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Milosevic admits Belgrade financed Bosnian, Croatia Serbs
Jailed former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on Monday admitted for the first time that Belgrade secretly financed the armies of Bosnian and Croatian Serbs in their bloody wars in the early 1990s.
Jailed former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on Monday admitted for the first time that Belgrade secretly financed the armies of Bosnian and Croatian Serbs in their bloody wars in the early 1990s.
Regarding funds spent on weapons, ammunition and the other needs of the Army of Republika Srpska (RS, Bosnian Serb entity) and the Army of the RSK (the wartime Serb entity in Croatia), these sums could not be publicly presented in the draft budget for reasons of state security, as the top state secret, Milosevic's defence appeal said.
During Milosevic's decade-long rule and the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, Belgrade firmly denied any financial and military assistance to the Serb wartime entities in the two former Yugoslav Republics.
The unprecedented confession was included in an appeal drafted and signed by Milosevic himself, with which he hoped to win release from custody while investigators look into charges of corruption and abuse of power.
The charges against him allege that he ordered his minions to embezzle huge amounts of public money for personal profit and to help maintain his autocratic regime in power. But in the appeal, Milosevic argued that he had used the money not for personal gain but to aid the cause of Serbian nationalists in breakaway regions of Republics seeking independence from the former Yugoslavia. Due to reasons of state secrecy, all the funds that went to the Army of the RS were not publicly presented, said the appeal drawn up by Milosevic, a lawyer by training.
Bureau Report
During Milosevic's decade-long rule and the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, Belgrade firmly denied any financial and military assistance to the Serb wartime entities in the two former Yugoslav Republics.
The unprecedented confession was included in an appeal drafted and signed by Milosevic himself, with which he hoped to win release from custody while investigators look into charges of corruption and abuse of power.
The charges against him allege that he ordered his minions to embezzle huge amounts of public money for personal profit and to help maintain his autocratic regime in power. But in the appeal, Milosevic argued that he had used the money not for personal gain but to aid the cause of Serbian nationalists in breakaway regions of Republics seeking independence from the former Yugoslavia. Due to reasons of state secrecy, all the funds that went to the Army of the RS were not publicly presented, said the appeal drawn up by Milosevic, a lawyer by training.
Bureau Report