Milosevic a 'cold and ruthless warmonger', says witness

The first head of state to testify against Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal yesterday portrayed him as a cold and ruthless warmonger, determined to create break up Yugoslavia and create an ethnically-pure Greater Serbia.

In powerful testimony to the UN war court in The Hague, the president of Croatia, Stjepan Mesic, accused Mr Milosevic of engineering the disintegration of the country, and of using the army to seize Croat land in pursuit of his expanionist aims.

Mr Mesic, a longstanding adversary of the accused, told the court that Milosevic did not favour any kind of Yugoslavia that was federal or con-federal. What he was interested in was a Greater Serbia built on the ruins of Yugoslavia.

Even before Mr Mesic arrived in court, the animosity between the two men was clear.

"This witness is problematic in every way because of his criminal role in destroying Yugoslavia," said Mr Milosevic who faces 61 charges for war crimes in the Balkans, including genocide for his role in atrocities in Bosnia.

Mr Mesic remains an important witness for the prosecution because he had extensive dealings with Mr Milosevic, having held the collective rotating Yugoslav presidency in 1991.

In court yesterday Mr Mesic, a former lawyer who was elected Croatian president two years ago, avoided eye contact with the accused but pulled no punches in his testimony.

"I never saw any sign of feeling in him, ever," said Mr Mesic when asked to describe Mr Milosevic's character. The witness said Mr Milosevic was a manipulator who dispensed with associates once they had achieved what he wanted.

"All he had was goals he was implementing," Mr Mesic added.

This testimony will be used by prosecutors to back their central claim that Mr Milosevic was determined to create a Greater Serbia through a campaign of mass persecution and ethnic cleansing.

In particular there was detailed evidence giving a snapshot of how the former Serb leader took control of the federal army, budget and presidency and turned them into Serb entities.

While pleading for UN intervention at the time, Mr Mesic wrote that "the army has become exclusively Serb and Milosevic is tearing down the Yugoslav Federation."

He also said Mr Milosevic used Serbs living in Croatia to further his ambitions.

"The Serbs in Croatia were only needed to ignite the fuse in order for the war be transferred to (neighbouring) Bosnia- Herzegovina. With regard to Croatia, whatever territory could be wrested from it would be joined to Greater Serbia," Mr Mesic said.

The court also heard minutes from a meeting of the federal presidency in which the then-president, Mr Mesic, warned of Serbian imperialism.

He described how Mr Milosevic siphoned money from the coffers of the Yugoslav federation and took over control of the National Bank to finance a Serb army and help Serb rebels in Croatia.

"What they want is territory. They want to grab Croatian land and trick the army into doing it for them," prosecutor Geoffrey Nice quoted Mesic as saying during the 1991 meeting with army officials and representatives of the six Yugoslav republics.

Mr Mesic has always made clear his willingness to testify against Mr Milosevic although, ironically, he was testifying at a time when the Croatian Government is at loggerheads with the UN tribunal. It is refusing to hand over a senior Croatian general who has been indicted for war crimes against Serb civilians and wounded soldiers.

Today Mr Milosevic will have his chance to cross-examine the witness, and a fierce verbal counter-attack is expected.

- INDEPENDENT