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AFP (with additional material by Reuters). 30 September 2002. Milosevic challenges first witness of war crimes in Croatia; Milosevic Slams UN Court Rules, Phone Intercepts. THE HAGUE -- Slobodan Milosevic lashed out afresh at the Hague war crimes tribunal on Monday, slamming its tolerance of hearsay evidence and prosecutors' plans to use "illegal" intercepted phone conversations against him. As the first prosecution witness testified on Croatia, where prosecutors say Serb ethnic cleansing cost hundreds of lives and drove out at least 170,000 non-Serbs, the former Serbian and Yugoslav leader criticized his evidence as lame and second hand. The witness, whose identity was concealed for his own protection, was a former moderate politician of the Serbian Democratic Party in Croatia referred to as C-037. C-037, of the Western Slavonia region of Croatia seized by rebel ethnic Serbs, told of killings of Croats, torchings of Catholic churches and Belgrade funding for rebel Croatian Serbs who established the breakaway Serb state of Krajina. But his testimony, which began on Friday at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, was peppered with admissions that he did not know things or had heard of them through media or from local inhabitants. "Is this intended to to be entered as evidence?" Milosevic asked. He criticised the witness' replies to questioning, saying: "He says he heard from someone, he does not know, he does not remember. I don't see how anything can be submitted into evidence." The witness, shielded from the gallery by a large grey screen, cited documents that Milosevic contended should not be entered as evidence as he had no direct role in drafting them. "This witness is not the author of these documents and does not know anything of any substance about the indictments. He is testifying on the basis of his political stances," Milosevic said. Milosevic also attacked the use of intercepted phone calls as evidence. Pre-trial documents show the prosecution plans to make much use of intercepts, such as calls between Milosevic and fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. Prosecutors played what they said was an intercepted call between C-037 and Karadzic, though the conversation itself remained a mystery because it was heard in closed session. Milosevic objected. "It was intercepted illegally, without the authority of the state agency in charge," he said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
