Page 427
1 Monday 18 February, 2002
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 [Defence Opening Statement]
5 --- Upon commencing at 9.30 a.m.
6 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Before I continue where I left off,
8 I should like to give you a piece of news with respect to the business in
9 hand here. On Saturday evening, on the 16th of February, in Kosovska
10 Mitrovica, the Sveti Sava church was set on fire and the flames were only
11 put out the next morning. Albanian terrorists are in great competition
12 with the Prosecutor in the anti-Serb hysteria in Prizren. Zafir Berisha,
13 the president of the so-called veterans, that is to say terrorists, says
14 in his speech the following: "We are going to secure Kosovo for the
15 Albanians alone and nobody else." And everything is moving along in
16 conformity with the statement that I quoted, the one made by Albright and
17 the Prosecutor when they said they were engaged in the same task, doing
18 the same job.
19 Now, let me continue where I left off.
20 A strategic concept in realising global control, putting it into
21 effect and subjugating countries throughout the world, is the causing of
22 conflicts between the Slav and Muslim nations in the hope that they will
23 kill each other respectively or at least weaken each other so much that
24 control may be established over them in such a weakened state. Kosovo and
25 Chechnya in that respect are undoubtedly a link in the same chain, to
Page 428
1 quote an example.
2 And with the Slav and Muslim nations, similarly, attempts are
3 being made to weaken them further by causing mutual wars or at least in
4 confrontations between the two sides. The Yugoslav peoples,
5 unfortunately, since the beginning of the last decade, that is to say of
6 the twentieth century, were a polygon for training, for trying out
7 different things and were the victims of that particular strategy.
8 In the process of realising and implementing domination -
9 economic, social, political, cultural, psychological domination - over the
10 areas of south-east Europe, the western governments, as the protagonists
11 of that process of domination, have opted for a method of national
12 conflict, to apply the method of national conflict, the goal being that
13 these conflicts should destroy the former Yugoslavia.
14 This method was applied in the case of the Soviet Union as well,
15 and in the case of Czechoslovakia it appeared to be fast and successful,
16 or rather, all the former socialist countries of a multi-ethnic
17 composition were to be destroyed by causing national tensions. That was
18 one form of a settling of accounts with the political systems that
19 prevailed at the time in those countries.
20 When it comes to the case of Yugoslavia, this method did not prove
21 to be a quick and efficacious method as it had proved to be in the Soviet
22 Union and Czechoslovakia. National tensions were not sufficiently
23 burgeoning. They had to become a national war for the country to
24 disintegrate. And the war in fact began by the fact that within the
25 frameworks of the former Yugoslavia, nationalism was incited along with
Page 429
1 national hatred and national conflicts. The flames were fanned to turn
2 into a full-fledged war.
3 The civil war in Croatia between the Serbs and Croats, as well as
4 the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina between the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, are
5 the consequence of fanning the flames of national hatred outside the
6 borders of Yugoslavia. And it is in this national hatred that a great
7 deal was invested; material, financial, the media, personnel,
8 psychological, all these investments were made. And the Yugoslav citizens
9 took place in the war which was incited outside their country without ever
10 being conscious of it, without being aware of it. And when they realised
11 what was happening, the war waged in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. And
12 some people became aware of all these facts only when the war came to an
13 end. Of course, there are some people who haven't realised the truth
14 today; that war in the territory of the former Yugoslavia is the result of
15 the will and interest of others, the great western powers, in fact.
16 The truth is that those governments sent their emissaries to
17 attend negotiations in the republics of the one-time Yugoslavia before
18 they definitely destroyed and disrupted the country.
19 During the war, in the governments of the newly-established states
20 which used to be the Republics of the former Yugoslavia, and especially in
21 the newly-formed Yugoslavia composed of Serbia and Montenegro, most of
22 those emissaries did not have as their goal to put an end to the conflict
23 and to establish peace amongst the warring ethnic groups. What they in
24 fact did was to support, to all intents and purposes, the policy and the
25 protagonists of the policy which was in their interests, that is to say
Page 430
1 which was in the interests of destroying the country which had as its goal
2 secessionism, separatism, violence, its subjugation and, in short, a
3 new colonialism.
4 There were, of course, well-intentioned and honest people amongst
5 those emissaries as well, but they were in the minority.
6 The former Yugoslavia, as it stated in its Constitution, came into
7 being through the free will of the Yugoslav peoples - Serbs, Croats,
8 Slovenes, Macedonians and Montenegrins - and their right to
9 self-determination which in itself included the right to secession.
10 Later on, the Muslims were defined as a separate nation themselves
11 and to the Yugoslav coat of arms a sixth torch was added. The
12 then-socialist Republic of Croatia, with its own Constitution was defined
13 as a state of the Croatian people, a state of the Serb people and other
14 peoples living within its territory. So within Croatia itself, the Serbs
15 had the status of a nation, and this implied the right to
16 self-determination.
17 Bosnia and Herzegovina was Yugoslavia in a small form in which
18 three nations lived, and all the functions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, both in
19 the government and in parliament and in the party, were distributed in
20 such a way that they were -- that all -- the representatives of all three
21 people had a part. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia in small, functioned on
22 the basis and principle of the equality of peoples.
23 The borders between the Yugoslav republics were administrative
24 borders and not borders of nations, people, or state borders of any kind,
25 and no change in their status, which would be at the detriment of any one
Page 431
1 of the Yugoslav nations, was not able to be implemented without those
2 peoples agreeing to it, in conformity with the Yugoslav Constitution.
3 However, with the advent of the nationalists, when they came to power in
4 Croatia, overnight the Constitution was changed against the will of the
5 equal Serb people, and overnight they came second-rate citizens.
6 The secession of Croatia became a public goal. Straight away for
7 the first time and once again after World War II, violence over Serbs
8 began who precisely in Croatia during the Second World War were the
9 victims of genocide and of the puppet nationalistic arranging of the
10 independent State of Croatia.
11 The territories in which they lived were their homeland throughout
12 the centuries, far before America was colonised, for example. The first
13 armed party formations from the days of Hitler appeared at that time in
14 Croatia. The Serbs rose up and demanded that they remain in Yugoslavia,
15 and they stopped, they barred access to their territory. These events are
16 known as the log revolution because they used logs to set up these
17 barriers. The logs were placed on the roads and in the forests and woods
18 to prevent access to their territory. And as everybody can assume, a log
19 cannot be a means -- considered to be a means of aggression against
20 anyone. A log can only be an obstacle.
21 Tensions grew, but at the same time, activities were unleashed to
22 seek a political solution to avoid a conflict. The European Community of
23 the day, later to become the European Union, sent Carrington to help. I
24 think that he did indeed wish to help. He wished to find a political
25 solution and to avoid the conflict. And these efforts would have been
Page 432
1 successful had Germany not taken a radical step and prematurely recognised
2 Croatia within its administrative borders and cut across the efforts to
3 make a political solution. Croatia effected a forcible secession and the
4 conflict was unleashed.
5 In Bosnia, where tensions burgeoned, they did manage to find a
6 political solution. A plan was suggested, which Carrington's
7 representative, Portuguese diplomat Cutilliero designed and which was
8 signed by all three sides. And that was the Lisbon Agreement.
9 Unfortunately, overnight, at the suggestion of the American ambassador,
10 Warren Zimmerman, Alija Izetbegovic withdrew his signature and the
11 decision was taken on Bosnia's secession without the participation and
12 with opposition from the Serbs, that is to say, one of the three nations.
13 Therefore, this was unconstitutional and forcible.
14 The European Community, also ahead of time, prematurely recognised
15 the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ignoring the will of the Serb
16 people. And this recognition, to make cynicism even -- the cynicism even
17 greater, it took place on the 6th of April, which is the date when, in
18 World War II, Hitler attacked Yugoslavia.
19 Not even then did the Serbs start any form of violence. A
20 peaceful solution was still being sought. Unfortunately, the opposite
21 side did not refrain from violence. And that these were not just, if I
22 can put it this way, incidents or events, let me remind you, and I assume
23 that this is common knowledge to you all if you do your job properly and
24 professionally, that in the Islamic declaration, its author, Alija
25 Izetbegovic, wrote the following, and I quote: "There is no peace or
Page 433
1 life in common between the Islamic religion and non-Islamic institutions."
2 Otherwise, this thing about the role of the American
3 representative was confirmed several years later. New York Times, on the
4 29th of August, 1993, and it wrote that Zimmermann had prevailed upon
5 Izetbegovic to go against the Lisbon Agreement. A civil war began between
6 the Muslims and the Serbs, and later on between the Muslims along with
7 support from the Croats and Serb -- between the Muslims and Serbs with
8 Croatian support. Later on, the civil war began between the Muslims
9 themselves and the Croats.
10 Serbia strived for a political solution to the conflict, both in
11 Bosnia and in Croatia. In the Croatia, between the leadership of the
12 Srpska Krajina, the government in Zagreb, and in Bosnia between the three
13 nations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and their representatives. And throughout
14 that time, all that time without interruption, without exception, it
15 helped and assisted the peace process.
16 We strove to establish peace straightaway. I, myself, at the
17 beginning of the conflict when the Muslims in the centre of Sarajevo
18 started killing the Serbs, when tensions had grown, the Islamic conference
19 took place in Istanbul at the time, wrote a letter to the Islamic
20 conference in which I said, among others, that the conflicts must cease
21 immediately and that the Serbs and Muslims were brethren, were brothers,
22 that their conflicts were to the advantage of the foes and enemies of
23 Serbs and Muslims, only to them. And there are other elements and details
24 as well in that regard. And they were complaining amongst themselves that
25 it would be the Muslims who would lose most because there was enormous
Page 434
1 number of Macedonians living in -- of Muslims living in Serbia,
2 Montenegro, and Macedonia, and that it wasn't to their advantage to step
3 out of Yugoslavia but it could do nothing because it was big-power
4 politics.
5 On the other side, we strove to ensure that amongst the Serbian
6 leadership of Krajina in Croatia, that a political solution be sought.
7 Cyrus Vance, as a representative of the international community, was a
8 great help and finally did propose to the UN Secretary-General that
9 forces, UN forces, be sent. And that was when the UN Protection Zones
10 were set up, areas were set up in all territories and in Croatia with a
11 majority Serb population.
12 I supported that plan myself and, at the time, I was criticised.
13 And you can read that -- about that in the papers dating back to that day.
14 You can find various articles. For example, the then-Foreign Minister of
15 the Republika Srpska Krajina said that Cyrus Vance had bribed me, giving
16 me $120 million that I got in Cyprus for me to agree to -- and for Serbia
17 to agree to have United Nations troops come to those territories. And it
18 was logical that Vance didn't want to accept to propose to the United
19 Nations the arrival of its troops before the leadership of Croatia, the
20 leadership of Republika Srpska Krajina and the Republic of Serbia reached
21 an agreement. So that those troops were to be successful and to have
22 general support.
23 There was a lull after that. There were no major conflicts, and
24 the Contact Group that was set up worked to find a political solution.
25 However, the Croatian army, despite the presence of the United Nations,
Page 435
1 launched attacks on the Medac pocket and the crimes that followed Western
2 Slavonia. Many people were killed and nobody was held responsible or
3 accountable.
4 After that, the situation calmed down once again. They agreed to
5 open the motorway, the highway, and there were other plans. The Contact
6 Group was working, and neither Yugoslavia nor Serbia had any special role
7 to play there because they thought, they considered that is up to the
8 negotiations of the government in Zagreb and the Republika Srpska Krajina.
9 And then Croatia, with the support of America and of the West, as
10 Holbrooke incautiously wrote in his book, carried out an offensive against
11 the Republika of Srpska Krajina. They carried out a massacre right in
12 front of the eyes of the UN forces. Nobody reacted whatsoever.
13 Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were expelled from the territories where
14 they had lived for hundreds of years.
15 Just before this last war, there were over 600.000 of them in
16 Croatia. The Clinton Administration, of course, not only approved of the
17 Storm, as this attack was called, but they were directly involved. It was
18 no secret to anyone that the Clinton Administration was not only directly
19 involved but that it had, as a matter of fact, carried out this crime.
20 I mentioned to you already that while we were sitting here, I saw
21 in the Washington Times a statement made by David Keene, President of the
22 US Conservatives, that the US was involved in the Storm, because when
23 you're accusing the Serbs in Krajina here, you never say that from the
24 moment the UN arrived, the Krajina people did not attack Croatia. That is
25 to say that since the conflict was stopped and a political solution was
Page 436
1 sought, and that was at the very outset, there were no attacks by the
2 Krajina people. They were only defending their houses and their villages
3 where they had lived for centuries.
4 The opposing side says that they are going to bring in a witness
5 who is going to confirm that I did not want to give orders for the JNA to
6 withdraw until the UN forces arrived. So what? That's not true, by the
7 way, because I could not issue orders to the UN -- to the JNA anyway. But
8 I'm certainly not trying to evade the fact that I was advocating the
9 withdrawal of the JNA only when the UN troops arrived, because otherwise,
10 there would have been a massacre of Serbs as had happened in the Second
11 World War in Croatia.
12 If I'm guilty for having prevented hundreds of thousands of Serbs
13 from being slaughtered in Bosnia and Croatia, then with the greatest
14 pride, I can take upon myself this guilt. That is to say, the prevention
15 of this kind of massacre. These are also historical facts, and I think it
16 was only natural and just for me to advocate that kind of thing. And it
17 was certainly not to the detriment of the other side.
18 In this tirade that we listened to about commanding and this
19 invention command responsibility, it is senseless because it doesn't exist
20 in any body of law. It's also a major lie, a big-time lie because either
21 de jure or de facto I had no command responsibility over the Yugoslav
22 People's Army let alone through that Rump Presidency that was mentioned
23 here because even this Rump Presidency did not have a command function at
24 all because General Kadijevic said himself that he would not accept any
25 decisions made by the Rump Presidency if they did not ensure a fifth vote
Page 437
1 as well out of a total of eight members of the Presidency because, as he
2 said, that was the only thing that would be in accordance with the
3 Constitution. Apparently the only thing that did not seem to be in
4 accordance with the Constitution was to defend Yugoslavia. So this Rump
5 Presidency could not give orders to the military either. The truth is
6 that nobody defended Yugoslavia. And that is also proof prove that I was
7 not commanding the army. Was I commanding the army, Yugoslavia would have
8 survived, Yugoslavia would have been preserved.
9 The army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that managed to
10 defend itself and its country from NATO was a much smaller army. I
11 commanded it and they managed to do what they were supposed to do. They
12 defended the country and I commanded them. When the FRY was established
13 in April 1992, on the 28th of April, 1992, all members of the army who
14 were citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that is to say Serbs
15 and Montenegrins, they withdrew to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
16 Those who were citizens of other republics only naturally and logically
17 remained in their republics.
18 Of course, there were exceptions on the basis of personal choices
19 that people made. There were volunteers as well, but this was a very
20 small number of people. Of course, there were some exceptions due to
21 family ties. That was only logical as well, because only until yesterday,
22 so to speak, we had been one state.
23 Afterwards, the army was commanded by the president of the FRY.
24 It was Dobrica Cosic at the time, and the Prime Minister was Jur Milan
25 Panic. They held the army in their hands, and everybody knows full well
Page 438
1 that I certainly could not have influenced them because when they started
2 working together, their most important objective was how to replace me. I
3 did not have the kind of relationship that could have meant any kind of
4 influence over them.
5 As for carrying out my alleged orders to the leaderships of
6 Republika Srpska and Republika Srpska Krajina, only somebody who knew
7 nothing of the degree of vanity of Yugoslav politicians, notably Serb
8 politicians, and an intolerance towards any kind of interference by anyone
9 else can build this kind of construction concerning a plan or an
10 organisation.
11 You fabricated thousands of pamphlets. Had you only looked into
12 the newspapers from those times, you would have seen what the relationship
13 between the leadership of Serbia headed by me and the leadership of
14 Republika Srpska was like and you would have read about the bad
15 accusations that were levelled against me. Not only accusations, insults
16 as well. This was a paradox that anybody could see. We were helping the
17 Serb people on the other side of the Drina River so that they could
18 survive, but we had poor relations with the leaderships. We were
19 leftists, they were rightists. The right opposition in Serbia gave them
20 support, and they used this for their own rhetoric against me.
21 It didn't really matter to me because the people knew very well
22 that I was working in their interest. At any rate, links between their
23 leadership and the Republika Srpska and that of Serbia, calling that an
24 organisation actually is one of the most nonsensical things that could
25 have been said here. And there is so much proof of the opposite. Just
Page 439
1 look at Dayton and the bitter accusations levelled against me after the
2 Dayton Accords were reached.
3 As for Karadzic's statement that you keep quoting, that the Serbs
4 do not accept that they be represented by Alija Izetbegovic in front of
5 the international community, that was an act of despair and justified fear
6 that he would take upon obligations for them because the representatives
7 did not want to take this into account in negotiations. And I read a
8 sentence to you a few minutes ago from the Islamic declaration about the
9 impossibility of co-existence with non-Islamic institutions, about the
10 position of Alija Izetbegovic. And then ask yourselves whether it was
11 possible for the Serbs, the Serb people, the Serb representatives to
12 accept that Alija Izetbegovic should represent them, especially after the
13 withdrawal of his signature from the Lisbon Agreement at the suggestion of
14 Zimmermann. After all, Zimmermann himself said that he had made a mistake
15 in suggesting this to Izetbegovic because, in this way, the war would have
16 been avoided.
17 In Geneva, in the presence of Owen and Stoltenberg, under those
18 circumstances when they did not involve the representatives of the peoples
19 of Bosnia-Herzegovina, they just kept Alija Izetbegovic as if he were
20 representing Serbs and Muslims and Croats. When they invited Tudjman and
21 me, later on Izetbegovic as well, to discuss a solution together, I had a
22 lot of trouble convincing Izetbegovic, and not only after first meeting,
23 not only after the first attempt, that they start negotiation amongst the
24 three parties, three sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina, namely, he, Karadzic,
25 and Boban. Mate Boban at that time was the leader of Bosnian Croats, and
Page 440
1 Karadzic the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Izetbegovic the leader of
2 the Bosnian Muslims. In no way was he the representative of all of
3 Bosnia-Herzegovina. I thought that they had to resolve the problem of all
4 the constituent peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina. I thought that the only
5 solution that would be viable would be a formula that would defend, on a
6 footing of equality, the interests of all three peoples. After all,
7 Dayton succeeded on the basis of that formula.
8 That is also why this indictment is so malicious and anti-Serb
9 because peace was concluded on the basis of a formula of an equality of
10 rights and equal regard for the interests of all three peoples, not on the
11 basis of genocide. Had this been true, that would have meant that
12 Republika Srpska had been created on the basis of genocide. And the truth
13 is but one.
14 In the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there was cruelty and
15 there was suffering on all three sides. The guilt is primarily to be
16 borne by those who carried out forcible secession and who started the
17 violence. And also the guilt should be borne by the strategists of this
18 violence outside Yugoslavia. After all, Tudjman said in Geneva in front
19 of Owen and Stoltenberg that such atrocities had never been registered
20 like the atrocities committed by the Muslims against the Croats in Bosnia
21 during their mutual conflict.
22 Owen and Stoltenberg supported efforts made to bring all three
23 sides to the negotiating table - Izetbegovic, Karadzic, and Boban - and
24 this made it possible for the representatives of all three parties to
25 negotiate.
Page 441
1 Tudjman personally never criticised me, saying that I was involved
2 in supporting the Serbs in Croatia. We were in Geneva in order to help
3 the three sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina reach peace. And he also respected
4 our efforts aimed at peace and also opening a dialogue between Krajina and
5 Zagreb, also the highway. And this had just begun.
6 Tudjman also knew of my position towards the offer made by the
7 Muslim side. On their behalf, Adil Zulfikarpasic came to Belgrade to
8 convey this to me. He was Izetbegovic's mentor and sponsor. He is a
9 businessman from Zurich. This was a proposal that the Serbs and Muslims
10 in Bosnia-Herzegovina join forces against the Croats, saying that there
11 weren't even 14 per cent of Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina and it was not
12 for them to make any decisions regarding Bosnia-Herzegovina. My answer
13 was that two peoples should certainly not unite against a third.
14 Relations between the Serbs and Croats are of great importance for
15 general relations in the Balkans and in the future I can see these
16 relations only as relations of cooperation and friendship.
17 Mate Granic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, also knows this.
18 Not from me. He knew about that from Tudjman. And I'm sure that he would
19 have to be in a position to say this in public if his new President allows
20 him to do so. This well-known breaker-up of the former Yugoslavia, Stipe
21 Mesic.
22 Also what you said about Dubrovnik is sheer nonsense. In spite of
23 the pompous presentation here of various photographs and footage. As that
24 was going on, we were precisely in The Hague, Tudjman and I, with
25 Carrington. I said publicly that Dubrovnik is a Croatian town. The
Page 442
1 bombing of Dubrovnik is an insane crime. Serbia did not have anything to
2 do with that, nor could it have had anything to do with it. Nothing
3 whatsoever with the shelling and bombing of Dubrovnik.
4 As for the Vance-Owen Plan, along with my efforts and the efforts
5 made by the Greek Prime Minister, Mitzotakis, Karadzic did sign this in
6 Athens at this conference on the 1st of May, 1993. The conference went on
7 for a few days. Then we went together to attend the meeting of the
8 Assembly of Republika Srpska in Pale. Mitzotakis, Cosic, the
9 then-President of FRY, and I. And I think that it is malicious and
10 unprofessional, I should say, to make quotations from my speeches. I held
11 two speeches, and I did my very best to have this plan accepted.
12 So then, just to take out one little excerpt that the Serbs
13 attained their objective and then you stop altogether. I said that the
14 objective in which we support them is the objective for them to be free
15 and equal where they live and that that is being accomplished by that
16 plan. This plan, since it makes it possible for them to live in freedom
17 and on a footing of equality within Bosnia-Herzegovina, should be signed.
18 And we brought up many other arguments in favour as well. That is to say,
19 that they should be free and equal where they live and that that is
20 accomplished by that plan. And that we do not support anybody's sick
21 ambitions.
22 When they rejected the plan, we brought pressure to bear. We
23 adopted a painful measure, painful for us and the people. As opposed to
24 their leadership, we supported the people and we carried out a blockade on
25 the Drina River. We heard stories here that this was not a blockade at
Page 443
1 all. That is a sheer lie. We accepted the International Mission of
2 Monitors led by General Bo Pelnas of Sweden. There is not a single report
3 that he sent to the United Nations or with which he acquainted the
4 Yugoslav government or the Government of Serbia in which one can find
5 proof of this totally arbitrary statement here that this was not a
6 blockade, it was just some kind of form.
7 What more could you expect us to do? We even accepted the
8 presence of these monitors there. And then, of course, the opposition
9 from Serbia raced to Pale in order to give support to them, and they were
10 roasting meat together with the leadership of Republika Srpska, and they
11 were levelling the most terrible kind of criticism against me, and they
12 were supporting them in rejecting the Vance-Owen Plan.
13 And it is learning from this experience that with the enormous
14 efforts in Athens, an agreement was signed and then destroyed at Pale.
15 When a new chance prior to Dayton came up, I insisted on having a solution
16 which would eliminate the possibility of having a repeated breakdown of a
17 peace plan, and I demanded that a decision be signed that the delegation
18 was made up of three representatives of Yugoslavia and three
19 representatives of Republika Srpska. From Yugoslavia, there would be two
20 representatives of the republics - myself and the President of Montenegro,
21 Bulatovic, and Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia - and from Republika Srpska
22 also three representatives, but it also stated that if there was a
23 division of votes in that delegation, I would have the decisive vote or,
24 rather, the head of the delegation would have the decisive vote, and that
25 wasn't me. And that agreement was signed. It was signed by the patriarch
Page 444
1 of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Mr. Pavle, as well. His worship Mr.
2 Pavle.
3 I took all criticisms upon myself. For all the weaknesses that
4 would -- that might exist and that the Dayton Agreement might be
5 criticised, because we saw that they did not have the strength to conclude
6 a peace because of the promises they had given through their own
7 ambitions. And I said that anything they did not like, I would accept to
8 take the blame for, but my only concern was that peace prevail. And even
9 today I think that the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton-Paris Agreement on
10 Peace was a good one and that it should be respected and not to exert
11 pressure over it as is done by the Austrian, the occupier, to the
12 detriment of all three nations, and especially and first and foremost to
13 the detriment of the Serbs and partially to the detriment of the Croats as
14 well.
15 And it is within this context that I should like to say that it is
16 quite out of place to quote the ideas of Biljana Plavsic, for example,
17 especially in the context of what Serbia did and my own role, because not
18 to ascribe it to this side and party, because everything was the reverse,
19 and it is her ideas, precisely her ideas, the ones that you quoted, that
20 in Athens during the Vance-Owen Plan negotiations, in a television
21 interview which was broadcast publicly - of course, that was not the only
22 subject that was discussed - but the director of the television was asked
23 to comment the ideas that you here quoted against me because they are
24 truly unacceptable for any civilised human being.
25 Now, how I comment those ideas, I have already said the
Page 445
1 protagonists of those ideas should be in a mental asylum. She did not
2 speak to me for many years after that and now you are ascribing her ideas
3 to me. That is nonsensical, it's nonsense and everybody in Serbia knows
4 it's nonsense.
5 And now I ask myself how any serious-minded person can take
6 accusations or indictments, serious ones of this kind, and base them on
7 anybody's statement where it was said that they were on good terms with me
8 and that I said such-and-such a thing. And that -- what we say is tongues
9 wagging. It's hearsay, just rumours, and it's not serious, you can't use
10 it in any official capacity. And on many occasions I said that nobody is
11 authorised to present his views through me. I am the only person to
12 present my own views, and I do so myself and publicly.
13 So there were a series of nonsensical things bandied about here,
14 and untruths, and everything about Bosnia-Herzegovina is a pure lie
15 because I was engaged in peace there, not war. Serbia, throughout that
16 time, waged a policy of peace. We wanted to save as many lives as
17 possible, both Serb lives and Croat lives and Muslim lives. And your own
18 lives, gentlemen from the international community. How many hostages did
19 I save for you from Bosnia? How many pilots did I save? How many times
20 did Chirac call me up and ask me to help him find those people and thanked
21 me again and again when we succeeded in finding their men and they were
22 alive and well. Not to mention many of the other efforts that were
23 successful, not only with respect to peace but in order -- also in terms
24 of saving human lives
25 Srebrenica. I heard about Srebrenica from Carl Bildt. And
Page 446
1 Karadzic, whom I rang up on the phone immediately afterwards to asked what
2 had happened, he swore he knew nothing about it. On the contrary, he said
3 he had ordered that the western part be protected, which was under
4 jeopardy, and that he knew nothing about the whole thing. Now, whether he
5 did or didn't, I don't want to enter into that, but what I am saying, what
6 I am telling you now is a fact. And he and Krajisnik said to me quite
7 certainly that in the Republika Srpska there were no camps, there were
8 just centres for prisoners of war where they were kept for a short space
9 of time because they were being exchanged on the basis of one for all on
10 all sides when the numbers mounted up.
11 Immediately after Srebrenica, or following those days, I saved a
12 whole Muslim brigade; 840 people. I saved them from being destroyed
13 because I approved this. They sent an emissary, pleading for their lives,
14 and I let them swim across the Drina River and avoid this total
15 annihilation. I put them in a police camp on Mount Tara for them to
16 recuperate and they were visited by the entire Diplomatic Corps. After,
17 via the Red Cross, I sent them on to Hungary. I didn't accept giving them
18 up to any side in Bosnia. I didn't do that. I said they are under my
19 protection, they have come to my territory, we are not a warring party,
20 we're not a warring side, we're not going to hand them over to anyone.
21 We're not going to hand them over to you to exchange them or Izetbegovic
22 to send them back into the army because I had no proof that they were
23 volunteers in the army. They can go through the Red Cross to Hungary, a
24 neutral country, and then each individual will be able to decide whether
25 they're going to go and stay with their relatives in America, Australia,
Page 447
1 or whether they'll go back to the army in Bosnia, and so on and so forth.
2 So Serbia was not a warring party, either in Bosnia or in Croatia.
3 And that in fact enabled us to help the peace process, to stop the
4 fratricidal war, the war between brothers, between brethren, although the
5 brothers and brethren had gone a little mad. So everything we have heard
6 here is topsy-turvy. It is absurd. The truth has been reversed and
7 semi-truths are worse than lies very often.
8 Let me tell you this: We did have our police in Eastern
9 Slavonia. Yes we did. But at the time, it was peace, it was peacetime
10 right up until the end because Eastern Slavonia, the situation there was
11 solved on the basis of agreement. The authorities in Eastern Slavonia and
12 the Croatian government. But policemen were across the borders
13 exclusively in order to assist in police affairs, in the policing of the
14 area because of all the conflicts and situations that existed there.
15 They had -- there was crime, crime was rampant, and they needed assistance
16 to suppress crime, and they were there to assist in that and to prevent
17 different trafficking and the quest for criminals from Serbia who found it
18 easiest to escape across the Danube. And it is a shame and a great pity
19 that things like that are being abused.
20 We also had a police unit, following my orders, on the territory
21 of Republika Srpska, too, in the Strpce railway station. And I sent them
22 there after the crime that took place where a criminal group stopped a
23 train on the Belgrade to Bar railway line, and it is only -- it enters
24 into Bosnian territory only for nine kilometres and it is a main railway
25 line in Yugoslavia. And at that Strpce station, the train doesn't stop at
Page 448
1 all because it is just a small face, a by-station so the train usually
2 runs right through it. That was the project, the Belgrade-Bar railway.
3 But 17 Muslims were taken from Prijepolje, from that train, and
4 they were killed. And later on, that was established. At first, we
5 didn't know who they were or where they were; but that was done
6 intentionally. And that is why I asked an investigation to be launched in
7 Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, and when they came up with no
8 results, I sent our own policemen there to find the people who had thought
9 to be the perpetrators. Some were arrested and brought to the prison in
10 Belgrade but the courts released them later on because we were unable to
11 come up with proof of their guilt. So that was the response.
12 And to see that this was not repeated, I sent a unit there to
13 protect that particular railway station, although it was not on our own
14 territory, to avoid having another train stopped and other people
15 slaughtered. And I told Stoltenberg that I have, across that border, but
16 just across the border on the territory of Republika Srpska, this group of
17 policemen because I did not trust their own people that they would be able
18 to protect the station properly.
19 So what do you want to make of that? I know that this was a way
20 to transport the conflict to Serbia. And I went to Prijepolje on that
21 very day because the people, the victims were from Prijepolje. Prijepolje
22 is a small town in Serbia. 50 per cent are Serbs and 50 per cent are
23 Muslims of their population and they live in a sentiment of co-existence.
24 They live together. There was no persecutions for all those ten years.
25 During the war in Croatia, no Croat was expelled from Serbia, or Bosnian
Page 449
1 during the Bosnian war. Fifty thousand registered Muslim refugees came to
2 take refuge in Serbia, and here you are speaking, turning the tables,
3 turning everything upside down, speaking untruths and lies
4 It is below my dignity to comment on the various insinuations that
5 have been made here. You are hitting below the belt. You started by
6 showing my speech, me making my speech in Kosovo Polje and saying that I
7 used the popularity - that's how you explained it - that I gained there
8 later to become the party leader myself, where it says on the footage
9 that it was in April 1987.
10 And I was the head of the party, I became the head of the party
11 one year earlier, before that, in May 1986. And the worst thing about all
12 this is that you have it all. You have all this data and information in
13 your documents. And where you write my biography, you ought to have these
14 facts and figures, but you omitted to read them carefully. And for the
15 event in Kosovo Polje, where I did have popular support, of course, you
16 say that I made use of that to become the party head whereas I had already
17 become party head one year prior to that. I was already head of the
18 party.
19 And that's what your whole indictment is like. Everything points
20 to the fact that it is a false indictment, that the Prosecutors are
21 grasping at straws because they have nothing but some psychoanalytical,
22 layman's assertions, and they are attempting to depict me as somebody able
23 to hypnotise people into going to commit crimes. You are drawing up some
24 schematics and organisations that they have conjured up yourself and this
25 goes beyond the realm of shunned literature and trash, and you have this
Page 450
1 false indictment and these absurd two indictments for Bosnia and Croatia,
2 which are unfounded, to cover up everything and to wrap it up in some kind
3 of new wrappings and lies and fabrications, whereas we, of course we
4 helped our nation, our peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and we would be
5 amiss had we -- and remiss had we not done so when the people were
6 suffering. We helped them honourably to survive and to be free and equal
7 and not to seize anything from anybody.
8 And you seem to think it's fine for the Germans to help Croatia,
9 for the Americans to perform -- help in ethnic cleansing and the Storm and
10 the Mujahedins and those who cut heads off with sabres and held two Serbs
11 heads in their hands, be helped by the Muslims. So the Germans are
12 helping the Croats. And those from Saudi Arabia, hundreds of thousands
13 of kilometres away, helped the Muslims. The only things you don't find
14 logical is for the Serbs to help the Serbs, their fellow Serbs.
15 Now, is there any logic in any of this or any moral explanation
16 whatsoever? Neither in Croatia or in Bosnia did the Serbs begin war.
17 Violence was effected over them. And I'm now going to read out to you
18 just several quotations by prominent world intellectuals, and their names
19 are familiar to any educated person throughout the globe. They are
20 household names to educated people.
21 Edmond Paris of France, 1961: "Studying the balance sheet of
22 crimes, we have calculated that the Pavlovic government succeeded in
23 killing approximately 750.000 Orthodox Serbs and deport 300.000 of them.
24 Also killed were 60.000 Jews, and 26.000 Romanies. And about 240.000 Serb
25 Orthodox were converted to the Catholic faith and most of them were in the
Page 451
1 Bishopcy of His Worship Stepinac. So that was Edmond Paris of France
2 speaking
3 Charles Krauthammer, of America, says the following, August 1995:
4 "This week in a blitzkrieg which lasted only four days, the Croatian army
5 ethnically cleansed Krajina of 150.000 Serbs and forced them to flee for
6 their lives towards Bosnia and Serbia."
7 I hope that the interpreters are keeping up.
8 "Why is there no certain over the fall of Krajina, a region which
9 the Serbs settled 500 years ago, settled in 500 years ago, far before we
10 settled in North America? It is true they created a rebellion state in
11 Croatia. It is true that when Croatia, in 1991, separated from
12 Yugoslavia, they speeded up the war for independence within Croatia. But
13 they had good reason to enter the war. They did not wish to live under
14 the authority of people who, not so long ago, massacred their parents.
15 The Croatian state against whom they rose up from its inception in 1991
16 took over almost the same symbols - the same coat of arms and money of the
17 first Nazi puppet Croatian state dating back to World War II - according
18 to the Nuremberg laws, of a genocidal state with concentration camps and a
19 monstrous number of ethnic persecutions and the killing of hundreds of
20 thousands of Serbs."
21 Let me interrupt that quotation there. That was Charles
22 Krauthammer. For the Orthodox Christmas of that war year, in the camp of
23 Jasenovac, the Ustasha Nazis competed to see who could kill more Serbs in
24 the space of one day and one was victorious who managed to slaughter 1.300
25 Serbs on one single day. That is a historical fact as well.
Page 452
1 Let me continue with his quotation:
2 "Today's Bosnia was part of that Nazi state which explains why
3 the Bosnian Serbs also called for independence. The Serbs from Krajina
4 have every reason to be afraid of coming under Croatian power and
5 authority again. This week, their fears arose again. The Croats shelled
6 Serb villages before the army launched an attack, and in that way, they
7 forced the population to flee report the United Nations observers in
8 Croatia. They, too, were fired at."
9 Where are protests now?
10 Now, what does Karlo Falconi of Italy say?
11 "The Ustashas certainly exceeded the Germans in their religious
12 racism. When they hit against the Serbs, it was not only hitting against
13 the enemy but also at someone who had betrayed the truth faith. Only in
14 Croatia half a million people were exterminated primarily because of their
15 religion rather than their race. Only in Croatia were people forcibly
16 converted from the Orthodox to the Catholic faith. In history, there is
17 not a precedent for the degree of violence that was carried out in these
18 operations. All of this really does not work in favour of the silence
19 that was kept by Pope Pious the 12th."
20 Now, what does Rajko Dolecek say in Czechoslovakia in 1993?
21 "The concentration camps in Croatia were within Jasenovac.
22 During the war, about 700.000 people were killed there, mostly by having
23 their throats slit and by having their heads broken open by hammers and
24 sledgehammers. Officers described these atrocities, and they themselves
25 were shocked by it. However, their rulers made it possible for them to
Page 453
1 carry out these insane atrocities and killings. Usually it is said that
2 the Holocaust in Croatia involved 800.000 Serb lives. In the period from
3 August 1941 until August 1942, 356.000 Serbs were killed in Croatia.
4 Jacques Merlinot of France:
5 "On the basis of the figures provided by Edmond Paris, almost
6 200.000 people were killed in Jasenovac in 1941 and 1942. Only in 1942,
7 in Jasenovac, there were 24.000 children, 12.000 of which were killed.
8 Masses of Jewish children were cremated in a furnace that was turned into
9 a crematorium. And everybody knows that the Catholic church was an
10 accomplice in this crime. The high clergy of the Catholic church in
11 Croatia closely collaborated with the Nazis, headed by Archbishop Stepinac
12 of Zagreb, who supported the establishment of this new state and blessed
13 Ante Pavelic. This exists in the collective memory of the Serbs." This
14 is Jacques Merlinot of France saying this.
15 What does Philip Jenkins say from America in 1995?
16 "During the next three years, the Croats massacred Serbs and Jews
17 in such a terrible way that this even made the German officers feel awful.
18 Serbs, just like Jews, lived to see the end of the war, promising
19 themselves that they would never allow the enemy to exterminate them.
20 This can interpret the fact why, over the past four years, the Serbs had
21 to face a situation when their worst expectations came true, when the
22 massacres from 40 years ago could have happened again. There should be no
23 surprise that the Serbs took up arms rather than wait for concentration
24 camps again.
25 "And what about Bosnia? There as also historical legacy there.
Page 454
1 One of the strangest facts in the Second World War pertained to the fact
2 that many Bosnian Muslims were recruited for the special units of the
3 German SS forces. However, the present-day developments are far more
4 important for the Serbs as well"
5 I'm going to skip Anita Singh. It is important but it is long and
6 I'm looking at the clock. I'm just going to quote her:
7 "Again the Serbs were victims in Tudjman's Croatia, because there
8 is a conflict raging there so cruel and so bestial that this is not really
9 news in Europe but Europe thought that this kind of thing had been
10 overcome. Jasenovac seeks an answer. Is Fascism really dead?"
11 And what does Louis Delmas of France say in 1994?
12 "Actually, there was no Serb aggression either in Croatia or in
13 Bosnia. There was no attack from the outside. What happened is fully
14 within the feeling of affiliation. This was a rebellion of the domestic
15 population that, through games of diplomacy, came to be included in new
16 states where they did not recognise themselves. That is what happened in
17 Croatia and Bosnia. There were no attacks by external attackers. The
18 republics of Krajina and Pale were therefore established. Is it difficult
19 to understand that genocide cannot be forgotten from one generation to the
20 other? The victims bear this in their blood. Few European Jews can say
21 that they did not have any relatives died in the deportations. There are
22 very few Serbs likewise, from the western part of Yugoslavia, that can say
23 that they did not have any of their relatives slaughtered by the Ustashas.
24 And if we add to this the historical exploitation of four centuries of
25 Ottoman occupation, can one be surprised over the vehemence of their
Page 455
1 response over the secession of a republic which takes as its coat of arms
2 Pavlovic's emblem, Pavlovic's currency.
3 Mile Budak, one of the greatest war criminals and exterminators of
4 Serbs had many streets named after him. Now they do not hide their
5 anti-Serb feelings, and by the way, they don't hide anti-semitic feelings
6 in their books either." This is what Peter Handke wrote in 1996.
7 How can I forget the sentence from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
8 full of hatred concerning what is going on in Eastern Slavonia, according
9 to which Serbs in Croatia, who are Yugoslav citizens until now equal to
10 their Croatian compatriots, now according to the constitution of the new
11 Republic of Croatia that was carved up against their will become
12 second-rate citizens. They are simply annexed to the Croatian state, not
13 only the Croatian administration.
14 These 600.000 Serbs now, according to the degree of the German
15 journalist, and now he is quoting the journalist, "They must most
16 obediently, most humbly feel as a national minority now. All right.
17 We're acting on orders. There today onwards, we agree that we are going
18 to feel like a minority in our own country, and therefore, we agree that
19 your Croatian Constitution is going to treat us that way."
20 So would that be a way out if they were to say that? Who was the
21 first aggressor? What did this mean setting up a state that gave
22 supremacy to one people over another in an area where since times
23 immemorial people lived together? And this kind of development really had
24 to hit them hard, and it had to bring back to mind the persecutions from
25 Hitler's times. So who was the aggressor?
Page 456
1 What did Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn write?
2 "May heaven forbid us from having a Yugoslav option. However,
3 there is a reason for their misfortune. False borders were set up. Serbs
4 were expelled from the historical region of Kosovo and Albanians were
5 brought there. And within 24 hours, the new states were recognised by the
6 power-loving West, not paying any heed to the fact that the present
7 borders were untenable.
8 And finally Patrick Bariot, and Eva Crepin in 1995:
9 "As a French citizen, I would like to refresh your memories of
10 our French history, the times when the bells of Notre Dame proclaimed to
11 France and Christiandom the tragic defeat of the Serbian Prince Lazar."
12 This is actually a reference to Gazimestan.
13 The memory of Victor Hugo, who on the 29th of August, 1876, said
14 in horror, "They are killing a people. When is the martyrdom of this
15 small, heroic people going to end?" This is an end of Hugo's quotation.
16 Did he perhaps have a premonition that this martyrdom would not
17 end in 1995?
18 As a citizen of Europe I put forward the following question: Are
19 we going to allow a people to be destroyed, a people who have been
20 shedding their blood for 600 years for the freedom and well-being of
21 Europe?
22 So on the 23rd of December, 1991, Germany formally recognised the
23 sovereignty and independence of Croatia, but the decision became effective
24 on the 15th of January, 1992. That is how the armed conflict, the civil
25 war, started in Croatia. This is unequivocally proven by the statements
Page 457
1 made by Tudjman and Mesic, that they had opted for this option. Tudjman,
2 President of Croatia; Mesic, President of Yugoslavia. And when he broke
3 it up, then he was elected speaker of the Croatian parliament.
4 Tudjman speaking in public, on the square of Ban Jelacic, on the
5 24th of May, 1992, in his message to the nation said, and I quote: "There
6 would not have been a war had Croatia not wanted it, but it was our
7 assessment that only through war can we win Croatia's independence. That
8 is why we pursued a policy of negotiations. But behind these negotiations
9 we established our armed units."
10 Of course Tudjman the Croatian government could have won the
11 independence of Croatia without war, but without war they could not have
12 killed Serbs and expelled 600.000 Serbs from Croatia. That shows the
13 nature of this war, the war they are still trying to call the liberation
14 war and the homeland war there. That is the way the unfortunate people
15 who fought it feel, but this is certainly not corroborated by the
16 objectives that are shown through historical facts.
17 And on the 5th of December, 1991, Stjepan Mesic, having thanked
18 the Assembly of Croatia, the Parliament of Croatia for the confidence
19 vested in him, he says: "I think that I have carried out my task. There
20 is no more Yugoslavia." Everybody saw that. He was President of the
21 Presidency of Yugoslavia, who took a solemn oath that he would preserve
22 the integrity of Yugoslavia and its constitutional order. He comes to
23 Croatia to say that he had carried out his task, that Yugoslavia was no
24 more.
25 Many world statesmen, scholars, and even international
Page 458
1 institutions voiced their opinions in this regard. James Baker, the
2 Secretary of State on the 13th of January, 1995, said before the
3 Congress -- I'm quoting Baker now:
4 "It is a fact that Croatia and Slovenia unilaterally declared
5 their independence in spite of our warnings. They used force and this
6 caused a civil war." End of quotation.
7 He particularly highlighted that the position of the United
8 States was to preserve the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and that
9 this was advocated by 32 members of the CSC, nowadays the OSCE.
10 I quote him again:
11 "Everybody supported this. This was the right kind of policy and
12 it is a very bad thing that we did not stick to that policy longer than we
13 did." End of quotation.
14 As far as back as 1989, he cautioned that if there were to be a
15 unilateral secession, this would lead to the use of force. Unfortunately,
16 at the time when Baker, in 1995, spoke about this, he was no longer
17 Secretary of State. The Democrats came to power, as well as lobbying, and
18 the money that accompanies lobbying.
19 Again claims are being made, and we heard about this here,
20 throughout these seven months that the Serbs and even Serbia started the
21 civil war. And facts, all of them, unequivocally speak to the contrary.
22 The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was brought to an end by the Dayton
23 Accords. The former Yugoslavia was represented through the
24 representatives of Croatia, Yugoslavia -- the Federal Republic of
25 Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the international community was
Page 459
1 represented by the host country but also all the contact group members
2 were represented as well. With the highest degree of responsibility, I
3 say that, as far as the establishment of these two entities is concerned,
4 where a war had been raging until then, perhaps the most important role
5 that was played was the role of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and
6 that is what I had been striving for.
7 Other participants in the Dayton negotiations shared this feeling,
8 and they said this publicly as well. This was also the view of the host
9 country, the United States of America. Nowadays, it is not only that this
10 support is being forgotten, this support that I had enjoyed in pursuing
11 this policy that was aimed at peace, but all the efforts made by the
12 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia and I personally are being
13 neglected, although this was crucial, I should say. Also the results of
14 these efforts are being overlooked.
15 Responsibility for the war is being sought on that side that had
16 advocated peace. Before the eyes of the entire world, there is an
17 inversion. The instigators of war are accusing the protagonists of peace
18 for war, and thanks to their powerful international positions, they are
19 playing the roles of both Prosecutor and Judge. As for me personally,
20 they are accusing me and condemning me in advance precisely of their own
21 warmongering policies and the consequences of these policies that they had
22 been pursuing themselves and that I had opposed to the best of my ability
23 by advocating peace.
24 This simple truth can be overlooked nowadays only by those who
25 have the interest not to see this. And of course, those who are bombed by
Page 460
1 lies and who are exposed to such media manipulations that they have
2 accepted lies as the truth and the other way around. Of course, this is
3 not the first time in history that truth and justice are losers, but it is
4 the first time in history that the war against truth and justice is being
5 waged by a new weapon and that is the mass media. In the struggle against
6 truth and justice, this weapon is more lethal than all of those that were
7 used until now. And if this weapon is being used by the most powerful
8 country in the world and also the bloc of the most powerful countries in
9 the world, then of course their opponents are condemned to being on the
10 losing side. And journalists, if they do not support truth and justice,
11 are very often paid for what they do and in this way they also become
12 killers and mercenaries.
13 The decision to establish the International Tribunal for the
14 former Yugoslavia is illegal because the Security Council does not have
15 the right to do this. It is a very unusual Tribunal. It was established
16 for wars that were being waged on the territory of the former Yugoslavia ,
17 as if this were the only war waged at all, or at least in this point in
18 time.
19 Only, in this point in time, in the second half of the twentieth
20 century, hundreds of smaller local wars were waged and international
21 tribunals were not established for them. And indeed why not? Why was the
22 first tribunal of this nature formed because of the conflicts on the
23 territory of the former Yugoslavia? Why? Was this resistance to those
24 who had instigated the war become so great and so visible? Was it because
25 external involvement in this Yugoslav war was so obvious? Or perhaps
Page 461
1 because of those who were involved perhaps they thought the results
2 achieved were not sufficient. I think it is for all these reasons.
3 It was so obvious that there was opposition to those who
4 instigated and caused the war and also that there was such a great degree
5 of external involvement. But it is also because the results they achieved
6 were not successful. That is why the participants in the war in the
7 former Yugoslavia are being tried as if they were the only participants in
8 the only war in the world.
9 I'm not questioning the decision to bring to justice those who
10 killed, slaughtered children, old people, various other victims. However,
11 perpetrators are being sought even amongst those who had worked for peace,
12 as in this case. I claim that this is because the inspirers of war were
13 not happy with the outcome of the war and not happy with the resistance
14 that was put forth. They thought it would be negligible. And if it were
15 to be more than negligible, then its protagonists were to be killed and
16 arrested.
17 The formation and survival of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
18 is part of that resistance to the -- those who inspired the disintegration
19 of the former Yugoslavia, war within it, the suffering of millions of
20 Yugoslav citizens. That is why, immediately after the conflict in
21 Bosnia-Herzegovina, when it came to a close, that tensions were raised in
22 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, following the same principles upon
23 which these tensions started in the former Yugoslavia and began to be
24 created and to function in this latest one.
25 We are talking about inciting national hatred and intolerance.
Page 462
1 And I think that I have clearly stated and presented before you the
2 historical facts and the background upon which the crime against
3 Yugoslavia was committed. And when we're talking about Kosovo, when it
4 comes to the question of Kosovo, the state organs acted in similar fashion
5 to the conduct that was seen by the state organs in other European but all
6 other countries, not only in our times, in our day and age, but in our
7 civilisation in general. This reaction on the part of Yugoslav state
8 organs was in keeping with the Yugoslav Constitution and in keeping with
9 similar experience or identical experiences of other states. It was
10 treated by the Western governments as violence over the innocent Albanian
11 population in Kosovo, and, therefore, as a cause for the intervention of
12 the international community to protect that innocent Albanian population.
13 And that is what happened. This intervention over a criminal
14 state that allegedly jeopardised the Albanian population on part of this
15 territory came in the form of the NATO pact aggression in a way which
16 introduced into the life of our planet a new form of warfare based on the
17 use of the latest technological achievements of our civilisation, and this
18 aggression resulted in enormous human casualties.
19 I saw on television that the CNN said that they were not showing
20 Milosevic's photographs because they are too gruesome for the public.
21 That was their official explanation. They don't want their public to see
22 their crimes, and thereby they only confirm that they are in the service
23 of crimes and in leading their own public astray. They are afraid of
24 having their own public seeking for the responsibility of their own
25 culprits. They don't know how to explain to their own public that
Page 463
1 allegedly they protected Albanians by bombing maternity wards in Belgrade
2 or that they were allegedly protecting the Albanians when they bombed a
3 convoy of Albanians in Kosovo and Kosovo towns and villages.
4 And the media that are not informing about this are finding it
5 difficult to take -- are finding greater links with bin Laden's terrorists
6 and the drug trafficking Mafia and links to their money. On the 16th of
7 February, therefore, that is to say a few days ago, the Daily Telegraph
8 writes: "Extremist Albanians who want to create new conflicts in the
9 south of the Balkans are spending millions of pounds that they earned
10 through the sale of Afghanistan heroin --" once again, Afghanistan is
11 mentioned -- "on the European market for the procurement of weapons."
12 The Daily Telegram, referring to reports of the Vienna UN
13 headquarters for drugs control, writes that in Austria, Germany and
14 Switzerland, there is more and more heroin coming in from the enormous
15 stockpiles that exist in Afghanistan and where amassed by Al Qaeda and the
16 Taliban. And where does the KLA get its heroin from? What do you think?
17 The Albanian drug traffickers are endeavouring to take control over the
18 European heroin market, which is worth several billion pounds per annum,
19 and I quote the Daily Telegraph.
20 Rebels of the KLA in Macedonia are part of a network controlled by
21 criminal organisations of these three countries but they also exist in
22 other countries as well claim the Western intelligence reports from
23 Kosovo. In Macedonia and Switzerland, they say that the Albanian bands
24 last year used part of that money that they earned through the sale of
25 Afghanistan heroin for the procurement of weapons for Albanian insurgents
Page 464
1 in Macedonia who, last autumn, handed in their weapons to NATO. This is
2 becoming evermore evident but the CNN is escaping the truth. And it is
3 logically in line with the fact that three Albanians have been convicted
4 of terrorism and Sulejman Selimi, Kadar, and Usomi [phoen] Ustaku, they
5 are the names from the KLA. They were amnestied, pardoned and received
6 high ranks in the new SS Skanderbeg division which is now called the
7 Kosovo Protection Corps.
8 Now, why should CNN report on all this and disturb the citizens of
9 America because they are going to fare the same way they did on the 11th
10 of September. Just as nothing is said about how many Italian soldiers
11 fell sick and died because of the depleted uranium that was thrown on
12 Serbian Kosovo. And this was confirmed by an observer in Rome. It was
13 confirmed three years later because the army would not provide facts and
14 figures. The situation in other armies is even worse. But this is
15 something that is being kept from the citizens because it jeopardises the
16 interests and profits of those who are amassing riches on the basis of
17 that. They have to explain to their soldiers that there are patriotic
18 reasons for them to travel far from their country to kill other people's
19 children, and even go to other countries that have never done anything to
20 harm them and who were always -- who were even their allies in both the
21 World Wars and that they are doing this for patriotic reasons.
22 They do not want to inform on the fact that an Albanian held in
23 prison because on the 15th of February, 2001, along the Podujevo-Pristina
24 road by the Livadice village, he blew up a busload of Serbs, full of Serbs
25 that were escorting KFOR. Many people were killed and injured. But this
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1 man has been released from prison.
2 I hope that world public opinion will be able to put the parts of
3 this jigsaw puzzle together, including the part of this Tribunal.
4 As for Yugoslavia, violence is still being waged against it and
5 all means are being resorted to.
6 JUDGE MAY: Yes. It's now 11.00. That would be a convenient
7 moment. We'll adjourn for half an hour. Half past eleven.
8 --- Recess taken at 11.00 a.m.
9 --- On resuming at 11.30 a.m.
10 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As nobody is quoting the UN
12 Secretary-General reports dating back to 1992, for example, which confirm
13 what I've been saying, I'm going to just read out a brief quotation. I
14 have to make good use of my time, save my time. I have the original of
15 that.
16 [In English] [Previous translation continues] ... "on the 28th/
17 29th of May, took place in direct contravention of instructions issued by
18 JNA leadership in Belgrade. Given the doubts that now exist about the
19 ability of the authorities in Belgrade to influence General Mladic, who
20 has left JNA, efforts have been made by UNPROFOR to appeal to him directly
21 as well as through the political leadership of the Serbian Republic of
22 Bosnia-Herzegovina. As the result of these efforts, General Mladic agreed
23 on 30th of May to stop the bombardment of Sarajevo. While it is my hope
24 that the shelling of the city will not be resumed, it is also clear that
25 the emergence of General Mladic and the forces under his command as
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1 independent actor apparently beyond the control of JNA, complicates the
2 issue raised in paragraph 4 of Security Council Resolution 752. President
3 Izetbegovic has recently indicated to senior UNPROFOR officers at Sarajevo
4 his willingness to deal with General Mladic but not with the political
5 leadership of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina."
6 [Interpretation] If we were to read all these things, the
7 situation would be much clearer. The picture would be much clearer
8 because it has been made a caricature of, distorted in a caricature
9 fashion. And when it comes to Yugoslavia, that it was the resistance that
10 Yugoslavia set up is not only borne out by history and the events in
11 Kosovo but also the fact itself that the victims of that brutal aggression
12 were not only the citizens of Serb and Montenegrin nationality but