THE HAGUE - The project of a Greater Serbia did not exist and forcible unification with Serbia was never the political goal of either Bosnian Serbs or Belgrade authorities, former minister of foreign affairs of Yugoslavia Vladislav Jovanovic said in The Hague Tribunal.
The project of a Greater Serbia is a fabrication imposed as a propaganda tool during the breakup of former Yugoslavia, Jovanovic said during his two-day testimony in the case against former president of Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic.
Jovanovic stated that not only Muslims and Croats were responsible for the war, but the international community as well, especially Germany and the Vatican, which were against the existence of Yugoslavia.
The international conference on Yugoslavia in 1991 was organized in order to end the existence of Yugoslavia, and the solution was in the end imposed by the "take it or leave it" principle, he explained.As Jovanovic put it, the international conference did not observe provisions of the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The international boundaries were eliminated and administrative borders (of the then republics) were declared international, which was "violence against the international law and peaceful life in Yugoslavia."
Jovanovic pointed out that the SFRY constitution guaranteed the right to self-determination to all peoples, and that this right, without any explanation, was denied only to Serbs as a constitutive people in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH).
Answering the questions of Prosecutor Alan Tieger, he stressed that "Serbia never wanted to be 'Greater'," because if it did, it could have become such after World War I or II.
In support of his claims that Serbia did not care about territorial expansion, Jovanovic said that it accepted all peace plans and solutions that would satisfy all three warring parties in BiH.
In the beginning, Bosniak Serbs wanted to stay in a common state, but after the recognition of BiH independence, when this wish became unrealistic and impossible, they agreed to make a sacrifice and gave up on this maximum goal, he said.
Jovanovic said that the war in BiH could have been prevented with the Cutileiro peace plan in March 1992 proposing a rearrangement of BiH into three national entities, which Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic refused.
As they were unconstitutionally outvoted at the referendum on BiH independence, and Izetbegovic refused the Cutileiro plan, which guaranteed equality and freedom as constitutive people, Bosniak Serbs were literally forced into a war, he said.
When asked whether he knew that Bosniak Serbs, Karadzic in particular, claimed the right to territories in which they constituted a minority, Jovanovic said that a large number of Serbs in BiH went missing or were expelled in a genocide during World War II, and that it should not be said that their disappearance did not happen, adding that for this reason he has understanding for such a claim.
Speaking about the relations between Karadzic and former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, Jovanovic said that ideologically and politically, they were poles apart from the very beginning, adding that this was a marriage of convenience, and that it was clear that it would not last.
Responding to Karadzic's questions, who is representing himself, Jovanovic stated that neither him, nor Bosniak Serbs expressed hatred towards Muslims and Croats, but rather wanted clear relations and equal rights due to difficult experiences in the past.
The indictment for expulsion of non-Serbs obviously lacks evidence, and it is politically motivated since something like that never happened in reality, he said, adding that there were 50,000 Muslims and 20,000 Croat refugees in Serbia in 1993, and that this number increased later.
Serbia always advocated the passage of humanitarian convoys, but there were always problems as they were abused for transport of weapons, he said.
Speaking about the dozens of civilians killed in explosions in Vase Miskina street and the Markale market in Sarajevo, Jovanovic said there is indication the shells were fired by the Muslim side.
The UN also had information about this, and Bosnian Serb officials claimed the Muslims carried out the attacks to provoke the anger of the international community against Serbs and bring about the NATO intervention.
Jovanovic noted that "politics played a role in the classification of the crime which occurred in Srebrenica in July 1995."
Verdicts from the Hague Tribunal called it a genocide in which some 8,000 Muslims were executed.
"22,000 Polish officers and civilians were killed in the Katyn Forest and no one accused Stalin of genocide," Jovanovic said, adding that the latest findings "are not in line with the rulings of the court."
He noted that Obran Mustafic (the founder of the Party of Democratic Action headed by Izetbegovic) has said that "the forces led by Naser Oric are responsible for the deaths of 500 to 1,000 Srebrenica Muslims who were killed en route to Tuzla."
"I think the number of victims is exaggerated and it is questionable whether they can all be attributed to the local Serbs or also to the Muslim side, as Mustafic did a few weeks ago," said the witness for the defense.
In the book "Planned Chaos," Mustafic claimed that the genocide in Srebrenica was orchestrated by the BiH leaders together with then U.S. president Bill Clinton.
www.tanjug.rs/news/79055/jovanovic--greater-serbia--propaganda-fabrication.htm