THE HAGUE: Mr Slobodan Milosevic yesterday denied involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, telling his trial he had no part in Europe's worst atrocity since the second World War.
The former Yugoslavian president, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, told the Hague war crimes tribunal that Serbia had not played a role in the mass slaughter in July 1995.
The massacre of Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces who overran a Muslim enclave deemed a UN "safe area" in July 1995 was the biggest single atrocity in the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
"I assume it is quite clear to you and everybody else that neither Serbia nor I had anything to do with these events in Srebrenica," Mr Milosevic told the UN court's president, Judge Richard May.
He has been charged with responsibility for the Srebrenica massacre along with the tribunal's most wanted men, the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, Mr Radovan Karadzic, and Gen Ratko Mladic.
Prosecutors have argued that Mr Milosevic in Belgrade helped Gen Mladic's and Mr Karadzic's Bosnian Serb forces to impose Serb control over large areas of disputed territory in neighbouring Bosnia by expelling and killing Bosnian Croats and Muslims.
Mr Milosevic, who has been on trial at The Hague since February 2002, returned to the dock yesterday after a three-week break to cross-examine a prosecution witness who admitted taking part in the Srebrenica killings.
Drazen Erdemovic was sentenced to 10 years in jail by the international tribunal in 1996 after admitting he took part in a mass execution at Pilica farm on July 16th, 1995. His sentence was cut to five years on appeal in 1998.
Erdemovic also testified at the tribunal against a former Bosnian Serb general, Radislav Krstic, who was sentenced to 46 years in jail for genocide for his role in the Srebrenica atrocity in a landmark verdict in 2001.
"Could you see or hear the participation of anyone from Serbia in these events?" Mr Milosevic asked Erdemovic, who was hidden from public view by blinds with his image scrambled on courtroom monitors.
"What I know is that for anyone to undertake something like that the authorities must have known. It must have been clear to anyone involved that someone high up was behind it," Erdemovic said.