1 Monday, 26 May 2003

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 [The witness entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.07 a.m.

6 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Mr. Milosevic, you've got this session for your

7 cross-examination. We'll have in mind we'll starting rather late, and of

8 course that time will be added to it.

9 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well, Mr. May.

10 WITNESS: RENAUD DE LA BROSSE [Resumed]

11 [Witness answered through interpreter]

12 Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic: [Continued]

13 Q. [Interpretation] Mr. De la Brosse, in paragraph 61, page 60,

14 paragraph 2 of your report, speaking about reporting from Vukovar and the

15 testimony of civilians, you criticise the fact that the testimony was

16 never firsthand. And I'm quoting you there.

17 In paragraph 59, page 57, at the end of the first paragraph, you

18 say that contrary to professional ethics, the reporters show as witnesses

19 people who were either too close to the events -- were persons who were

20 either too close to the events they were reporting on or too far away from

21 them.

22 And in paragraph 5 on page 187, speaking about the possibility of

23 foreign journalists reporting from Kosovo and Metohija there was only

24 secondhand information to be had which included the risk of error and

25 imprecision.

1 My question to you is this: You, therefore, indirect

2 informing -- you considered this to be unreliable, isn't that so? You

3 consider that that should not be something that should be resorted to

4 because there's always the risk of error. Isn't that correct?

5 A. In -- generally speaking, a journalist reporting looks for direct

6 witnesses of events, firsthand witnesses, whatever the case.

7 Q. Very well. So not only the fact that you don't speak Serbian, but

8 from the entire contents of your report, it would emerge that you base

9 your analyses on other people's text, other people's articles and books

10 which speak about the state of affairs of media -- of the media in

11 Yugoslavia and Serbia, and you state that in your footnotes and not with a

12 direct access to the situation. So how come something you criticise in

13 others, that is to say, indirect information, you consider to be allowed

14 when you yourself are in question. Why are you an exception to that rule?

15 A. The work that I based my report on is to go to the source, source

16 information, of course. And let me go back to that in a minute. And

17 these were established on the basis of academic articles, press articles,

18 and reports by people who were in the field, on the ground. And also I

19 met a -- I had a number of meetings with research journalists who were on

20 the spot. So I think that the scope is fairly broad. The samples that I

21 took were very broad from my point of view.

22 Q. As you're talking about sources, I asked you towards the end of

23 the last session what your sources were, in fact, and you indicated tab 3

24 to me. And that is a fairly short document. It is three pages long, and

25 you have academic works, books and articles, in fact, and then again you

1 have analytical books and articles, and then you have some other articles

2 and agencies and reports by different organisations, and finally,

3 interviews with different journalists, conversations with them and so on.

4 So am I right if I conclude that you did not report on the state

5 of the media because you weren't able to follow the media yourself, but

6 you speak about that on the basis of what your sources think about those

7 media, and in that regard it is quite obviously that this was done on a

8 selective basis; isn't that right?

9 A. An impression as to the goal that my report had, as I said last

10 week, the object of my report was to describe the mechanisms of propaganda

11 in play in the Serbian press. And this work was based on the sources, the

12 sources that I quoted. Of course, these are not all the sources that I

13 used. This is not an exhaustive list in document number 3. But on the

14 other hand, this work of mine is also based on questionnaires and sounding

15 performed together with the team that I work with in Belgrade. And for

16 its part, the team used -- made use not only of the press but also a good

17 knowledge of the situation on the ground.

18 Q. All right. In order to round off this subject matter, we can see

19 that you used, on a selective basis, certain sources which you considered

20 in one way or another can serve your purpose to construe your findings.

21 However, there is no doubt that you did not conduct an analysis, perform

22 an analysis of the press in Yugoslavia and Serbia at all; isn't that

23 right?

24 A. The sources that were used to accomplish this work and compile

25 this report, which is my work, is the fruit of my own personal work, and

1 as I said, the team on the spot in Belgrade. The selection of sources

2 that was made was made on the basis of the representative samples that we

3 were able to find at the time quoted by the Serbian press. So they were

4 extracts from the Serbian press. And this was the core of the knowledge.

5 It is not exhaustive, but nevertheless, it helps us in representing the

6 type of situation that we found when we went to Belgrade to study the

7 press and television as well.

8 Q. All right, Mr. De la Brosse. Now, on the basis of what criteria

9 were you able to conclude that this was a representative sample at all?

10 How do you come to that conclusion? Because we noted that you weren't

11 able to read through the press clippings yourself or analyse them

12 yourself. You used intermediaries and intermediary sources. So why is

13 this a representative sample except for you want to represent it being as

14 such?

15 A. The bulk of the subject matter that was studied, as I said last

16 week, represents about 20 million documents that were examined and

17 processed - 20.000 documents, I'm sorry - which were examined and research

18 by journalists from Belgrade. Of course, these 20.000 pages were not the

19 total of everything that the press in Belgrade put out, but at least the

20 researchers and journalists that studied those texts were able to select a

21 number of them, a number of articles in which we could see effects of

22 propaganda.

23 Q. Well, all right, Mr. de la Brosse. From this vast bulk of

24 material, and you say that they made the selection and

25 everything -- everybody can select what they like according to their

1 motives, so this body of material, you have just shown certain extracts of

2 my speeches here, one speech in which I say that there is terrorism in

3 Kosovo and the right to self-defence, which I state now -- here and now

4 again. There is terrorism in Kosovo, and people do have the right to

5 defend themselves.

6 So is that all that you were able to extract from that whole body

7 of material as some kind of illustration to bear out your assertion that

8 the press was motivated by this and diffused negative sentiments?

9 A. Could you be more specific in your question, please?

10 Q. I said from this whole body of material that you say you looked

11 through, and we just saw a brief excerpt from my speech to the Assembly

12 where I say that there is terrorism over Kosovo, and I speak of the right

13 to self-defence and self-protection which is what I say today. So I don't

14 see that anything should be changed. Where do you see propaganda here in

15 the impassioned press? Perhaps there wasn't -- Do you want to say that

16 there was no terrorism in Kosovo and I just invented it, or somebody

17 challenged the right to defence from terrorism?

18 A. Well, I don't want to take up a position with respect to the bases

19 and foundations of that alone, but what I would like to say in quoting the

20 excerpt, you yourself in your speech used terminology which could be

21 qualified as being terminology used by the media wishing to present in a

22 pejorative way and stigmatising one specific community. In this

23 particular case it was the Albanians of Kosovo and by the same token the

24 Croatian community as well.

25 Q. All right. I thoughts we cleared that up. No mention is made of

1 the either of the Croatian or Albanian community anywhere but what I was

2 talking about was Albanian terrorists and extremists, extremists in

3 Croatia who committed crimes, who had already committed crimes at the time

4 against Serbs in Croatia. So why do you equate extremists all the time

5 and the nationalities that those extremists belong to? Terrorism knows no

6 national ethnic boundaries. A killer is a killer, regardless of the

7 ethnic group or nation he belongs to. So why do you keep saying that

8 we're stigmatising a national community, an ethnic community because

9 certain terrorists are by virtue of their ethnicity, something that they

10 are intrinsically. You won't be able to find that anywhere. Find me an

11 example, if you can, where I or anybody speaks about Croats or Albanians

12 as criminals? On the contrary, we're just talking about extremists. Is

13 that quite clear or not from what you were able to read?

14 A. What I tried to explain through my report, as I said last week

15 with respect to the -- is that the media used terminology or a vocabulary

16 with a view to stigmatising or creating stereotypes with respect to one or

17 another community, one or another ethnic group, and what I wanted to say,

18 with respect to the example to what you've just quoted, is that throughout

19 the speech in question, you yourself took part in disseminating these

20 stereotypes.

21 Now, if we wish to know whether the Albanians in Kosovo ran any

22 risk or not, I can't really say because it's not the subject of my report.

23 And let me remind you that I was describing the propaganda mechanism, and

24 also that there was part of the report concerning the results of the

25 collective research and sources of the Belgrade team. So this report was

1 compiled - how shall I put this? - in the space of one month. That was

2 the time span given the object and time that I had at my disposal as I

3 underlined last time. It was impossible for me and that the three-member

4 team that I had in Belgrade to look at the entire body of material that

5 existed. And ideally, this would -- should have been analysed, all of it,

6 in an exhaustive fashion. So the part of the media in the diffusion of

7 stereotypes.

8 Now I think that I can say, looking at the material I had access

9 to and by analysing the propaganda mechanisms in the Serbian press, I

10 think I'll be -- can say although I'm aware of the facts that it is not an

11 exhaustive source matter, that they did take part in diffusing

12 stereotypes, in putting out stereotypes, in propagating messages,

13 ethnically coloured, of hatred. And this was true manipulation in actual

14 fact, and the instrumentalisation of the political times.

15 Q. Well, that would be correct if what you said a moment ago were

16 correct, that it is claimed that the Albanians from Kosovo represent a

17 terrorist movement. And that was never stated anywhere. What was stated

18 was that they were terrorists, not Albanians. Mention was not made of

19 Albanians. The reference was to terrorists, not the ethnic Albanian

20 community at all, which you in fact should know full well. This is

21 reversal of thesis as it's called. Do you really think that as a

22 scientist you have the right to reverse the thesis in this way?

23 JUDGE MAY: I think you've made this point and we cannot go any

24 further into it. The witness has given the answer which he has. It will

25 be a matter for us to judge. Shall we move on to a different point?

1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

2 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

3 Q. Now, in compiling your expert report as an expert, let me ask you

4 this: Do you -- I don't suppose you think that you should use sources

5 that are not characterised by neutrality, or rather, let me put it in this

6 way: Do you think that sources should be used which are neutral sources,

7 that is to say, sources which are objective and not coloured and

8 impassioned in any way?

9 A. Well, one has to know what the purpose is and to see whether it's

10 objective or not.

11 Q. Well, the purpose of objectivity is to ascertain the truth, as far

12 as I'm able to understand it.

13 Do you consider that for an expert report a relevant sources texts

14 from the titles of which one would see hatred on the part of their

15 authors, hatred towards the Serb people, towards myself personally, and so

16 on? Let me read out a few titles of the texts you used by way of example,

17 and you quote them in your footnotes. For example, footnote 87 on page

18 42: Jean-Paul Collette is the author of the article and it is titled

19 "Opportunistic Monster" in the daily, Le Soir. And part of the article

20 says that Slobodan Milosevic, according to much testimony, himself

21 provided inspiration for propaganda messages on television through which

22 he disseminating his nationalistic hysteria. Do you have any

23 illustrations of the dissemination of nationalistic hysteria from my

24 speeches at all? And this very biased text, can it be the basis for any

25 kind of expert report at all along your lines?

1 A. Could you tell me exactly where that is.

2 Q. I've already told you.

3 JUDGE KWON: It's paragraph 45.

4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

5 Q. Footnote 87.

6 JUDGE KWON: Paragraph 45.

7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Well, there in fact I did base

8 myself on an article by a journalist from Le Soir. It's one of the main

9 newspapers in Belgium, that is in French-speaking Belgium.

10 This is the testimony of a journalist who was on site. The

11 testimony talks about the -- Milosevic's control over the contents of the

12 press, and it is confirmed, and I quote the Borisav Jovic, one of his

13 closest collaborators, Borisav Jovic, that is, and every day he would

14 write, as of 1990 that Slobodan Milosevic inspired or, rather, put out

15 three articles that -- that he was asked to write in Politika and in which

16 he attacks directly the Federal Prime Minister, Mr. Ante Markovic.

17 What I'm saying is that I relied both on the journalists from

18 Le Soir, Jean-Paul Collette, but also on Borisav Jovic's testimony. And I

19 could also quote the excerpt that we saw already, the clip, the -- from

20 Dusan Mitevic who was the director of RTS and who emphasised that

21 Milosevic had direct responsibility as regards distribution of false

22 information and reporting.

23 Q. I just don't know which false report he mentioned, because you

24 keep confusing things. But let me give you a few more examples. I asked

25 you a question of principle, a general question. Is it possible to use

1 articles and consider them to be objective when at first glance already

2 they're inflammatory and biased?

3 On page 82, you refer to a text from the Internet, also Benedicte

4 Chesnelong, and the title is "Serbia, the Black Hole of the Balkans." And

5 the author obviously had a fine opinion of Serbia. That title in itself

6 surely disqualifies the text as a source of information for what should be

7 a scientific study.

8 JUDGE MAY: I'm going to stop you. You characterise the witness's

9 response as not being an answer to the question. His response was that he

10 relied on the matter you quoted, but he also relied on other matter. So

11 in fact, it was a response.

12 Now, moving on to this question. Page 82. We'll see if we can

13 find the reference. I certainly remember the reference. I don't remember

14 it being on page 82.

15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It's footnote 208, "Serbia, the

16 Black Hole of the Balkans" is the title. The very title disqualifies such

17 an article as a source of information for a scientific study.

18 JUDGE MAY: Very well.

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. Surely you would agree with that, Mr. de la Brosse.

21 JUDGE MAY: Let's deal with that. It is in fact page 84 of ours,

22 but it is footnote 208.

23 Yes, Mr. de la Brosse, if you've found that.

24 JUDGE KWON: It's at the end of the paragraph 90.

25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The source in question here is a

1 mission report from the International Human Rights Federation which went

2 on site from the 19th to the 22nd of September, 1997. The report was

3 prepared by a member of the International Human Rights Federation, and

4 this is a source which in my mind was objective. Was I right? Was I

5 wrong? I allow the Judges to come to that decision.

6 Q. That is the whole point, yes.

7 JUDGE MAY: Let him finish.

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] One clarification about the title of

9 an article or a report. The operating internal mechanisms for the press

10 mean that the newspapers in particular were accustomed to choose headlines

11 that would catch people's attention and which did not really reflect the

12 contents. That is the idea that was being put forward by the headlines.

13 So I don't think one should only base oneself on the headline or the title

14 of an article in order to judge its content and then to disqualify it.

15 The article -- the article has to be judged on its own merit and the facts

16 it contains.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. Very well. Very well, Mr. de la Brosse. Now, please look at

19 footnote 81. Here you have Ms. Florence Hartmann who is an employee here

20 in this illegal Tribunal who wrote a book, "Milosevic, a Diagonal of a

21 Madman". Isn't such hatred sufficient basis to doubt the objectivity of

22 such a source? If the other side doesn't believe that one who openly

23 expresses hatred towards me and the Serbian people could be exempted from

24 any participation in legal proceedings.

25 You see, the things you use. You're using senseless propaganda

1 that for a whole decade demonised the Serb people.

2 JUDGE MAY: Let the witness answer on the specific point, and

3 we'll have a translation, if we may, from the French of footnote 81,

4 "Milosevic, la diagonale du fou".

5 THE INTERPRETER: This is the diagonal of the fou, of the madman.

6 It also refers to the chess player, to the bishop that goes diagonally.

7 JUDGE MAY: Thank you very much.

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well, very well.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. Do you feel that is rather inflammatory and full of hatred to be

11 able to be used as an objective source for any judgement on your part?

12 JUDGE MAY: Let the witness answer. The translation we got was

13 that it was the diagonal of the madman and also a reference to the bishop

14 in chess, which moves diagonally, of course.

15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Absolutely. That is the

16 interpretation that I made of the book which directly refers to chess.

17 A few words about the source that you're criticising me for having

18 quoted. The journalist who wrote the book was a journalist from Le Monde,

19 the daily newspaper Le Monde and was who was a correspondent in Belgrade

20 for several years for that newspaper. She is -- she's a journalist who

21 speaks Serbo-Croat, and she heard and she saw many things which happened

22 at the time in Serbia. I didn't make any value judgement on the work.

23 What I simply say is that she is a journalist who is respected for her

24 work.

25 The book on which I partially based myself contains some

1 information which was collected, which was gleaned in Serbia throughout

2 the first half of the decade of the 1990s -- decade of the 1990s. It

3 appeared in 1999, and it is the work of -- former work, work that she had

4 been doing before.

5 If that journalist changed her activities, that change happened

6 subsequent to the book, and I used it as the testimony of the journalist

7 who was in Belgrade in Serbia until, I think, 1995 or 1996, if I'm not

8 mistaken. It has to be checked, but I believe that she -- that the work

9 that you're referring to came -- that she does now, the work she's doing

10 now is after the book was published.

11 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

12 Q. Very well, Mr. de la Brosse. You are clearly selectively using

13 your sources. And, of course, they are indirect sources.

14 Tell me, on page 18 --

15 JUDGE MAY: Let the witness deal with that assertion, you see. If

16 you make assertions like that, the witness must have the chance to deal

17 with it.

18 The point has been made before but you can give us your answer now

19 it's made so plainly. The accusation is that you were purely selective in

20 the sources you chose to support your thesis, and it must follow from that

21 that you ignored sources which might have been to the contrary. Now, that

22 is the characterisation which is made of your evidence and your report.

23 You should have the opportunity to deal with it and tell us whether it's

24 an accurate characterisation or not.

25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I worked on sources which I believed

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13 English transcripts.

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1 were objective, sources which from my point of view varied. This is in my

2 own point of view. I worked on many reports from very different types of

3 organisations. They might be French-speaking organisations or

4 English-speaking organisations or other languages. Any way, organisations

5 whose objective in general was to protect human rights and the freedom of

6 the press. I worked on official reports from the United Nations, from the

7 Council of Europe, and so I think that I had access to different types of

8 sources which were objective.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. But obviously you did not analyse at all the contents of the

11 Serbian and Yugoslav media, but you are now yourself confirming that you

12 used selectively a certain number of books which fitted into this order

13 that you had received from the opposing side as you wrote on the cover

14 page of your work at the request of the Prosecution, as you yourself said.

15 Is that right or not?

16 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let the witness answer that.

17 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The sources with which I worked, let

18 me repeat, were in part provided by the Belgrade team. I'm referring

19 particularly to the press articles. The sources on which I worked in the

20 report are ones which I found myself. Let me remind you, I began to

21 become interested in the issue of propaganda spread by the media of the

22 former Yugoslavia as of 1994, and in the work that I worked for a report

23 is without [no translation] -- Clips, television clips. How should I say

24 this?

25 The sources are not only sources that I got from the Belgrade

1 team.

2 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

3 Q. Yes, I understand. They are the fruit of the work of this entire

4 machinery and propaganda that I would call global propaganda that has been

5 satanising the Serbs for more than a decade. Are you aware of that or

6 not? Demonising the Serbs.

7 A. I can't answer that question.

8 Q. You can't answer that question. Did you perhaps watch the CNN

9 last night, for instance? There's an example how low such propaganda can

10 fall. They were interviewing a journalist who never interviewed me and

11 who ranks me among some sort of dictators, even though we had free

12 elections in Serbia every two years. And who, among various arguments

13 mentions --

14 JUDGE MAY: Let's see if the witness saw the programme. Were you

15 watching CNN last night, Mr. de la Brosse?

16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, I wasn't watching -- I didn't

17 watch television last night.

18 JUDGE MAY: Now, let's move on.

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. And among all the different arguments that he chose as this was

21 just an excerpt --

22 JUDGE MAY: No. It's no good asking him about television last

23 night. Now, move on.

24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, I was saying that when

25 arguments are so thin and untenable, then people are prone to resort to

1 such very base propaganda which reveals that you're having a lot of

2 problems with the real facts.

3 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Well, the witness has answered the question on

4 these matters. Have you got anything more specific to ask? And I have in

5 mind that the witness should have the opportunity to deal with the various

6 documents which you produced. When we find a convenient time, he can deal

7 with those.

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't know when we'll find any

9 convenient time, Mr. May. As far as I'm concerned, it suits me that he

10 referred to whatever you like if there is enough time.

11 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

12 Q. But among the various things attributed to me, the one mentioned

13 yesterday, the only one mentioned yesterday was that my wife said I was

14 handsome.

15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well, Mr. May. Talking about

16 my wife.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. Mr. Nice placed under the ELMO here a specific paragraph from tab

19 number 6. This is the last paragraph, and it relates to verbal attacks on

20 the so-called independent media, and in brackets, quotations. And I've

21 highlighted that paragraph in the same way as it was highlighted on the

22 screen here, and it says as follows: [In English] "Published by political

23 on 29th of March, 1996, Mira Markovic," - that is my wife --

24 JUDGE MAY: What number is it? What number paragraph?

25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It is -- I don't have the number of

1 the paragraph here. It is tab 6 and on page 1 of that document in tab 6

2 and at the bottom of the page.

3 We all saw this on the screen. It was selected as something meant

4 to be extremely important. Have you found it?

5 [In English] "In an interview published by Politika on 29th of

6 March, 1996, Mira Markovic," [Interpretation] that is my wife, [In

7 English] "referred to the independent media as," [Interpretation] and then

8 she is quoted as saying, [In English] "Stirring up political and

9 nationalistic hatred, defeatism and physical violence directed against

10 men." End of quotation. And it says that it was quoted by Reporters

11 Without Borders in "La liberte de la presse," Le Monde, 1997, et cetera.

12 And since I have found the original text, all of them having been

13 published by her, this paragraph from which this was extracted relates to

14 something quite different, and I will read to you the paragraph since it

15 says here, speaking about the independent media which is not true, and the

16 paragraph reads as follows: "Such politically profiled, morally and

17 intellectually intoned rightists," she's talking about the right wing,

18 "can hardly become a political subject in the changes which are

19 historically justified by their method and content and outcome. By their

20 current political, moral and intellectual being, the right wing in Serbia,

21 judging at least by the press that supports it, can only be the vehicle of

22 cheap nihilism, very rudeness, extreme rudeness, national, religious and

23 political hatred, destructive defeatism, physical and political violence

24 over people, the product of a new Balkan Fascism."

25 So this is a pure forgery because it doesn't relate to any

1 independent media at all. Secondly, it is taken out of context and quoted

2 only half of the sentence. And number three, Mr. de la Brosse, when

3 Mr. le Pen won a large percentage of votes in the elections, the whole of

4 France got on its feet to demand and to wonder what such support to the

5 right wing meant. So this is a text written by her about the right wing,

6 not about the media.

7 JUDGE MAY: Well, let the witness have a chance to answer -- wait

8 a moment. Wait a moment. Let the witness -- let him answer.

9 What is said about this passage, Mr. De la Brosse, is that it is a

10 passage which is taken out of context and that the writer was referring

11 essentially to something else.

12 Now, can you help us about that or not? Can you say anything more

13 about it than what's written on the exhibit which we have?

14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] As I say in the footnote, that

15 quotation that I relied on comes from Reporters Without Borders, about

16 freedom in press in the field -- in the world.

17 I used in good faith the information which is found in the report.

18 Obviously wrongly so. I think it's an error that was made by the team

19 that was -- that was responsible for drafting that part of the report in

20 the former Yugoslavia. But I replaced that comment into the context of

21 other statements in respect of the report in question, that is the

22 preceding report or those that are found on page 2, which is not a direct

23 quotation of Mrs. Markovic but is a resolution of the party that she was

24 leader of, and they are attacks on the independent press which is

25 characterised as mercenary, as people who denounce others as traitors. So

1 if that quotation comes -- is taken out of context and is incorrect, I

2 apologise, but it has to be put back into a context of other statements by

3 Mira Markovic.

4 JUDGE MAY: Let him finish.

5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In newspapers like Duga or quoted in

6 the report of the International Committee for Independent Press in the

7 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which is on page -- from 2 to 7 of the

8 list. Page 2, that is.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. Very well. Let us not waste any more time. Luckily Mira

11 Markovic -- whatever Mira Markovic wrote has been published and published

12 at the time she wrote it, so that forgeries are impossible, regardless of

13 the intentions of those behind it. But let us move on to the next point.

14 In -- I have to leave out some things because time is flying. In

15 footnote 44, page 22, in the second paragraph of that footnote or, rather,

16 in the third, you mention the following: "On a second occasion, for

17 instance, when the Serb reservists took Zvornik in Bosnia, the Serb media

18 announced the liberation of the town, not mentioning in a word the several

19 thousands corpses lying in the streets."

20 Tell me, please, where did you get that information from about

21 several thousand bodies in the streets of Zvornik, which is certainly

22 untrue and which you again take as being some sort of undisputed fact.

23 "The Serbian media are not reporting on thousands of bodies in the

24 streets of Zvornik".

25 You know, people are listening to you in Zvornik now, and you can

1 imagine how astonished they will be when they hear that you're claiming

2 there were several thousand bodies in the streets of Zvornik that Serb

3 media did not report about. How could they write about something that

4 didn't happen?

5 JUDGE MAY: Just keep your questions shorter and we'll get on more

6 quickly.

7 Mr. de la Brosse, can you find the reference to this?

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I'm referring to page 44. That is

9 do you -- are you referring to page 44? Is that what you mean?

10 JUDGE MAY: We haven't got the reference. Give us the reference

11 again so the witness can see it.

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Footnote 44, and I was quoting from

13 it. It is on page 22, where it says: "They announced the liberation of

14 the town without saying a word about several thousand bodies lying in the

15 streets."

16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

17 Q. And now you're criticising the Serbian press for not writing about

18 something that didn't happen.

19 JUDGE MAY: Let the witness find the passage.

20 Have you found the passage?

21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I've found it. It's footnote 44.

22 The source, as indicated, referring to that event was Florence Hartmann's

23 book, "Milosevic, the diagonal of the madman".

24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

25 Q. Therefore, you're relying on this as if it were the Bible, and

1 that is an absolutely gross lie which you are using to explain that

2 allegedly Serbian propaganda refuses to report about crimes involving

3 several thousand corpses in the streets of Zvornik. This is what your

4 Florence Hartmann found.

5 JUDGE MAY: Yes. What's the question? The witness has dealt with

6 it. He's given his answer as best he can.

7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] If you believe that this answer is

8 acceptable -- well, no, it's a good answer, in fact. He took it from

9 Florence Hartmann's book. You can find even worse things from other

10 propaganda. But this is an absolutely blatant lie. Even the other side

11 knows that. There were no thousands of bodies in the streets of Zvornik.

12 JUDGE MAY: What's your next question?

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I have to hurry, Mr. May.

14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

15 Q. You spoke about the contents of the news published about the

16 killing of Serb children by Croats in Eastern Slavonia. Do you claim that

17 that is not a correct piece of news, the fact that children were killed

18 there?

19 A. Could you be more specific, please?

20 Q. Well, you spoke here orally, you testified orally that some news

21 was put out about the killing of Serb children in Eastern Slavonia, and

22 I'm asking you now, are you saying that it didn't happen and that this was

23 invented by the media, this news item?

24 A. Are you referring to Vukovar?

25 JUDGE MAY: If you would look at -- just a moment. Just a moment.

1 Let's find the references. Tab 26 are the references, and there are

2 references in clip 9 of the killing of a child as alleged.

3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

4 Q. All right. Do you start out from the fact that all the crimes

5 that the press wrote about were in fact fabricated, invented? Is that

6 what you're saying?

7 A. No.

8 JUDGE MAY: Deal, if you would, with the allegations with regard

9 to children. I've referred you to one at clip 9. There's the reference

10 from "What the Friar Said". I'm also looking for a reference, which at

11 the moment I cannot find, to the allegation that over 40 children were

12 killed. It may be it's in a different -- it may be that it's in a

13 different section.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May --

15 JUDGE MAY: You were raising these matters, and they must be dealt

16 with, and the witness must have a chance to answer them.

17 There is the reference to the, yes, clip 1 to Serb children being

18 thrown to the lions in the zoo. So it's clip 1, clip 9. And also you may

19 remember there is the reference to the killing of, I think, 41 children.

20 No, I see. It's clip 13. "In Vukovar, more than a thousand Serbs are

21 feared to have been butchered, including several dozen Serbian children

22 who have fallen victim to the Ustasha knives."

23 So those are the three clips which you were -- you referred to.

24 What's being put to you is that, as I understand it, are these

25 facts -- were these facts fabricated or were they true as alleged?

1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] As regards the news that 41 Serbian

2 children were murdered by the Ustasha, that information was published and

3 turned out to be false. It was not found, and that's why Reuters press

4 agency itself published a disavowal of that having happened.

5 I think perhaps you were referring to the three examples that I

6 gave. I found the passage. In paragraph 59 of the report where I try to

7 show that through the presentation of individual tragedies, in this case

8 children, allegedly victims of crimes -- that is, Serbian children who

9 were victims of crime committed by other combatants, all of this was to

10 show that, using these three examples, it was -- well, I'm not coming to

11 any conclusions about whether or not this happened.

12 I think that as regards the third example, this is a proven fact.

13 The second refers to the death of the parents of a boy, and the first

14 refers to the death of a boy allegedly killed by Croatian fighters.

15 As regards the first example, I don't know whether the information

16 is correct, but what I wanted to demonstrate through this example is that

17 by showing individual tragedies involving children, the objective was to

18 play on the emotional side of the public by speaking of facts that the

19 viewer would have to have sympathy for, facts for which every protective

20 mechanism on the part of the television viewer would not play. That is

21 when he was talking about the most fragile people, that is children.

22 I'm not saying that the facts alleged or even verified in the

23 three examples didn't -- didn't happen. What I am interested in is the

24 interpretation of the facts.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. Mr. de la Brosse, Mr. de la Brosse, we seem to be losing a lot of

2 time here, but this is an example that cannot serve to anybody's credit.

3 What it says here is this: It says that that killing of children was,

4 first of all, televised by the British television station ITV, and then

5 the media in Serbia televised what went through Reuters. But first, that

6 is to say Reuters, published a denial, a disavowal, and this was cared

7 too, the denial. So the news goes from Reuters. It is transmitted by the

8 media, carried by the media, not only Belgrade but others, and then

9 Reuters publishes a disclaimer. The media carry this, and where do you

10 see Serbian propaganda there? Or perhaps I'd been manipulating with

11 Reuters.

12 You yourself describe what happened, and this is a blatant example

13 of how you in your function of let's call it expertise, of expert

14 testimony, are abusing this kind of material.

15 A. Well, you're going back to the example of the master of 41 Serbian

16 children by the Croatian fighters which did not take place. I think we

17 agree on that point.

18 What I said is that the -- the news about that event, which turned

19 out to be incorrect, was widely distributed and used by the Serbian media.

20 The Serb media, once the information had been denied, the Serbian media

21 did not even take the trouble to go and check on it and I put it into the

22 footnote. I say that that information was also denied by the Serbian

23 media except when -- when information is broadcast, information of this

24 type, any disavowal of that information does not set aside the effects

25 that the news originally had created.

1 This can be checked not only in this case in the former Yugoslavia

2 but also with other phenomena of that sort in other countries.

3 So this very strong media coverage of the death of these 41

4 children supported in the eyes of the public, Serbian public opinion

5 because it was a very broad coverage of that event which was not based on

6 the truth, that strong media -- that very important media coverage

7 supported the image that was cultivated in the Serbian media of a Croatian

8 people which was genocidal and criminal just as that information was used

9 by the media in order to make those opposed to the war be silenced.

10 Q. Mr. de la Brosse, Mr. de la Brosse, I hope it's not being

11 challenged that the media in Serbia carried Reuters reporting and the

12 reporting of ITV. Did Reuters published a disclaimer after that and the

13 media in Serbia disclaimed it too. So they followed these reports put out

14 by Reuters, because the Serbian -- did the Serb media disseminate

15 nationalism because they were carrying a Reuters news item? How can you

16 say such nonsensical things?

17 A. Clarification. This information was spread in the newspapers by

18 those journalists who were there in the former Yugoslavia at the time.

19 The information was distributed by Reuters without having any real on-site

20 checks being made. Other media who were there on the ground did not

21 distribute that information because there were questions about it.

22 Q. All right, Mr. de la Brosse. Let's not waste more time on this

23 matter, but I think that this is -- it is illustrative in itself. The

24 facts that you mentioned, information came from Reuters the Serb media

25 carried it, Reuters disclaimed it, the Serbian media disclaimed it and you

1 accuse the Serb media of some sort of propaganda. And to make things

2 quite clear to you, gentlemen, or to make it even more complicated, I have

3 here one of the next witness's --

4 A. I haven't finished answering the question you asked me about. You

5 asked me whether the Serb media had denied that information or disclaimed

6 it. Let me give you an example from Politika which did in fact deny the

7 information through a few lines that were at the back of the newspaper.

8 So it doesn't have the same position in the newspaper as the news had when

9 it was originally put out. And that way it does not erase the effect that

10 had been produced.

11 Q. Disclaimers never deny the effects that the first information has

12 when it's put out. That's a general rule in the media, and I'm sure you

13 ought to know that much better than me. Once you put out a lie,

14 disclaimers never cover that. And for ten years, an enormous mass of lies

15 was put out against Serbia.

16 JUDGE MAY: Now, let's move on, Mr. Milosevic.

17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Especially --

18 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Gentlemen, I have a witness here, he

20 is a Prosecution witness and I have been supplied with this statement. He

21 was on the list and then disappeared from the list but this seems to be

22 common practice with them. Other people seem to crop up all the time.

23 And it doesn't say here that this particular witness is an a protected one

24 but I'm if the going to read out his name because I'm not sure whether

25 he's a protected witness or not. He is a Serb anyway and he is testifying

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1 against me, or will be, against me here in this courtroom. And on page 3

2 and for your purposes, this is 039392, that is the number of the witness

3 statement which was disclosed to me by the other side over there in order

4 to prepare for his testimony.

5 On page 3 of that statement this witness towards the end of

6 paragraph 2 or, rather, this should be paragraph 3, but it's densely

7 typed, says the following: 'On one occasion we found 80 dead Serb

8 children lined up in the hospital. Each of them had a -- three wounds in

9 his back from a bullet shot. I personally saw them, 100 to 150 metres

10 away from the Vukovar Hospital in a ditch. I know they were Serb children

11 because they were identified by the surviving parents," and so on.

12 JUDGE MAY: You can ask the witness if he's seen that report or

13 anything like that.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm not speaking about -- this is a

15 statement by --

16 JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues]... As far as this

17 witness's evidence is concerned is whether he's seen such a report and

18 he's indicating he hasn't. Whether the witness is called or not, we'll

19 find out. We'll be able to hear his evidence on the point. Yes, let's

20 move on.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

22 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

23 Q. Now, please, on page 11 and 12, you claim that propaganda becomes

24 detrimental when it is used in a totalitarian fashion, and that is not

25 challenged at all. And when it promotes goals contrary to human and

1 international law. However, what is challenged is the fact that you wish

2 to link this up with the state of affairs in Serbia. My question to you

3 is this: How can you talk about any kind of totalitarianism at that time,

4 not now in Serbia, of course, but at that time in a Serbia in which a

5 multi-party system was in existence, which at that time was introduced,

6 not before but precisely during that period of time a democratically

7 adopted constitution proclaiming guaranteed rights on the basis of

8 international pacts and covenants including secret ballot elections which

9 had a very vociferous and loud opposition, in fact. And every two years

10 there were different extraordinary elections that were held.

11 So how can you, and on the basis of what criteria, can this kind

12 of society be ranked among what you wish to rank Serbia among?

13 A. Could you indicate the paragraphs that you're referring to,

14 please? You said pages 11, 10 -- 11.

15 Q. It's on pages 11, 12. Propaganda --

16 MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honour, can I be of assistance? It's

17 actually paragraph 12, and it is the last sentence of this paragraph.

18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] What I am referring to in this

19 paragraph through footnote 25 is the message regarding stereotypes whose

20 purpose is to stigmatise other communities. We reviewed the examples last

21 week. I am referring to the distribution of a -- messages fomenting

22 hatred through the regime-controlled media. And in that sense I have

23 based myself on several texts including the covenant on civil and

24 political rights which was ratified by Yugoslavia in 1966 and which

25 requires the Yugoslav state and Serbia to prohibit and to fight against

1 any messages of hatred. And so I note, and perhaps I'm wrong, but I

2 didn't find any traces anywhere whether it be in reports prepared by NGOs

3 or international organisations. I have noted that no activity -- no case

4 was ever brought to a court by the Yugoslav or Serbian authorities against

5 public media which carried out that type of practice.

6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

7 Q. All right. Tell me this, Mr. de la Brosse, please, how can you

8 claim -- actually, you're quoting Serbian scientists, for example, with

9 respect to the thesis on creating an unified state in which all Serbs

10 would be living, and you quote the quotations and statements made of Serb

11 scientists, academicians and so on who make no mention of that at all.

12 And the example of this is a quotation from academician Mihajlo Markovic

13 on page 21 and he writes about the tragedy of Serbs under Croatian

14 authority which is ongoing and which in future could even be greater as

15 well as the position of the Serb people in Croatia which is worse than the

16 position of any national minority anywhere, and that is quite right, quite

17 true.

18 Do you know that according to the constitution, pursuant to the

19 Croatian constitution, up until 1990, Croatia was defined as a state of

20 the Serbian people --

21 JUDGE MAY: Wait a moment. Let the witness deal with this. The

22 reference, as I understand it, is in paragraph 22 to what Mr. Markovic

23 says.

24 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

25 JUDGE MAY: Just a moment. Mr. de la Brosse, have you got the

1 reference?

2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The reference from the Duga excerpt,

3 is that what your are referring to?

4 JUDGE MAY: Yes. What's the question, Mr. Milosevic, about this?

5 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

6 Q. I am referring to the quotation by academician Mihajlo Markovic,

7 and Mr. de la Brosse links this up to with the thesis to create a unified

8 state that would house all the Serbs. Markovic doesn't mention that at

9 all. On page 21 what he does mention is this: He speaks about the

10 tragedy of the Croatian Serbs under Croatian authority which is ongoing

11 and in the future could reach tragic proportions, which unfortunately is

12 quite true. And my question is to you: When you read that, did you know

13 that precisely up until the year 1991 or, rather, in the year 1990 and

14 1991 the Serb people were thrown out of the Croatian constitution. Up

15 until then Croatia was defined as the Croatian people, the Serb people,

16 and all the peoples living within it. Do you know anything about that at

17 all?

18 JUDGE MAY: Wait a moment? What's this got to do with anything?

19 What's the point that you're making, Mr. Milosevic?

20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The point I'm making, Mr. May, is in

21 the essence, your own expert, through various quotations, is trying to

22 prove something which does not exist in those quotations.

23 JUDGE MAY: Very well.

24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] For example --

25 JUDGE MAY: We will take this -- we will take this stage by stage.

1 Just a moment. What is it, first of all, that he's trying to

2 prove?

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] He wishes to prove that propaganda

4 and that the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences worked along the lines

5 of the title of his project that we saw here on the overhead projector,

6 the project of having all Serbs living in one state, state for all Serbs,

7 which isn't written anywhere, which isn't contained in any of the

8 quotations he uses in his text or his footnotes. So it is a complete

9 montage.

10 JUDGE MAY: Let's the witness answer that.

11 Your proposition is unsupported, it's said, by the quotations from

12 the academicians and others.

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Quite the contrary, in fact. In the

14 quotations which are contained in the footnotes --

15 JUDGE MAY: Let him answer one thing at a time.

16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The quotation you're referring to

17 supports paragraph 22 of the report which indicates one of the mechanisms

18 used by the propaganda, that is to put -- to project on others the -- your

19 own fault or your own faults. So the quotation here -- the quotation here

20 is by Mr. Markovic is used as an example. I'm not speaking -- I'm not

21 using the quotation here or relying on it for the purposes that you're

22 alluding to.

23 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

24 Q. Well, your whole work is used for the purposes for which you wrote

25 the report, propaganda as a function of the plan to create a state for all

1 Serbs. Now, how can you separate that and say you're not using it for

2 that purpose? Use a bit of elementary logic, Mr. de la Brosse, please.

3 A. I'm sorry, I can't answer that question.

4 Q. Very well.

5 A. [Previous translation continues]... Been asked.

6 Q. This then, please. Do you consider that contrary to the charter

7 on human rights and international law the affirmation of the identity of

8 one's own nation for which you accuse academician Dobrica Cosic, for

9 example, who you claim assumes a special place in the instrumentalisation

10 of Serbian frustrations and the burgeoning of nationalism and that he is

11 directly responsible for the growth of international hatred. That is on

12 page 34, the footnote there.

13 A. Let me go back to what I was saying a little while ago about the

14 international text that I used and that I quoted talking about unlawful

15 propaganda. I repeat, I based myself on those texts in order to state

16 that at the time, the propaganda of hatred and stigmatisation of a

17 community fell within those international documents that Serbia and

18 Yugoslavia had prescribed to, which had delivered that type of message,

19 that type of hateful message. I'm not saying anything else when I refer

20 to those texts. That's what I mean when I refer to them.

21 Q. All right, then. Please go ahead and quote from those texts, the

22 ones you mention, what you consider to be a message of hatred, because I

23 keep claiming that you are mentioning people and you're quoting quotes in

24 which there is none of what you're claiming. Then there is no message of

25 hate within those quotations. Go ahead, quote. Quote from your text.

1 A. I return to the terminology used in the media which was one of

2 stigmatisation, of denigrating a community or several communities, and in

3 that way I think that I can say - I'm not a legal specialist - but in any

4 case, it seems to me that that type of message of stigmatisation,

5 demonisation of other communities are messages putting forward hatred

6 against a community, and in that way they are covered by international law

7 which Serbia subscribed to. I'm not saying anything more than that.

8 Q. Well, you've just falsified that, because you cannot quote a

9 single quotation from your footnotes, what you yourself qualify as being a

10 speech of hatred. Otherwise, those listening to this in the Serbian

11 language, let me translate the word stigmatisation. Stigmatisation means

12 to blacken someone, because I keep listening to the word stigmatisation

13 coming from the interpretation. It is to blacken somebody, to demonise

14 them. So please find me an example where somebody is doing that, the Serb

15 media is doing that, that is to say blackening or demonising some other

16 ethnic community.

17 JUDGE MAY: Do that over the adjournment. We're going to adjourn

18 now for 20 minutes. When you come back, Mr. de la Brosse, you can answer

19 that question with a passage.

20 Yes, 20 minutes. Before we call the next witness, there are

21 matters under Rule 92 bis on which rulings are required. Perhaps I could

22 give everybody warning that we will discuss these. They relate to the

23 statements of witnesses B-1455, 1775, and also the transcripts of

24 Mr. Selak.

25 MR. KAY: Yes, Your Honour. I only received 1455 and 1775, I

1 think it is, on Friday. I've been able to consider 1455 but not 1775 yet.

2 JUDGE MAY: Well, perhaps we can have a discussion about it

3 anyway.

4 MR. KAY: Yes. Thank you.

5 JUDGE MAY: Yes. We will adjourn now, 20 minutes.

6 --- Recess taken at 10.31 a.m.

7 --- On resuming at 10.55 a.m.

8 JUDGE MAY: Mr. de la Brosse, you were asked before the

9 adjournment about any speech which might be described as a speech of

10 hatred, and it was put to you that you couldn't yourself quote from your

11 footnotes any such speech.

12 Now, you should have the opportunity of answering that. Perhaps

13 you could do so briefly. But if there is any particular speech you have

14 in mind you can, of course, refer us to it.

15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I would recall that in some of the

16 clips that were shown last week, I referred to footnote 147 and 146.

17 There we can see that through the terminology used, speaking about

18 Ustasha, what is shown is a group through the use of terminology which

19 will stigmatise it.

20 As regards the quotations in the report and on which I based

21 myself, I should refer you to footnote 85 in my report. In footnote 85,

22 and you see all of the quotations which refer to the mechanism which would

23 be used against the Croats who are presented as the heirs of those

24 responsible for the crimes committed against other populations, including

25 the Serbs, during the Second World War.

1 Through the quotations which I use to support myself, we see a

2 historical amalgamation whose purpose is to use different types of

3 quotations with terms that are used. Perhaps we could look at the various

4 quotations which come from Politika in which one describes a direct link

5 between the Croatian government in 1990 and the-- rather, the Croatian

6 community and the Croatian government of the Second World War. And so

7 what connection is drawn between the crimes committed by the Second World

8 War Croatian government and the crimes and activities of the

9 Franjo Tudjman government.

10 JUDGE MAY: Yes. I think we've got 85 in front of us, and we can

11 see what's set out there.

12 Now, Mr. Milosevic, you've got ten minutes left for questioning of

13 this witness.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That is not sufficient for me,

15 Mr. May, ten minutes. Would you please consider the possibility of giving

16 me a little more time with this witness?

17 [Trial Chamber confers]

18 JUDGE MAY: You can have another half hour starting from now. So

19 you can have until half past eleven.

20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

21 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

22 Q. Would you be kind enough, as you say that you mention certain

23 quotations, in any of those quotations is a nation being stigmatised or

24 denigrated. You mention authorities committing crimes against the Serbs,

25 who have thrown the Serbs from the constitution, who have fired the Serbs

1 from all public services, who are persecuting the Serbs in an organised

2 manner. Find me a single quotation in which the nation as such is being

3 denigrated, be it the Croats or the Albanians where the Croats are being

4 stigmatised or the Albanians being stigmatised as a national minority.

5 That was my question to you.

6 A. In footnote 85, the second quotation, an express connection is

7 made here. Should I read it in English? [In English] "Democratic

8 community is proud of Ante Starcevic according to folk saying" -- "is

9 proud of Ante Starcevic, according to folk saying, the words, shy away

10 from places where the fools treat -- treat. Croatia is proud of so-called

11 independent state and is covertly and stealthily priming the new slaughter

12 of Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina."

13 [Interpretation] So what is described here is Croatia as a whole,

14 something that includes all of the population.

15 Q. Mr. de la Brosse --

16 JUDGE MAY: Let him finish. Yes, Mr. de la Brosse, is there

17 something you want to add?

18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] A generalisation is made about the

19 entire Croatian people.

20 I would also like to quote or, rather, to recall the video clip.

21 I don't remember the number, but the transcript of the Jovan Raskovic's

22 statement is found in footnote 117, in paragraph 54. It follows a

23 statement of Dobrica Cosic which was -- we've also had the opportunity to

24 see at the beginning of my testimony. Through those two examples a

25 constant reminder is made in respect of the atrocities committed by the

1 independent Croatian state under the Ustasha and the attentions ascribed

2 to Franjo Tudjman's regime.

3 If I read the excerpt which appeared -- the excerpt from Jovan

4 Raskovic which appeared in Serbian television, I would remind you that he

5 is speaking about the fact that genocide has begun and it depends on the

6 Serbs in Croatia and in Serbia and the international factor, Europe and

7 the world whether their movement [In English] "open its concentration

8 camps, pits used as collective tombs. But one thing is for sure, Serbs

9 will never again be led to the pits by just the Ustasha. Serbs have to

10 put up a great resistance and the genocidal idea will collapse along with

11 the genocidal Croatian state."

12 [Interpretation] I would recall that Jovan Raskovic, who was the

13 promoter of this idea according to which the Croatian people had a -- has

14 a genocidal character.

15 I would also like to quote another example of this type of

16 amalgamation which was made by certain Serbian intellectuals. The example

17 is in a -- is in a statement by Jovan Raskovic that you can find on the

18 25th of March, 1990, in Politika. This is an example that I didn't use in

19 the report. It isn't quoted as such, but I can give you the quotation

20 which is in English.

21 "[In English] That that which disrupts relations between Serbs and

22 Croats now is connected to the genocide which was perpetrated against the

23 Serbian people by the Croatian Ustasha regime. We can conclude that this

24 hiding of genocide, this hiding of genocide represents an appeal for -- to

25 history -- for history," excuse me, "for a repeat."

1 [Interpretation] The second quotation that I'd like to give to you

2 in order to replace things in their proper context is also an excerpt from

3 Politika of the 7th of August, 1992, in which Radovan Samardzic states

4 that: "[Previous translation continues]... [In English] Who are

5 constantly exposed to genocide. The Serbs are the people that."

6 Through these various examples of historical amalgamation between

7 two situations which are not the same, what is shown is the Croatian

8 regime and the Croatian people at the beginning of the 1990s as the heirs

9 of the Croatian government of the Second World War. And as such, I might

10 be wrong but I think that a stereotype is being presented and what is

11 sought is the demonisation of a community by relying on historic

12 amalgamations which remain to be proved.

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. Mr. de la Brosse, you give very lengthy answers so that half an

15 hour will really not be sufficient if you continue in that way. So would

16 you please be kind enough to bear in mind what you yourself said.

17 You said that the expression is that the Croatian Democratic Union

18 and then you come to the conclusion that the reference is to the whole

19 people. The HDZ, the Croatian Democratic Union, was the party which in

20 restarted the persecution of the Serbs 50 years later, not the Croatian

21 people. The HDZ is not the Croatian people.

22 Therefore, in what you yourself have said, you say the

23 authorities, then you make a comma, and then you add the Croatian people

24 yourself, which no one has referred to. So you're making -- you're

25 construing something that could be described as a forgery.

1 Now, did you perhaps have occasion to see -- I have shown here a

2 film, though very briefly as my time is extremely limited, an extract of

3 what Simon Wiesenthal said in connection with those crimes? Can you

4 imagine that Simon Wiesenthal was also in the service of the national list

5 objectives that the Serbian leadership led by me was implementing.

6 JUDGE MAY: What is the question? There's one about the HDZ which

7 we will allow the witness to answer, but what's the second question?

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The second question which is linked

9 to what I just mentioned:

10 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

11 Q. In your second paragraph on page 43, paragraph 47, you describe as

12 a manipulation the fact that in the media there was reference to the

13 genocide committed by the NDH against the Serbian people during the Second

14 World War. The word "genocide" in your text is in quotation marks, and

15 you're suggesting by doing so that it never took place, the NDH being the

16 Independent State of Croatia.

17 On pages 52 and 53 again, you are criticising reference to the

18 crimes of the NDH suggesting that they were exaggerating.

19 Do you know that according to official data of the former

20 Yugoslavia that was headed by Tito, who was a Croat, about 700.000 Serbs,

21 Romanies and Jews were killed in the Jasenovac concentration camps?

22 JUDGE MAY: That's another question. So there are two questions

23 there for you, Mr. de la Brosse.

24 Just a moment. Just a moment, please. Let him answer.

25 The first question is you are -- let him answer what you're

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1 putting.

2 The first question is that you are conflating in some way the HDZ

3 with the Croatian people and ascribing to the Croatian people what was

4 purely ascribed to the HDZ. What would your answer be to that? If you

5 could briefly answer that, please.

6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I quoted Mr. Jovan Raskovic on

7 several occasions. What he says has to be related to the way that

8 he -- that he writes and speaks. Let me remind you that in work that I do

9 quote in a footnote, Jovan Raskovic describes the Croatian people as

10 having a genocidal nature.

11 The fact that through statements that he made in the press and to

12 which I have just given -- which I've just read out to you, one should

13 recall that Jovan Raskovic was invited to all the television programmes on

14 Serbian television at the time wherever he was able to put forward, to

15 explain his theory according to which the Croatian people had a genocidal

16 nature.

17 Therefore, in the public's eyes, the connection was made.

18 The example which I read out a little while ago I believe makes

19 use of that conflation.

20 JUDGE MAY: Very well. I think really we must move on. The

21 second question or the second point which is made is that you have been

22 playing down the genocide, as it's put, during the Second World War. Is

23 that right or not? Have you been playing that down?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no. Absolutely not. I want to

25 be very clear about that. If I put it into quotation marks, the word

1 "genocide" in quotation marks, because even historians raise that

2 question, because there is not an agreement about the extent of the number

3 of the victims of that genocide. So to -- using the word "genocide" was

4 referring to that historical uncertainty, not the fact that the massacre

5 took place but what the extent of the massacre was. It's in no way a

6 denial of the genocide.

7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

8 Q. Very well. Since you're doing the same thing as the new Croatian

9 regime did after the elections, that is minimising the genocide, here is

10 what the Wiesenthal centre says. In the Wiesenthal centre, and you can

11 find this, you can take the Internet and search for it. "Jasenovac was

12 the largest camp in Croatia [In English] between 1941 and 1945 under

13 department 3 of the Croatian security police. About 600.000 people were

14 murdered here, Serbs, Jewish, [Interpretation] In brackets 30.000 of them,

15 Gypsies and opponents of the Ustasha regime."

16 So you are claiming that the figures don't match and that this is

17 something in dispute in your opinion, but for the Wiesenthal centre, it is

18 not in dispute. You will also be able to find his definition of the

19 concept of Ustasha and the Wiesenthal centre says and I quote again:

20 "Created in 1930 [In English] Was a Croatian national terrorist

21 organisation. Its members [Interpretation] Ustasha was a Croatian

22 terrorist organisation. Its member's hatred of the Jews was only rivalled

23 by their hatred of the Serbs. [In English] Power of the Hitler created a

24 Croatian puppet state. In 1941 Ustasha terrorists killed 500.000 Serbs,

25 expelled 250.000 and forced 250.000 to convert to Catholicism. They

1 murdered thousands of Jewish and Gypsies."

2 [Interpretation] Are you aware of these facts? Can't you see

3 that --

4 JUDGE MAY: Let him answer. Let him answer.

5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] To be very clear, I'm not denying

6 that hundreds of thousands of Serbs and other peoples were massacred,

7 massacred in the camps. What I'm simply trying to say is that since I'm

8 not an historian, I saw the various estimates in respect of the various

9 numbers of deaths which would -- and they weren't the same in all the

10 different articles, but there was a spread from 500 to 900.000.

11 Since I'm not an historian, since I see there is no absolute

12 consensus on the specific number of deaths in those Croatian camps, I

13 thought that it would be more prudent to put in the quotations around the

14 word "genocide." If that was understood differently, I am sorry, but that

15 was my intention as a person who is not an historian. I wanted to show

16 caution in this area.

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. de la Brosse, perhaps your report would have

18 been strengthened in this respect if the explanation that you just gave

19 had been inserted either as a footnote or indeed in the text, the

20 explanation, that is, as to why you have "genocide" in quotation marks.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May I move on?

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: No. I'd like the witness to comment on that.

23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, I should have indicated that in

24 a footnote. It is true that when I prepared the report my objective was

25 to describe the propaganda mechanisms, and it is true that I was not aware

1 of the need or of the significance there would be in dealing with certain

2 historical facts about which I did not feel qualified, and for that

3 reason, that might have been something clumsy on my part. If I were to

4 redo this work, I would include a footnote that I was led by caution,

5 perhaps in a clumsy way, to explain why I put quotations around that word

6 and not being an historian, and I could not come to a specific decision

7 about a factual issue that -- an issue dealing with facts that had

8 occurred.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. Very well. And I will prove to you now that this reference to

11 your lack of qualifications is not correct and that, in fact, it testifies

12 to your lack of objectivity.

13 In footnote 119, you quote the sorrowful comments by

14 Florence Hartmann because the parallel showing of Franjo Tudjman and

15 Ante Pavelic's speeches - and Ante Pavelic headed this puppet state in

16 1941 - in a TV programme on the 27th of July 1991. So my question to you

17 is: Are you aware that Tudjman in those quoted speeches said something

18 that Pavelic also said, namely do you know that at the rally of the HDZ

19 held on the 24th and 25th of February, 1990 in Zagreb, the then-elected

20 president of that newly formed party, Tudjman, said among other things and

21 I quote: "The Independent State of Croatia," and he's referring to the

22 Pavelic state, "was not only a quisling entity and a fascist crime but

23 also an expression of the historic aspirations of the Croatian people."

24 End of quotation.

25 Therefore, you say that you are uninformed, that you are not an

1 historian, but the lament of Florence Hartmann regarding the link between

2 Tudjman and Pavelic you find necessary to quote. But as you see, the link

3 is quite obvious and quite clear.

4 What would be your comment to that, Mr. de la Brosse?

5 A. If I quoted that excerpt from a work by Florence Hartmann, it has

6 to do with the fact that she also shows, with examples, what the

7 amalgamation was that was made between those responsible for the genocide

8 and massacres committed by the Croats during the Second World War and what

9 Franjo Tudjman was prepared -- was preparing to do allegedly. I didn't

10 read the work that you're referring to by Franjo Tudjman. If I used this

11 quotation, it is because the constant recalling of the past - constant -

12 and the comparison made between the Croatian government of 1990 and that

13 in the Second World War, in the readers' minds and the television viewer's

14 mind, what is created is a type of confusion, because what -- what

15 is-- message is that as the regime is on the point of -- of repeating the

16 massacres, the massacres that were committed by the Ustashas during the

17 Second World War. And the quotation which I gave you a little while ago

18 by Jovan Raskovic in Politika, the 25th of March, 1990, is, in my opinion,

19 something which sheds light on what we're talking about.

20 Q. So you find that is the justification for this. But the link, as

21 you can see from the quotation, was made by Tudjman himself, because he

22 says that that entity was the historic expression of the aspirations of

23 the Croatian people. So it was not the Belgrade press that made this link

24 but he himself. Isn't that right or not?

25 A. I didn't read that work by Tudjman that you're referring to.

1 Q. I said it was his speech at a Congress of the HDZ which you should

2 have read if you're denying this link with -- which he himself made in

3 that same speech.

4 JUDGE MAY: We have it. We have the point, Mr. Milosevic, insofar

5 as there is one. You said Tudjman referred in a speech in 1990 to the NDH

6 government and said it represented the aspirations of the people of

7 Croatia. The witness is saying to you that the constant repetition of

8 these wrongs in the 1990s, the constant repetition of this was a way of

9 building up hatred and a way of justifying the use of force and violence.

10 That's his evidence. What the significance is of it will be a matter for

11 us.

12 Now, there is not much point going on arguing about what

13 Mr. Tudjman may or may not have said.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Maybe he didn't say it. Very well.

15 He may not have said it. And maybe he did not make this link. Then we're

16 okay.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. But tell me, please, how do you, as a media expert, because you

19 keep referring to this amalgamation, and obviously there's an amalgamation

20 between you and Florence Hartmann, between you and this illegal OTP and

21 not the way you put it. How can you, as an expert for the media, who

22 doesn't know the language which the media use, in paragraph 52, second

23 paragraph on page 49, when the TV was the only source of information for

24 more than 90 per cent of the Serbs in confirmation of that in footnote

25 107, you quote from an article by Nicole du Roy, who with a very moderate

1 title, "Serbia Paranoiac Television," et cetera, you have the references

2 there, and the quotation is: In this country Serbia where 46 per cent of

3 the people are illiterate, which would mean every other inhabitant, the

4 only form of media information which covers the whole territory are

5 information broadcast by state television."

6 It seems to me, Mr. de la Brosse, that even you who upon the

7 instructions of the opposite side prepared this report, this is going a

8 little too far in saying that in Serbia 46 per cent of the people are

9 illiterate. People are watching in Serbia and probably they can't believe

10 their own ears, but --

11 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, this will be your last question,

12 because you've now gone on for half an hour. Yes. But you can finish it.

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. But those are your sources, Mr. de la Brosse. Forty-six per cent

15 of the people in Serbia are illiterate.

16 A. I think that you're confusing illiteracy and people who haven't

17 studied. Here we are speaking of people whose only diploma would be from

18 primary school. We're not talking about people who can't read and write

19 at all. Reading -- that's not the same thing. People who have limited

20 education and those who are illiterate.

21 Q. That is a very lame excuse. A little later in the report, you say

22 that state television, at the end of page 90, 91, paragraph 110, you say

23 that state television and I quote now: "For 30 per cent of the population

24 who have not completed elementary school was the only and exclusive source

25 of information."

1 So now you are referring to those who not completed eight years of

2 elementary school. Earlier on it was four years, and it was increased to

3 eight years. So the number of people who do not have elementary school

4 education is 30 per cent. So you haven't even bothered to be consistent

5 in your own report so as not to repeat different pieces of information and

6 figures in different places.

7 What does this mean then, that 30 per cent of the population have

8 not completed elementary school? A moment ago you said 46 per cent were

9 illiterate, and neither of those figures are correct.

10 JUDGE MAY: Mr. de la Brosse, answer that question it you would,

11 and that will conclude the cross-examination. Yes.

12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I relied on several sources,

13 including Nicole du Roy. I also used -- for numbers which would show the

14 importance and weight of television and its impact on the population which

15 was not familiar -- was not used to reading a great deal, I relied on

16 several figures. Specifically as regards the weight of television, since

17 it was the main medium covering Serbian territory and therefore the

18 principal information or news medium for most of the population, I would

19 refer to a report prepared in about -- which was about the elections in

20 Serbia in 1990 through 2000 that were prepared by two fellows from the

21 University of Belgrade called: "Television Elections and -- Elections in

22 Serbia, 1990 to 2000, TV images in government and opposition".

23 The study was done by Jovanka Matic. Jovanka Matic. And by

24 Snezana Milojevic, and it is based on figures provided by RTS television

25 at the time.

1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, just a couple of questions

2 more. You told me I had another two or -- you didn't say I had two or

3 three questions left.

4 JUDGE MAY: I think we've really had sufficient time on this.

5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May.

6 [Trial Chamber confers]

7 JUDGE MAY: I've consulted. My colleagues think you should have

8 two more questions, and literally that, otherwise we shall never finish

9 this witness.

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Here is one question, please. To

11 make it clear to you, I have taken out of the binder that you have

12 provided me for Mr. Kristan, this is Borba, a federal newspaper, dated of

13 the 17th of March. The opposing side, in its opening statement, said that

14 on that occasion I said that Yugoslavia was dead, and the sentence that is

15 clearly quoted here says: "The Presidency of SFRY has not been

16 functioning for a long time, and the illusion of the efforts of the

17 Presidency of Yugoslavia and the efforts which in fact are lacking as of

18 tonight are definitely dead."

19 So I'm saying that the illusion regarding the efforts of the

20 Presidency are dead because it fell apart, whereas the opposing side said

21 that I had said that Yugoslavia was dead.

22 JUDGE MAY: Very well.

23 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

24 Q. As you're an expert for the media, the question is: Do you

25 consider this to be a manipulation if I say that an illusion that there

1 are efforts which are -- do not exist are dead, is it a manipulation if I

2 am alleged to have said that Yugoslavia was dead?

3 JUDGE MAY: That's not a question for the witness. You can -- you

4 can ask one more question.

5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

7 Q. Mr. de la Brosse, I gave you a hundred pages of various different

8 non-Yugoslav articles, articles that were not published in Serbia, and I

9 have another one of the 31st of December, 1999, referring to the witness

10 Barani who testified here, saying that his allegations were investigated,

11 that it was established that they were not true, and it ends with the

12 quotation: "Mr. Barani doesn't completely stand by his story. 'I told

13 everybody that was a supposition. It was not confirmed information,' he

14 says, [In English] 'But he says for the Serbs everything is possible.'"

15 So these fabricated falsehoods and everything that you read in

16 those 100 pages, would you have made somewhat different conclusions if you

17 had consulted all those sources instead of your own selective sources

18 which show that you did not make a study of the contents of the media

19 reports?

20 JUDGE MAY: The witness need not answer because it's totally

21 irrelevant, a report about Mr. Barani. It's nothing to do with the

22 witness at all. Just a moment, please.

23 But, Mr. de la Brosse, you should have the opportunity of

24 commenting on the articles we invited you to look at which the accused

25 produced to you on the last occasion you were here. So if you have any

1 comments on them, this is the time to make them.

2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I consulted -- well, I went through

3 all of these press excerpts, mostly from the international press, and I

4 had several problems in respect of the nature and status of the excerpts

5 from the various newspapers because there is no information about the

6 author's status. We don't know whether it's an article by one person or

7 some of the texts are in quotation marks, others are not. So I would

8 simply like to point out the difficulty I would have in reacting to this

9 type of text by giving you one example, the one of page 13, which is an

10 article by Thomas Fleiner that was published in a Swiss newspaper in

11 German, the Die Welt Woche, and the name of it has to do with demonisation

12 of a people in 1994.

13 The article is in quotations. Nothing is known about the author,

14 and so I took the initiative and I did some research into the author, and

15 I tried to find the article. It turns out that I was able to find a

16 document by Thomas Fleiner which can be found on a Serbian site. I could

17 give you the Internet address if we put the document on the -- the ELMO.

18 And the text which is published by an academician in Switzerland

19 and it's about ten pages long, the excerpt that it was suggested I comment

20 on is presented as an ordinary speech which in fact does not correspond

21 with reality, because in the text which you see on the Internet site which

22 has the entire speech, when you -- I was asked to comment on the first

23 part. The beginning of the text comes from the second page of the work of

24 this academician. And then the -- I was also asked to look at something

25 which appears on page 5, and it goes on to page 6 and then goes on to page

1 8 and further yet to page 10.

2 In the article that I was asked to comment on, nothing is said

3 about the fact that the article, about the pieces of the article come from

4 different passage of a text that was prepared by an academician which in

5 itself is problematical because I'm not sure that by working that way we

6 are respecting the author's thoughts, and it seems to me they were rather

7 distorting the intention and the demonstration made by that author.

8 In particular when we're dealing with an article whose purpose was

9 to see to what extent the multi-ethnic experience in Switzerland can be

10 used to investigate matters in the Balkans. There are certain positions

11 taken by the author particularly in favour of pluralism in the media

12 within Yugoslavia, and that leaves doubts with me in respect of the

13 meaning to be given to the author's text if I compare what I was asked to

14 compare with the entire text, and so I would have difficulty in commenting

15 on that type of text.

16 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Well, plainly if we are to introduce these --

17 No. You've been on long enough.

18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm --

19 JUDGE MAY: You can address us at the end.

20 If we are going to admit any of these articles, plainly we should

21 not admit excerpts, we should admit the whole article because otherwise

22 the meaning can be distorted. But we'll consider that in a moment.

23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May.

24 JUDGE MAY: No. You can address that at the end.

25 THE ACCUSED: I have an objection, Mr. May.

1 JUDGE MAY: No. You can make it at the end. You've gone on long

2 enough today. Let Mr. Tapuskovic cross-examine.

3 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour. I really

4 did do my best to select a topic from the vast subjects that could be

5 discussed here, so I have selected three or four which I consider to be of

6 importance for your -- the Judges' deliberation was respect to all the

7 problems before you, Your Honours. So I really would ask you to allot me

8 some time to go through them. I'll be as quick as possible. And if

9 Mr. de la Brosse gives me yes or no answers wherever possible, that would

10 be a great help. I think I will be able to get through my questions very

11 quickly.

12 Questioned by Mr. Tapuskovic:

13 Q. [Interpretation] Mr. de la Brosse, let me start off from paragraph

14 111, if I may, and that is towards the end of your report, in fact.

15 Perhaps I won't have time to yet through everything I wish to get through,

16 but it is a paragraph which is titled or, rather, first of all, it was

17 entitled "The impossibility of a democratic political alternative." That

18 was the first title. And then we received a correction to this effect:

19 It now reads as follows: "Impossibility of a democratic change over

20 political power." That's right, isn't it?

21 A. Yes.

22 Q. In the first sentence of that report of yours and paragraph, you

23 say that the monopoly over information, the state television monopoly over

24 information and to a lesser degree the national radio monopoly was a

25 guarantee that Slobodan Milosevic would cash in on extraordinary political

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1 royalties. Is that right? Is that what you say?

2 A. Yes.

3 Q. And then you conclude by saying that this media supremacy and how

4 this -- this will pay off many -- many-fold prior to the elections, and

5 the same would be repeated at the December 1992 elections. Is that right?

6 A. 1990.

7 Q. Yes, 1990 and 1992, that this will be repeated in December 1992 as

8 well.

9 A. Yes.

10 Q. Now, my questions are as follows: In response to a question from

11 Mr. Nice during your examination-in-chief, you said that in Yugoslavia,

12 that is to say in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, you arrived

13 there in 1994 and that you dealt in journalism. And prior to the war in

14 Kosovo, you published an article linked to propaganda. Is that correct?

15 A. Yes. I said that in 1994 I directed a work on the media and

16 hatred than I wrote an article on the impossibility of covering the war in

17 Kosovo.

18 Q. Mr. de la Brosse, I'm going to try and present you with facts. In

19 view of the fact that you lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia for

20 the period of time you did, were you aware of a notorious fact at the

21 time, namely that the Albanians in Kosovo did not go out to the elections

22 to vote for a whole decade, and quite certainly they did not in 1990 and

23 1992. Did you know about this undisputed fact, the fact that the

24 Albanians did not go to the polls?

25 A. No.

1 Q. You didn't know about that, something like that, and you spent so

2 much time there? Can you compare, for example, the propaganda you

3 discussed in your report with the propaganda that was used, utilised in

4 order to have people not go to the elections at all, not go to vote? And

5 it is a fact that the Albanians did not go to vote for ten years. But the

6 important years for me that I'd like to focus on is 1990 and 1992. So did

7 you hear about the propaganda that lead out to the fact that the Albanians

8 took no part in Serbia's political life at all.

9 A. Let me make a clarification. I began to work in 1994. I

10 made -- prepared a comparative study on the use of propaganda and the

11 propagation of ethnic hatred. I worked on that from 1994 to 1995. And

12 then in 1996 I published another article. I never said that I spent

13 a -- many years in the former Yugoslavia.

14 Q. Mr. de la Brosse, I have to hurry this up a little. Now, why I'm

15 asking you this is because you conclude, you observe in paragraph 111

16 titled "Impossibility of a democratic changeover of a political power,"

17 you make a conclusion there. Now, let me take you through 1992. You

18 mentioned Milan Panic, for example, who in 1992 was a counter-candidate to

19 Slobodan Milosevic. Slobodan Milosevic, as far as I recall, got a few

20 more votes, although ten years -- that was ten years ago.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Just a million. A million more.

22 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Right, a million more. So quite

23 a substantial difference.

24 Q. Now, do you know that the democratic opposition in Serbia in 1992

25 already had solid foundations, it had a good response among the people?

1 What it did came across a good response from the population. Are you

2 aware of that?

3 A. You referred to two elections, 1990 and 1992. I would like to go

4 back to the purpose of the paragraph 111. Here I am referring to the

5 media coverage of the December 1990 elections during which the opposition

6 did not have a fair access to the audio-visual media of the state. I

7 remind you that television is the main news medium for the vast majority

8 of the Serbian people, and so there was an inequality, and I'm referring

9 to the study that was prepared, "Television and elections in Serbia" --

10 Q. You've explained all that. Mr. De la Brosse, you've explained all

11 that in your report. I'm not asking you to repeat what you've explained

12 in the report.

13 You spoke about the influence of the authorities on the elections

14 and you don't know the notorious facts that the Albanians in 1990 did not

15 go to the polls. But I'm not interested in that either. What I'm

16 interested in is this: Had the Albanians gone out to the elections in

17 1992 would the authorities have remained in power? Would

18 Slobodan Milosevic himself have remained in power? Can you answer that

19 question for me, please?

20 A. Apparently not.

21 Q. The Albanians gone out to vote, there would have been a million

22 votes added to Milan Panic's vote. Pure arithmetic would have shown that

23 had they wanted to have a parliamentary struggle, Slobodan Milosevic and

24 the authorities would not have been able to stay if power?

25 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Mr. Tapuskovic, let's move on.

1 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] I will move on to another

2 subject, but I think this is quite obvious and self-evident, but it is up

3 to you to assess, of course. I have just broached the question.

4 Q. Now, something else. What you state in paragraph 68. And we

5 dealt at length on the issue. It is as you said the paranoia of

6 conspiracy, I think you called it. And in you first statement, you say:

7 "However, what set Serbian nationalism far apart was its paranoia."

8 That's right, isn't it? That's what you say?

9 A. Yes.

10 Q. And then in the next paragraph, paragraph 69, and you've already

11 spoken about that too, you mentioned Dobrica Cosic and say that when he

12 was the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and you quote his

13 words, "it is a question of a total war being waged against our nation,"

14 and you wind up by invoking the influence of the mass media. Are you

15 referring to the mass media with respect to the world information media?

16 A. Could you indicate the passage again, please?

17 A. It is paragraph 69, the last sentence. Just before paragraph 70.

18 A. Yes. I think that he's speaking about the international media.

19 Q. Very well, yes. Now take a look at paragraph 75, if you would,

20 the beginning of paragraph 75. And you say: "When despite everything

21 certain information directly implicating Serbian responsibility for the

22 perpetuation of atrocities managed to filter through, it was distorted.

23 On the 27th of May, 1992, 17 inhabitants of Sarajevo were killed by a

24 Serbian shell, and 150 wounded as they were queueing for bread. The

25 picture of the massacre would be broadcast by RTS only with the Serb's

1 official version of events later on, which accused the Sarajevo government

2 of having organised it to cause the West to intercede."

3 Is that correct?

4 A. What I say is that on Serbian television, the only thing shown was

5 one version.

6 Q. Don't you know that the whole of Serbia was watching this on that

7 day and that the citizens of Serbia watched with horror these images that

8 were broadcast? You don't know about that, that they were horrified?

9 A. Let me reread this, please. So what was your question?

10 Q. Well, I don't want to go back to the question. If you didn't

11 understand it, I have to move on.

12 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I should like at

13 this point to open up several questions dealt with by Mr. de la Brosse

14 which in the future work related to Bosnia -- actually, he analysed what

15 happened in Vasa Miskin Street. I think this will be of great importance

16 to Your Honours. That is my opinion, at least.

17 Q. So I would like to ask the witness before that. Before I go on to

18 Vasa Miskin Street and the event there, does he know at all, he can just

19 give me a yes or no answer, whether he knows of the existence of the

20 American agency for relations with the public Norton Hill, and Ruder and

21 Fin. Has he heard of those two agencies? If he deals in propaganda and

22 is testifying before us in court here --

23 A. You are allude to go an American agency which Mr. Parenti talks

24 about in his book?

25 Q. No. I'm just asking you whether you know of the existence of

1 those two agencies, Norton Hill and Ruder and Fin, and that they lobbied

2 for the Bosnian and Croatian side. Are you aware of that? Do you know

3 about that? Do you have knowledge of that? Give me a yes or no answer,

4 please?

5 A. No.

6 Q. And on French television in 1993 given the fact that you deal in

7 propaganda, did you hear a statement made by James Harf and I'm just going

8 to read several sentences, just give me a yes or no answer once again

9 please. "It is not up to us to check out the truthfulness of information.

10 We are not capacitated to do so. What is our task is to disseminate

11 useful information as soon as possible. Independently of that, the

12 Croatian and Muslim past were such that they were coloured by strong

13 anti-Semitism. Dozens of thousands of Jews were killed in concentration

14 camps and everything spoke in favour of the fact that intellectuals and

15 the Jewish organisations would be hostilely disposed towards the Croats

16 and Bosnians. For us this was a challenge to have this position changed

17 at its very roots. For us, this was a great success, magnificent success.

18 When the Jewish organisations stood on the side of Bosnian organisations,

19 we were able to equate the Serbs straight away in public" --

20 JUDGE MAY: Now, Mr. Tapuskovic --

21 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] -- "The Nazis."

22 JUDGE MAY: What do you see in your control as amicus the purpose

23 of this question? How is it of assistance or how are you trying to assist

24 the Court?

25 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I said that I would

1 use concrete examples to link all this up, because Mr. de la Brosse spoke

2 about Vasa Miskin Street, the incident there, and how that fact, what

3 happened there was assessed in Serbia. And these will be things that you

4 will be dealing with many times in times to come. And let me tell you

5 why. He doesn't know about this statement. All right. I'm satisfied the

6 answer and it will be useful to you. But do you know --

7 JUDGE MAY: Are you going to put -- very simply, is this the point

8 of it all, that there was manipulation of propaganda by Bosnians or

9 Croats? Is that the point that you're making?

10 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Well, no. I stated the quotation

11 by Mr. de la Brosse that Dobrica Cosic said there was a conspiracy afoot

12 against the Serbs than the world media were used for that purpose,

13 harnessed for that purpose, and it is along those lines that I am

14 examining the witness.

15 JUDGE MAY: Isn't that really a matter for Mr. Milosevic to put

16 forward? Is it really a matter for the amicus to get into this kind of

17 argument?

18 Yes, Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff.

19 MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honours, I may be of assistance.

20 Mr. Milosevic actually put forward these arguments when he referred to a

21 person, Merlinot who appeared and made such allegations, and he actually

22 quoted quite lengthy the same things that Mr. Tapuskovic puts now.

23 JUDGE MAY: I seem to remember the quotation attributed to

24 Mr. Harf. Yes. Just one moment.

25 [Trial Chamber confers]

1 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Tapuskovic, we must ask you to move on. These are

2 matters which Mr. Milosevic has already raised. We are familiar with the

3 argument, and it's not going to assist us to have it reiterated. And time

4 is short. We really have a limit on the time available.

5 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I won't go back to

6 that issue, no, but the three events that he mentions in his report I

7 would have to put forward to you here and also to hear his comments.

8 Q. Is it true that on the 27th of May, 1992, in the bread line a

9 shell killed all these people and 150 were wounded, 150 wounded and 17

10 inhabitants killed? Is that correct? And that's what you say in your

11 report, don't you?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. And is it also true and correct that all the world agencies

14 carried this news item that day and on the following days, that they

15 repeated this many times? Is that true as well?

16 A. The fact that the media and the international agencies gave

17 information about the massacre, reported on the massacre, yes.

18 Q. And is it also true and correct that on that same day in Lisbon,

19 negotiations were interrupted between the three national delegations which

20 were discussing the constitutional order to come? They began on the 21st

21 of May, the Portuguese Ambassador, Cutileiro, the presiding officer

22 interrupted the conference on that very day; is that correct?

23 A. I believe so.

24 Q. Is it also true and correct that on the 30th of May, a Security

25 Council decision was taken on 757 Resolution introducing sanctions against

1 the FRY, Serbia and Montenegro. Is that true? Did the United Nations

2 Security Council make that decision without previously ascertaining who

3 was responsible for the incident in the first place?

4 JUDGE MAY: What is the point of reiterating all this,

5 Mr. Tapuskovic? I want to know what the point is and I have not got it.

6 What are you going to put to the witness?

7 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, you will be able to

8 ascertain the truth here about Racak, for instance. You are going to

9 decide on what happened in Racak, whether it was civilians who were killed

10 or something else. Here before public opinion, international public

11 opinion, the news was put forward that the crime was committed by the

12 Serbs.

13 Now, Mr. de la Brosse is here. Was it ever established who used

14 and deployed the shell? Whereas what followed the incident was sanctions

15 imposed against Serbia. So that is the point of my question.

16 JUDGE MAY: Very well. We've heard this argument before. You're

17 suggesting that it was the Bosnians who were responsible. This witness

18 isn't to deal with that. He's merely dealing with propaganda. And we've

19 heard all these arguments. We hear them from the accused all the time.

20 Now, you must consider your role as amicus and consider that

21 you're not putting forward a positive case on behalf of anybody. And I

22 must ask you to finish this -- just a moment.

23 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours --

24 JUDGE MAY: I must ask you to finish this in the next ten minutes,

25 by quarter past.

1 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I will finish

2 whenever you want me to, but I must say quite seriously that I'm

3 constantly under time constraints, and it is very difficult for me to

4 perform my role as amicus curiae. So I ask myself whether I am necessary

5 to the Trial Chamber in this case at all. I cannot work under pressure of

6 this kind. And let me say also -- I have to say this although maybe it's

7 not the right place, but I am the oldest person here and I can't be under

8 stress constantly as to be given instruction when and what to ask. If I

9 can't raise issues of this kind, then my services serve no purpose here.

10 It has nothing to do with Mr. Milosevic here, but it has to do with

11 questions that you will have to deliberate about and make a ruling on.

12 If I'm superfluous here, then I no longer wish to perform this

13 role.

14 JUDGE MAY: Go on to your next point, provided it's not going over

15 old ground which we've covered already.

16 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] We have the occurrence of the 5th

17 of February, 1994, the Markale incident. Sixty-eight dead in that

18 incident in Sarajevo. On that particular day, the truth is disseminated

19 for Markale, the first Markale incident. In 1996, it was established that

20 this was really perpetrated by the Muslim side.

21 JUDGE MAY: These points are all made by Mr. Milosevic. It's not

22 helpful to have them reiterated with this witness. No doubt we'll have to

23 make a decision about it. This witness can't help.

24 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Well, let me really shorten what

25 I wanted to say. I wanted to raise a topic here, and that is this: It

1 was stated that Cosic and the Academy of Arts and Sciences, that they were

2 constantly putting out certain information as to a Serb conspiracy or,

3 rather, an international conspiracy. That's what de la Brosse speaks

4 about. I just wanted to raise this question, that before anything was

5 established, certain steps were taken against certain states. I, of

6 course, know that you can not establish that at this point in time.

7 You'll clear it up at the end. But before the truth was known about

8 anything, certain actions were taken on the part of the international

9 state against -- community against that state. And that's the question I

10 wanted to raise. And this was done on three occasion up until the

11 bombings, which did not wait for a decision as to what had happened at the

12 Markale 3 incident, but I don't want to go back to that.

13 I want to end by raising a question we had here already and which

14 refers to propaganda. You will recall, I'm sure, that with witness Jeri

15 Laber, for example, I broached a particular question which had to do with

16 propaganda precisely because in December 1992, the Muslim leaders in

17 Bosnia accused the Bosnian Serbs of raping 50.000 Muslim women in camps

18 where they held them as detainees, as prisoners.

19 Q. Do you know about that? Do you know about that incident?

20 A. Are you referring to a witness who appeared at this Tribunal?

21 Q. I'm referring to a testimony. But I'm asking you whether you know

22 about this, these facts and figures. And they are contained in a document

23 that was already raised here in court, and it has been tendered into

24 evidence, admitted into evidence.

25 A. I had access to that testimony.

1 Q. Do you know about that piece of information or not? Did you read

2 in Newsweek that 30 to 50.000 rapes this had been committed by Serb

3 soldiers, that this was put out before the sanctions were imposed?

4 A. I wasn't aware of that at the time. I learnt it from

5 Mr. Parenti's book.

6 Q. But it was one of the arguments before the sanctions were imposed

7 against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

8 JUDGE MAY: That's nothing to do with this witness why sanctions

9 were imposed.

10 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] That's true.

11 Q. But do you know that there was even a report by the Council of

12 Europe that was put out which speaks about the rape of 20.000 Muslim

13 women. And after that, the International Red Cross made a statement by

14 Philippe Miserez which said there was no evidence that camps of that kind

15 of existed or ever existed. He stresses that the greatest part of

16 prisoners of war were held in Bosnia by all sides and there were 10.000 in

17 July 1992 and the accusations were exaggerated. Do you know about that?

18 Have you heard about that?

19 A. I learned it in Mr. Parenti's book.

20 Q. Can I refer to another topic? But I don't know whether I'll be

21 able to complete it within the space of three or four minutes. Can I

22 start my third topic or shall I give up on it?

23 JUDGE MAY: You can start it now.

24 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation]

25 Q. In paragraph 96, you speak about the fact that the Serbs or,

1 rather, the Serbia authorities via radio and television Serbia played the

2 nationalistic card as it says here and the air raids were considered to be

3 an international conspiracy against Serbia. That's what you state here.

4 And a little further on you go on to say the following, that even the

5 least collateral damage for which responsibility was taken over by the

6 allied aviation, air force, was exploited by the media, and the target was

7 inside and outside to strengthen the idea that it really was a war against

8 the civilian population. That is what you write in your report.

9 A. In paragraph 96, I can find it, but I don't see the second part.

10 Q. Paragraph 97, that is, the middle of the paragraph. No, 98. I'm

11 sorry, it's paragraph 98 that I'm referring to and they mostly said that a

12 F170 American aeroplane was shot down and that this was exaggerated and

13 exploited, the slightest collateral damage caused by NATO aircraft was

14 exploited for external and internal consumption, et cetera.

15 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Yes, what is the questio