Arrested and delivered to the Hague

Former President of Yugoslavia Zoran Lilic has been recently detained in Belgrade. The Hague needed him to testify at Milosevic trial. Lilic was the head of the state during the period of 1993-1997, then his position was taken by Slobodan Milosevic.

Lilic said that he received a phone call from the president of Belgrade district court on July 11 at 12:45 and said that he would soon be given a notice of court appointment to go to The Hague. Lilic refused to testify at the Milosevic trial before, so the Tribunal decided to force the witness to come to The Hague. One can also suppose, how strong the pressure on the former Yugoslav president will be in The Hague itself. The Serbian government also had its hand in expelling Lilic from the country – the government issued (or was forced to issue, to be more precise) the document for detaining Lilic. He was arrested at his office in Belgrade.

Lilic was not willing to give up anyway. His wife said that they took him away after he refused to sign anything. This happened like it was with Milosevic, without any commotion, without any official comments on the part of the official government of Yugoslavia. No man – no problem (no problem for officials from the “ruling democratic coalition” – the Democratic Opposition of Serbia).

Radio Jugoslavija stated in its weekly review of the Serbian press: “Former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic as a witness of The Hague Tribunal – this information is published on front pages of Yugoslav newspapers.” Well, this is a fact: one can read the “information” about such things in Serbian newspapers. Radio Jugoslavija wrote only two sentences about it in its weekly review. This is the last sentence: “Zoran Lilic agreed to act as a witness at Milosevic trial. He left to the Hague yesterday.” Now they call it as “agreed.” The end.

Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov