BBC: Slobodan Milosevic Interrogates 'Facist' Croatian President

BBC reports that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic has started his interrogation of the incumbent Croatia President, Stipe Mesic. This is the first time that a president has been a witness in the Hague Tribunal. The prosecution expects to obtain important information from him. There was a period in 1991 when Mesic held the presidential post in the whole of Yugoslavia.

The other day, Stipe Mesic spoke out and blamed Milosevic for organizing a coup d’etat “for the disintegration of Yugoslavia for the sake of creating a Greater Serbia," for the intention of splitting up Bosnia and Croatia. He also stated, for this purpose, the Yugoslavian army was supported and Serbian leaders in neighboring republics were supported.

PRAVDA.Ru has reported that Milosevic called Mesic a Croatian fascist, accused him of inciting Croatian nationalism, extermination of the Serbian civil population, and breaking the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Yesterday, Slobodan Milosevic called Stipe Mesic “a witness who is dubious in every respect.”

Vremya Novostey informed that “last week, the Croatians refused to deliver retired General Janko Bobetko to the Hague. Zagreb considers the actions of its army and police directed against Serbs as part of its national struggle for liberation, but not ethnic cleansing on Croatian territories where Serbs are currently living. Because of these actions, over 300,000 Serbs were forced to leave Croatia for Serbia and Bosnia.”

The trial on Slobodan Milosevic has entered its second stage, in which war crimes allegedly committed by the ex-president of Yugoslavia during the ethnic conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina will be considered.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/02/47881.html

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