WELCOME TO IWPRS ICTY - TRIBUNAL UPDATE No. 599, May 1, 2009 KOSOVO ALBANIAN OPENED CHAMPAGNE ON NEWS OF NATO BOMBING Witness says he left his Kosovo home out of fear of Serbian forces attacks, not because of NATO campaign. By Simon Jennings in The Hague
WITNESS DENIES LYING TO COURT He dismisses defence claims that he fabricated parts of his statement. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb DEFIANT GLAVAS PROTESTS INNOCENCE IN CLOSING STATEMENT As trial ends, Croatian politician reiterates his claim that proceedings against him were politically motivated. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb VUKOVAR APPEALS VERDICT IMMINENT Prosecutors are seeking tougher sentences against former Yugoslav army officers, while defence has called for acquittals. 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For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** KOSOVO ALBANIAN OPENED CHAMPAGNE ON NEWS OF NATO BOMBING Witness says he left his Kosovo home out of fear of Serbian forces attacks, not because of NATO campaign. By Simon Jennings in The Hague An ethnic Albanian testifying in the war crimes trial of a former Serbian police chief this week challenged the defence argument that Kosovo Albanians fled the province in 1999 due to NATO airstrikes, rather than as a result of Serbian attacks. No one in Kosovo feared the NATO bombing, the witness told the Hague tribunal. We could have been a target but we did not fear. In fact, when we heard [the] NATO bombing [had] started against military targets, my wife and I opened champagne and had a drink even though it was against our religion. Edison Zatriqi was called by Hague prosecutors to give evidence in the trial of ex-police commander Vlastimir Djordjevic about events in his home city of Pec in western Kosovo on March 27 and 28, 1999. It is alleged that on these dates, Serbian forces set the homes of ethnic Albanians on fire and forced them to leave the town. According to the indictment against Djordjevic, ethnic Albanians living in Pec were driven out of their homes, forced to get on buses or trucks and were driven to the town of Pizren and then on towards the Albanian border. Prosecutors say that such actions were part of a systematic campaign conducted by forces from Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FRY, in 1999 that led to the murder and deportation of around 800,000 Albanians from Kosovo. The defence has questioned previous witnesses testifying in the trial which started in January 2009 about whether Albanians fled Kosovo in fear of Serb shelling or because of the NATO bombing campaign, launched on March 24, 1999. We knew that [the NATO bombing] was a good thing, Zatriqi told judges this week. The witness said that he was at home with his family on the morning of March 27 when Serb forces began shelling Pec, and was able to watch the attack. My house is in such a position that I was always able to see the direction from which shells were fired, he said. The shells were falling on the roof of my house. The attack forced him and his family, who were hiding in the basement, to leave their home, he said. One of the reasons I left my house was the shelling itself, he told the court. [Judging] by the blast and explosions, I can say it lasted for at least two to three hours. Zatriqi also said that he saw the Serb army shelling an area of town inhabited exclusively by Albanians and described the extent of the damage done to Pec during the spring of 1999. Eighty per cent of houses were damaged or burnt in [Pec], among them my house, too, he said. In the early hours of the morning of March 27, the witness said that from his house, he saw a police vehicle stop outside and a policeman talking to his neighbours before, an hour later, gun fire broke out. It was not my neighbours [who were shooting] but [the] persons who came out of the minivan, he said, describing how his house came under fire. They were dressed in police uniforms. Having left for his aunts house during the shelling on that day, the witness said that he and his family were then forced to leave the town the following day. At the junction [on the way out of town], there were police, armed police, who directed us towards Montenegro. There was no choice for us, he said People left Pec because of fear for [their] lives and not willingly, he added, when questioned by the prosecutor about the reason for the ethnic Albanians flight. During his cross examination of the witness, Djordjevics lawyer, Veljko Djurdjic, sought to show that what was going on in Pec was part of an armed conflict between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, rather than unwarranted Serb aggression. He repeatedly asked the witness about shooting coming from the area of town that Zatriqi alleged was shelled by Serb tanks. I could see very clearly that no fire came from [that neighbourhood], replied the witness. Djurdjic also persisted in trying to sow doubt on the witness testimony by highlighting inconsistencies between a written statement he had produced as evidence and what he actually said in court. While the witness had stated previously that he was in his basement on March 27, in court, he had talked about moving around his house while watching the shelling that day. The witness clarified that it was his family who remained in the basement, prompting the presiding judge to reprimand Djurdjic for his constant questioning. You have got all the facts from the witness, so you are pressing on [with this line of questioning] for no purpose, Australian judge, Kevin Parker, told Djurdjic. Another witness from Pec, Ndrec Konaj, also testified this week about an exodus from the city during March 1999, saying he and his family were forced to leave their home. He told judges how, while leaving through the towns streets, he, his uncle and his wife and two daughters were stopped by a group of nine men who pulled up in two cars and separated him and his uncle from his wife and daughters. They ordered me to walk in the direction of Montenegro. They said, You have asked [Bill] Clinton to come so he should come and rescue you, and they cursed our mothers, said the witness. The men hit him on the chin and his uncle with a rifle but before letting them on their way, Konaj said. He explained how his family then joined crowds of people on the streets who had also been evicted from their homes by Serb forces and ordered to go to Montenegro. Asked by the prosecutor who had ordered the people to leave, he replied, The police, the army, the paramilitaries. You could not tell who exactly but the same people who had expelled us from our home. As they left, they were sent to the centre of town and ordered onto buses bound for the Albanian border, he said. In the middle [of the city] there [were] lorries, trucks and buses [which] people got on to and they were sent in the direction of Albania, Konaj told judges. Asked who was on the streets during March 27 and 28, Konaj replied, In the main street [there were] seven or eight policemen, military men, dressed in blue uniforms and they told us where to go. The witness said that when he and his family were dropped near the Albanian border, one of the Serb bus drivers told him to leave Kosovo. He said, This is the right road to Albania... This is not your country, this is Serbia. Go to your own country, go straight to Albania, Konaj said. He also confirmed the prosecutions allegations that fleeing Albanians were told to leave their driving licences and identity cards at the border. He told judges that he and his family were told to throw their documents into a wooden box before crossing the border. I pretended to throw my identity card too, but I did not throw it and have it still to this day, the witness told the court. Djurdic used his cross-examination to try to shed doubt on Konajs testimony by pointing out minor discrepancies between two separate statements he had given to prosecutions investigators in 1999 and in 2001. Both witnesses who gave evidence this week have testified at the tribunal about events in Kosovo in 1999 before, in the trial of the former Serb president Milan Milutinovic. Milutinovic was acquitted of any responsibility for crimes in Kosovo in February this year, but his five co-defendants, including senior military and police generals, received stiff sentences following convictions on several counts. The testimony of both witnesses in the Milutinovic trial was entered into evidence against Djordjevic this week. Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. WITNESS DENIES LYING TO COURT He dismisses defence claims that he fabricated parts of his statement. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb A former Bosnian Serb officer giving evidence against former colleagues and superior officers at the Hague tribunal this week denied defence claims that he lied during his testimony under pressure from the prosecution. Momir Nikolic, who came to a plea arrangement with prosecutors at the Hague tribunal in 2003, was sentenced to 20 years on appeal in 2006 after being convicted of crimes against humanity for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The witness, who was called to the stand by judges to give evidence in the trial of seven Bosnian Serb officials, continued to testify this week, giving his account of how he came to learn of Bosnian Serb plans to ethnically cleanse the eastern Bosnian town. Ljubisa Beara, Vujadin Popovic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Vinko Pandurevic, Drago Nikolic, Radivoj Miletic and Milan Gvero are charged with the expulsion of the Muslim population of Srebrenica and Zepa and the murder of all able-bodied men captured from Srebrenica. Beara, Borovcanin, Popovic, Nikolic and Pandurevic are accused of genocide in relation to the massacre. Last week, defence lawyers accused Momir Nikolic, a former security and intelligence chief for the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, of lying in his testimony in order to secure the plea agreement he reached with the prosecution six years ago. Popovics lawyer, Zoran Zivanovic, asked him if he had introduced certain facts into a statement given to prosecutors to play up to the prosecution office in order to successfully conclude [his] plea agreement. This week, Jelena Nikolic, the lawyer of Drago Nikolic, accused Momir Nikolic of [making] up parts of [his] statement under the prosecutions pressure. She specifically referred to the part of Momir Nikolics testimony in which he said that while in Zvornik, he received orders from Beara, then chief of security of the VRS main staff, to transfer the imprisoned Muslims from Bratunac to territory under the Zvornik brigade and then to execute them. The witness said during his appearance in court, and in a statement he gave to prosecutors, that he then transmitted these orders to Drago Nikolic, then chief of security of the Zvornik brigade. The defence lawyer attempted to prove that the witness wasnt in Zvornik at that particular time. She confronted him with photographs of the so-called Standard factory a building where the Zvornik brigade command was stationed and then drew on the fact that he said he couldnt remember details about the building or conversations he said he had there to argue that he was lying about having been there. However, Momir Nikolic denied all suggestions that he had given false testimony. He then said he wanted to take responsibility for his role in the events at Srebrenica, which he claimed was limited to helping to force the Bosniak population out of the enclave. I thought that I would take on a part of the responsibility [for] what happened with the forcible transfer [of Bosniaks] From my position [in the VRS] I helped this happen, he said. During his testimony, he elaborated on his involvement, admitting that he took care of the logistics for the detention of some 1,000 men in the town of Bratunac. However, he said that he took no responsibility for killings or mistreatment of prisoners. I never accepted that I played any major role in the expulsion [of Bosniaks from Srebrenica], that I participated in planning and organising that, God forbid, I killed or ill-treated someone. I didnt do that and no one can pin this on me, he said. Momir Nikolic told judges that the initial Bosnian Serb plan of attack on Srebrenica, then a United Nations-designated safe haven, was to reduce [the size of the safe haven, which covered the entire enclave, to the area immediately around the town]. However, finding no serious resistance, the Bosnian Serbs took it over entirely, he said. When Judge O-Gon Kwon asked him if it would have been possible for Bosniak civilians to remain in Srebrenica at that time, Momir Nikolic said no. He explained that even though the Bosnian Serb leadership had proclaimed that Bosniaks could stay in the area, this would have been too dangerous. Practically, there wasnt any possibility that anyone could stay there. There was so much hate and so much blood by then Practically no one could stay there, he said. After Momir Nikolic concluded his testimony, the prosecution called to the stand Dusan Janc, a former Slovenian police inspector, who delivered a report on the exhumation of mass graves and the identification of victims. The trial continues. Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained reporter in Zagreb. DEFIANT GLAVAS PROTESTS INNOCENCE IN CLOSING STATEMENT As trial ends, Croatian politician reiterates his claim that proceedings against him were politically motivated. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb The war crimes trial of Croatian politician Branimir Glavas and five others wound to a close after almost four years this week, with the main defendant Glavas protesting his innocence and saying he is a victim of political persecution. The six suspects, on trial at Zagreb County Court, are accused of involvement in two cases of war crimes against ethnic Serb civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991. In the so-called Garage case, victims were tortured and killed in the garage of an Osijek municipal building, while in the Duct Tape case, eight men were gagged with duct tape and shot by the Drava river. The proceedings have been halted several times, initially because of the resistance of Glavas, a powerful member of parliament from Slavonia known for his fiery nationalist rhetoric, then as a result of other defendants seeking adjournments for medical reasons. Glavas, the highest-ranking Croatian official to have been indicted for war crimes, was one of the founders of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, party that ruled Croatia in the 1990s. He was expelled in 2005 after clashing with party leader and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader over Sanaders pro-European policies. True to his firebrand reputation, Glavas has played up to the gallery and media during his trial, with flamboyant rhetoric that frequently got him in hot water with judges. When one witness said during his testimony that Glavas had given him an order and even provided the bullets to kill one of the victims, the defendant said he was lying. Then, in his closing statement on April 27, Glavas accused the HDZ of launching the trial against him as revenge for him having founded a successful regional party, the Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja, HDSSB. He also argued that the prosecution had failed to prove his guilt; that the indictment against him was fabricated and that he was a victim of political persecution orchestrated by police director Vladimir Faber, chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic and the media. The media condemned me, without trial, as a war criminal, he said, noting that non-governmental organisations monitoring the trial had chosen not to speak up about the bias against him. Arguing that his former party had used the media to exert pressure on the judiciary, he showed as evidence to the court the cover of a Croatian daily, which bore the headline, Sanader: Glavas No Longer Exists. He also accused police chief Faber of fabricating evidence and of sending Chief Prosecutor Bajic false reports about witnesses in the trial receiving threats. He accused Faber of being a shallow milicajac (or militiaman a Serbian term for a policeman, which is used as a derogatory term against Croatian police) who will end up in a place reserved for such unsavoury characters. This earned himself a warning from presiding Judge Zeljko Horvatovic to stop his insults. Glavas also accused the authorities of failing to protect his underage son from media reports about the arrest of his father. He became emotional as he told the court that his son has suffered because he was called the son of a war criminal. He concluded by saying that he had made no mistakes during the war and was proud of his actions. If defending your own country makes you a war criminal, then I am one, he said. Prosecutors maintain that in the Garage case, Glavas was guilty because as head of the National Defence Secretariat and de-facto commander of a military unit, he was aware that civilians were arrested and tortured, yet did nothing to prevent the atrocities and punish those responsible, and instead tried to cover them up. In the Duct Tape case, prosecutors said they proved that Glavas and Ivica Krnjak, former commander of the Independent Uskok Company, ordered the accused members of the unit, Dino Kontic, Tihomir Valentic and Zdravko Dragic, to arrest, torture and execute eight Serb civilians on the bank of the Drava. The orders were issued via the fourth defendant, Gordana Getos Magdic, prosecutors say. The indictment in the Duct Tape case was based on statements made by Getos Magdic and Dragic to the Osijek police, in which they admitted their involvement in the kidnapping of civilians. Getos Magdic named Glavas as the person who ordered the systematic killings of Serbian civilians from Osijek, while Dragic admitted that he had attempted to kill Radoslav Ratkovic, the only person to have survived the executions by the Drava. The two accused later withdrew their statements, saying they were pressured to make them by the police. However, both Croatias Supreme Court and the local trial chamber found that their original statements were not made under duress and should be included in the trial records. During the interrogation of Gordana Getos-Magdic and Zdravko Dragic, the Osijek police officers acted professionally and there was no mistreatment or extortion of statements, the court council concluded. After Glavas finished his statement, the five other accused spoke to the court pleading their innocence and asking for an exonerating verdict because the trial has not proven that they had committed any of the criminal acts in the indictment. In its seven-hour closing statement last week, the prosecution said that despite the passage of time and a lack of physical evidence which it said was down to institutional failures to preserve this it had proven that all six accused were guilty of systematically planned and organised crimes against civilians who were in no way connected with hostile activities against Croatia by its rebel Serb minority in the Krajina region. They demanded guilty verdicts for all and prison sentences ranging from five to 20 years. The court is due to deliver its verdict on May 8. Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained reporter in Zagreb. VUKOVAR APPEALS VERDICT IMMINENT Prosecutors are seeking tougher sentences against former Yugoslav army officers, while defence has called for acquittals. By Simon Jennings in The Hague Appeals judges will give their judgement next week in the case of two former Yugoslav Peoples Army, JNA, officers convicted for their role in the execution of nearly 200 prisoners of war following the fall of the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991. Mile Mrksic and Veselin Sljivancanin were sentenced by the Hague tribunal to jail terms of 20 and five years respectively in September 2007. Both the prosecution and defence appealed the verdicts and judges will deliver their decision on May 5. Mrksic, a JNA colonel, was found guilty of three counts of violations of the laws or customs of war, including the murder, torture and cruel treatment of 194 Croat and other non-Serb prisoners at a farm near Ovcara on November 20 and 21, 1991. The victims were transported by bus from Vukovar Hospital to Ovcara following the towns capture by JNA and Serb paramilitary forces. Veselin Sljivancanin, a major in the JNA who served under Mrksic, was convicted of aiding and abetting the cruel treatment of the prisoners. Judges ruled at trial that Sljivancanin failed to allocate enough JNA guards to protect the prisoners and prevent local Serb paramilitaries abusing and mistreating them. A third defendant who faced trial alongside the former officers, Miroslav Radic, was found not guilty after judges found there was no evidence he was aware of the killings taking place at Ovcara. Trial judges dismissed all charges of crimes against humanity against the defendants because it ruled that all of the 194 victims identified were serving members of military forces rather than civilians. Prosecutors appealed the sentences handed down to Mrksic and Sljivancanin on October 29, 2007, describing them as manifestly inadequate. They say that judges erred in identifying all the victims as non-civilian, and have called for stiffer sentences for both defendants. However, they did not appeal Radics acquittal. Mrksic and Sljivancanin, meanwhile, are seeking acquittal on all charges. The appeals hearing took place on January 21 and 23, 2009. On April 9, the appeals chamber issued a decision ordering Sljivancanin, who has been on provisional release from custody in The Hague since December 2007, to return for next weeks judgement. The trial judgement handed down on September 27, 2007, was met with huge criticism in Croatia where the sentences were seen as too lenient for what was the gravest crime to be committed on Croatian soil since the Second World War. The trial of the defendants, the so-called Vukovar Three, began in October 2005 and concluded in March 2007. A total of 88 witnesses were heard and around 800 pieces of evidence were presented. At trial, prosecutors sought life sentences for all three defendants. Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** ICTY - TRIBUNAL UPDATE, which has been running since 1996, details events and issues at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in The Hague. These weekly reports, produced by IWPR's human rights and media training project, seek to contribute to regional and international understanding of the war crimes prosecution process. The opinions expressed in ICTY - Tribunal Update are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. ICTY - Tribunal Update is supported by the European Commission, the Dutch Ministry for Development and Cooperation, the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and other funders. 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