Milan Babic, formerly known only as C-61, decided to act brave and remove the protection, but alas - only the last day of his testimony, after hampering the cross-examination by closed sessions for days. Though all transcripts are to become public now, we heard at the very end that the Trial Chamber is to deliberate whether to keep some of the investigation tapes secret after all. What is this? Those tapes are crucial (according to both Milosevic and Tapuskovic) in proving Babic guilty of perjury. Will the games never end?

Uertz-Retzlaff will have her additional half an hour on Monday, but that would be of no avail to the Prosecution - Milosevic practically ruined the witness and Tapuskovic probably gave the Tribunal all the necessary info to indict him.

In order to make up for all those days of closed sessions and covered identity, Milosevic had to squeeze all the issues in this one day and quickly recap everything with his questions. He managed partly, by summing all up under few major allegations that the witness had made. The first one was that the situation in CRO wasn't so desperate in 1990 and the beginning of 1991, but that the Serbs themselves had made it that way, organizing provocations instigated by Milosevic. To prove Babic wrong, Milosevic shortly described numerous examples of attacks on the unarmed Serb villages by the Croatian police, arrests and killings of civilians in towns, all happening months before any real fights, finishing each example with a rhetorical question 'So, the Serbian side is to be blamed for what happened?' The unfortunate Babic tried to escape in a similar way as the Albanian witnesses who denied KLA activities: "I don't know those details", "I don't remember the specific details". But there were so many of these examples, one more gruesome than the other, many already publicly known, so Babic slowly changed his line: "I have been told about this case", "I heard that a large number of Serbs got killed". Of course, Milosevic didn't miss the opportunity to mention again the case of the witness' extended family member killed, only now the names were not hidden and an ugly story came out: someone informed Babic about an intercepted radio communication of the Croatian police, preparing a raid on one village, aiming to kill the most distinguished villagers, and specifically Babic's family. When Babic with the Serbs from Knin arrived to that village, it was already too late: his house had been burned, his father-in-law Boza Skrbic killed; fortunately, his mother and mother-in-law managed to escape. This was too much for Babic, of course, and when asked again the same 'So, the Serbian side is to be blamed for what happened?' he fell silent for a while, then feebly said "I don't know to which side do you refer…" Milosevic finally showed some mercy by moving to another question.

The second allegation, broadly presented by Babic throughout his testimony, was that the YU Army had been controlled and manipulated by Milosevic to clash with the Croats with no real reason, through a series of provocations by the local Serbs against the Croats, into which the Army would step in heavily. Babic underwent the same pattern: as soon as the specific, concrete things were described, the broad allegations evaporated. Milosevic listed the examples of Croatian attacks against the Army. A transport helicopter trying to deliver food supplies to the Army barrack Promina blocked for months was shot down and the pilot Major Bukvic killed; barracks in Gospic blocked, without water and electricity, under fire, several soldiers and officers killed already the first day; the same happened throughout CRO; some small garrisons surrendered, soldiers were taken away without a trace or ended up in infamous Lora prison in Split; some tried to defend themselves (Major Tepic in Bjelovar, a posthumous hero, blew up a depot and himself when defence became impossible); many set out to de-block their barracks… To this torrent of examples Babic tried to remain vague as he was when testifying: "I've heard there were some blockings, but I don't know the details." Milosevic ridiculed him: "All right, you were not even interested in the events, you were more like a passive observer back then." And again, by the end there came the most gruesome example: the infamous case of killing soldiers in Karlovac, on the bridge over Korana; Croats butchered dozens of unarmed soldiers by firstly shooting them in their legs, then cutting their throats; one saved himself by jumping into the river. This being a publicly known event, Babic meekly admitted the slaughter happened. But Milosevic draw a full circle, briefly describing the bitter end of JNA in CRO: ceasefire negotiating (as the tape Tudjman-Kadijevic played the other day had shown), political decision to leave, long retreat under attacks, lootings, ambushed trains, killings… Thus, instead of unprovoked attacks of the JNA against the Croats, a totally opposite picture was revealed.

As soon as Milosevic would establish something and make Babic confirm this, the latter would back out over the following issue, trying to minimize the impact of ugly facts. See this. Milosevic: "Already in 1991 there were more than 100,000 Serb refugees from Croatia who came to Serbia." Babic: "Yes, it was the first large Serb exodus, which coincided with the withdrawal of JNA from Western Slavonia." Milosevic: "There was an article in the 'New York Times' in 1993 talking about 10,000 mine-blasted Serb houses in Croatia, outside Krajina; Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic admitted to only 7,000; there were whole families in Zadar blasted together with their houses. Are you familiar with that?" Babic: "I know about the Zec family." [the notorious case in Zagreb, of a Serb family of four - father, mother, a teenage boy and a girl, abducted and brutally murdered by the Croat police, the event admitted even by Mesic] Milosevic: "So, you make 10,000 cases to come down to the Zec family, to this one tragic event?"

Babic even had the nerve to imply that those poor Medak Pocket villages were somehow to blame for their own fate, 'because there was not a full demilitarisation implemented'?! And to top it all, he 'explained' that "the way Franjo Tudjman made war in 1993 and 1995 was the same way of making war of JNA in 1990 and 1991 under your command". Milosevic summarized things: "So, you are comparing road de-blocking done by the Army in Kijevo or Saborsko, when nobody got killed, with Medak Pocket and Operation Storm?" May lent a helping hand: "This is not a proper question." (?!)

To get the idea of the flimsiness of Babic's testimony (or better, the enormity of the Prosecution's despair), see what they consider as valid evidence. One of the accusations made by Babic (and gladly used and exploited by the Prosecution) was the alleged existence of a sinister plan of Milosevic to use the human material of the Krajina refugees to people Kosmet with the Serbs. A bolder version of this accusation was that he let Krajina perish precisely for that purpose. In order to give meat to that ghost, the Prosecution instructed Babic to dwell endlessly upon the 1995 exodus, of the police forbidding refugees to remain in Belgrade or to leave the motorway, directing them 'further to the south'. Notice how vague the accusation is: he himself remained in Belgrade, he never saw anybody placed in Kosmet, he never retold any hearsay about refugees placed in Kosmet. But the mere mentioning of the refugees being directed 'further to the south' was regarded as a testimony of that sinister plan. In my humble opinion, some numerical data would be required, some places & people & dates should be named. But the Prosecution considers as the valid testimony to Milosevic's control of the Army when Babic says 'Milosevic controlled the Army', so who needs any data or proofs.

The moment Milosevic started giving some data, the whole story just crumbled: the previously established existing number of the Serbs from Croatia in Serbia (100,000) were already placed throughout Serbia, and Belgrade was particularly burdened, so this new exodus had to be organized in a way to avoid Belgrade (only those having the closest relatives in Belgrade - parents, siblings - were allowed to stay); others were directed elsewhere, and Kosmet, being 10% of the Serbia's territory, hosted only 1% of the total number of refugees, therefore proportionally so much less than the rest of Serbia). Faced with that, Babic had to admit that he "perhaps mentioned to the investigator once in passing that there might have existed a plan of some administrative body, maybe the Govt. of Serbia, I'm not sure, to populate Kosovo with 100,000 Serbs; but here on the trial I never spoke about this." You see how creative the Prosecution is: this immediately became 'Milosevic's plan to use Krajina Serbs to people Kosovo' and the number 100,000 was the number of actual Krajina refugees already in the whole Serbia, before the last exodus of 1995. Milosevic tendered a copy of the 'Official Gazette of SFRY' containing the Programme of the Displaced Person's Return to Kosmet, published years before wars and explaining economic measures to help the Serbs expelled from Kosmet by the then low-level terrorist Albanian activities to return to their homes. This was the programme for the Serbs from Kosmet to return to Kosmet, public and official government-backed economic effort, not some secret plan involving Krajina. And the factual figures of refugees show how small was the number of Krajina Serbs on Kosmet. But our Prosecution doesn't want to be bothered by the facts. It's easy to realize how superficial, arbitrary and unfounded are the constructions on which the Prosecution based its indictment. It turns out that way if you go from one issue to the next, one by one. Looking at the imposing display en masse , you are led to believe this is a solid fortress; looking from near, each brick is rotten, crumbling and made of too much straw.

Another written statement was presented, which was faxed to Milosevic by yet another 2 former Krajina officials, denying Babic's allegations and calling him 'former friend'. This time Robinson spoke, instructing Milosevic that he would support his case better if those people would testify in person; Milosevic said all these faxes are handwritten, signed statements sent him as a reaction of those people watching the 'testimony' of Babic and all the senders are willing to testify. As a parting gift, Milosevic gave Babic a detailed list of some 5,000 names and years of birth of the Serbs killed in Krajina; he also gave the judges a book on genocide against the Serbs in Croatia in 1941-45 and 1991-92, saying 'maybe this could be of help to you'. Embarrassed, May mumbled that 'these two documents will be marked for identification, to be argued later on'.

When Tapuskovic got his one hour, he drily clarified some 20 facts vs. inconsistencies, highlighted inaccurate time frames and tendered 54 documents signed by Babic, proving his wanton behaviour and giving ample reason why he had been removed from his position in Krajina (one of these decisions, also bearing Milan Babic's signature, nominates Milan Babic to the position of the Territorial Defence Commander!).

Note just few of the stupidities that Tapuskovic unearthed. The allegation was that "Milosevic controlled the Army through Lilic since 1992", and the fact is Lilic became President of FRY (and Supreme Commander of the Army) only in 1993; but the darned indictment covers only 1991-92 for CRO (to avoid Medak Pocket, Storm, Hurricane, Thunder, Whirlwind and other political/meteorological moves of Independent State of Croatia), and Lilic is so meek a person, so convenient to be presented as Milosevic's puppet, as a Supreme Commander who let the vile Milosevic actually run the Army during that terrible year of 1992. The only problem is that Lilic just wasn't the Supreme Commander then! But, damn the fact, the allegation sounds so fine, so we'll include it in the 'testimony'. The other allegation was that "Milosevic controlled the 'rump Presidency' [the representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina, as opposed to the representatives of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Macedonia, who boycotted the Presidency towards the end of 1991] and so prevented the decision to be taken on the action of the Army against all paramilitary units". The fact is that this particular decision was deliberated NOT at the period of 'rump Presidency', but before that, while the Presidency was still complete, and the decisive vote against the decision was from Bosnia & Herzegovina! But, again, who cares about the actual time frame of events, it sounds right to say "Milosevic prevented the decision".

Tapuskovic cornered Babic on numerous similar issues, and each time Babic would try to 'card wool', by pretending confusion, but Tapuskovic just spoke to the judges, requesting the witness to be directed to answer the question; and he got a reluctant confirmation of every fact from Babic. To direct questions about his alleged embezzlement of diaspora donation and of the subsequent investigation, Babic answered both times 'I do not remember." He didn't deny it. He confirmed he was a rabid anti-Communist, so much so that he personally signed a decree forbidding the activity of all Communist parties in Krajina, only 1 year after he himself ceased to be a member of the League of Communists of Croatia, and he was the member for 20 years! To a direct question whether he heard anybody giving direct order to any military authority or to anybody else, while listening to those 52 intercepts, Babic had to confirm that he has never heard such a thing. This is important, because those tapes were never played (only few short extracts, totally insignificant) and the impression was given that the others were damning, on account of the story by Uertz-Retzlaff that Babic listened to all those tapes (for 2 full days!) and found them damning. Yet another example of how the Prosecution makes its case: by hinting they have something. Finally, Tapuskovic established that Babic almost never saw anything himself, he was only told things subsequently; he was near the battlefield himself only 3 times in total, and that only far in the rear, so he never even saw the battle. And yet he claimed he knew the pattern of all the battles, who would shoot first, who provoked and who instigated. He was indeed told about that subsequently; probably by the Prosecution.

Milan Babic found a grain of courage to de-mask himself at the end, but not enough courage to refuse being blackmailed by a threat of indictment. No matter how good the interpreters are, they always tend to beautify answers, to bring order into sentences, to avoid those little tell-tale bywords and awkward constructions which can only be noticed by listening to the original and which unerringly indicate the story told is not completely true. I can remember only few witnesses so far, whose story had such straightforwardness and simplicity of 'the whole truth', but even some of those witnesses spoke that way only in small parts of their testimonies. Everything else was doctored, rehearsed or clumsily invented on the spot.