A busy week at the ICTY; Milosevic embarks on Croatia case

What is happening at the Tribunal

Mladic arrest rumors dismissed

It was a fevered day at the ICTY as the Milosevic trial continued amid a flurry of media activity here in The Hague.  The press has descended on the ICTY to cover rumors of the purported apprehension of fugitive Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic, who has been on the run for over a decade.   At a press conference this afternoon, the Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, adamantly denied that Mladic had been arrested.  “The false rumors spread yesterday from Belgrade about the arrest of Mladic have absolutely no basis whatsoever,” she said.  Her spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann later commented that “nothing new” had happened to even warrant the creation of the rumors. 

A full copy of the Prosecutor’s remarks is available at:

http://www.un.org/icty/briefing/2006/PB060222.htm

Lukic arrives in The Hague

Meanwhile, Milan Lukic, one of the most notorious war crimes suspects from the Bosnian conflict, alleged to have personally committed some of the most heinous crimes of the war (and believed by some to be implicated in killing more people by his own hand than any other suspect) will make his initial appearance on Friday, 24 February.   Lukic, indicted for crimes in Visegrad, has been on the run from the ICTY for approximately seven years. 

Milosevic embarks on the Croatia phase of his defense

In the Milosevic trial, the Accused continued his examination of Marko Atlagic, an ethnic Serb and former member of the Croatian parliament, about events in Croatia leading up to the outbreak of hostilities in 1991.  After spending more than 80% of his allotted time on Kosovo, Mr. Milosevic has recently shifted the presentation of his defense case to events concerning the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia and the origins of the war in Croatia.  According to a Chambers memorandum on time, as of 15 February 2006, Milosevic has exhausted a total of 18,383 minutes (306 hours, 23 minutes or 76.6 days) of his allotted 360 hours for the presentation of his defense.  The Prosecution has spent 12,844 mintues (214 hours, 4 minutes or 53.52 days) or 69.87% of the defense time on cross examination.

Prior to witness Atlagic, Milosevic examined Branko Kostic, a former member of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s collective presidency, who testified that contrary to the Prosecution case, Milosevic actually held far less power and exerted far less influence over events in Croatia and Bosnia during the critical time period that Yugoslavia was breaking apart than the Prosecution had alleged. 

Atlagic’s testimony today centered around conditions in Croatia after Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party came to power in 1990.   Atlagic testified that Serbs living in Croatia at the time were essentially “erased” from civic life through a newly legalized program of discrimination.   For example, Atlagic claimed, the education system in Croatia discriminated against Serbs by teaching the Croatian language to the exclusion of the Serbian tongue in primary schools.  The Croatian education budget did not allocate a “single dinar” for Serbian schools, even though other nationalities such as Hungarian and Italian schools received support.   The Croatian Parliament, which was, in 1990, dominated by the newly formed HDZ, also discriminated against Serbs, according to the witness.  Atlagic testified that Serbs were “erased” from the new Croat constitution which did not enshrine the prominence of the Serb minority population in its provisions.  Rather, Atlagic said, President Tudjman proclaimed that the “Croatian state was the state of the Croatians” as well as “other inhabitants” with Serbs nowhere explicitly mentioned.   The Accused described these policies as “Fascist” and the witness claimed that most Serbs living in Croatia at the time understood such policies to represent “state terror.”

Judges: This is merely background to the indictment
This line of questioning was interrupted by Judge Robinson, who characterized the evidence as “background to the indictment” but said he would allow it as he considered it res gestae (all the things or matters surrounding a crime which can be admissible to assist the trier of fact).  Judge Robinson insisted however that Milosevic continue on to address the specific and concrete allegations set out in the indictment and noted that the bench had already heard enough about the plight of the Serbian population in Croatia during the early 1990s.

Mr. Milosevic answered that he was literally not in a position to answer the individual charges in the indictment because “they have nothing to do with me,” and that he could “not deal with” all of the particular allegations concerning the thousands of mistreated Croat and other non-Serbs prisoners of war, the scores of persons murdered (and described in the indictment) the dozen or so individual villages named as being plundered and wantonly destroyed.

"Just what is the Accused's case, anyway?"
The bench turned to Milosevic’s assigned counsel to answer the question, “What is the Accused’s case?” and should he be allowed to continue this line of questioning.  Assigned Counsel Mr. Kay acknowledged that the evidence currently being elicited had probably had a “limited” effect in addressing the individual allegations set forth in the indictment.   Such evidence did, according to Kay assist in disputing certain specific paragraphs of the indictment such as 103, which alleged that Milosevic espoused a policy calling for a “greater Serbia.”  Instead, Kay noted, the witness was describing how the Croatian Serb movement was not one of expansion driven from Belgrade, but one of resistance against policies from Zagreb – in other words, that Milosevic did not plan, instigate or start the war in Croatia, but that Croatian Serbs did so in order to resist a repressive Tudjman government.

Milosevic echoed assigned counsel’s reasoning by citing paragraph 89 of the Kosovo indictment, which reads, “Croatia declared its independence on 25 June 1991, leading to fighting between Croatian military forces on the one side and the JNA, paramilitary units and the "Army of the Republic of Srpska Krajina" on the other.”  Milosevic claimed that this passage actually represented a concession by the Prosecution that it was Croatia’s declaration of independence that “lead” to fighting, not any purported irredentist meddling by Milosevic.

The defense strategy in this Croatia phase appears to pin events in Croatia as entirely the doing of Croatian Serb leaders and having nothing to do with Milosevic or authorities in Belgrade.  The appearance of Serb Krajina resistance movements “was not caused” by Belgrade, Mr. Kay argued, and while Croatian Serb leaders may have attempted to court Milosevic and sought his support and financial or material backing, they were responsible for their own destinies, not Milosevic.   The Defendant acknowledged that crimes did likely occur as a result of people “defending their own homes” but said of atrocities, “I did not know about it.”  Milosevic said he did send assistance and aid to Croatian Serbs and accepted refugees from those areas, but did not give assistance to support any criminal activity.

After the first break, Milosevic did attempt to address some of the specific allegations in the indictment. Witness Atlagic was questioned about an incident in the hamlet of Marinovic, which was in his Parliamentary district.  Nine Croats were murdered there on 21 December 1991, allegedly by Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic’s “Police” squad.  Atlagic testified that the killings were committed by an “illegal” group from the neighboring village of Medvije and not by “Martic’s Police.”  When Judge Bonomy questioned the source of this alternative theory, Atlagic responded that he knew this information by virtue of his authority as Parliamentarian which allowed him access to “certain persons who had precise information.”  A dissatisfied Judge Bonomy responded, “that tells me nothing!” Atlagic then said he could not reveal sources in open session and the court went into private session. 

Milosevic will likely encounter further chastising from the Chambers if he continues to present evidence that is not first-hand accounts to refute the charges in the allegation.  Cross examination began later in the day and will continue on Thursday.

Other developments:

In today’s proceedings, Slobodan Milosevic demanded that former US President Bill Clinton be subpoened by the Chamber to testify and again insisted that former NATO Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark be recalled to the witness stand.  Milosevic’s court-assigned counsel have already filed a motion requesting General Clark’s return arguing that while the General’s prior testimony had been strictly limited at the request of the United States Government, it was unfair for the defense not to be allowed to cross-examine him on many subjects the Accused considered relevant, including some which were described in a book published by General Clark (therefore publicly available and not reasonable to restrict).   The Trial Chamber had previously rejected Milosevic’s request to call UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder to the stand.

Milosevic, complaining of a “thundering noise” in his head that he claimed was making his appearance unbearable also insisted that he be granted provisional release by the Trial Chamber in order to receive medical treatment in Russia.  Judge Robinson said today that a decision would be forthcoming sometime later this week.  The ICTY doctor was ordered to examine the accused.