at U.N. war crimes tribunal
Associated Press
September 30, 2002
Milosevic contests use of secret recordings at U.N. war crimes tribunal
KATARINA KRATOVAC
Associated Press Writer
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Sep. 30 (AP) -- Slobodan Milosevic contested
the admissibility of a recorded telephone conversation at his U.N. war
crimes trial Monday, raising questions about the legality of important
prosecution evidence against him.
On the third day of hearings in his genocide trial on the wars in
Croatia and Bosnia, the former president argued that a secret recording
introduced by prosecutors last week was obtained "illegally, without
permission from the authorities."
The recording of a conversation between leading Bosnian Serb war crimes
fugitive Radovan Karadzic and a witness in Milosevic's trial at the
Yugoslav tribunal was aired in court during a closed session Friday.
Prosecutors plan to use dozens of similar recordings and radio
intercepts in the coming months and the panel of three U.N. judges
called for a separate hearing to consider their admissibility.
Prosecutors have run into trouble using similar evidence, including
during the trial of Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic, who was convicted
of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacres.
In Krstic's case, judges refused to admit a recording in which the
defendant allegedly told a subordinate to "kill every single one of
them," apparently referring to the male Muslim population of the Bosnian
enclave.
Also Monday, the tribunal said it is seeking the arrest of a Bosnian
Serb police chief for his alleged involvement in the Srebrenica
killings. Ljubomir Borovcanin, 42, was indicted for the murder and
persecution of non-Serbs in Bosnia and faces six counts of war crimes,
including complicity in genocide.
Milosevic raised the objection during the testimony of a protected
witness, a former moderate Serb politician identified as C-037, who was
asked about a telephone conversation the witness had with Karadzic.
The contents of the recording, made by the Muslim-led Bosnian secret
service and provided to the U.N. tribunal, were not made public.
"My objection here is one of principle, although I am not at all
interested in the tape's content ... or whether it is authentic,"
Milosevic said.
Milosevic faces a total of 66 counts of war crimes during the breakup
of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, 61 of them for the wars in Croatia and
Bosnia for which he is charged with genocide.
At the time, Milosevic was the president of Serbia and technically
ruled another country, making it hard to prove allegations that he was
responsible.
The second part of Milosevic's landmark trial, dealing with the
1991-1995 Balkan conflicts, began Thursday. The first stage on the
1998-1999 Serb crackdown on Albanians in Kosovo ended Sept. 11.
Witness C-037 described the rise of ethnic tension in the region of
Krajina in Croatia, where the dominant Serb population rebelled against
Croatia's 1991 declaration of independence and proclaimed their own
rule.
The rebellion was bankrolled by Belgrade and Milosevic's regime, the
witness said.
The prosecution maintains that Milosevic advocated a policy of "ethnic
cleansing," to bring Serbs across the former Yugoslavia together in a
single nation.
On Tuesday, prosecutors intend to call Croatian President Stipe Mesic
to testify.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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