"TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: AUG. 26 2003 - COLM DOYLE TESTIFIES AGAINST MILOSEVIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - August 26, 2003

The Hague Tribunal heard testimony from Colm Doyle today. The former Irish army major served as head of the European Community's monitoring mission in Sarajevo, and later on as the special envoy of Lord Carrington, he was also the chairman of the EC conference on Yugoslavia.

Even though Mr. Doyle was at the Hague to testify against Milosevic; his testimony did not incriminate Milosevic in the least. The only part of Doyle's testimony that had anything at all to do with Milosevic was his testimony about a meeting he had with President Milosevic in Belgrade on 16 June 1992. According to Doyle, Milosevic expressed strong support for the peace process. Doyle claimed that Milosevic reiterated his position that the violence and bloodshed should be stopped and that the only solution for Bosnia was a solution which was fair to all 3 sides, and which all 3 sides could agree on. Doyal said that Milosevic expressed strong support for Radovan Karadzic's proposal that UN observers should be attached to all units of the Bosnian-Serb Army. He said that Milosevic condemned the shelling of Sarajevo and pledged to do what he could to assist the peace process.

So, the only evidence that the prosecution brought against President Milosevic with this witness was that he wanted to stop the Bosnian war and find a solution that was fair to all 3 sides. I guess working to stop a war is what makes one a war criminal at the Hague Tribunal.

Even though the rest of Mr. Doyle's testimony had absolutely nothing to do  with President Milosevic, parts of it were quite interesting. The most interesting tidbit was Doyle's testimony about how the Bosnian  parliament reached its decision to hold the referendum on succession from Yugoslavia.

According to Doyle, on or about the 15th of October 1991 the speaker of the Bosnian parliament adjourned the parliament for the night at around 3:30 in the morning. After the Serb MPs had gone home for the night, the Muslim and Croat MPs reconvened the parliament and passed the decision that the referendum on succession should be held.

To put it bluntly, the Muslim and Croat MPs tricked the Serb MPs into leaving the debate on the referendum question by fraudulently adjourning the parliament and then fraudulently reconvening it again after the Serbs had left for the night. After the Serbs had gone home, falsely believing that the parliament was in fact adjourned, the Muslim and Croat MPs, who remained fraudulently reconvened the parliament and passed the decision to hold a referendum on succession, without the consent of the Serb MPs.

President Milosevic asked Mr. Doyle if he considered that this decision of the parliament was made lawfully or not. Doyle didn't really know what to say at this point, because the answer is so obvious. Doyle's answer was ultimately that he didn't know.

Another interesting piece of information came when Doyal spoke of a peace conference that he was at with Radovan Karadzic in Lisbon. During that peace conference a number of Muslim civilians were killed while waiting in a breadline in Sarajevo. Karadzic immediately swore to Cutileiro that the Bosnian Serbs didn't perpetrate that crime.

According to Doyle, Cutileiro's response to Karadzic was that the Bosnian Serbs would be publicly blamed whether they perpetrated that massacre or not. Cutilero then told Karadzic that his only option was to "make a public gesture of good will" by handing over control of the Sarajevo Airport.

Moreover, the Muslim representative used the breadline massacre as an excuse to walk out of the negotiations and the negotiations failed.

As it turns out the Bosnian Serbs did not perpetrate that massacre. Slobodan Milosevic quoted from an article in the London Independent entitled "Muslims 'slaughter their own people'," dated 8/22/92. According to the article "United Nations officials and senior Western military officers believe some of the worst killings in Sarajevo, including the massacre of at least 16 people in a bread queue, were carried out by the city's mainly Muslim defenders -- not Serb besiegers -- as a propaganda ploy to win world sympathy and military intervention. . . . Classified reports to the UN force commander, General Satish Nambiar, concluded . . . that Bosnian forces loyal to President Alija Izetbegovic may have detonated a bomb. 'We believe it was a command-detonated explosion, probably in a can,' a UN official said then. 'The large impact which is there now is not necessarily similar or anywhere near as large as we came to expect with a mortar round landing on a paved surface.'"

Doyle claimed that he didn't know anything about that, but he didn't attempt to refute it either. He simply said that he didn't personally know who was responsible.

President Milosevic will continue his cross-examination of Mr. Doyle tomorrow. The troika has granted him 1 hour and 5 minutes to complete his cross-examination. After he concludes the Amicus Curiae will be given 15 to 20 minutes for cross-examination.


SEQUENCE OF EVENTS:

1. Witness Colm Doyle was examined by the prosecutor Geoffrey Nice.

2. Witness Colm Doyle was cross-examined by President Slobodan Milosevic.