{"id":1307,"date":"2020-03-03T15:37:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T14:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/?page_id=1307"},"modified":"2020-03-03T15:37:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T14:37:56","slug":"abc-news-sat-oct-5-2002-milosevic-and-may","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/abc-news-sat-oct-5-2002-milosevic-and-may\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 – Milosevic and May"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interesting account of one of the many clashes between Slobodan Milosevic and the ICTY judge, Sir Richard May<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ABC news<\/p>\n

Sat, Oct 5 2002 7:46 AM AEST<\/p>\n

Milosevic clashes with judge over ‘protected’ witness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Slobodan Milosevic has clashed with the presiding judge at his war\u00a0<\/span>crimes\u00a0trial over his cross-examination of a “protected” prosecution witness.The former Yugoslav president was cut short several times by Judge\u00a0<\/span>Richard\u00a0May and ordered to stick to the point as he led the witness, a moderate\u00a0Croatian Serb politician identified only as C037, through a catalogue\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0alleged atrocities committed against Serbs in the Western Slavonia area\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0Croatia in late 1991.<\/p>\n

But it all got too much for the judge at one point, when Milosevic’s\u00a0microphone failed as he was asking a question. \u00a0Judge May snapped: “We can’t hear you but it sounds that what you are\u00a0<\/span>saying\u00a0is irrelevant.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He went on: “You are trying to argue your entire case through this\u00a0<\/span>witness,\u00a0which is a waste of the court’s time. If he simply read something in\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0paper, then that’s no use to anyone.”<\/p>\n

Milsoevic, who on Monday had questioned the credibility of the witness\u00a0<\/span>onthe grounds that his evidence consisted almost entirely of hearsay,\u00a0<\/span>denialsand memory lapses, then retorted: “Mr May, I expected you to make suchcomments to the prosecution in their examination.<\/p>\n

“He was asked if he heard about something or read it in a newspaper or\u00a0<\/span>sawit on Croatian TV, but I am only asking him what he knows. So you\u00a0<\/span>accepttestimony of something heard in the examination-in-chief but you are\u00a0<\/span>notallowing me to do so.”<\/p>\n

Milosevic was also angry at a prosecution request to change the order\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0calling witnesses due to difficulties of people travelling to the\u00a0Netherlands.\u00a0<\/span>He said he thought the court had agreed to provide him with a list of\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>whowas to appear at least a week ahead. “There are 125,500 pages, 600videotapes and two to three hundred audio tapes and it is physically\u00a0impossible to view them all or even make a selection unless I have\u00a0<\/span>notice a\u00a0few days in advance. If the prosecution try to use these tricks, it is\u00a0impermissible (sic).”<\/p>\n

May admonished him: “You are wrong to talk of tricks. There are always\u00a0difficulties getting witnesses here. We are conscious of the\u00a0<\/span>difficulties ofthe amount of evidence we have served on you and the difficulty of\u00a0<\/span>preparingyour defence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“The order of witnesses is not set in stone but we have to make sure\u00a0<\/span>youhave time to prepare for each one and that is what we will do.”<\/p>\n

After another lengthy period of cross-questioning in which Milosevic\u00a0<\/span>triedto establish an inventory of how many Serbian villages in the region\u00a0<\/span>hadbeen torched, May intervened again to warn him: “You are rehearsing at\u00a0<\/span>greatlength and, if I may say so, with much repetition, that crimes were\u00a0committed against Serbs.<\/p>\n

“That may or may not be so but it is not relevant to our determining\u00a0<\/span>whethercrimes were committed by you or by others.”<\/p>\n

Milosevic, who has refused to enter a plea over the war crimes chargesagainst him, hit back: “I wish to remind you that I am not concealing\u00a0<\/span>myview that what you call an indictment is a false indictment, primarily\u00a0<\/span>fortwo reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“First of all, no aggression took place, it was a civil war, and\u00a0<\/span>secondlythe Serbian people had this war imposed upon them both in Croatia and\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0Bosnia.\u00a0<\/span>“It is evident they were defending the territory where they lived and\u00a0<\/span>were\u00a0trying to avoid pogroms such as those perpetrated 50 years earlier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That is\u00a0the only truth I am trying to explain here.”<\/p>\n

And denying he was contending that the other side was equally guilty,\u00a0<\/span>heinsisted: “I have committed no crimes.”<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the session, May halted him again and chided: “You\u00a0<\/span>seem\u00a0to lose the focus of what a trial is for, which is to consider specificcharges, not some other wrong at some other time.”<\/p>\n

Milosevic, 61, who is in the dock on more than 60 charges of war crimes\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0crimes against humanity for his involvement in the 1990s wars in\u00a0<\/span>Kosovo,\u00a0Croatia and Bosnia, faces life behind bars if convicted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting account of one of the many clashes between Slobodan Milosevic and the ICTY judge, Sir Richard May   ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 7:46 AM AEST Milosevic clashes with judge over ‘protected’ witness Slobodan Milosevic has clashed with the presiding judge at his war\u00a0crimes\u00a0trial over his cross-examination of a “protected” prosecution witness.The … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 – Milosevic and May”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 - Milosevic and May - Balkan Conflicts Research Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/abc-news-sat-oct-5-2002-milosevic-and-may\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 - Milosevic and May - Balkan Conflicts Research Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An interesting account of one of the many clashes between Slobodan Milosevic and the ICTY judge, Sir Richard May   ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 7:46 AM AEST Milosevic clashes with judge over ‘protected’ witness Slobodan Milosevic has clashed with the presiding judge at his war\u00a0crimes\u00a0trial over his cross-examination of a “protected” prosecution witness.The … Continue reading "ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 – Milosevic and May"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/abc-news-sat-oct-5-2002-milosevic-and-may\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Balkan Conflicts Research Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/\",\"name\":\"Balkan Conflicts Research Team\",\"description\":\"Information on recent conflicts in the Balkans\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/abc-news-sat-oct-5-2002-milosevic-and-may\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/abc-news-sat-oct-5-2002-milosevic-and-may\/\",\"name\":\"ABC news Sat, Oct 5 2002 - 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