because
he said that certain members of the SUP were members of the SRS.
Milosevic pointed out that a problem here was that all of the
people whom this secret witness had enumerated in the SUP were
not members of the SRS at all. Another problem is that it doesn't
matter what the political orientation that some members of the
SUP had was. Just because one holds a position and at the same
time has a political leaning doesn't mean that one is using their
position to control their political party. That is an absurdity.
Upon being confronted with this information the secret witness
asked to go into closed session again.
Another falsehood was when the witness claimed that he had seen
Vojislav Seselj at a rally, on September 13, 1991, in which 5,000
people took part, where Mr. Seselj was allegedly threatening
to "gouge out the eyes of Croats with rusty spoons."
Milosevic began to explain that Seselj had never said this. Milosevic
was explaining that this so-called "quote from Seselj"
came from a parody done on a Minimax comedy TV show -- at that
point for some unknown reason the Tribunal abruptly cut off the
audio/video feed.
As far as the Chetniks were concerned "C-47" said that
one of their aims was to overthrow Milosevic. It is interesting
to note here that many witnesses have testified at Milosevic's
trial about crimes committed by so-called "Chetniks."
Does it seem logical that Slobodan Milosevic would be in command
of this group whose stated purpose was to overthrow him?
In fact, as far as the command of volunteers is concerned it
was all done by the local commanders in the combat theatre. If
for example, the Army of Republika Srpska, or the Army of the
Republic of Serbian Krajina, or if some units of the TO needed
help; they would call on these groups of volunteers, and these
volunteers would go to the combat theatre, where they would receive
their weapons, and their orders from the local commanders in
the field.
Whatever some volunteer unit did or didn't do has absolutely
nothing at all to do with Slobodan Milosevic. He had nothing
to do with any of that he didn't issue any orders, and
he didn't issue any weapons. Those volunteers went to the combat
front on their own free will, and helped the local Serb units
in the field.
Even this secret witness testified when he left the theatre of
combat that him and all of the volunteers were searched at the
border by the Serbian authorities of Bosnia and Croatia to ensure
that they weren't keeping any of the weapons that they had been
given.
A number of manipulations were perpetrated by the Tribunal today.
The use of closed sessions was abused. The majority of the cross-examination
took place in closed session in spite of the objections made
by President Milosevic.
Because President Milosevic is innocent, and therefore has nothing
to hide, he wants this so-called "trial" to be held
out in the open for the public to see. The Tribunal, on the other
hand knows full well that this is a show trial, and therefore
it wants to hold the "trial" in secret.
The prosecutor changed the order of witnesses around again today,
which makes it difficult for Milosevic to prepare for cross-examinations.
Then the prosecutor requested that the hearing for tomorrow be
extended. The problem here is that President Milosevic can only
meet with his associates from 3 PM until 4:45 PM after the hearings,
and as it stands now even with the hearings adjourning at 1:45
PM he still can't always get to the prison by 3 PM. His associates
do his research for him and when his access to them is limited
his defense is hampered.
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Sequence of events for 4 June 2003:
1. The Prosecutor, MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF - Concluded the examination
in chief of the secret witness "C-47"
2. President, SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - Cross-examined the secret
witness "C-47" NOTE: "C-47's" cross-examination
is not yet complete.
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