MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS - JANUARY 22, 2004: TUDJMAN'S CABINET CHIEF ADMITS CROATIA MASSACRED ITS OWN CITIZENS TO PROVIDE A PRETEXT FOR OPERATION FLASH

www.slobodan-milosevic.org - January 27, 2004

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2004 - Hrvoje Sarinic, Franjo Tudjman’s, former Cabinet Chief was cross-examined by President Milosevic on Thursday.

Mr. Sarinic believed that the Krajina Serbs were a “Trojan horse” that had been sent to Croatia to enact the politics of Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic joked that his control must have been so great that he was able to send this “Trojan horse” into the Krajina centuries before he was even born. The term “Trojan horse” was used more than once by Mr. Sarinic to describe the Krajina Serbs, so it wasn’t merely a one time slip of the tongue.

Mr. Sarinic also attempted to say that Milosevic controlled Arkan. He didn’t have a single piece of proof to back this up. To explain his lack of proof he said that “Milosevic covers his tracks too well.”

Slobodan Milosevic gave Mr. Sarinic more than he bargained for in his cross-examination. President Milosevic had procured the transcripts of top secret meetings held in the office of Franjo Tudjman.

From these transcripts Milosevic observed that Tudjman was speaking quite openly about his desire to ethnically cleanse the Serbs from the Krajina. In 1991 Tudjman was talking about "the need to cleanse Western Slavonia.”

It also emerged that Tudjman, together with this witness and other top Croatian officials, on April 30, 1995 planned to stage a “Serb” attack on Croatian vehicles traveling on the Zagreb-Lipovac highway. The idea behind staging this attack was to provide a pretext for the launch of Operation Flash. Sure enough, late on that same day this attack was carried out, and Operation Flash was launched the very next morning on May 1, 1995.

At first Mr. Sarinic tried to deny these facts, but then he gave in and admitted that it was true. He said that it was only “military tactics,” and that “Operation Flash was justified.”

The result of Operation Flash was that thousands of Serbs were killed or wounded and hundreds of thousands more were made into refugees. But, oh well, it’s only “military tactics,” right Mr. Sarinic?

To top this off, Zagreb carried out this “Serb” attack on its own citizens, at the same time as it was negotiating a peace agreement with the RSK authorities in Knin.

These same people who massacred their own citizens on the highway in order to provide a justification for their ethnic cleansing operations have provided the prosecution with some of the intercepts that it is using as “evidence” against Milosevic.

I’m sure we can trust the authenticity of their tapes, Sarinic himself even "authenticated" some of the tapes. So what if the Croats murdered their own people on the highway so that they could have an excuse to ethnically cleanse the Serbs? They’re much too honest to doctor some tapes. I’m sure we can trust them.

Mr. Sarinic, told Mr. Nice during the examination in chief that the RSK Prime Minister, Bora Mikelic and Slobodan Milosevic had a “master and slave relationship” with Milosevic as the master. It turns out that Mr. Mikelic watches the “trial” and he saw Sarinic saying this.

Mr. Mikelic wrote a letter which was exhibited by President Milosevic. In the letter Mikelic explains that he and Milosevic had a relationship of equality and mutual respect, and that Sarinic knew this and was spreading lies.

Sarinic was more candid than one might expect. He admitted that the former Croatian Defense Minister, Martain Spegelj planned the blockade and attack on JNA barracks in Croatia before the outbreak of hostilities.

Sarinic also admitted that the United States, and in particular the Clinton Administration, gave Croatia the green light to carry out Operation Storm, and that it was the Americans who called off the operation when it began heading towards Banja Luka.

With a wink and a nod from the United States, Croatia launched the operation, and because the Americans were the ones running the show it was the USA who called the operation off when their objectives had been achieved.

What was their objective? If the result is any indication, it was to carryout the largest ethnic cleansing in the Balkans since the Second World War, since that is exactly what happened.

Mr. Sarinic was of the opinion that Croatia was the victim. In his opinion the Serbs, who had been living in the Krajina for many centuries, were “occupying” Croatia. He insisted that operations “Storm” and “Flash” were justified.

Another admission that Mr. Sarinic made was that a French General, named DeBoul (phonetic) who investigated the shelling of the Markale Market in Sarajevo told him that the fatal shell could only have come from Muslim-held positions.

Slobodan Milosevic read out transcripts of Mesic’s remarks at his meetings with Tudjman. On November 21, 1991 Mesic said that Croatia should “paint the JNA” as an aggressor army. He said that Croatia should go to the UN and argue that Yugoslavia no longer existed, and ask the UN not to recognize Yugoslavia anymore. Mr. Sarinic looked at the transcript and basically confirmed that it was all in the transcript, and that it was in line with their position at the time.

It seems like Croatia had a pretty self-important view of itself. Croatia leaves Yugoslavia; and so on the basis of that it concludes that Yugoslavia no longer exists. If Delaware left would the United States cease to exist?

After Sarinic withdrew some administrative matters were discussed. Even at this late date, Mr. Nice still can’t make-up his mind about which witnesses he will call. On Monday the prosecution will call, Dean Manning, an investigator who has been employed by the Office of the Prosecutor to investigate Serbreica.
 

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