Indiscreet lawyer apologises at Milosevic trial.
AFP (with additional material by AP). 3 October 2002. Indiscreet
lawyer apologises at Milosevic trial.
THE HAGUE -- A lawyer appointed by the U.N. tribunal to help protect
Slobodan Milosevic's interests apologized to the court Thursday after
he was quoted as saying the former Yugoslav president will be found
guilty of war crimes.
But Michail Wladimiroff said his ill-considered comments published
earlier this month in Dutch and Bulgarian publications did not
compromise his role as a "friend of the court," and he should be
allowed to continue [!].
The three judges are to decide later whether to dismiss Wladimiroff,
one of three veteran defense attorneys appointed last year to help
ensure Milosevic gets a fair trial.
Vladimiroff, who told the Haagsche Courant that if the trial were to
end now Milosevic would be found guilty, told the court, under the
watchful eye of Milosevic himself: "I should not have given this
interview. I am responsible for the interview although I have not
been quoted correctly."
Thursday's proceedings focused on events in 1991 in the Croatian
province of Western Slavonia and in particular the multi-ethnic town
of Pakrac, where atrocities were commited by both sides, according to
the anonymous witness.
The witness, identified only as C037 to protect him from possible
reprisals, is a moderate Serb politician from the region. He was
quizzed about the treatment of Serbs taken prisoner by Croats and
held in the town's police station and the basement of a department
store.
Shielded from the gallery by a large grey screen, "Mr C37" as
Milosevic insisted on addressing him, spoke of the period from August
1991 to the start of 1992 when around 100 Serbs were held hostage.
"They say they were tortured, beaten with electric wires, had
electric currents passed through their bodies and were forced to cut
the ears off each other and eat them," he said.
"Many were beaten up and tied to radiators and some were taken away
and shot."
He said Serbs in the towns and villages of Western Slavonia who fled
their homes had never been able to re-occupy them, as they had
forfeited the right to them.
Those houses that were not torched or dynamited were occupied by
Croats or sold off, he said.
Milosevic, who is conducting his own defence from the dock, seized on
this information and reminded the court that Mesic had said that his
Croatia was a law-abiding country.
"Do you mean to say that in present day Croatia, where the rule of
law is in force, that Serbs are not allowed to own apartments?" he
asked triumphantly.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
