1 Friday, 27 September 2002

2 [Defence Opening Statement]

3 [Open session]

4 [The accused entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.02 a.m.

6 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yesterday, we left off when we were

8 talking about the nonsensical position of the alleged criminal enterprise

9 to throw out the Croats from one-third of the area, whereas we see that it

10 was quite the contrary in that third, or what you call a third of the

11 area; it was the Serbs that were forced to leave with the greatest ethnic

12 cleansing that was ever recorded in that entire war against Yugoslavia.

13 And now look at these two positions: In the additional facts, number 94

14 and 95, points 94 and 95. You say that in April and May 1990, elections

15 were held, the Croatian Democratic Community had the majority, won the

16 majority vote, and then you go on to say, "Before the elections in Knin, a

17 nationalistic Serbian Democratic Party was formed, the SDS, which

18 advocated autonomy and later on secession." And that, as you have

19 compiled it, should be and should go to show that it was under the

20 influence of Belgrade, that a movement of some kind of the Serbs for

21 criminal enterprise was set up, et cetera, et cetera. Whereas had you

22 just from the first citizen in the street that you came across, you tried

23 to collect and gather up information and facts, you would have seen that

24 the Serbs in Croatia in 1990, when that party was set up and which went to

25 the elections, the Serbs in Croatia en masse, over 90 per cent of them,

1 voted for the League of Communists of Croatia, in fact, and not for that

2 particular party. The League of Communists of Croatia, whose president at

3 the time was the present Prime Minister of Croatia, Ivica Racan.

4 And as you know, in the League of Communists in Croatia, there was

5 an enormous number of Croats, too, many more Croats, in fact, than there

6 were Serbs. And of course, members and other sympathisers and so on,

7 party supporters. And that that is true is borne out by the fact that in

8 an area where the Serbs in the majority, Banija, Kordun, Western Slavonia,

9 Sremska the Srem Baranja region, it was the League of Communists of

10 Croatia which won the elections and not what you're saying at all, that

11 there was some kind of movement and especially that it was initiated, to

12 boot, in Belgrade.

13 Twenty-one members in the Croatian Sabor parliament were elected

14 from the list of the League of Communists of Croatia. And it was only the

15 Serbian Democratic Party of Knin that won in Knin, Benkovac, and Obrovac,

16 those two small municipalities, and one more in Donji Lapac.

17 Therefore, it is quite -- if you have the material facts before

18 you and if you look at those facts, then there's no need for me to go into

19 any explanation and to explain that what you're in fact saying here is not

20 at all true, let alone later on or even before that and in the course of

21 that process the Serbs were let go en masse from the state administration,

22 from the police, from other services, there was a mass pogrom, there was

23 the killing of Serbs, the burning of their houses, and so on and so forth.

24 And when Croatia was proclaimed in mid-July and when the League of

25 Communists of Croatia left the political scene to all intents and

1 purposes, then it was spontaneously in that process that they joined the

2 Serbian Democratic Party because they had nowhere else to go. They were

3 not able to find any support or fulcrum anywhere else for their political

4 life and that's what happened. That was quite logical at that time.

5 The truth, then, is quite opposite to what you are claiming and

6 putting forward here. It was the Serbs who were persecuted, in danger,

7 under threat, and killed, and quite literally they had no chance

8 whatsoever since that Ustasha-type regime came to the fore with Stipe

9 Mesic and Tudjman as its leaders.

10 Now, I'm going to use some of your sources, Western sources, not

11 Milosevic's and Serb sources. Look at what Susan Woodward, for example,

12 writes. She's a well-known US scientist, the Brooklyn Institution, and it

13 is on page 107, published in 1995, 'The Balkan Tragedy' is the name of her

14 book, in which she says the following: "The Croatian government [in

15 English] [previous translation continues]... to protect their citizens

16 from a vicious outburst of anti-Serb terrorism saw mixed communities of

17 Dalmatia in interior during the summer months 1989 - 1989 - when cross

18 zealots smashed storefronts, fire-bombed homes, and harassed and arrested

19 potential Serb leaders. In many parts of Croatia, Serbs were expelled

20 from jobs because of their nationality. Discrimination was not limited to

21 this early flare-up but increased over the following years."

22 [Interpretation] So that was the atmosphere. And the famous

23 Croatian painter, or world renowned - he is a Croatian painter but he is

24 of world renown, his name is Edo Murtic - in the paper Rijecki Novi List,

25 in the year 2000 states the following: "I remember that several months

1 before the elections in 1990 someone came very enthusiastically to me -"

2 that was Tudjman, and he speaks about that meeting - "because he thought

3 he would make an Augustincic of me for himself, and Augustincic was the

4 sculptor and artist who portrayed Tito. And he started to convince me

5 that we would do what the Ustashas and Pavelic were not able to do in 1941

6 for 250.000 Serbs. He said he'd pack them up, pack their coffers up and

7 send them away. And the next 250.000 would either remain, or disappear."

8 That is what is the truth.

9 Now, take a look at the atmosphere that prevailed. Please look

10 at. The Croatian Sabor Assembly on the 14th of May in 1887, passed a law

11 on the use of the Cyrillic alphabet. On the 14th of May 1887, if you

12 please. After the Second World War, all the constitutions of Croatia

13 contained a constitutional position on the position of Serbs in Croatia as

14 a constituent league entity in Croatia, both the 1947 constitution which

15 speaks, in Article 11, that Serbs in Croatia are equal with the Croats,

16 and in the 1943 -- 1963 constitution where it says that the Croatian

17 people engaged in brotherhood and unity with the Serb people, and in the

18 1984 constitution which states that in the Socialist Republic of Croatia,

19 the language of the Croats and Serbs are used, which is called either

20 Croatian or Serbian, depending on the area it is spoken.

21 So of -- since 1887 when the Croatian Sabor Assembly passed the

22 law on the use of the Cyrillic alphabet right down the line, it was only

23 with the advent of this pro-Nazi pound [as interpreted] authority that the

24 new coat of arms, the chequerboard, et cetera, emblems of the puppet

25 regime and independent autonomous State of Croatia was enforced and that

1 the Latin script was enforced as the sole script and the Cyrillic script

2 is done away with and abolished. After 103 years of it being in use,

3 roughly. So we can see that it was in use for over a hundred years.

4 And at a meeting of the Croatian Assembly, Sime Djodan, a member

5 of parliament, said that all the citizens in Croatia were Croatians, were

6 Croats. And in the constitution, except in the preamble, in the normative

7 part, no mention is made of the Serbs in any context whatsoever. Article

8 2, paragraph 4 of the constitution says that the Croatian Assembly and

9 people, independent and in conformity with the constitution, shall take

10 decisions, et cetera, et cetera. So it is the Croatian Sabor Assembly and

11 the Croatian people which are mentioned, which means that they are -- have

12 -- they were entering a nationalistic hysteria. That was the atmosphere

13 that prevailed.

14 Look at the holidays that were proclaimed. The Croats had the

15 right to celebrate their birthday for two of their -- Christmas for two

16 days and the Serbs only one day. The same was true for Easter, and the

17 same applied to the Jews; Jews that did not form part of that community

18 had no right to celebrate their holidays.

19 Look at the other laws, the addendum to the law on the government

20 of Croatia. This is the sole law in Europe which enables executive organs

21 to disband legally-elected representatives of the government and power and

22 authority because the government of Croatia was authorised to undertake

23 measures towards municipalities that did not toe the line, and they meant

24 the Serbs there.

25 Then we have the law on the Academy of Sciences, Article 1, the

1 Croatian Academy of Science and Culture - and I'm skipping over some

2 passages - is the legal follower of the Croatian Academy from 1941 to

3 1945. It inherited it and that was the legal follower from the times of

4 Naziism. There is nothing on the law of the press, nothing about the

5 Cyrillic script, and the Italians, Czechoslovaks, Ukrainians, et cetera,

6 are mentioned but there is no mention made of the Serbs at all because

7 they have been wiped out from the constitution. Look at the 4th of October

8 Sabor meeting in 1990.

9 So before any kind of conflicts broke out whatsoever, just a few

10 quotations. At that particular meeting - and these are quotations from

11 Damir Mejovsek, an MP: "I don't believe Serbs even when they bear gifts."

12 Stjepan Sulimanac: "The people that have come to live after 1918 in

13 Croatia and have gained some property there, a law should be passed to

14 protect ourselves from people of that kind." Ivan Milas, another case in

15 point: "With your -- we shall answer and respond to your rights with a

16 brandished sabre." And this all went on in parliament.

17 Andjelko Pavlovic: "All Serbs should be isolated," he said, "just

18 like Iraq isolated the Kurds and set up a blockade. He is calling for a

19 ghetto for the Serbs in 1990. And the Ustasha Ambassador Omrcanin, in

20 Berlin, during Hitler's time, in Slobodni Tjednik, a Croatian paper, says

21 in March: "No pogrom of the Serb people by the Croats existed, especially

22 not in Jasenovac because this was all something that the Jews fabricated."

23 THE INTERPRETER: Could the accused please be asked to slow down.

24 JUDGE MAY: You're being asked by the interpreters to slow down.

25 THE ACCUSED: Okay. [Interpretation] After 73 years, after the

1 Serbian occupation of Croatia, there was freedom. So Josip Broz Tito, who

2 was a Croat, Krajacic, Kardelj, and so on and so forth, they called this

3 "the Serb occupation." And one of the leaders of the HDZ party, Praljak,

4 right at the outset, on the 28th of April, 1990, writes the following --

5 and the elections had not been held yet. The HDZ was not in power yet.

6 And he says: "People are already singing outside that we'll do away with

7 the Serbs." And so on and so forth.

8 I have to keep track of the time, but I have lots more orders and

9 decisions that were passed from 1945 onwards for war crimes, people who

10 were found guilty, and their set pensions, double the time they spent in

11 prison.

12 So when you take a look at this general atmosphere that prevailed,

13 all I'm going to ask you: Is it the Serbs that incited and encouraged the

14 Serbs? Who can say that? Is it -- was it Belgrade? Can you really say

15 that?

16 Bosiljko Misetic, the Minister of Justice in the second Croatian

17 government in the paper Slobodna Dalmacija, on the 16th of September,

18 1992, and again in the Vjesnik paper, says: "A child, before it learns to

19 read and write, ought to be taught who its enemies are, and its enemies in

20 these areas are the Serbs," and so on and so forth.

21 Take a look now at what their Dalmatian newspaper writes. It is

22 an opposition paper. I think it was actually, it might still be. And

23 this was on the 24th of April, 2001. It writes the following: "It was

24 late autumn of 1991, and in Croatia, there was a free hunting season for

25 the Serbs. Mercep and the others produced mass corpses in the manufacture

1 of death in Pakracka Poljana where they were on a rampage, taking people

2 out of their homes, out of their houses, and passing the death sentence on

3 them by shooting them in the head on Mount Sljeme, which is a hill near

4 Zagreb. Norac, Oreskovic, and their followers at that same time employed

5 similar methods with the Serbs in Gospic. In Zadar, spectacular Crystal

6 Nights, as they were called, were organised during which tens of thousands

7 of houses were burnt and the owners had the wrong chromosomes and blood

8 sets; they were not Croats.

9 And the Novi List paper on the 22nd of January 2002, also a

10 Croatian source - so I'm just quoting your own sources and Croatian

11 sources - states the following. It says that the leadership of Croatia

12 knew about the liquidation of the Serbs in 1991 because in a report that

13 was sent in to Tudjman and Mesic, they all knew that. Josip

14 Manolic, Boljkovac, et cetera. Unequivocally, it's stated: "There is

15 certain evidence and facts on the unlawful arrests of peaceful citizens of

16 the Serb ethnic group which are taken away and nobody knows whether they

17 are alive or dead."

18 So, gentlemen, those, then, are your sources. And I think that it

19 is quite clear to everybody just how erroneous the qualifications that

20 have been made are. And the picture that is trying to be painted here,

21 that with democratic conditions prevailing in Croatia, there were these

22 nationalistic Serbs. And The New York Times, in April 1997, wrote that

23 Croatian fascism came back from its eternal hunting ground, and called

24 upon the Western powers - USA, France, Germany, et cetera - to implement

25 urgent measures to stop the revamping of fascism in Croatia.

1 And then they conclude -- I have to skip a part. "Did the West

2 perhaps become sufficiently ill in order to allow Croatian fascism to live

3 a life after death?"

4 On the 8th of December, 1993, The New York Times says: [in

5 English] "The government of Croatia has forced thousands of its enemies

6 from their homes and from the country, according to the new Zagreb office

7 of human rights organisation. The actions have been directed mostly

8 against Serbs who once constituted a sizeable minority in Croatia, but also

9 against Croats opposed to the rule of President Tudjman. Since 1999 --

10 1991, the Croatian authorities have blown up or razed ten thousand houses,

11 mostly of Serbs, but also houses of Croats. In some cases, they dynamited

12 homes with the families inside; whole families were killed.

13 "Minister Mate Granic, Foreign Minister, in May, had acknowledged

14 the destruction of 7.000 houses. So far, the justice authorities have

15 investigated about 100. One hundred cases of dynamiting. But there have

16 been no prosecution. Altogether, about 280.000 Croatian Serbs have fled

17 the country."

18 [Interpretation] Then The New York Times asks itself in this

19 article: [In English] "[Previous translation continues]... that the

20 Serbs, the indigenous people and majority people, so one-third of

21 communist Tito-created Croatia had to accept."

22 [Interpretation] That's what I'm asking you. You should answer

23 that question. And then blame the Serbs for not having agreed to be

24 slaughtered as they were in 1941. And all this started in 1989 as the

25 Brooklyn Institution wrote, namely Susan Woodward. It started in 1989,

1 1990, 1991, et cetera. And the conclusion is: [in English] "By expelling

2 280.000 Serbs, the Nazi Croat practically expelled all Serbs that they had

3 under their control as early as 1993."

4 [Interpretation] Which is correct, because the other half was in

5 Krajina and Croatia, did not have that under their control, and they threw

6 them out during the ethnic cleansing operation in which they were assisted

7 by the Americans.

8 Look at this. The American Jewish Committee: [In English]

9 [Previous translation continues]... "memory, prosperity, property,

10 restitution, and related issues confronting the Jewish communities of

11 Central and Eastern Europe; Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia."

12 September 7 [Interpretation] this year.

13 Ivo Goldstein, representative of Croatia, University of Zagreb,

14 says: [In English] "There is the influence of extremist Croatian

15 political émigrés who never broke off from the Ustasha movement. It was,

16 therefore, necessary to dissociate the Ustasha movement from the odious

17 image of faithful Nazi fascist ally and perpetrator of the worst kind of

18 genocide and crimes against the civilian population during the Second

19 World War. Instead, the intent was to provide the Ustasha with at least

20 some kind of legitimate basis for participating in Croatia's civic

21 development in the predominantly democratic European political

22 environment. This was -- this was shown to be impossible without

23 radically revising history and denying or falsify facts."

24 [Interpretation] That is precisely what that side across the well

25 is trying to do, to deny and falsify the facts and history. All of these

1 things that they would have to know, they know full well.

2 I don't have time now, but I'm asking you to look at the

3 Encyclopedia Britannica sections that refer to that. I'm asking you to

4 look at references in the Encyclopedia of Nations, and so on and so forth,

5 all the sections pertaining to that. And there are different explanations

6 provided there.

7 In all fairness, this was published before this new Orwellian

8 "Ministry of the Truth" gave orders to satanise the Serbs. After this

9 order came, of course other explanations came as well.

10 I don't have time to go into all of that. You mentioned Vukovar

11 yesterday. In February 1991, at a meeting of the HDZ for Trpinjska Cesta

12 [phoen] in Bordna Nasadic [phoen], Vekic, Glavas were there, and Mercep

13 was the man in charge, the murder that you saw in that film. Cleansing

14 Croatia from the Serbs. Cleansing. I spoke in London and at various

15 international conferences and at various meetings that are all on film

16 that ethnic cleansing is the greatest crime of all regardless of who

17 commits it. Cleansing all of Croatia. Cleansing Vukovar. And then in

18 the following order, replacing ethnic Serbs from all posts in the

19 municipality, intimidating the Serbs until they leave the territory of the

20 municipality, and the last state, the physical liquidation of those

21 against which the previous measures did not succeed.

22 And here it just says the Serbs, the Serbs, the Serbs, Milosevic

23 are guilty. Milosevic made a speech in Kosovo on the 600th anniversary of

24 the battle of Kosovo. And I read it here. And you see that it's quite

25 contrary to what had been claimed. But nobody's really interested in the

Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and English transcripts.

1 facts, not to mention the fact that the government not only did not act in

2 accordance with the Vance-Owen plan, that is to say, an agreement with the

3 UN, but on several occasions they tried to abuse the plan, and primarily

4 the fact that the JNA withdrew from the territory of the Republic of

5 Srpska Krajina, according to that plan. And the government of the

6 Republic of Srpska Krajina carried out a demilitarisation. And then there

7 are attacks at the Miljevac Plateau, the Maslenica Bridge, the Medak

8 Pocket, Divoselo, and later, massacres of citizens and the well-known

9 Flash and Storm operations.

10 But let's just take a brief look at Bosnia as well. This most

11 prominent form of that campaign of theirs, in addition to what we saw

12 those Mujahedin doing there, I'm going to show something else to you now.

13 During the war, it had assumed the largest proportions, that is to say,

14 shooting their own people and then planting their own crime to the other

15 side. In order to extort a decision by the Security Council to impose

16 sanctions, they had needed to find a pretext. And before TV cameras, they

17 organised a massacre of civilians in the bread line in the Vase Miskina

18 Street in Sarajevo. This was immediately ascribed to the Serbs, and it

19 was immediately established that this was done by the Muslims. And

20 everything that has been written since speaks that this was done by the

21 Muslims.

22 The Independent newspaper already wrote in that year that the most

23 horrible crimes, including the death of 16 civilians in the bread line,

24 were committed by the Muslims themselves in order to obtain public

25 support. CNN also, Corriere Della Sera and La Repubblica, dated the 23rd

1 of August, 1992, they refer to "the abominable double game of the Muslims

2 that makes the war in Bosnia even more cruel," pointing out that the bread

3 line massacre was committed by the Muslims. Corriere Della Sera says

4 that: "Everything indicates that the defenders of Sarajevo, the Croats

5 and the Muslims, organised several attacks against their own citizens in

6 the hope that in this way that they are going to deepen the drama of

7 Sarajevo and the blame will only be cast on the Serbs."

8 THE INTERPRETER: Could the accused please be asked to slow down.

9 JUDGE MAY: Slow down. Slow down.

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] When we were on good terms,

11 Holbrooke said to me that Izetbegovic managed to play the role of a victim

12 and that he, Holbrooke, called that - I remember his words - "ruthless

13 ingeniosity." However, this not ingenious at all. This is just

14 heartless; sacrificing thousands of his own citizens in order to be able

15 to accuse the Serbs.

16 I have to rush on. I have a map here. I'll give it to you.

17 Camps for Serbs from 1991 to 1996. They existed at different points in

18 time. Some went on for a longer period of time, some shorter. There were

19 778 of them altogether; 536 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 221 in Croatia. And

20 here is a list of every one of these camps. It includes many pages.

21 There are many crimes that were committed. I won't have time. I

22 won't have time to show this. Many crimes were committed in Croatia

23 before the independence of Croatia was proclaimed, before it was

24 recognised. There is a great number of crimes committed in Bosnia before

25 the proclamation of independence, before recognition. Please, could you

1 just place these two images on the overhead projector -- or three,

2 perhaps. These two, rather.

3 Take a look at this. Please put these two on the overhead

4 projector. I'm not going to put any other pictures on the overhead

5 projector. These are crimes from the 26th of March, 1992, in Sijekovac.

6 The units crossed the Sava River and slaughtered the Serbs. Please put

7 the big picture on the overhead projector.

8 That's it. That's what they did. That's what the Mujahedin did,

9 the ones we saw yesterday. And we saw Izetbegovic reviewing them

10 yesterday.

11 What's the matter? Is it not on the screens?

12 JUDGE MAY: It's on the screen. Do you want the next photograph

13 shown?

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] But I haven't seen it on the screen.

15 I only see you on the screen.

16 JUDGE MAY: It's on our screen. Make sure you've got the right

17 button.

18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. All right. You don't

19 want to show this. You don't want to show this to the public.

20 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, it is on our screen.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It's not on the screens that the

22 public sees. Right. I see it on this screen now. But this internal

23 screen only. So he is holding a head, the head of a Serb that he cut off.

24 So those are the 20.000 Mujahedin that were brought to the European

25 theatre of war through Clinton's policy, and most of them remained there

1 and some went to America and to other countries, and they went all around

2 Europe. And then when they start beheading your own people in wars to

3 come, then you will know what this is all about.

4 There are many photographs of major crimes.

5 JUDGE MAY: The usher is by the overhead projector. Do you want

6 some other photographs shown to us?

7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't have time, Mr. May. I have

8 12 minutes left --

9 JUDGE MAY: Very well.

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- according to your shortened

11 procedure. But I want to say one thing to you. For example --

12 JUDGE MAY: Let the usher -- there's no need for the usher to

13 remain there. Give the photographs back, if you would, to Mr. Milosevic.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Put the other picture on the ELMO,

15 please, the one with the three heads. Take a look at this, these three

16 heads of Serbs in an ammunition case. They cut off heads. These are the

17 madmen that are doing things like that. And that is what Clinton's policy

18 in Bosnia did. They were assembled in Bosnia.

19 Look at Algeria, which is a Muslim country. How many Muslims,

20 Algerians, did they kill so far? This has nothing do with Muslims. These

21 are Islamic fundamentalists who are the enemies of the entire world. Not

22 only of Christians or some others but of Muslims as well.

23 You have --

24 JUDGE MAY: Now, do you want any other pictures shown?

25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't have time, unfortunately,

1 for any other pictures, but I do want to say one thing to you, that --

2 JUDGE MAY: Very well, let the usher take the pictures.

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- as far as Bosnia is concerned,

4 you can see this. This has to do with the Serb victims of Bosanska Dubica

5 and Bosanska Gradiska, those two municipalities. For all the

6 municipalities, there was a book that was published by the Centre for

7 Investigating Crimes of the Association of Serbs from Bosnia and

8 Herzegovina, and for each and every municipality significant events,

9 victims, inevitable fate, and the perpetrators of the crimes. For each

10 and every municipality, you have at least 100 perpetrators of these

11 crimes.

12 I wish to avail myself of the remaining time to say a few words

13 about Srebrenica that was mentioned here. I have already said that I

14 first heard about this -- I said this six months ago, when I first spoke

15 here, that I first heard about this from Carl Bildt and that Radovan

16 Karadzic swore to me that he didn't know a thing about this. All

17 subsequent information corroborated that, including the subsequently

18 published main report of the Dutch government published in April 2001.

19 In item 10, it says quite literally: "There are no indications

20 that the action was taken out in collaboration with Belgrade, neither in

21 terms of political or military coordination. In this way, gentlemen, as

22 far as I'm concerned, an end could be brought to this, but I don't want to

23 place a full stop there. I want the truth to be revealed with regard to

24 this insane crime, in the interest of justice. It has to be explained

25 before the world public. The information that I have compiled so far, and

1 there will be more to come, speaks of how Izetbegovic used Srebrenica for

2 all kinds of manipulations and held it in -- in his own reserve for

3 various political bargains. And you saw from the statement made by a

4 member of his delegation in the report that was accepted by the UN with

5 regard to the takeover of Srebrenica, the handover of Srebrenica. You saw

6 all of this.

7 Time will show that on the 1st of July, 1995, in the house of a

8 Muslim, the former president of the municipality in Zvornik, where two

9 members of the Muslim government from Sarajevo were present, the

10 representatives of a mercenary military formation within the army of

11 Republika Srpska but not under the command of the army of Republika Srpska

12 but within the French intelligence service, they agreed to have this crime

13 committed, that is to say, to abandon Srebrenica and to carry out this

14 slaughter.

15 All information shows that General Mladic knew nothing about this,

16 nor General Krstic, who was sentenced here. I am personally convinced

17 that the military honour of Mladic or Krstic would not allow them to

18 execute civilians, let alone Mladic, Krstic, generals who throughout the

19 war made a maximum effort to protect prisoners of war and civilians at all

20 times.

21 This mercenary unit was commanded by the same people who sent

22 those same persons only one year later to Zaire so that they would protect

23 Mobutu and crush a rebellion. This same organisation organised the

24 purchase of arms a year later. And since I asked you to adopt a writ

25 of disclosure, please do that. Those people who have a salary for that

1 and have hundreds of associates, make them as Jacques Chirac and the

2 French intelligence service and the American intelligence service and all

3 other intelligence services, let them disclose all the facts they have on

4 Srebrenica. The information I have available shows that the point of the

5 agreement reached was the following: The underlying French idea was that

6 the war in Bosnia should be ended through effective actions taken by NATO

7 and through military engagement. As a pretext for military engagement,

8 genocide that will be carried out by the Serbs will be made up, and the

9 Serb negotiating side will have to deal with that. The presence of Ratko

10 Mladic in Srebrenica will be used as a confirmation of the responsibility

11 of the military leadership and of Mladic himself for having an indictment

12 issued against him in The Hague by making it appear that a genocide was

13 carried out and anathema will be placed on the leadership of the Bosnian

14 Serbs and then the international community will take measures. The

15 protagonists will not be prosecuted.

16 One insignificant one, a member of the Croat detachments of death

17 who happened to be there was accused, and then for the crimes in

18 Srebrenica, Ratko Mladic should be accused and also the leadership of

19 Republika Srpska headed by Radovan Karadzic. And this agreement was

20 attended by two representatives of the Muslim government, that out of the

21 French, General Janvier was there for sure, and this other person was said

22 to be Morillon but this was not confirmed. There is no reliable

23 information saying that it was Morillon.

24 The agreement was that Srebrenica should be surrendered to the

25 Serbs practically without any fighting, as forthwith withdraw and in that

1 way make it possible for them to purportedly take over Srebrenica. Naser

2 Oric is going to withdraw and award for the action will be 2 million

3 Deutschmark.

4 Mladic was not at that meeting. He was having lunch with those

5 generals later on at the Likovac locality, but according to intelligence

6 data, he did not know what the subject agreed upon was, and he didn't know

7 that he was commanding all the units that took part in that, especially

8 the one that was sent to Zaire later on by the same people that ordered

9 the job to be done. Oric lives in Lukavac near Tuzla today. He has a

10 restaurant on the lake and he destroyed more than 70 villages around

11 Srebrenica and that he is one of the greatest criminals in the war.

12 So let me conclude now. This is how things stand: I have just

13 touched upon some of them, and I should like to emphasise that five peace

14 plans were accepted by us: The Cutilheiro plan, the Vance-Owen Plan, the

15 Vance-Stoltenberg, and the plan of the European Union and the Contact

16 Group plan. All five plans were accepted by us. So as far as Serbia and

17 I personally am concerned, everybody owes us -- everybody owes us

18 recognition for the consistent struggle to attain peace instead of the

19 accusations for war.

20 We have received much recognition, and I personally have too, but

21 I'm only going to quote two individuals who for a long time were -- who

22 spent a long time in Yugoslavia, so they weren't ordinary visitors.

23 Yasushi Akashi, one, the Assistant to the Secretary-General and his

24 special envoy to Yugoslavia, and upon his departure, at a press conference

25 which I did not attend - so he didn't have to address me, I was not there

1 - he gave recognition for the role that I had played personally

2 throughout the entire peace process during his entire mandate. And I'm

3 going to ask Mr. Akashi to come forth here and testify. I hope he will

4 accept my invitation.

5 And Thorwald Stoltenberg, who also worked as the presiding person

6 of the conference and worked in Yugoslavia for a long time. What Yusushi

7 Akashi said at the press conference before his departure -- this was all

8 before Dayton and I am the person most responsible for the agreement

9 reached at Dayton and nobody can bring that into question. Thorwald

10 Stoltenberg, on the 12th of December 1995, and I quote, said the following

11 in Oslo. He said that: "President Slobodan Milosevic had played a key

12 role in the peace process in the then Yugoslavia."

13 Therefore, gentlemen, it is with the highest degree of

14 responsibility and with all the facts at my disposal I claim before the

15 international community that the policy of Serbia when it comes to the war

16 in Bosnia-Herzegovina was directed towards peace and all its efforts were

17 geared towards peace. The policy of Serbia was also to support Serbs in

18 Bosnia in their hardships there because they found themselves faced with

19 these hardships thanks to others. But it was the policy of Serbia that

20 was geared first and foremost towards stopping the bloodshed and

21 establishing peace, and arguments that the Serbs should live with others

22 -- those were the arguments. The people that they had lived next to

23 throughout that time.

24 That is the truth. And the people from the international

25 community are -- know that truth full well, even if they are calling for

1 my own responsibilities and accountability for the crimes that they have

2 perpetrated. They are asking that I be held responsible.

3 So the tasks, gentlemen, you have before you are impossible unless

4 you make an intervention in history. And if you -- unless you look at the

5 facts. I have only touched upon these facts because of my limited time,

6 but you must declare them null and void if you wish to falsify history

7 completely. But in addition to the quite obvious intention to falsify

8 history here, the indictment has fallen through. It is aborted. Because

9 truth is stronger. And you, contrary to the intentions of the creators of

10 this unlawful Tribunal, have enabled the world to get a glimpse of the

11 truth and to start to understand the truth as it stands. And in the

12 proceedings to come, this will be made even more evident and the truth

13 will be victorious.

14 Thank you. And I have not overstepped the time limits you set.

15 Of course, that was to the detriment of a series of facts which I wished

16 to put before you.