Slobodan Milosevic points finger at French

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC yesterday ridiculed the first witness called

Sat, 28 Sep, 2002 - 01:00

UN prosecutors to testify against him about war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia, and claimed a massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica was concocted France to turn world opinion against the Serbs.

The first witness to appear in the second phase of Milosevic's trial for alleged war crimes in 1991-1995 was a Serb Democratic Party member from a formerly Serb-dominated enclave in Croatia. He was identified only as C-037, with his image blurred and voice changed to protect his identity.

The witness said that in the run-up to the Croatian war in 1990-1991, Belgrade authorities used the Serb-controlled media to play on fears of the Serb minority population in Croatia and rally support for hardline leaders backing armed rebellion against the Zagreb government.