NICE CROSS-EXAMINES GEN. DELIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - July 11, 2005

Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice began his cross-examination of Gen. Bozidar Delic by questioning him about Srebrenica. Even though the prosecutor was clearly questioning the witness for non-forensic, political purposes the trial chamber allowed it to continue.

When pressed to answer the questions Gen. Delic, who was not even in Srebrenica and was not called to testify about Srebrenica, said that he believed that 2,000 to 3,000 Serbs and several thousand Muslims died in Srebrenica. He did not believe that the number of Muslim deaths was as high as the 7,000 to 8,000 reported by the media.

Nice also questioned Gen. Delic about the alleged shelling of Dubrovnik. Delic denied that the JNA ever shelled the Old Town of Dubrovnik.

In spite of the ICTY's finding that Dubrovnik's Old Town was destroyed by JNA shelling, video filmed by North-East Illinois University professor John Peter Maher shows that Dubrovnik's Old Town was completely intact just weeks after it was supposed to have been destroyed by JNA shelling. The only building that had been destroyed was the Serbian Orthodox church and theological library, and that had been set on fire by the Croats.

Mr. Nice tried to claim that the Office of the Prosecutor was the victim of prejudice at the hands of the Serbian Government. He said that the Serbian authorities had not provided documents to the tribunal. Gen. Delic, who was part of the body that was established to cooperate with the ICTY, said that the document requests could not be filled because they were too vague. He said that if specific documents had been requested then those requests would have been fulfilled.

The prosecutor questioned the witness regarding his service in the Bosnian-Serb Army. Gen. Delic was a member of the 715th VRS brigade. In spite of Mr. Nice's insinuations that this was proof of a Serbian conspiracy, Delic saw nothing unusual about the fact that he, as a Serb from Kosovo, would volunteer to defend the Serbs in Bosnia. After all, Arabs from the middle-east came to Bosnia to fight for the Muslim cause and Mr. Nice sees nothing strange about that.

Gen. Delic denied that the so-called "Joint Command" issued orders to the VJ and MUP outside of the legal chain of command. Mr. Nice showed Delic a document from his unit that read, "Pursuant to the order of the Joint Command…" on the first line.

Gen. Delic maintains that the Joint Command did not issue orders. He repeated his testimony that it was "coordinating body" for cooperation between the Army and the police. He said that it did not have a military post code or a commander. As for the document that referred to the Joint Command, the witness said that the Pristina Corps issued orders to his unit, and it was behind the document.

The cross-examination will continue tomorrow.

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