French behind Srebrenica massacre, claims Milosevic

The former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic claimed yesterday that the massacre of about 7,000 men and boys at Srebrenica was orchestrated by the French secret service to turn world opinion against the Serbs.

Mr Milosevic, who faces genocide charges for atrocities in Bosnia, denied involvement in the mass murder, which took place in July 1995. He told the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague that Bosnian Serb paramilitaries had been paid by the French secret service to carry out the executions as part of an international propaganda campaign.

He also denied any involvement on the part of the senior Yugoslav military commander, Ratko Mladic, or Radislav Krstic, the Bosnian Serb general who has already been convicted of genocide by the tribunal for his role at Srebrenica. Neither man "knew anything of this massacre and I'm sure that military honour would never have permitted them to execute innocent civilians," Mr Milosevic said.

"Ask [French president] Jacques Chirac about Srebrenica," he added, claiming that Bosnian Muslim officials and the United Nations' French general, Bernard Janvier, had colluded in a deal designed to trigger international outrage and prompt Nato air raids against the Bosnian Serbs. "I claim with full responsibility before the eyes of the world public that Serbia's policy was consistent with peace," Mr Milosevic said.

In all, Mr Milosevic faces 61 war charges and the prosecution, which has already completed its case against him for events in Kosovo, has just begun outlining its allegations concerning Croatia and Bosnia.

The first witness in this part of his trial was a Serb Democratic Party member whose image was blurred and voice changed to protect his identity. He said that in the run-up to the Croatian war in 1990, Belgrade used the Serb-controlled media to play on the Serb minority's fears and rally support for hardline leaders backing armed rebellion against Zagreb. Mr Milosevic called the testimony "preposterous".