¹²²⁸

Thursday, 28 February 2002

[Open session]

[The witness entered court]

[The accused entered court]

--- Upon commencing at 9.31 a.m.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Wladimiroff.

MR. WLADIMIROFF: May it assist the Court to introduce to you that I am assisted today by Ms. Gillian Higgins, barrister of the bar of England and Wales. She has been appointed by the Registry to assist the amici.

JUDGE MAY: Thank you. Yes, Mr. Nice.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, before we continue with the evidence of the witness, the Chamber sought the original of Exhibit 28 yesterday. I obtained the original, as possessed by the ICTY, of that document from the evidence unit. The arrangement between the evidence unit, the Registry and the Chambers generally is that original exhibits, particularly of documentary, are inspected and returned to the evidence unit because of the problem with the same exhibit being required for different trials. I trust that that will be the position that will obtain here, but in any event, can I now make available for inspection --

JUDGE MAY: Just a moment. We changed the Rules because of the problems we had in an earlier case about that. That was the old practice. The new practice, if you have a look at the Rules, is that the Registry retains the exhibit. Perhaps you'd like to have a look at that.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, yes. If, having made this exhibit ¹²²⁹ available for inspection, inspection is all that is required, then the exhibit can be returned. If it's required and necessary to be required and retained, then of course it can be retained, but the practical difficulties that were reflected in the earlier practice, and in the general practice of using copy documents, is something that we'd ask you to have in mind. But in any event, here is the original for inspection.

JUDGE MAY: Perhaps you'd like to look at Rule 41. No need to deal with it now, but if you look at Rule 41, you'll see it's plainly the responsibility of the Registry to keep the exhibits.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I'm aware of that and indeed I discussed this this morning with the Registry's representative here, but as to this particular exhibit, here is the original, and if I can make it available to the Chamber, the Chamber can then make its decision as to what it wishes particularly to do with this exhibit on this occasion. It might be prudent to ask the witness to look at it first, because it's a document that may itself be a photocopy but has original signatures on it and then that can be explained to the Chamber.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, if the witness sees it.

WITNESS: HALIT BARANI [Resumed]

[Witness answered through interpreter] Examined by Mr. Nice: [Continued]

Q. Now, this is an exhibit that we looked at yesterday in copy form. Do you remember?

A. Yes.

Q. The document before you has what appear to be original signatures ¹²³⁰ of yours in blue ink on the bottom of the first page.

A. Yes.

Q. The document itself, it's perhaps not easy for me to know, perhaps you can help us. It may be itself a photocopy or it may be an original. Can you help us? Is it itself an original typed document or a written document or is it itself a photocopy?

A. It's an original document.

Q. Can you explain, then, please, why it has your signature on it in a different colour ink and how you came to have possession of it and so on and hand it to the ICTY investigators.

A. This document was found in the place where the police were stationed and the paramilitaries in the village of Frasher i Madh near Mitrovica and, for this reason, I signed it on the bottom to show that this document is mine and was found in the place I mentioned.

Q. And did you hand that document to the ICTY investigators?

A. When I signed this document, I gave this to the investigator who was in Mitrovica and took a statement from me.

Q. Thank you very much.

MR. NICE: Can that now be handed to the Judges, please.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, of course.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, we've seen that. Let the amici see it and also the accused.

Yes.

MR. NICE: There were two other lists that I must deal with. One was a list that the witness referred to which fell in the same category as ¹²³¹ a list that the Chamber suggested would not be helpful, namely, provision of information by others, so I shan't produce that list although it's now available in translation.

The Chamber will recall the witness spoke of the 23 intellectuals, who he dealt with in paragraph 11. There is a list of their names, and I'd ask the witness please to look at the following exhibit which comes in original and translation.

If the usher could put the original, or the version in the original language on the overhead projector, please, so that the -- thank you very much.

Q. We can see in this document that the list of 23 names is contained within a report of some kind. Did you prepare this report yourself?

A. Yes.

Q. When preparing that report, how were you able to give the 23 names that you've listed there?

A. First, I talked with -- I talked with witness Xhafer Bajrami, who escaped from this incident, and then I went to the village of Morine in Skenderaj municipality in which, of this family, there are -- there were 12 members of this family, and I talked to them. And I went to Llaushe.

Q. Thank you.

MR. NICE: If the usher could assist, please, by putting the English version on the overhead projector, which covers only the relevant part of the report, and the relevant part of the report, preceding the listing of the 23 names, reads: "On April 19, 1999, at about 8.00 hours in the village of Dreth, municipality of Zubin Potok, 23 Albanians were ¹²³² arrested by the Serb army. Among them was my brother, Zahid Barani, (age 38), my brother-in-law Hasan Dervare (age 40), and ever since, their fate remains unknown."

Q. Is that correct?

A. Yes, it's true.

MR. NICE: May that be an exhibit, please?

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 29.

MR. NICE: Thank you. And I turn to the outstanding matters in this witness's summary, starting at paragraph 14.

Q. I want you to help, please, with your knowledge and experience of the KLA in the areas where you were at the relevant times. First of all, in November 1997, at Skenderaj, at a funeral, did you see something of the KLA?

A. It wasn't the 27th but the -- 27th, it was the 28th of November, 1997. I was personally at this funeral where there was Adem Nuraj, chairman of the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mitrovica.

Q. And the presence of the KLA there, in what form or what numbers?

A. According to the statement of Dr. Adem Nuraj, while Halit Geci, the teacher who was killed two days before by Serbian forces, while he was being buried, three soldiers of the KLA appeared, masked, in front of the assembled people.

Q. Moving on to February 1998 at Likoshan and Qirez, was there, to your knowledge, presence of the KLA?

A. At the time when these murders took place, I'm not aware that ¹²³³ there were KLA soldiers in Likoshan and Qirez.

Q. And tell us about your own involvement there. Did you attempt to reach those villages?

A. Yes. I tried on the 2nd of March to enter the village of Qirez, but it was no use because it was blockaded by the army and the police and tanks and armoured vehicles of the Serbian army.

Q. Upon your return, what, if anything, did you encounter? Who did you encounter?

A. At the village -- at the wood of the village of Krushevc, near the road, there was a car that had stopped and there were three people in it in the uniforms of the KLA.

Q. Moving on to September 1998, do the names Jusufi and Ahmet, associated with KLA ...

A. Yes. Both of them were commanders of the KLA in the Shala zone. The first, commander for logistics; and the second was the army commander.

Q. Did you have meetings or dealings with them, and if so, what about?

A. I met them, and this was an official visit, an official meeting. The first official meeting with the KLA commander. This happened after the offensive undertaken on 15, 16, and 17 of September 1998, when in the villages of Shala e Bajgores, in Mitrovica municipality, 16 Albanians were killed. Except for one who was elderly, there were elderly women among them.

The houses of many villages were partly burned. All their livestock in the fields were killed. ¹²³⁴

Q. [Previous translation continues]... go into those details because I want to know about your contacts with the KLA at the moment. Your contacts with the KLA was in relation to what and in what effect?

A. After the offensive, I went specifically to look at the situation and to make recordings and take photographs and to take notes from people who had been in these villages. However, unfortunately, no civilian had been among the villages. They had all been forcibly expelled. I met Xhevat Jusufi, logistics commander for the KLA in the village of Bare. I started to receive information from him about the situation and about what had happened and how.

Q. I suppose you can answer more questions about that if asked. Typically, when there had been attacks on Albanian villages, did you see members of the KLA afterwards?

A. I saw the army after the offensives, when I went to these villages.

Q. Were you aware of a KLA presence anywhere close to Mitrovica, particularly in the area of Vaganice?

A. I'm sorry, the question is not clear, and the last question doesn't have anything to do with my testimony.

Q. Let's go back to Vaganice, is that a village near to Mitrovica?

A. The village of Vaganice is the village closest to Mitrovica, about three kilometres away.

Q. Were you aware of any KLA presence in that village?

A. Yes, there was.

Q. For what period of time, if you can help us. ¹²³⁵

A. In September 1998, from the 22nd to the 29th, the army and police and paramilitaries, Serbian forces, undertook an offensive in which 36 Albanians were killed. Fourteen of them were killed with hammers in the village of Vushtrine commune in village of Galice. This is according to witnesses that -- from members of their families. And after the 29th of September, I went through all these villages, and as soon as I entered the village of Vaganice, I came across members of the KLA. And then many times on subsequent occasions, whenever I went to these areas, I met soldiers of the KLA.

Q. Was there an occasion in 1998 when you were involved with two European Community observers in negotiations for the release of three Serbs in Polac?

A. Yes. This was an occasion, not three Serbs but two Serbs, in the village of Polac in Skenderaj municipality. I went with two EU observers who were stationed in Zhabar, and we went with the intention of securing the release of two Serbs arrested by the KLA.

Q. Were they indeed released?

A. After three days of talks and a contact with Adem Demaci, the political representative of the KLA, we succeeded in releasing the two Serbs.

Q. Were you aware at this time, 1998, of any KLA members being active in the town of Mitrovica itself?

A. No.

Q. But as the conflict developed and it maybe deepened, what was your appreciation of the KLA? Was it constant? Did it increase? Did it ¹²³⁶ decrease? Just tell us.

A. After the offensives and the massacres of Albanians at the hands of the Serbian army, police, paramilitaries, and civilians, the ranks of the KLA grew from day-to-day so that people could defend themselves who were faced with extermination.

Q. Were you aware -- first of all just yes or no: Were you aware of incidents where the KLA accepted responsibility for attacks on Serbian forces?

A. Yes.

Q. What was your source of information about such attacks?

A. As for these attacks, my source was the media in which there were statements in which the KLA accepted responsibility for such cases.

Q. Yes. I now turn to NATO bombing. What effect -- I want you to help us about what effect did NATO bombing have? First of all, what effect, if any, did it appear to have on the conduct of the Serbs in relation to Kosovar residents?

A. After the NATO bombing started on the 24th of March, 1999, many parts of Kosovo, especially Drenica, very strict and harsh offensives were undertaken by the Serbian military, police, and paramilitaries where many Albanians were killed irrespective of their age or gender, or sex. If need be, I can mention the case of Izbica.

Q. Well, at the moment, generality will do. As to Izbica, were you there yourself or is this something you learned of from others?

A. About this case, I learned from others, but then I went there and I counted all the corpses, not only in Izbica but in several villages ¹²³⁷ around that.

Q. I shan't trouble you for the detail of that at the moment, in any event.

Staying with NATO bombing, did you yourself see and hear the bombing?

A. Yes, very often I saw for myself.

Q. In particular, did you see something of bombing at a warehouse of the VJ?

A. Yes. About 13 or 14th of April, 1999, I was at a field in the -- in the Vinarc i Poshtem village of Mitrovica, and I saw the NATO planes bombing the depots of the Yugoslav army in the village of Frasher in Mitrovica. The depots were very close to the Bair neighbourhood.

Q. Thank you very much.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I've finished but for one detail I may wish to deal with with this witness. Yes. I wonder if the witness could just -- it's backtracking but it's something I ought to deal with. Exhibit 27, please. And the original is all that I require; I don't require the English translation.

Q. Can we look at number 21 on the list, please. Now, you told us yesterday of this being your name on the list. How do you spell your name, first all, in the Latin alphabet?

A. My name is Halit Barani.

Q. Is that with an E or with an A?

A. With A. The Serbs all the time change the A into E and pronounced my name as Barani. ¹²³⁸

Q. Thank you very much.

MR. NICE: Yes, that's all I ask of this witness.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] At one point, the Prosecutor yesterday cautioned that if anybody had any objections, they should raise them straightaway. I wish to say first and foremost I object to everything that this witness is saying. And before I move on to my questions, I would like to warn the public that all subsequent questions that we heard from the Prosecutor this morning, including the mentioning of Vaganice --

JUDGE MAY: You are not here to warn the public. You are cross-examining this witness. Now, would you kindly ask the first question, please, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Then I would like to draw your attention to the fact that everything I talked about with my associates over the telephone in the afternoon and during the night, that these are all the things that were mentioned this morning by the Prosecutor in his question. Of course, slightly distorted. Vaganice and his contacts with the KLA and the bombing of Bair, and many other details. And this abuse of my communications by the Prosecutor is something that I believe you are duty-bound to investigate, because he could not have thought of all of this on his own.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice, have you been listening to these communications?

MR. NICE: I, of course, have no access -- ¹²³⁹

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

MR. NICE: I, of course, have no access to the communications of this accused, and if the accused had taken the opportunity to consider the summary that has been served on him for his assistance, he would have found yesterday, before the date of the alleged phone calls, he would have discovered that all the matters touched on in evidence by this witness this morning were dealt with in that summary, served in advance on the accused yesterday.

JUDGE MAY: Thank you.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] [no interpretation].

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, the Chamber considers what you've said. Counsel is right. The matters you refer to were all foreshadowed in the summary which was served yesterday. Before you make wild allegations of that sort, you should have some sort of evidence for it. Now, can we begin the cross-examination?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Extreme untruths are being mentioned here, so that's why I have to bring up such examples. Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic:

Q. [Interpretation] You used to sell tobacco. That was a question, wasn't it?

A. Yes. I sold tobacco in the -- as part of the enterprise Dum of Pristina.

Q. During the war, you had a kiosk at the bus station in Mitrovica, right?

A. During the war, I didn't have a kiosk, and I did not work at all. ¹²⁴⁰

Q. You have Blerim and Xhevdet as your cousins; right?

A. Yes, they're cousins of mine.

Q. Yes. Do you know that they are the main drug dealers in Mitrovica?

A. I know them well because they are cousins of mine, and I don't believe that they do such a thing.

Q. What about Azem Barani, your relative? Are you aware that he fled to Turkey after having raped a pupil of the secondary medical school?

A. Yes, I know.

Q. And do you know that Nuhri Barani, another relative of yours, is selling drugs in Germany?

A. Nuhri is a cousin of mine. I know that he is abroad, but I don't know what he does there.

Q. Do you live in the neighbourhood of Tamnik of Mitrovica?

A. I live in the Ilirida neighbourhood, formerly Tavnik, of Mitrovica.

Q. Are you aware that Tamnik was the centre of the KLA, this entire neighbourhood in Mitrovica?

A. I know that this is not true.

Q. And do you know how many warehouses of ammunition and weapons of the KLA were discovered in Tamnik, in that same neighbourhood of Tamnik?

A. I have no knowledge of any discovery of this kind, and if you know that, tell us when it happened.

Q. This happened prior to the aggression several times, precisely in those events that you describe as the army having attacked innocent ¹²⁴¹ civilians, and the army was actually searching these warehouses and discovering ammunition and weapons and even a concealed hospital in this neighbourhood of yours in Tamnik, because the problem is here that every conflict between the army and police with the KLA you treat as an attack of the army and police against Albanian civilians.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The witness asked me and I answered him.

JUDGE MAY: Just a moment. The first question is this: Was there a concealed KLA hospital in Tavnik?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In the Ilirida neighbourhood, formerly Tavnik, there were no hospitals, but there was the state ambulance.

JUDGE MAY: The second question was this: It's alleged that you've treated every conflict between the army and police with the KLA as an attack by the army on Albanian civilians. Is that right or not?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, this is not true. It doesn't stand to facts.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Are you linked with the killing at the bus station on the day of St. George, that is, the 6th of May 1998, when a policeman was killed, Darko Nikolic, and then Darko Ivaz, another policeman, and then Joca Jovic, also a policeman was wounded? This was a terrorist attack, as you recall. And they link your name to this terrorist attack. What have you had to do with that terrorist attack?

A. I know very well this case, and it was not a terrorist attack, but ¹²⁴² the Serb police attacked Jashari in the street after they tried to raid his place, and then he fired in defence and then he was killed. But I have no connection with this killing except for the following day. The following day, I said, I went to the scene of the killing. I photographed the scene. I took notes without knowing who was involved. Later, I understood that the student Hartim Jashari was killed, and I took part in his funeral.

Q. So at the bus station, where two policemen were killed and one policeman was seriously wounded, you claim that it was the police that attacked this terrorist Hartim Jashari.

A. I said that they tried to -- to raid him, and he happened to be carrying a weapon and fired, and later he was wounded and died of his wounds.

It's outside any kind of reason that a person, a single individual, can attack a truck of the police.

Q. So you believe that when the police approaches someone at a bus station, asking him to show his ID, that this is an attack and therefore he has the right to kill a policeman; right?

A. It did not happen at the bus station but outside the bus station.

Q. Near the bus station. All right, near the bus station. What is the difference anyway?

A. There is a difference, because it's not at the bus station but it was outside the bus station. If it were to happen in the bus station, that would be different.

Q. In what sense would it have been different? ¹²⁴³

A. At the bus station, many Albanians have been searched very often and there has been no single incident like this. But on the night when this incident happened, Hartim, according to the witnesses, was on his own, was alone. He was not accompanied by anyone but he was on his way home. And he knew that if he were to be arrested, he would be gaoled, and in order to escape the situation, he fired his gun.

Q. And killed three policemen.

A. On this occasion, I know that there was one killed and two injured. This is original -- my original evidence which I got on the 6th of May.

Q. Darko Nikolic and Darko Ivaz were killed and Jom Surjoric [phoen] was wounded. I have already said that. Two were killed, one was wounded. Do you consider this to be a terrorist attack, this -- that Hartim Jashari did?

JUDGE MAY: No. He's given his account of the matter.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. He is the son of Bislim Jashari, who you mentioned, and the cousin of Adem Jashari; is that right?

A. No, he is not, but the nephew of Bislim Jashari and is a cousin of Adem Jashari. Hartim Jashari was born and brought up in the Ilirida neighbourhood of Mitrovica.

Q. After this incident, you went to the village of Vrnjica. That is Vaganica, to the KLA base there. That is what you talked about a few minutes ago. Is that correct?

A. This is not true. This is a lie of the person you have taken the ¹²⁴⁴ information from.

Q. A minute ago you said to the Prosecutor that you were in Vaganice. Now you're saying that it's a lie that you were in Vaganice.

A. I was there. But you shouldn't link Vaganice with Jashari. I've been to Vaganice often but not on that occasion.

Q. I am linking the two because I'm asking you whether you fled there because you were involved in this killing. Just give me an answer, yes or no.

A. This is not true. I can't say yes or no. I need an explanation, because when I took the notes, I went to my office and then I prepared a report, a daily report, which I submitted to the information media and have with me the copy, the original copy of that report. When I say about information, I mean I have daily reports about everything that happened over a period of three years, with the dates, the place where everything happened, and the circumstances in which it happened.

Q. Are you one of the founders of the KLA in Kosovska Mitrovica?

A. This is not true either, because I was not and I am not one of the founders.

Q. In Tamnik, you held meetings in the organisation of the OVK at an elementary school called the 25th of May. This is in your neighbourhood. This is close to where you live. Is that correct or not?

A. This is not true, and there is no military school in Ilirida, formerly Tavnik.

And if the accused knows when that meeting took place, please, I kindly ask him to say that and then I'll say whether that's true or not. ¹²⁴⁵

JUDGE MAY: We'll get on more quickly -- this may take some time, but Mr. Barani, we'll get on more quickly if you just answer the questions shortly and don't argue with the accused. Just answer the questions. Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have heard this. Perhaps there is a misinterpretation. The answer is that there is no military school, however, I did not mention any military school. I said elementary school.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. It doesn't matter about the school. He said that he didn't attend any meetings.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. In Vaganice, he met the commanders Ismet Hoxha, who is also the murderer of a policeman, of the policeman called Dejan Prica; is that correct?

A. I met many KLA commanders and soldiers, and the case you are referring to, I don't know anything about it.

Q. Did you meet with Ismet Hoxha, though?

A. I have met him -- I have seen him often, him and many other KLA soldiers, when I passed through Vaganice village.

Q. All right. So you did meet with Ismet Hoxha.

A. I said I have met many KLA soldiers in every time I left Mitrovica town.

Q. In Vaganice itself, was Dibrani Jetullah the commander?

A. Yes. Jetullah Dibrani was KLA commander for Vaganice units.

Q. Did you meet with him often?

A. Several times when I passed through, but I don't need to answer ¹²⁴⁶ the same questions because I already explained that. I told you that every time I left Mitrovica, I met him soldiers and commanders of the KLA.

Q. There's a picture also with them, a picture of you, a photograph taken of you and them together there in the village.

A. What kind of photo are you talking about?

Q. You and, for example, these commanders, Jetullah or somebody else in Vaganice. I'm talking about these photographs when you said that you passed by them.

A. It is possible. I have many photographs. But after the war, when we took pictures in various meetings in Mitrovica and outside Mitrovica, yes.

Q. There's another commander there, Kurt Jerkin?

A. This is an unfamiliar name.

Q. Did you attend -- or rather, just give a yes or no answer because my claim is that you did attend this. Did you attend a drill by the KLA that was held in the village of Bare as to how Serbian houses should be ransacked and how police stations should be attacked and how terrorist actions should be carried out? So this was a drill, a display in the village of Bare, and you attended it.

A. This is not true. It was not a drill to loot and raid Serbian houses, but it was a celebration of the 28th of November, the day of the Albanian national flag. And I was there to see how things were going. The date was a celebration, and I stayed there for four hours in succession.

Q. So then these KLA units did not display any such thing, did not ¹²⁴⁷ carry out any such drill?

A. No, it's not true. They simply demonstrated their own drill but not the drill that you are speaking here.

Q. And what is the drill that they presented on that day, on the 28th, the date that you were there? Could you explain this, what kind of a drill this was?

A. I told you, it was a day of celebration, and there were various kinds of games being played, songs and dances.

Q. But you said awhile ago that they demonstrated their own drills, not terrorist activities. What kind of demonstration of their own activities was this?

JUDGE MAY: Was there any demonstration of KLA activities?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, there was, on a stage, because it was a culture manifestation.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. A moment ago, you said, and I was listening with my own ears, that they were just demonstrating their own drills of the KLA.

A. I said and I am saying again, I cannot deny that. We don't need to go over this issue again, because it was a drill, I mean, by them performed on stage in honour of the culture performances put up for the 28th of November, the national flag day.

Q. All right. Let's move on. Yesterday in this courtroom, you named several of your neighbours, Serbs.

A. Yesterday I mentioned many names of Serbs but only one name of a neighbour of mine; Momcilo Kokoric. ¹²⁴⁸

Q. I heard you mention several. You stated several first and last names of Serbs who were your neighbours, and you said that they were the perpetrators of some crimes.

A. The names I mentioned, they were never my neighbours. Kokoric was my neighbour. This is what I said. The others have never been my neighbours.

Q. But you knew them. They lived there in your neighbourhood; is that right?

A. No. Dejan Savic is from Vushtrri by Bula e Vushtrri [phoen], Dragan Juric lived in Zacan [phoen], Zarko Kosovac lived in Dibri [phoen] neighbourhood. Ratko Antonijevic had his house in Ilirida neighbourhood but very far from where I lived because Ilirida has over 10.000 inhabitants, is the largest neighbourhood of the Mitrovica municipality.

Q. Yes. Tamnik is the largest neighbourhood in Mitrovica, and that is why it was chosen to be the main centre for the KLA.

JUDGE MAY: You've already dealt with that. Now let's move on.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. As far as I know, all the houses of these people were looted and set fire to in Mitrovica, the ones that you mentioned. Is that true or not?

A. No, it is not true. The houses of my neighbours, none of them is burned. They are intact.

Q. Those were just the ones that were forcibly taken over. Yes or no.

A. No, they were not taken over forcibly. ¹²⁴⁹

Q. Are they empty now, then?

A. No, they are not empty. Albanian families live in them whose houses have been burned down.

Q. And did the owners of these houses let these people live there and occupy their houses?

A. One of them, I'm talking about my neighbours, has sold his house, and it was bought by an Albanian neighbour now. The three others, I don't know about what the situation really is.

Q. All right. You say you don't know. Very well. You composed lists of Serbs to be liquidated and stuck them up in the library and the Adriatic Hotel. Yes or no.

A. No, this is not true. And I don't know who has -- who may have drafted this list.

Q. But you stuck them up on the library building and the Adriatic Hotel; is that right?

A. No, this is not true. In the library, I have an exhibition with photos of massacred Albanians, and I've put them -- next to the photos, I put the names of the perpetrators.

Q. How do you know who the perpetrators are?

A. Yesterday I mentioned the names. I don't know what you have heard. You saw the lists yourself. I don't need to go to any further lengths.

Q. You mentioned names that you had heard of. Is that sufficient? Is that enough for you to condemn people and stick up their names as the names of killers? ¹²⁵⁰

A. This is not true. All the names that I have, I have evidence to prove the guilt, and I am also one of the eyewitnesses.

Q. And you consider that you have the right to judge?

JUDGE MAY: That's just a comment. He's told you what he did.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It's not, it's a question.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you consider that you have the right to judge?

JUDGE MAY: No, that's not a proper question. He's told us what he did, and he's told us why he did it.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. Let me move on to my next question then. I'm moving on. It doesn't matter, if you want me to skip over some of these, I will.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know a policeman called Lulezim Ademi? An Albanian,

A. Yes, I know Lulezim Ademi very well.

Q. On two occasions, the KLA shot at him in 1998, intending to kill him. Do you know that?

A. No, this is not true that the KLA has shot him. I know of one case, and I can tell you how it happened. It was in a cafeteria where they were drinking, and after a fight, one of them fired a pistol and a local inhabitant was killed from Ura e Gjakut neighbourhood, and he's in prison now for that.

Q. And how do you make the connection between what you've just said and the fact that the father of Lulezim Ademi, the policeman who was shot at, who was a forester, was killed by the KLA? ¹²⁵¹

A. What do you mean? Who was killed by KLA? I'm not clear.

Q. Lulezim Ademi's father, he was a forester, the father.

A. He was a forester, but it's not true that he was killed. He's alive and he lives in Dragonica village of Mitrovica municipality. His name is Mehmed, his father Adem, and his last name Ademi.

Q. And what about the brother named Skender, who was abducted? Do you know anything about that?

A. I know that he's in the list of the people who have disappeared. When I say in the list, I mean the list of the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mitrovica.

Q. In what capacity was his name on that list?

A. It is in the list of the disappeared, as a person whose destiny is not known.

Q. Well, that's what I'm claiming. You mentioned Shala on several occasions. Now, that area of Shala is the Operative Zone of the KLA which comprises Kosovska Mitrovica, too, and my question is the following --

JUDGE MAY: Ask him if it was, as you suggest, the Operative Zone, as you put it, of the KLA, Shala.

Can you help us to that, Mr. Barani? Just a moment. Just a moment.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I'm not clear. I'm sorry.

JUDGE MAY: It's suggested that Shala was the Operative Zone of the KLA, which comprised Kosovska Mitrovica. Is that right or not, or don't you know?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, it's true. ¹²⁵²

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. So the Operative Zone of Shala, that is to say, Shala is the Operative Zone of the KLA, and it comprised Kosovska Mitrovica, didn't it? And along the Albanian border. So -- and then we have the Dukadjin Operative Zone along the Albanian border, including Djakovica and Pec. And then furthermore, we have the Pastrik Operative Zone, which is Prizren Orahovac and that particular region. The Drenica Operative Zone is the other one.

JUDGE MAY: Do you know about any of these others, other Operative Zones as alleged?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can answer and I can tell you what you are interested in regarding the Mitrovica municipality.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. But what do you know about any of the others?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have heard and -- because it was often -- it came up often in the information media outlets.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. All right. I don't want to go on enumerating the Operative Zone Lab, which is Pristina, Nerodimlje and so on and so forth, but let's go back to Shala. You went to the Operative Zone of Shala and took pictures of the military exercises in Shala, or monitored.

A. No, that's not true.

Q. All right. Let's go back to your particular neighbourhood, the neighbourhood of Tamnik. In Tamnik in April 1999, when tens of houses were discovered with ammunition storages and the hospital itself, there ¹²⁵³ was fighting in the Tamnik neighbourhood itself. Do you remember that?

A. Regarding the ammunition depots, that's not true. Regarding the fighting, in April when the entire population of the neighbourhood was gathered, where all the inhabitants of Mitrovica were, they were driven to Zhabar fields, the males were separated from the females and got on trucks, then some members of the KLA came and started to fire in order to save the parents from -- with their children and the population in general from what was happening.

Q. All right. You claim that there was no fighting, that it was the police and army that attacked the innocent civilians. Am I reading you correctly?

A. Can you please ask me again the question?

Q. You claim that in April, in Tamnik there was no fighting at all between the army and the police on the one side and the KLA on the other but that what was happening in fact was that there was an attack launched on innocent civilians. Is that what you're saying? Is that what you claim?

A. I'm repeating that no fighting took place in the neighbourhood but in the Zhabar fields in lower Mitrovica.

Q. And who was the fighting between in Zhabar in Donja Mitrovica? Between whom?

A. I didn't say that there was fighting, but when all the population, the Albanian population was gathered there by the Serb police and army in the Zhabar fields, they separated males from females, and the males they put on trucks and then, in some surrounding villages, from some ¹²⁵⁴ surrounding houses in Zhabar, fire shots were heard. And these fire shots came from some members of the KLA and they aimed to scare the police and to make them withdraw and let the population alone and not massacre them.

Q. So you're claiming that the KLA shot to frighten the police and the army. Is that it?

A. Yes, that's right, because nobody was injured or killed. There were no casualties then.

Q. And I can tell you that in Tamnik, in that fighting, I have a name, Nejbosa Kocic, a soldier from Belgrade, he lost his life and a large number of soldiers were wounded. Do you happen to be aware of that fact?

A. I do not know of this case.

Q. And do you know that he was killed in Tamnik where you say that nobody did any shooting?

A. Which day do you mean? And then I can reply.

Q. I'm talking about April 1999. That was one particular operation when the army and the police took over the warehouses of the ammunition belonging to the KLA, and when it came into conflict with the KLA in Tamnik in April 1999, a number of soldiers were wounded and Nejbosa Kostic, a soldier from Belgrade, was killed in those operations. That's what I'm talking about.

A. On the case on which I was talking about when the population were gathered together, there were no casualties at all. I don't know about other cases.

Q. At Bajgora, the Shala Operative Zone with two brigades had approximately 4.000 KLA fighters. Is that correct or not? ¹²⁵⁵

A. I don't know the numbers of the KLA in any zone.

Q. And do you have an idea as to how many there might have been? Because you have submitted a great deal of information. So do you have any idea of how many KLA fighters there were in the Shala Operative Zone, for instance?

A. I know that there were a lot, and I mentioned before that, after the massacres that were committed, those who had weapons - I mean the Albanians - joined the KLA en masse so as to be able to defend their own population from complete extermination.

Q. And who was it that wanted to exterminate their own population?

A. It was the Serbian police and paramilitaries and the army who wished to exterminate the Albanian people, who were not the population of Serbia.

Q. Do you consider that the population is the same as the KLA? Do you think the two are the same?

A. The KLA came forth from out of the people so the people could defend -- people could defend their own mothers, fathers, and sisters.

Q. And how many KLA terrorist attacks do you know of, concrete ones that you have knowledge of directly?

A. When you say "terrorist attacks," I am not clear which attacks you call terrorist.

Q. Well, for example, when three men come and shoot down a whole cafe full of children. I consider that to be a terrorist attack. Or when they shoot at a vehicle belonging to the Red Cross, for example, or a diplomatic vehicle belonging to an observer, or a car belonging to ¹²⁵⁶ journalists, or when they kill civilians, that kind of thing.

JUDGE MAY: Just a moment. Mr. Barani, do you know of any attacks of that nature?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have no awareness of any attacks of this kind, and I can say there were none.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Excellent. You said that the bombing was of no importance at all, and you know full well that, during the war, the centre of Mitrovica was bombed and not only the SUP building but that the mosque was hit in the centre of Mitrovica, too, and that there was a great deal of panic in Mitrovica. For example, when the Mitrovica centre was hit, including the SUP building, including the targeted mosque and everything else, do you consider that this had absolutely no effect on the population? Just give me a yes or no answer, please.

JUDGE MAY: I don't think it may be susceptible to a yes or no answer. Let's deal with it in this way: Now, first of all -- first of all -- let's us deal with it. Let us deal with it in this way. First of all, was the centre of Mitrovica bombed?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. This is not true that the centre of Mitrovica was bombed, if we're talking about the city. The military barracks was bombed and also the police station and the arms depots.

JUDGE MAY: Just a moment. So it is alleged that the SUP building was bombed. Was that bombed? Or is that what you call the police station? ¹²⁵⁷

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, it was bombed.

JUDGE MAY: He said the mosque was hit. Was that hit?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The mosque was hit but not by NATO but by the Serbian army.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. Dealing simply with NATO. He said that there was a great deal of panic. Is that right?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] People were not scared but were delighted. I'm talking about the Albanian population. Because finally a force had emerged that would save them from extermination.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Where is the SUP building which you refer to as the police station? Where is it located?

A. The SUP building, which I mean, is in the northeast of Mitrovica, in the Ibri neighbourhood.

Q. So nothing was hit in the centre. Is that it? Is that what you're saying?

A. Two shells fell within the fence of the building of the former Yugoslav army, which is near the market of Mitrovica in the second central neighbourhood. But on this occasion, there was no damage except that the glass in the windows of the buildings roundabout was broken.

Q. Do you know that in the area of Kosovska Mitrovica, 116 or 117 - I can just be wrong in that one figure - bombs were thrown during the NATO strike, the NATO bombing?

A. I don't know about the quantities of bombs that were dropped. ¹²⁵⁸

Q. And it began on the 25th of March, 24th of March. On the 24th of March, two airstrikes. On the 25th, four airstrikes. Do you remember that in Mitrovica, on the 24th and 25th, not to go beyond that, just those two days.

A. On the 24th of March, during the night, I heard NATO bombing, but where they fell and how many bombs there were, I don't know.

Q. You only remember the bombing of the military depot, but that is on Bair hill that you mentioned a moment ago when you were saying that the population was there and was bothered but not by NATO but the Serb forces. That's what you said, is it?

A. I didn't say they were shelled by Serbian forces. I don't say -- and I didn't say that there were people there. I said that I was in a meadow in the village of Vinarc i Poshtem in Mitrovica and somewhere round about the 13th and 14th of April, and there I saw how the depot of the Yugoslav army in the village of Frasher was bombed, and this village is adjacent to the Bair neighbourhood of Mitrovica. That is in my statement. That I saw with my own eyes.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, it's now 11.00 and time to adjourn.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Barani, we'll adjourn now for half a hour. Could you come back, then, at half past eleven, please.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, of course.

--- Recess taken at 11.00 a.m.

--- On resuming at 11.32 a.m.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. ¹²⁵⁹

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know Radomir Pantovic?

A. Yes. Yes and no. Yes, I know him.

Q. He worked in the same shop with you in different shifts.

A. Yes.

Q. And his relative, Todor Zivkovic, on July 1999, in July 1999, the KLA took him from the cemetery and he was at the cemetery by the grave of his son, and the KLA took him to the building of the social insurance where the KLA headquarters was. Radomir Pantovic, whom you know, who you worked with in different shifts, asked you to intervene so that they would not liquidate his relative. Do you remember that?

A. This is not true at all.

Q. I have information that he did ask you but that you refused to help him. Let us proceed.

You mentioned Fadil Kurti, that he was killed by the Serbs. Fadil Kurti was a policeman. He worked at the MUP. A policeman from the village of Cabra. He worked at the MUP in Zubin Potok; is that correct?

A. This is not true, and I didn't mention him at all.

Q. Do you know of him?

A. This is the first time that I've heard this name.

Q. So you do not know about Zumur Aljickaj, his brother-in-law, who called him to come to the village of Llaushe to pick up his wife and then he massacred him there, killed him. You don't know anything about that?

A. I have no knowledge of this incident at all.

Q. In 1996, did you direct a play in which you glorified the killing ¹²⁶⁰ of a policeman by Adem Jashari?

A. I did indeed direct a play, because I regularly work in the theatre, but this is a very mistaken report. It's not true at all.

Q. And what was the play? This in 1996, the one related to the killing of the policeman.

A. All the performances were events that happened or could happen, regardless of what these were about.

Q. What you have been saying now, is this to say that it has nothing to do with this subject that I'm questioning you about?

A. If -- if I'm supposed to explain all the plays that I've directed, there are 53 premiers and ever so many subsequent performances, it would take a lot of time.

JUDGE MAY: If you don't remember this particular play, just say so. If you do remember, just say yes or no whether it was concerned with the killing of a policeman.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It was not -- no performance was about the killing of a policeman.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know Skender or did you know Skender Ademi?

A. I have known him and I spoke about him before.

Q. How did he lose his life?

A. I said before; he is counted missing and how he died or whether he died, I do not know.

Q. But I have information that you were directly connected to his kidnapping and that you killed him in the village of Sukovac. ¹²⁶¹

A. This is not true, and you have extremely erroneous information. This is a pure lie.

Q. All right. In the neighbourhoods of Tamnik and Bair that we've been mentioning, there were about 100 members of the KLA from Vaganice and Osljani, from the village of Vaganice and the village of Osljani. Yes or no.

A. This is the first time I've heard anything like this. I haven't said anything of this kind.

Q. What I'm asking you, you were talking about Tamnik, you were talking about Vaganice. So now I'm asking you whether this group of 100 members of the KLA was in Tamnik and Bair and from Vaganice and Osljani

JUDGE MAY: I think he's answered before that he doesn't know how many members of the KLA there were.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know of Ismet Hoxha, Milezim Krasniqi, Fadil Deljic nicknamed Buli [phoen], Avnic Hardimal [phoen], Nexhat Cubreli, Bajram Jaha, all of them being KLA commanders? Do you know of them? Do you know them personally or do you know all of them personally?

A. I know some of them, and they weren't commanders but they were members of the KLA.

Q. And I assert that they were members of the headquarters of that group that was working and operating in Bair and Tamnik. Is that correct?

A. I don't know anything about this.

Q. And do you know that Bajram Jaha, who was a member of the KLA, as ¹²⁶² you said, that he was a drug dealer at the same time? You said that his house had been set on fire.

A. It's true that his house was burned on 27th of March. And what he was involved in, besides having a restaurant, I don't know.

Q. All right. He was a gambler in addition to being a drug dealer and a restaurant owner.

Do you know Salj Fehemi, commander of the Intervention Platoon of the KLA?

A. This is the first time that I've heard that name.

Q. I am asking you because he was located in Tamnik, and he was in charge of operations in Kosovska Mitrovica, and his house is right by the school called the 25th of May. It's sort of in your neighbourhood. It's impossible for you not to know him. Try to remember. Do you know him or not?

A. It's not true that he operated in Tavnik in uniform. It is also untrue that he is my neighbour because I know all my neighbours and people further off, too, but I've never heard this name, and I do not know him.

Q. And do you know Jakup Ufcu?

A. If that name was said properly, this is the first time that I've heard it.

Q. All right. Then I'm not going to put any more questions to you in relation to him. Do you know Feriz Fetah, Pushi Tolla [phoen], the former reserve officer who worked for the security at the Trepca company?

A. Yes, I know him.

Q. Was he also one of the commanders in Shala? ¹²⁶³

A. Yes. He was one of the KLA commanders in the Shala unit.

Q. Very well. Do you know Safet Dobrini, Dobrini Safet? His house is in the neighbourhood of -- called of the 22nd division, near the motel. Do you know about him?

A. This is also the first time I've heard this name. And there's no neighbourhood with this name in Mitrovica. I've never heard of such a place.

Q. The first time? You don't even know the neighbourhood? The neighbourhood doesn't exist? I have information that this house of his was a collection centre for the KLA in Shala. You don't know anything about this?

A. I have no knowledge of the existence of any such person or any such neighbourhood in Mitrovica. And I know all the neighbourhoods in Mitrovica.

Q. All right. Have you heard of the following names: Sadik Kurti, Fatik Myftari, Fatmir Serati, Fatmir Serati? Have you heard of these names? Do you know these people?

A. Which Sahid? There are many Sahids and Fatmirs so I don't know who you mean. Just tell me where they live and maybe I can answer.

Q. You have not heard of them as a group or as individuals?

A. This is the first time I've heard about them.

Q. I'm asking you because they were in charge of procuring weapons from Albania and bringing them to Tamnik and Shala. Do you know that when the OSCE mission went, when they left, rather, in the village of Kovacica they left some equipment that the KLA ¹²⁶⁴ used for monitoring the communications between the MUP and the army?

A. This question is not clear to me.

Q. I'm asking you whether you know that the monitoring mission, when they left the village of Kovacica, they left some equipment that the KLA used for the monitoring the communications of the police and the army?

A. I don't know anything about this.

Q. And do you know since this communication was monitored with a view to preparing the attack of the entire structure of the KLA against Mitrovica, precisely in order to set the right time for that attack?

A. I don't know anything about this either.

Q. And do you know Ymer Myftari from the village of Vllasinje who was a school inspector previously in the municipality of Kosovska Mitrovica and who was later the commander of the KLA in the village of Vllasinje?

A. I know Ymer, but I have no knowledge of him being a commander.

Q. Well, he was not a big commander. He just had 15 more bandits with him, and they went around killing people.

A. I said I don't know anything about this. I know Ymer as an educational inspector.

Q. Very well. You said awhile ago that you did not know anything about clashes between the KLA and the military and the police in Tamnik or of the death of Nejbosa Hodzic, a soldier.

Do you know on the 29th of May, 1999, that Ivan Milosevic, another soldier, was killed and that this group that had connections with Mujahedin groups chopped off his head and stabbed him 17 times with a knife in addition to killing him in this way? Do you know of this event? ¹²⁶⁵

A. I have no knowledge of anything of this kind.

Q. Very well. In Bajgora, at this review of KLA troops that you attended, you got a certificate of gratitude. What kind of certificate of gratitude was this?

A. The certificate is -- was for my office, because I had often visited the villages of Shala after offensives and had attended many funerals of Albanians who had been shot by the Serbian army and police in this area.

Q. Were these members of the KLA?

A. These were elderly men and women, including a paralysed elderly woman who was stabbed with a knife in the village of Kacanol in Mitrovica municipality.

Q. You are claiming that the army and the police did not shoot at the KLA but at some old men and women. Is that what you're saying?

A. That's what always happened during offensives. When I say this, I can say that of the bodies that I saw, not one of them was in uniform; all of them were civilians.

Q. You are saying, and also on the basis of everything you've said so far, the Operation Zone Shala, the Operation Zone of the KLA, so far I mentioned so many names and you know at least 15 of their commanders. So this is a large group. You know that this entire structure was fighting the army and the police and was killing people all over, and you claim that you did not see any of them, only old men and women?

JUDGE MAY: I'm not sure if I follow the question. What is the question, Mr. Milosevic? ¹²⁶⁶

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, the question is how does he explain this - how shall I put this? - highly illogical contradiction between the fact that on the one hand he confirmed here that this Operation Zone of Shala that the KLA covered by covering Mitrovica with a large number of KLA members, and he confirmed himself that he knew at least 15-odd names of their commanders. So this is a big structure. Furthermore, that this entire structure was shooting at the military and the police, fighting against the military and the police. How can he claim that the army and the police were shooting innocent civilians? I'm asking him to explain that. Apart from all these masses of the KLA and these commanders who were commanding someone - and the information we have is that there were 4.000 members - and how can he, in spite of all of that, claim that the army and the military were shooting innocent civilians?

JUDGE MAY: But that is his evidence. He says this is what happened.

Now, as I've said before, you can make comments about that, as you've just made, but it's not a question for him. You can ask him, if you like, if he's telling the truth.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] No. I asked him how does he explain this kind of contradiction in his very own statement.

JUDGE MAY: That's not a question for him.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. In addition to Shala, in 1998 you were in Drenica and Prekaz in ¹²⁶⁷ 1998 with the KLA; is that right?

A. On the 22nd of January, 1998, when the house of Shaban Murat Jashari was attacked by the Serbian police and army in the night, I went on the following day in the morning, at 9.00, to Skenderaj by bus. And from there, I went on foot to visit the family of Shaban Murat Jashari. And it is not true that I went with soldiers but I went by myself with a camera and a video camera and a pencil in my hand.

Q. As for this visit to Murat Jashari, I'm not asking you about that. I'm saying that in Drenica, in Prekaz, you made a propaganda film, and you are featuring in that film, together with KLA terrorists.

A. No. This is not true, and this is very erroneous information.

Q. All right. Are you aware of the liquidation of two brothers called Mitrovic, in the village of Mihalici in 1998 also?

A. The name of the village is not clear to me.

Q. Mihalic is the village, the two Mitrovic brothers.

A. The village of Mihalic is of the Vushtrri commune and never, either before or during or after the war, have I been there.

Q. Mitrovica [as interpreted] and Vucitrn are very close by, as you well know.

JUDGE MAY: He says he's not been.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] He's never been to Vucitrn?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The question was not related to Vushtrri but the question was related to the village of Mihalic. Vushtrri in itself is Vushtrri and the village of Mihalic is Mihalic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] ¹²⁶⁸

Q. All right. In May 1999, the KLA in Prilvzje killed six young Serb men below Cicevica. Do you remember that?

A. I can't remember. I don't remember because I have no knowledge of such a case.

Q. Do you know about the village of Sllatine? It is between Vucitrn and Mitrovica. Halfway between the two. Have you heard of that village?

A. Can you please repeat the name of the village and the neighbourhoods they are a part of?

Q. Sllatine, halfway between Vucitrn and Mitrovica.

A. It's the first time that I hear of such a village, and I'm sure that there is no such village -- a village with such name in the municipality of Mitrovica or Vucitrn.

Q. It was burnt down and the population are dispersed. Did you -- have you heard about Nova Selo Macunsko and Banjska? Have you heard of those villages?

A. I'm sorry, I repeat once again: Can you mention the villages with the name that they actually hold? Because I have not heard of such names that you are talking about.

Q. You've never heard of the village of Banjska? Have you heard about Strahini Span [phoen] and the village of Banjska near Kosovska Mitrovica? There are two villages of Banjska but one is close to Kosovska Mitrovica.

A. As for the Banjska village, I know about but previously there was a name which was quite different and --

Q. What about Novo Selo? Have you heard of that? All right. You've ¹²⁶⁹ heard of Banjska. You've heard of Macunsko and Novo Selo. Do you know that both those two Serb villages were burnt, like the one a moment ago you said you hadn't heard of?

A. I also know about the village of Magjunaj, formerly Novo Selo.

Q. Yes, and you don't know about Banjska?

A. I said that earlier. I also know about Banjska, and I said that.

Q. And do you know that both of them were burnt and who burnt them? Do you know that?

A. Whether they are burned, they were burned, and who burned them, I don't know.

Q. But you know they were Serb villages, don't you?

A. I know that in the village of Magjunaj, there were Serbs and Albanians. It was not an ethnically pure Serb village.

Q. All right. The majority of the population were Serbs. In 1998, do you know --

A. I'm sorry?

Q. In 1998, do you know about the killing of two young men in the village of Bukos? Have you heard of the village of Bukos?

A. I have heard about the village of Bukos, but I have not heard about the killing of two young men.

Q. I'm just talking about the killings in Mitrovica. I'm not mentioning any other villages outside your area. Do you happen to know when an incident occurred in the village of Pantina? You've heard of Pantina, haven't you, when a whole family was kidnapped?

A. I know where the Pantina village is, but the village of Pantina ¹²⁷⁰ belongs to the municipality of Vushtrri, and about this case, it's the first time I hear.

Q. It's very close by, on the edge there. All right. Do you know about Kosovska Mitrovica, on the 13th of January 1999, when an Albanian Nexhmedin Salihu was killed?

A. I don't know anything about such case, or maybe the name is not said correctly.

Q. Nexhmedin Salihu, an Albanian killed in Kosovska Mitrovica.

A. I know about a certain Nexhmedin who was killed, but I don't know his surname.

Q. His surname is Salihu, and he was also killed by the KLA. What about in the village of Supkovac on the 27th of January, when Dejan Kostic was killed? Do you know about that incident?

A. About this occasion, I have a report about the killing of Dejan Kostic, but as to who killed him, that remained enigmatic and he was found in the street by police.

Q. Do you know about the killing, once again in Mitrovica, on the 3rd of February, 1999, when Emir Rexhepi was killed, Emir Rexhepi?

A. I don't know anything about this case or the name may not be correct.

Q. Emir Rexhepi.

A. I don't know anything about this case.

Q. And do you know about the killing, once again of an Albanian, Naser Hajziri in Mitrovica in December 1998 in the Melica cafe?

A. This case was mentioned earlier when I was talking about the ¹²⁷¹ person who killed him and is serving a sentence in prisons in Serbia, somewhere in Serbia.

Q. Do you know that the command structures of the KLA adopted a decision to assassinate prominent Albanians loyal to Serbia?

A. I have no knowledge of such a decision.

Q. Do you know that that is something that was written in a report by the Kosovo Verification Mission for the period ranging from the 9th to the 12th of March? It was contained in that report, that fact.

A. I don't know anything about this case.

Q. Do you know something about the killing of three Romany? They were brothers; Gani Gushani, Basra Gushani, and Hilmi Gushani, three Roma brothers who were killed in Mitrovica?

A. I know about this case and I have the original report which I passed on the following day to the media, but that murder, the case of those murders again is a mystery.

Q. Actually, they had reported to -- they wanted to become local policemen and put their names up for that position and then they were killed. Do you have any knowledge about that?

A. I have no knowledge about this. Whether they wanted to join the police or not, I don't know.

Q. I'm telling you that they were killed the next day, after they had put their names forward for becoming local policemen. Do you know about that?

JUDGE MAY: He said he knows nothing about it.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] ¹²⁷²

Q. Do you happen to remember when there was a kidnapping, the deputy of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipality, Ajeti, was kidnapped. Do you remember that? He was the head of the local police, too, in Kosovska Mitrovica. And he was kidnapped in 1998, and nobody knew of his whereabouts but it was supposed that he had been murdered. Do you know anything about that?

A. I've heard about the fact that he is missing, he has disappeared, but I've always suspected that these mystery killings have been organised by the Serb secret services.

Q. You are suggesting that the head of the local police force, an Albanian in Mitrovica, was killed by Serbs? Is that what you're saying?

A. No, I'm not saying that, and I don't know anything about that, but I know that he was the director of the Mitrovica prison. But other things other than that, I don't know.

Q. He used to be the director of the Mitrovica prison, that's true. So he was employed by the state and was, I'm sure, highly respected, a highly respected state official. And I quoted from the OSCE report, so there you have it. I think matters are clear on that point. Do you know, on the 27th of December, that three members of the KLA killed the Potparol [phoen] of the Romany Gypsy organisation?

A. I have no knowledge about this case.

Q. That's contained in the OSCE report too. And what about the 2nd of January in Radasnik? Radasnik is part of Mitrovica, isn't it? That's right, isn't it?

A. It's the first time that I hear about such a location. ¹²⁷³

Q. It's not a place, it's part of Mitrovica. But anyway, two Serbs were killed, one of them a journalist.

A. There is no Radasnik in Mitrovica.

Q. As for that Radasnik as part of Mitrovica and the two Serbs, one of whom was a journalist, that is something that the OSCE report talks about.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, I'm thinking this: That a more efficient way of putting this information before us may be to produce the report in due course, the OSCE report. It may be that the Prosecution have got a copy of it. You can ask this witness questions, but there seems little point if he's going to answer he doesn't know anything about it.

Have we got -- Mr. Nice, can you help us with that? Have you got a copy of that report?

MR. NICE: It's being looked for at the moment. It's obviously not in court at the moment, but if I've got it, I'll produce it.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I am asking these questions because I think it is quite obvious that I'm asking this with respect to the witness's credibility. He knows nothing. He knows nothing about a single crime committed over the Serbs or loyal Albanians. He knows nothing about anything that was done by the KLA, and he claims -- and he claims what he claims, that the Serb army and police force went and ran after civilians in the midst of the Shala Operative Zone, with 4.000 KLA members present. So forgot about these 4.000 and just concentrated on the civilians. ¹²⁷⁴ That's why I am asking these questions.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. Have you got any more questions?

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know on the 12th of January another Albanian was killed, the owner of a bar? He was taken out of his bar and shot outside on the 12th of January, 1999, once again in Kosovska Mitrovica.

A. Can you please mention the exact location where that happened? Because I'm once again saying that there is no place named Radasnik in Mitrovica.

Q. I can't. I never assumed -- I'm not talking about Radasnik now. I'm talking about the Albanian who was killed and who was the proprietor of a bar. He was taken outside of his bar and killed by a group of KLA members. Do you know about that?

A. First of all, I'd like to know the location of where the incident happened and then I can talk about it, if I know.

JUDGE MAY: Just answer this: Do you know of any occasion about this time in which an incident of that sort happened?

A. I have no knowledge about such an incident.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know, in March, a Serb who was shot at and riddled with bullets underneath a bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica? And there are not many bridges, I don't suppose, in Kosovska Mitrovica.

A. On March of what year are we talking about?

Q. 1999.

A. It's impossible for him to have been killed by the Albanians, ¹²⁷⁵ because all the streets and roads were filled, packed with police, military, and paramilitary Serbs.

Q. Well, I'm asking you about this Serb who was killed. Do you suggest that that was done by a Serb unit too?

A. I have no knowledge about this murder.

Q. Do you know, then, about something that took place on the 12th of March? That was quite a bit before the aggression. On the 12th of March, when the director of the theatre was killed? He was also an Albanian.

A. This is not true, and the director of the theatre was not killed because I am the director of the theatre.

Q. Not the director of the theatre you but the Albanian who was the director of the theatre. I'm talking about him, not about you.

JUDGE MAY: Was there another director of the theatre?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, there was, and he was a Serb, and he is alive.

One clarification, Your Honour, if I may. If we are talking about Kadri Kadriu, he was one of the managers of the cultural house in Mitrovica. He was arrested on the 11th of March, and he was shot on the 13th of March in Trepca, near the mine. He was shot and he was mutilated. He was one of the managers, Albanian managers of the cultural house.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. The main director, whether he was the principal director or one of the directors, that's not important. What I was talking about was an Albanian who was killed.

Do you know that a judge, also an Albanian, was kidnapped, a lay ¹²⁷⁶ judge, in fact and that, on the 15th of March, the KLA informed his family and said that he was being held in Shala? He was a lay judge, an Albanian.

A. I have no knowledge about such a case, and I'm sure that it's not true.

Q. All right. That is also something that exists in documents. And then we come to the 18th of February, when another Albanian was kidnapped in Shala. You know nothing about the abduction of Albanians during that period of time?

A. It would be useful to know who are we talking about by name and surname, because I have a list of all the cases -- of all the cases that happened in Mitrovica, and I have them with me.

Q. All right. Do you know about an incident on the 18th of January? On the 18th of January, are you aware of the next incident when a rocket was shot -- targeted a jeep towards Stimlje, on the road towards Stimlje, and five people were injured who were in the jeep? Do you know about that attack by the KLA?

A. I know the case very well, but I don't know who shot the jeep because I know that the jeep hit the wall and then spun around.

Q. And what would you say? What do you think? Who attacked the police at the exit to Mitrovica?

A. I don't know who carried out the attack, but if we are talking about the case that you mentioned, I know that the jeep hit a high wall and then it overturned.

Q. Do you know of another event that took place on the 20th of ¹²⁷⁷ January, 1999, when the police surrounded a house in Mitrovica in which there were between 10 to 15 members of the KLA? On the 20th of January. Do you know about that incident?

A. Yes, I know about this case, but this did not take place in Mitrovica but in the village of Vaganice.

Q. [Previous translation continues]... about that incident. Vaganice, as you yourself said, is not even three kilometres away from Mitrovica; is that right?

A. No, it's not. And on this occasion, two members of the KLA were killed.

Q. Do you know that the police, on the 20th of January, surrounded that particular house in the presence of the OSCE observers, that the OSCE observers were present on the occasion when the event took place?

A. I have no knowledge about this incident, but I have been myself with the observers of the European Union, and that was the following day.

Q. That's what I'm saying. In the presence of the OSCE observers, it is true that two were killed and -- KLA members were killed and the others escaped. And in the report, it states that the KLA opened fire on the policemen first, as incidentally, was always the case, but it just happened that the OSCE observers were present on this particular occasion.

A. I said earlier that I was not there on the day of the incident, but I went to the scene the following day with OSCE observers. We went there to the scene of the incident the following day.

Q. You talked about demonstrations on the 27th of March, 1989.

A. Not on the 7th of March but on the 27th of March, 1999. ¹²⁷⁸

Q. 1989.

A. The 27th of March, 1989.

Q. I said the 27th. I did not say the 7th.

JUDGE MAY: Let's not waste time on that. March 1989, demonstrations.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I said yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Who led these demonstrations?

A. The demonstrations were led by the students and the teachers themselves and, later, the whole of the population - I mean the Albanian population - joined in.

Q. Do you remember that these were destructive demonstrations, that everything was broken, shattered wherever the demonstrators passed by?

A. This is not true because the demonstrations were taking place in a location where there was nothing to destroy but there was only a bridge which is known as Ura e Gjakut.

Q. All the shop windows were broken, all the stores, everything that was nearby. Don't you remember that?

A. I remember very well the demonstration of the 27th of March, 1989, but it is not true what the accused is saying because the location where it was taking place was not surrounded by anything other than the bridge.

Q. And they moved nowhere? They didn't go anywhere from the bridge?

A. They could not move because the road leading into the city was blockaded by the Serb police, and they had no chance of getting into the city. ¹²⁷⁹

Q. Now you've come to the main point. Why do you say the Serb police?

A. Because the Serb police fired and killed Albanians, because there was also Albanian police at the time.

Q. And do you know that it was precisely at that time and at these demonstrations in Mitrovica that the majority of the policemen were Albanians?

A. Yes, I know pretty well, but it was Serb forces from Vushtrri and Leposavic who came there, and Albanians were on the second line.

Q. So you know even in which line the Albanians were?

A. Yes, I know it very well because I was at the gas station near the bus station, and I saw them lined up. And I know them. I used to know them, even in the past.

Q. But my question is very precise: Do you know that the majority of the policemen at these demonstrations were ethnic Albanians?

A. In the demonstrations we are talking about, the majority were not Albanians but Serbs, because new forces were deployed there, saying that the Albanians didn't help the Serb police and so the Serbs were put on the front line.

Q. That is your explanation. Unfortunately, it is not correct. But let us go on from here.

THE ACCUSED: I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this is interesting because the witness is saying that five Albanians were killed and the Prosecutor said that 100 Albanians were killed in these demonstrations, and now we've come to a figure that is 20 times lower. ¹²⁸⁰ But even what the witness has been saying now is incorrect.

JUDGE MAY: Put a question. If you have a question, Mr. Milosevic, put it to the witness.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Of course I have questions.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Now we're going to move on from the demonstrations to yet another subject. Do you remember a decision of the Albanian political leaders that Albanians should boycott their work? Do you remember the word "boycott" and the decision to carry out this boycott all over?

A. This is not true, and it's groundless, because the decision of the Albanians was that not a single Albanian should leave their work without being forced to. This was a decision taken by the independent union of Kosova, headed by Hajrullah Gorani.

Q. So you claim that Albanians did not go on strike and did not stop working and did not state that they would not carry out their work duties?

A. We should not confuse things. The strike is one thing and work is another thing. You said that it was a decision not to go to work, that is, to boycott work. This is not true.

As to the strike, it's something else. It was a one-day strike, and Albanians, some of the Albanians, participated.

Q. I'm not talking about a one-day strike. I'm talking about a long-lasting boycott of work duties.

A. I said there was no boycott because it was the insistence of all Albanians not to leave the job without being forcibly asked to.

Q. So you claim that Albanians went to work and that they actually ¹²⁸¹ worked those days and those weeks?

A. Until the doors of the factories and plants were blocked by the Serb police and they did not allow them to get inside.

Q. Who was forbidden to enter the premises?

A. The Albanian workers were forbidden to enter the premises.

Q. You know full well that this is not true, and you know that for a long time there were orders to boycott work. And you claim, therefore, that all of that is incorrect; right? That all of this is not true?

A. It is incorrect. The truth is that the Albanians were recommended not to leave their work without violence.

Q. Was there any case of violence over anyone in any institution or any company? Is that perhaps your assertion?

A. I said that there were policemen placed at the doors of the factories, plants, who did not let the Albanian workers go inside the premises.

Q. All right. Do you remember the strike at Stari Trg?

A. Yes, I remember very well both strikes.

Q. Do you remember that it was actually the other way around, that the strikers who, for political reasons, had taken over the job places, the workplaces, actually blocked these workplaces and did not allow workers who wanted to work to come in at all? Do you remember that?

A. Can you please repeat the question, and not a couple of questions at once but please only one?

Q. Do you remember that strikers blocked workplaces and remained there and did not wish to work? ¹²⁸²

A. I remember very well. But they blocked the workplaces, it was a hunger strike, and they asked the resignation of three officials of Kosova.

Q. All right. Now you said that they blocked workplaces. They blocked workplaces. And this went on for days. Is that right or is that not right?

A. The strike went on for eight days, until the workers were promised that these miners of Trepca, that everything will be improved and the resignation will take place. They were lies. And this is why the workers left the mine and came out of it.

Q. All right. Your claim is that it was eight days. Let us say that it was eight days. Do you remember that for all these eight days, three times a day, in three shifts, workers who wished to work came in but they were not allowed in because the others had blocked the workplaces? Do you remember that?

A. This is not true at all, because the entire Albanian population of Kosova solidarised with the miners, the strikers in Trepca.

Q. That is also not correct. Do you remember the structure of the entire Kosovo leadership at that time precisely? In 1989, that is.

A. What do you mean by "the structure"?

Q. As for the main political offices in Kosovo, were they held by Serbs or Albanians? Who held the main political offices in Kosovo?

A. They were held by the Albanians.

Q. And these Albanians, did they support these destructive demonstrations or these blockades of workplaces that you refer to? You ¹²⁸³ call this blockades of workplaces so let us use your terminology. Did they support that?

A. There was no destruction inflicted, and I didn't say that there was a blockade of workplaces. And the leadership of Kosova did not support them.

Q. But you claim that the other Albanians did support them.

A. They were in full solidarity with the Trepca miners.

Q. A short while ago, you claimed that there were no Albanian policemen and in 1989 there were Serb policemen only in Kosovska Mitrovica, and now you say that all Albanians expressed their solidarity with those who blocked workplaces. So do you remember, did you at least watch this on television, that shift of workers would come to work but they could not enter the workplace because it had been blocked, things like that?

A. There are a couple of questions. Please take them one by one.

JUDGE MAY: Let's try and bring this to a close. I think we've dealt fully with this. What he suggested was that a shift of workers tried to enter the workplace but couldn't do so because it was blocked. Now, is that right or not right?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, it's not right.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. You didn't even see this on television?

JUDGE MAY: He said it's not right.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Let me ask him another question then. ¹²⁸⁴

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. What about the Serbs, at least, who had jobs there? Did they want to work there or not?

A. They didn't want to work.

Q. Even the Serbs didn't want to work there?

A. They didn't go to the plants. Since they didn't go, I presumed they didn't want to. We are talking about Trepca here.

Q. But a short while ago, you explained that only Albanians supported this blockade of workplaces.

JUDGE MAY: I don't remember him being asked that. Did only the Albanians support the blockade?

Just a moment. Just a moment. Did only the Albanians support the blockade?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Only the Albanians.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. And how many Serbs were then employed at Trepca?

A. I think the relevant bodies might give you the exact figures. I can't do that.

Q. You can give a yes or a no answer to this: It was a political strike and the blockade was for political reasons; yes or no.

A. It was a strike which asked for the resignation of three politicians.

Q. Let us not go into further detail. Obviously, there are material facts involved and there is no reason to debate that here. Let us look at this statement, this declaration that was brought ¹²⁸⁵ here as some kind of a crown document. I'm asking you now, whose declaration is this? Is this a declaration of the work organisation of the medical centre of the 13th of July, basic organisation of hospital services in Kosovska Mitrovica?

A. This was a decision which they had to sign, all the Albanian workers of the General Hospital of Mitrovica.

Q. Was it only Albanians who were employed at the Mitrovica hospital?

A. There were also others, not only the Albanians. But only the Albanians were offered to sign such a statement.

Q. Do you know that, in that medical organisation, everybody together, all the employees, Serbs, Albanians, took upon themselves the obligation to sign a declaration stating that they would carry out their work duties at the workplace?

A. Even if the Serb workers were offered this statement, they had the reason to sign it because they recognised Serbia as their own republic.

Q. So we have come to your main point now. This is, therefore, a declaration that is required by a hospital which is state owned; right?

A. It is state owned.

Q. In that declaration, it says that one should take upon the obligation that during working hours, working hours, "I shall abide by legal provisions, notably the law on labour relations."

A. Yes. But at the end, it writes that, "I recognise the Republic of Serbia as my own republic." This was why the Albanian staff refused to sign it, because they didn't consider it their own.

Q. It doesn't say here I admit or recognise or do not recognise ^{1286 BLANK PAGE 1297} something that is obvious. It says, "will abide by the regulations of the republic." "Abide by the regulations in their republic." Now, what is controversial about that?

JUDGE MAY: Let us have the exhibit, Exhibit 24. Put it on the ELMO, please.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Before you comment. Mr. Nice, how was this translated?

MR. NICE: There was a draft translation, I think, provided.

JUDGE ROBINSON: By whom?

MR. NICE: Well, if it's a draft translation it will have been by somebody working in the Office of the Prosecutor, and then a final translation will come available in due course. Incidentally, it is a document, I said, the original was available if we wanted to look at it, and I have that at hand.

JUDGE MAY: The original of this document.

MR. NICE: The original of this document. I said yesterday it was available.

JUDGE MAY: Perhaps that should be given to the witness. And the Cyrillic could be put on the ELMO, please.

Now, Mr. Milosevic, what was the point?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The point was that in any state, in a state company, in a state hospital, and even in a private company or in a private hospital, a person who is employed there during working hours has to abide by the law. And it says here that they will abide by all regulations, and we are going to get to this controversial part as well, ¹²⁹⁸ because I see that this law on the use of language and alphabet is something that the Prosecutor particularly pointed out. It's the other way around, it's not the way you've put it. That they would observe regulations and laws during working hours.

Tell me, please, what is controversial about this, that a person who is employed somewhere and receives a salary there should observe laws and regulations during working hours, laws that are passed by that republic?

JUDGE MAY: It's the second paragraph which is regarded as controversial. Now, have you any questions to the witness about this?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I can barely see this, so I have to look at the transcript. That was precisely my question.

JUDGE MAY: Can we get the white copy on the ELMO, and if the witness looks at the green, it might be easier to see it. The Cyrillic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Oh, I have the Cyrillic copy. It's right over here. I don't need it on the ELMO. Perhaps you do.

JUDGE MAY: It doesn't matter. Put it on. Right.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Witness, could you read the second paragraph so we could have a translation of it. Are you in a position to do so, to read the Cyrillic, the original?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I see here written "original in Serbian." Can I say the translation?

"I accept the Republic of Serbia as my own republic."

JUDGE ROBINSON: No. What I wanted you to read was the entire second paragraph. ¹²⁹⁹

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Excuse me, but it is difficult for me to read in Cyrillic letters.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

JUDGE MAY: We'll have to await the final translation.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I can read it for you. I'm going to read it in Serbian, this second paragraph, and very slowly at that, very slowly.

JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues]...

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] "I also declare that during working hours, I shall abide by the provisions of system-based laws of the Republic of Serbia, notably the law on employment under special circumstances, law on territorial organisation, the law on the use of language and alphabet, and other laws that pertain to the established territorial integrity and sovereignty of my Republic of Serbia in which I live and work."

Full stop. No more than that. Therefore, the republic, according to the Yugoslav Constitution and according to its own Constitution, is a state. It passes laws. There is not a single law that pertains only to Serbs or only to Albanians or only to Hungarians or only to Ruthenians, Romanians, Bulgarians, or anyone else for that matter. That is to say, laws that are passed by the republic - since you are legal people, you know this full well - they apply to all citizens, and this is an organisation per se that made --

JUDGE MAY: Now, Mr. Milosevic, we have taken the point you make. Now, have you any more questions for this witness about this document? ¹³⁰⁰

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The question is: What's wrong with this document? What does the witness consider to be a problem in relation to this document?

JUDGE MAY: He has given his evidence about that, and it's not for him to take the matter further. You can make submissions in due course and we will have to decide what the effect of those submissions are and what the effect of this document is.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I do have other questions of this witness.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. We're going to adjourn now. Now, we shall expect you, Mr. Milosevic, to finish your cross-examination of this witness this afternoon. You will then have had up to four hours to cross-examine. So perhaps you would organise your cross-examination to do so.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Don't worry. I shall certainly finish today by all means.

JUDGE MAY: Half past two.

--- Luncheon recess taken at 1.05 p.m. ¹³⁰¹

--- On resuming at 2.30 p.m.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Barani, before Mr. Milosevic continues, I wanted to ask you, and you may have given this evidence already: When was the declaration that we're looking at issued? The declaration that had to be signed by workers.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] At the beginning of 1990. In other words, 1990, 1991. You can see on the declaration itself.

JUDGE ROBINSON: And it was issued in the same form, in the same language?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It was issued just as it is. That's an original declaration that was given to the staff of the Mitrovica General Hospital.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, continue.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Within the time by which I promised to finish today, before I continue, I nonetheless do have to ask several questions to clarify some points that remained unclear. I didn't read through the locality, the word locality carefully, the locality where two Serbs were killed, one of the journalists -- where one of the journalists were killed. The locality, the place was called Rasadnik.

A. You mean Fidanishte where there was a well-known case of where the bodies of two Serbs were found in which the international observers who were in Mitrovica were at the scene of the incident and took notes.

Q. All right. And something in connection with the theatre. There were two wings of the theatre, the Serbian drama theatre and the Albania drama theatre. You were director of the Albanian drama theatre. ¹³⁰²

A. There were not two theatres in Mitrovica. From 1992 there weren't. There was a group that worked in the Serbian language, but they didn't do very much.

Q. I didn't say there were two theatres. What I meant was within the frameworks of one theatre house there was the section for Serb plays, a Serb play section and Albanian play section. That was what I meant.

A. There were three sections operating in the same building; Albanian, Serbian, and Turkish, but the Serbian and Turkish sections didn't work, but the Albanian theatre, which I headed, did work and still works and did so without interruption.

Q. All right. That's a very positive thing. That's good. And I'm not bringing that into question at all. But at all events, the work of the overall theatre was financed by the municipality. That is correct, isn't it?

A. The group that I led was never financed but merely the hall in the culture centre was placed at its disposal.

Q. All right. The municipality placed the hall at your disposal; is that right?

A. Every now and then. Many plays were also put on in the city park, and I have photographs of these.

Q. So you weren't the director of the theatre but the Albanian play section. The fact that the Turkish and Serb part didn't work, wasn't working, I didn't ask you anything about that.

Next, you said that all Albanians except for the leadership, during the blockade of the work posts, supported the strikers, and I have ¹³⁰³ received the following information: Not even in Mitrovica, where the strike was the largest, the post office, the health institutions and services, or the courts or the state administration, none of these stopped functioning, along with a series of other public services where the Albanians worked as a majority. Is that true or not?

A. There may have been the occasional Albanian who worked during the strike, but the overwhelming majority of Albanians were on strike and expressed their solidarity until the last day, which was 28th of February.

Q. But I am speaking about the large majority of Albanians in all public services - the post office, banks, and all the other things that I mentioned - that they did go to work. They were working. Now, do you recall that the director of the bank in Mitrovica was also an Albanian? His name was Jusuf Gjosha and the SDK social accounting service director was Jashar Ismaili, also an Albanian?

A. I don't know who the directors were at this time, but I do know that the great majority of the Albanian population kept order and expressed their solidarity with the Trepca workers.

Q. All right. I have presented facts that speak of the contrary being true, but you say that that was not so. Have I understood you correctly? Do you consider that that is not true?

JUDGE MAY: That's a comment, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. I asked him whether he considered that that was not true.

The witness, with respect to the declaration and in a negative context, spoke about the use of language having to do with law, so I go ¹³⁰⁴ back to the declaration once again.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Why was there a problem with the law on the use of language?

A. Exactly what problem is in question here?

Q. The question is the following: In commenting on the declaration which you -- and you can't explain where the problem was, you mentioned the law on the use of language, which is mentioned in the declaration, because it says, "law on the use of language and alphabet," and you brought this up when you were speaking. Now, how did you see -- what problem did you see with respect to the law on the use of language? Where was the problem there, according to you?

A. It's not true that I mentioned any law here ever, because I don't know what the rules are here.

Q. You spoke about it. You were commenting the declaration that we read a moment ago, before the break.

JUDGE MAY: Why not ask him: Mr. Barani, was there any difficulty as far as you were concerned, as far as you could see, in the declaration which is that, during working hours you would abide by various laws, and that included the law on the use of language and alphabet? Could you see any problem in making such a declaration?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The only problem when in signing this -- in signing this declaration is signing where it says, "I recognise the Republic of Serbia as my own."

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Where does it say that? Could you quote it, please, in the ¹³⁰⁵ declaration, the exact words.

JUDGE MAY: Let him have the declaration in front of him. Mr. Barani, can you read it? And it refers to the territorial integrity and sovereignty. You can read that, can you, in the Cyrillic?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have a problem reading, and I can't read it all in Cyrillic, but I can see where -- I can see where it says, "my republic of Serbia."

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. And yes. And where is the word "I recognise" that is the key word? "I accept."

A. It's all a bit earlier, but at the end, it says, "my Republic of Serbia." And for this reason, the Albanian workers didn't sign it. This -- here it is. This is where it is written. This is the original document. You can all see it.

Q. Who else can bring in laws other than the legal organs of Serbia, legislative organs of Serbia?

A. The Albanians have never recognised the Republic of Serbia as theirs. That's the whole issue about this declaration.

Q. That means that you claim that Kosovo is not in Serbia. Is that it?

A. Of course it's not.

Q. Do you know that Kosovo, even today, is in Serbia?

A. I recognise Kosova as Kosova outside Serbia and not part of Serbia. ¹³⁰⁶

Q. Do you understand that an independent Kosovo is only a dream, flying on the wings of NATO bombers, and once they fly away, you'll wake up and be in Serbia again? Do you understand that?

JUDGE MAY: No need to answer that question. It's a comment.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Let me go back to another question. You claimed that the demonstrations were peaceful ones, and I said that they were destructive ones. And at those, as you yourself said, peaceful demonstrations in 1989, a policeman was killed by the name of Miroljub Tanaskovic precisely at the gas station, the petrol station, that you were at. Do you know about that?

A. It's true that on the 27th of March a Serbian policeman was killed.

Q. Now, can those demonstrations then be referred to and called non-destructive, peaceful demonstrations if that was so?

A. As I mentioned before, the place where the demonstrations took place didn't have any houses or shops nearby, and there are still none there today.

Q. Where they began, yes, but where you moved around, no; and you did move around and destroyed everything in sight. Is that correct or not?

A. If this is 27th of March, 1989, it's not true. It's as I say it. In that place, that place has not changed at all, and nor in the town. Demonstrators couldn't enter the town because police were stationed there. ¹³⁰⁷

Q. And how did they kill this policeman then?

A. I don't know how the policeman was killed. I have no knowledge of this.

Q. It's sufficient for this. You spoke yesterday about the 13th of March, in particular, when, at the marketplace, bombs exploded. You even, as I jotted down, said that the Serb policemen threw bombs at the marketplace. And now I'm going to ask you the following: Do you remember that on that occasion in the marketplace in Mitrovica, a bomb exploded and that at the same time the same type of bomb exploded in Podujevo? And as far as the victims are concerned, four citizens were killed and 30 others were wounded in Kosovska Mitrovica, seven of them seriously wounded. The victims were both Serbs and Albanians. So at the same time, these bombs were planted in the marketplace in Mitrovica and Podujevo, and according to the findings of the Verification Mission of the OSCE --

JUDGE MAY: Let him answer the question. Were there bombs -- were there bombs also placed elsewhere that day?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have no knowledge about other places, only about Mitrovica.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Not only was a bomb planted in Podujevo, but it exploded at the same time. In Mitrovica and Podujevo at the same time. And in the report which the observers compiled, it states that the bomb was a homemade bomb. That means that it was an explosive device planted by terrorists simultaneously in Mitrovica and Podujevo. ¹³⁰⁸

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Barani, Mr. Barani, do you know anything about the report?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I know, and I have the names and the surnames of the victims, and there were not four but seven and more than 90 were wounded. And I collated into information together with the OSCE who were at that time in Mitrovica. All the wounded were in the Mitrovica General Hospital, and I got all the notes about the wounded from the hospital.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you remember that there was a television report from the hospital after the planting of those bombs, that we saw those sorry people, the casualties, lying there in hospital, both Serbs and Albanians?

A. I never saw any television broadcast about this incident.

Q. And the four dead and 30 wounded, I got those figures from the report that was drawn up by the observers themselves.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Next question, please.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. You also spoke about the killing of a group of intellectuals on Dren mountain; is that right?

A. I -- this was not murder but their arrest, and the fate of two of them is not known to this day.

Q. So the fate of those two is not known. You said that it took place on Mount Dren. Is that right?

A. The question is not clear to me. There are two or three there; give me one. ¹³⁰⁹

Q. Did you say that it took place on Dren Mountain?

A. The place is called the village of Dreth, and there is a mountain of the same name and it is in Zubin Potok municipality.

Q. In fact, it's on Mokra Gora mountain, which divides the Zubin Potok municipality from the Srbica municipality. That's right, isn't it?

A. The place I mentioned belongs to Zubin Potok municipality.

Q. I don't know about others, but from what you said, from your testimony, I gained the impression that these people, this whole list of some 23 individuals, were killed. That's the impression I gained. And you now said that the fate of two of them is -- only two of them is not known. So could you clear that up? Are you talking about 23 people or two people? And then I'll continue once I get that clarification from you.

JUDGE MAY: I think that was his evidence in chief. Is that right?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It's a question of 23 of a group of 25. Twenty-three disappeared, and their fate is not known.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. So I understood what you said quite correctly. You said, in connection with that, that they came across an ambush, came upon an ambush placed there by the army or the police, that they were ambushed by either the army or police.

A. That's what I said. According to those who survived and escaped arrest, one of them is Xhafer Behrami, from the village of Kotorr in Skenderaj municipality, who was a member of this group. ¹³¹⁰

Q. Do you think it's logical for the army or the police to set up an ambush for 20-odd civilians? Does that seem to you to be logical?

JUDGE MAY: Well, that's not really a question for the witness. That's what he says, whether it's logical or not.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Very well, then. I claim that it was an armed group of the KLA, that they bore arms.

A. This is not true. None of them had weapons, and none of them were members of the KLA. They were all teachers, doctors, technical workers, and others.

Q. You said a group of intellectuals, and now we have from 17, 20, 27, 21, 17, 17, 31 and so on and so forth. So apart from two or three persons, all of them were military-able men, and they were all males. That's obvious, I think.

JUDGE MAY: He said they weren't members of the KLA, and they didn't have weapons.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, he claimed that he just saw the KLA in passing, and later on, we established that he knew all the commanders. This is another thing that he is claiming now. He was a theatre director, but this is such -- these are such great contradictions that you can't get away from them. But let me move on.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, move on.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. You said that 5.000 people were sent and imprisoned in Smrekovnica. It is between Mitrovica and Vucitrn. ¹³¹¹

A. I said 5.802 in Smrekovnica prison and in the secondary technical school that was an improvised prison in -- near Mitrovica, and from there, they were sent to Albania.

Q. Do you know that the warden of that prison in Smrekovnica was in fact an Albanian?

A. Yes, I know that.

Q. Do you know that the prison in Smrekovnica is a regular type of prison or, as we call it, a correction centre?

A. I know that it's a prison and, at this time, it was a notorious prison among the Albanians.

Q. Do you know that the capacity of that prison, whose warden was an Albanian, and, as you say, it was an infamous one, notorious one, as you said, that the capacity of prisoners was 300 to 400 inmates at most?

A. I know that very well, but that -- you have in the statement the period between which the number I quoted, over 5.000 of Albanians were imprisoned there.

Q. I am precisely stating that that is impossible, in view of the capacities of the prison, and that you are speaking untruths.

A. This is true, and I have statements from all those who were held prisoners when they came back from Albania, and they reported to the office for the Protection of Human Rights and prison -- and Freedoms, and they explained in detail all what they suffered in the prison.

JUDGE MAY: You mentioned an improvised prison, is that right, in a secondary school?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. ¹³¹²

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I claim that it is untrue that anybody forced civilians into prison.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you think that this is not true? We are now going to move on to something else.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honour, if I may?

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] For you, it is untrue also in 1990 when --

THE INTERPRETER: Can he repeat the figures, please, for the interpreters? Can the witness repeat the statement, please?

JUDGE MAY: Could you repeat the figures?

JUDGE KWON: Could you repeat the question again?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I said that for the accused and his clique, it is no doubt impossible that 7.200 Albanian school pupils were poisoned in 1990 on 21st and 22nd of March and also the 19th and 20th of April, and I have films of the poisoning with me and the statements of more than 100 primary and secondary pupils.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. This uni-ethnic poisoning of yours was well-known throughout Yugoslavia. This is not exactly news. And now I'm asking you in relation to that, do you know that both Serb and Albanian children sat in the same classrooms and then it was claimed that some kind of gas was being released that poisoned only Albanian children on ethnic grounds?

A. What you say is not true, because awhile ago the pupils were ¹³¹³ segregated and the Serbs were studying in the morning, whereas the Albanians were going to the school in the afternoon. And I say this with full responsibility, because on the 12th of April, 1990, in the elementary school Nondabulka [phoen] in the Iber neighbourhood, the teachers and the pupils of the school had a bottle filled with a kind of substance, and I personally got hold of that with, the late Professor Latif Berisha and Vehbi Zeqiri. We all sent it to the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Pristina. We handed that over to Zenun Celaj, the secretary of the council. The same sample was sent to France ...

JUDGE MAY: I think, Mr. Barani, we must stop you. We are going some way now from the subject matter of the cross-examination. Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. I should say so, too, especially in connection with this farce that all of Yugoslavia is familiar with in relation to this poisoning. You are here as - how should I put this? - somebody who brought a sensational document, a document that went from hand to hand, and this is a list of reservists from the village of Svinjar. We saw it here.

A. About which list are we talking about?

Q. Well, this one that was given to you so that you could authenticate it, the list of reservists from the village of Svinjar.

JUDGE MAY: Exhibit 28. Let the witness have it.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That's it. I've got it here as well.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] ¹³¹⁴

Q. We don't really have to waste time with this. It's been displayed several times by now.

A. This is a list of the paramilitaries from the Frasher village of Mitrovica.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Is there anything else you want to ask about it, Mr. Milosevic?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, is this what you asked for? Is this the original that you wanted to see? I have a copy, of course, but this is the list. It says "List of the reserve force of the village of Svinjar." That's what you wanted to see, right, in the original?

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. What is the relevance of this? I would like to hear your answer.

A. This list, with all the names that it contains, has been found in the village of Frasher at the checkpoint where the Serb paramilitary were stationed before the arrival of the NATO troops.

JUDGE MAY: What do you think it represents?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It contains the names and surnames, and at the beginning, it says it's the list of the Serb paramilitaries for the village of Frasher i Madh.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. It says here from the village of Svinjar, and I don't know which village you have it from. Here it is.

A. We're talking about the village of Frasher, formerly Svinjar.

Q. Oh, I see. Oh, I see. Now you have new names. Now it's a ¹³¹⁵ different story.

Where does it say that this is a list of paramilitaries?

A. From the very start, it writes that it's a list of the paramilitaries, and we consider paramilitaries those who -- who you call reservists, military reservists.

Q. A person remains speechless in face of this, but let us clarify one point: Do you know that every Yugoslav citizen who had done his military service was a military reservist?

A. However, the list was found in the place where the Serb paramilitary were stationed in the village of Frasher, where all the Albanian houses were burned down.

Q. Please, I would like to clarify this list which you consider to be a document. So could you please answer my questions. Do you know that every citizen of Yugoslavia who had done his military service is a military reservist and is registered in military records as a military reservist according to the profession that he was involved in while doing his military service?

A. The list was found at a place where serious crimes were committed.

Q. Well, you could have found John Galsworthy's books at the crime site. So how can you bring the two together? I don't understand what this means, this list of reservists from the village of Svinjar.

JUDGE MAY: I think we've exhausted this topic now. We have the document, and the parties can make comments about it. You can make comments, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Please, every citizen of Yugoslavia ¹³¹⁶ who had done his military service is a reservist and is registered in the list of military reservists in the register. Here it says on the top, "List of reserve force from the village of Svinjar." In the English translation, it says "Reserve forces." There is nothing to do with reserve forces. This is not correct. These are reservists. This is a list of military conscripts who may be mobilised but do not have to be mobilised.

JUDGE MAY: Very well.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This is their list and nothing else. The only figure -- the place of employment is needed because of the law. If somebody was mobilised, called up as a reservist, that means that the federal state has to compensate his company for his salary, because the company cannot pay him while he is away, and that is why it is quite clearly stated where each person works so that this payment can be made accordingly. So this is just an ordinary list of military conscripts from a village.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. We have the point. Now, what he's put to you, Mr. Barani, is that this is a list of conscripts. Forget the name of the village. Forget what's written at the top. But as far as you can see, is there anything inconsistent in it being a list of reservists with their employment mentioned?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] All the Serbs who operated during the wartime, that's why the names of their professions is written by their names, because they were paid for having served as such forces during the war. ¹³¹⁷

JUDGE MAY: Thank you. Now, it seems to me we can't take this any further. Can you move on to the next topic, please.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] If this could be of any assistance, perhaps we could give lists of several hundreds of thousands of military conscripts that every village and every street in Yugoslavia has. Several hundreds of thousands of persons were mobilised during the NATO aggression. It's as if you were providing the telephone directory, as a secret document at that.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let's move on.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. You keep referring to paramilitary formations. I claim that we did not have paramilitary formations. We only had the official army and police.

A short while ago, you explained that everybody who was mobilised from the reserve force was a paramilitary, in your opinion; is that right?

A. Your forces were distinguished by the uniform they had, the three of them; the paramilitaries, the police, and the soldiers. Although they swapped the uniforms and there were multicoloured ones, but what we considered as paramilitaries, they never changed their uniforms.

Q. I don't know who you consider to be what, but I claim that there were no paramilitary forces. On the contrary: There were orders from the Supreme Command that every paramilitary unit should be disbanded and arrested immediately. Therefore, reservists cannot be considered --

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you're not here to give evidence now. You can do that in due course. The witness has given his answer. Let's ¹³¹⁸ move on to another topic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. This is taking up a lot of my time, his extensive answers, and I have to see whether I should shorten something.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. The Prosecutor put a question when saying that they were told that they should go to Albania. The Prosecutor asked, "Who told you?" The witness did not answer that. The Prosecutor went on and said, "What were you told?" And the answer he got was that they were told to go to Albania. I'm going back to the Prosecutor's question that he did not respond to.

Who told them to go to Albania?

A. It was the army, the police, and the paramilitaries who ordered them and forced them to go towards Albania after their houses were raided and looted and they were forcibly evicted. I'm saying this in accordance with all the statements of thousands upon thousands of Albanians from Mitrovica and from the rest of Kosova.

Q. If reality could be created through statements, it would look different than it looks today.

Let us move on to another document now that was found underneath some boards, and it was presented here as a revelation, something that was discovered under very special circumstances, and these are very plain lists of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Platoons, and the addresses and the telephones of these persons are provided and that is only logical for, say, the company commander to have if somebody gets killed or something ¹³¹⁹ happens to such a person that the family can be identified. These are the names of soldiers in the 1st and 2nd and 3rd Platoons respectively.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, what is the question?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] What is the value of this document that they had such difficulty in obtaining? This document contains soldiers' names and their home addresses. What is the value of this document?

JUDGE MAY: That's a matter which we will have to decide in due course. But have you got any questions for the witness about it?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, it has to do with the fact that he brought it as some kind of proof. What does this prove other than, for example, that John Doe lives in such-and-such a street and that his telephone number is such-and-such and they're going to call his mother there and notify her at that address that he got killed if he gets killed. In any army anywhere in the world, every soldier would give his address if something happens to him so that his next of kin may be notified. So what do you prove by this name and address?

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Now, what's the question?

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. My question is: What is the value of this document in the opinion of the witness? Because he's the one who brought it.

JUDGE MAY: That's not a question for the witness. We're going to have to determine what value it has, and no doubt the Prosecution will address us on it in due course.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] In response to the Prosecutor's ¹³²⁰ question as to how many houses and shops of Kosovo Albanians were destroyed or set fire to, you said 9.550. Is that correct?

A. It's not. We're not talking about the houses of Kosova, but it's just for the Mitrovica municipality, and that's 9.540. And we have complete documentation, documents with -- accompanied by pictures and all the statements of those involved.

Q. All right. All right. You said that that was the figure; right? All right.

Do you know how many Serb houses, shops, and all the rest that you have registered in respect of the Albanian victims were burned down, destroyed, and looted? Do you have figures in that connection?

A. We don't have figures related to these facts because some Serbs, as they left their houses, they set them on fire, whereas we got evidence from people whose families, members of families have been killed and their houses were burnt down.

Q. You claim, therefore, that the Serbs, as they were leaving their houses, set fire to their own houses by themselves; right?

A. I said partly. According to many witnesses. If it wasn't like that, they would not burn them, but they would stay there until they reached some agreement with their owners.

Q. So again, through your witnesses, you are proving that Serbs set fire to their own houses and to Albanian houses in Kosovo.

JUDGE MAY: That's a comment. Yes. You don't have to answer that.

He's answered that. ¹³²¹

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. I shall move on to the next subject, but please give short answers and do not describe incidents that you have already described, because my time will run out.

You have said that Latif Berisha, president of the DSK Mitrovica, on the 24th of March, around midnight, that somebody barged into his house and they took him out and killed him and that these people were masked Serbs. How come you know that these masked persons were Serbs?

A. The daughter of Latif Berisha, who is a teacher of Albanian language and literature, Fatime Berisha, at 1130, 2330, after the murder, called the chairman of the Presidency, Ismail Katiqi, and informed him of the murder, and he informed me afterwards, and she was in the room when the Serbs entered and took the late Professor out and shot him in front of his own door -- house.

Q. But they were wearing masks. How come you know they were Serbs?

A. We know because the people of the place where his house is still -- still is - it's in ruins now - used to be inhabited by Serbs, with the exception of four or five Albanian houses who never dared leave their houses during the wartime until the Serbs came and forcibly evicted them from their houses.

Q. Very well. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

You do not know whether they were Serbs. You said that Agim Hajrizi, president of the trade unions, that he was also killed by Serbs. ¹³²² How come you know that it was Serbs who killed him?

A. I know because his -- he, Agim, Adem Hajrizi's mother and his 11-year-old daughter were killed. His wife was at home with two other children. They left. They got on the roof and waited there until the murder was ended, was committed, and she gave evidence to the court and people are being tried for that murder.

Q. All right. And does the witness know -- do you know how many colleagues of yours, officials of the political party DSK that is headed by Ibrahim Rugova, were the victims of political clashes and were the victims of the terrorists of Hashim Thaci, to put it more precisely? Do you know that?

A. I said even earlier that I think that all the victims or such mystery cases of murders have been perpetrated by the secret Serb police.

Q. Excellent. Then you can answer my following question: How come Rugova's functionaries are being killed now since there are no more Serbs from June 1999?

A. It's not true that there are no Serbs in Kosova.

Q. That's another matter altogether. But how come after June 1999 -- 1999, who is it that is killing Rugova's functionaries? Do you consider that it is still the Serbs who are doing that? Do you still consider that?

JUDGE MAY: Let's first establish that the witness accepts your proposition that the functionaries are being killed now, insofar as this is relevant. Now, do you -- wait a moment.

Do you accept this or not? ¹³²³

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Some were killed, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are functionaries.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. I'm going to read out a few names: Raci Ismet from Klina, president of the municipal board of Rugova's party in Klina. Then Shaban Manaj from Istok, the president of the municipal board of Rugova's party in Istok. So that means local party heads, the heads of the Rugova party in Klina and in Istok, those two examples. Then we go to Ismet Hajderaj from Pec, member of the Presidency. Mustafa Xhemail is the next one, from Pristina, member of the main leadership of Rugova's party. Then we have Xhemail -- Xhevat Makolli, a close associate of Rugova's, also killed. Muharem Jakupi, also a functionary in Rugova's party, the DSK, who was also killed.

Do you know that this is being done by Hashim Thaci to weaken Rugova and to frighten his supporters?

JUDGE MAY: A list has been put to you, Mr. Barani, and it's suggested that these -- the names on it are the names of people who have been killed, and it's also suggested that they were functionaries of Mr. Rugova's party. Now, there are two questions there. Perhaps you can deal with them. If you don't know, just say so.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Partially. Some of the names I know, I know, and I know about their murders. But as I said earlier, people are being held responsible for certain murders.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, we've taken that point as far as we can. ¹³²⁴ Yes. Have you anything else now for the witness?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, I do. Of course I do.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you know that, during the war, an assassination attempt was made on life of Rugova himself?

A. I don't know, and I think it is not true.

Q. Do you know that he was guarded by our own police force to prevent him from being killed?

A. No. I don't know that either.

Q. And do you know that he came to see me and that I sent him and his entire family to Italy with nine family members of his for me to be certain that Hashim Thaci wouldn't get at him and kill him, Hashim Thaci and his terrorists?

A. Through the media, I have become informed that Ibrahim Rugova is in Belgrade, but I don't know anything what happened afterwards.

Q. All right. I have already asked you about how you personally stuck up the lists of Serbs to be executed on the library building and --

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you've heard what the witness said about that. That is not what he said. We're not going back over it.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] He said he placed the names of the perpetrators --

JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues]... please. Move on.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. I'll move on.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. You have given us a document of some kind, and you say of that ¹³²⁵ document that it is a list of Albanians which should be summarily liquidated.

A. This is the list and this is what it said at the heading, that we have submitted to the Court.

Q. Excellent. Are you conscious of the fact that this document is a forgery?

A. No, I don't know. I clearly indicated where I found and from whom I got it and that two, three persons in the list that I have submitted to this Court are already shot now.

Q. Do you speak Serbian well?

A. No.

Q. Well, then, you probably aren't in a position to know that this document could not have been written by a Serb. I'm going to ask you a few questions now about it.

JUDGE MAY: Let's have the exhibit out. Exhibit number 27.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Gentlemen, I'm drawing your attention in particular to the fact that in the translation, these obvious, blatant facts -- there are blatant facts that indicate that the document was not written by a Serb but you can't see this because it's been translated without going into those facts.

JUDGE MAY: We have the original, too, plus a photocopy of that.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] You have the original in the Cyrillic script.

First, no Serb says "specialno" -- but says "specijalnu."

THE INTERPRETER: With a "j", interpreter's note. ¹³²⁶

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And when he goes to a doctor, a specialist, everybody knows that he's going to a "specijalist" with a "j" and not to a "specialist" just "i-a". And this is a mistake that no Serb would ever make but it is a mistake that many foreigners make, especially Albanians. They make that particular mistake.

Secondly, when you say "specialno jedinici" for -- referring to a unit, no Serb would say that. He would just say "specijalnu jedinicu."

THE INTERPRETER: Interpreter's note: The case is wrong.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] But most Albanians would say for a "specialno jedinici."

THE INTERPRETER: So the case is wrong again, interpreter's note.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Now what it should have said is "specijalna jedinica," with a "j" and not without a "j". All the mistakes that have been made in these few words are so obvious that there is no child going to elementary school which would make the same spelling mistakes in the Serbian language as have been made in this document. Secondly, it says, "List of Siptars Who Should be Summarily Liquidated." First, the word "pod" has been translated as "po," meaning "accordingly." The word "p-o-d," "pod" and "p-o," "po" have two quite different meanings, and once again, no Serb would write this. "Pod," the word "pod" means "underneath" and not "po," which is "accordingly"... "summarily." The "p-o" would be a different word. So there's just one difference between those two words. Like the difference between the sounds in lawyer and liar. The difference is just in one sound or letter, too. ¹³²⁷

JUDGE ROBINSON: What you have said is very interesting. But you have just given quite a lot of evidence. You must bring evidence to substantiate what you just said. You can't give the evidence. I hope you understand me, and I hope that in your defence you will be adducing evidence to substantiate what you have just said.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This is the piece of evidence itself. Everything that I said is written here. This is the proof and the evidence. It says "specialno jedinici."

JUDGE ROBINSON: [Previous translation continues]... you said about the Serbian language and why it is not a genuine document. You need to adduce evidence as to that. You're not a witness. You're conducting your -- you're conducting your defence, and you may put certain questions to this witness, but you cannot give evidence in this way, and I would expect that you would adduce evidence in your defence at a later stage to substantiate all of what you have said, and that would make it much more credible to the Chamber.

Please continue.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Just one more flagrant example, referring to this text that you have submitted as an exhibit. It says "likfidirati". That is something -- it is common knowledge that only somebody speaking German would use the "v" -- the "f" instead of a "v." In this case, it was an Albanian-speaking German. There is not one single Serb who would write "likvidirati" with an "f" instead of a "v."

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, I think it's time for a question. The suggestion appears to be that an Albanian -- I'm sorry. Yes, an ¹³²⁸ Albanian-speaking German wrote this document.

Now, Mr. Barani, can you help as to that or not?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] First of all, I said I don't know the Cyrillic language, and the document was found by Ramadan Kelmendi in the communal house of Mitrovica after the war. It contains 66 names, as you can see for yourselves, three of whom have already been killed. I can't give any other explanation.

JUDGE MAY: Thank you.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Would you please bear in mind the fact that never, ever would a document, since Yugoslavia has been in existence, could a document of this kind be issued by any kind of organ or institution.

JUDGE MAY: No. This is your evidence, Mr. Milosevic. Now, move on to another subject.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And there are not only these points but there are essential contradictions which illustrate the fact that this is a forgery. But never mind. You can judge this anyway you want. All I want to say is that I'm impressed with the triumphant attitude with which this was presented by the Prosecution.

JUDGE MAY: Let's move on.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And it doesn't mean anything or, rather, it does. It means a forgery.

Next question.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Where, when, and to whom did you make statements about this whole ¹³²⁹ case? Because -- these are three questions. Would you answer each individually. Where, is the first one, when, and to whom, the three questions, did you make statements about what you have been testifying?

A. You mean the document?

JUDGE MAY: No. When did you first make a statement about this particular case and to whom and where?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] For the first time when I laid hold of this document that you have in front you, I informed the council in Pristina. Then, at a later phase, when ICTY investigators came to Mitrovica, I attached this particular document to my statement.

JUDGE MAY: When was that, if you can remember?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It was 2001. I can't give you a precise date when the investigators came there. Maybe it was July, August. I can't give you an exact date.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. What year?

A. I said 2001, when the ICTY investigators came to Mitrovica to collect statements.

Q. August 2001, is that it? Was that your first statement, the first statement that you gave to the representatives of this indictment of the Prosecution?

A. I have made many statements on the war, so I can't remember each and every date. But this particular one I remember because I made it to the last investigators -- the investigator who came to Mitrovica in 2001. I can't give you an exact date. ¹³³⁰

Q. Did you give any other foreigner, investigator before that, any statements?

A. Many organisations that were interested in such cases, I have also shown this document to them.

Q. All right. Various organisations. But you gave the investigators a statement on the 20 something -- 20 of August, at least 2001. August 2001; is that right?

A. July, August must have been - I don't remember the date - 2001, the last investigator that came to Mitrovica.

Q. In fact --

MR. NICE: If the accused would take the opportunity to read the statements, I can give you the dates from them. The interview with the ICTY investigator were on the 25th and 26th of August, and the statement was signed on the 1st of September of last year.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. I'm just drawing your attention to the fact that in the indictment raised in May 1999, statements were taken in August of 2001. And generally speaking, I'm drawing attention to the way in which all this was being done. I shall be finishing in a little while. Just like NATO used terrorists in the war, this false indictment is used for KLA witnesses.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Now, Mr. Milosevic, you must stop making speeches and just ask a question or we shall stop here.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have no more questions.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Wladimiroff. ¹³³¹

MR. WLADIMIROFF: Thank you, Your Honour. We only have a few issues to take up with the witness.

Questioned by Mr. Wladimiroff:

Q. Mr. Barani, yesterday you gave evidence about an incident at the Friday marketplace on the 13th of March, 1999, in Mitrovica. Do you remember?

A. Yes, I remember very well.

Q. All right. You told the Court that it was Serb police who caused the explosion of bombs at the marketplace. You were questioned about that by Mr. Milosevic himself. Do you remember?

A. Yes.

Q. One question that was not put to you and I will put to you now: Were you there when these bombs were ignited and exploded, and how do you know it was the police?

A. In the statement, I said that three shells were dropped from the police and the army from the Zvecan e Vogel village, and I was just filming and photographing Kadri Kadriu, a well-known Albanian painter who was shot dead by the Serb police a few days before that.

Q. Meaning you were present?

A. I was not present at the scene, but I heard whistling from the place when I was at the mosque, and later on, I heard the detonations, one after the other. Later, I learned that it had all happened in the market, in the marketplace. I went out. I saw two workers, and we entered and then we got onto a car which was accompanying the funeral, and we went to Suhodoll i Poshtem village where he was buried. I gave the bag where my ¹³³² camera was to a friend, and I went across the garden nursery and I went to my office which was in the neighbourhood Qendra 1.

Q. Thank you. When questioned by the Prosecution about the actions in Bair - or Bair, I don't know how you pronounce it - on the 26 or 27th of March, 1999, it was put to you that you observed what happened with the old paralysed woman and the two old men. Were you there or was this incident reported to you?

A. No, I wasn't there, but it was reported to me later, two days later. It was reported to me that four Albanians, three elderly men and one woman, were killed there.

Q. Let me move on to your evidence on the two murders in the 7th of September neighbourhood of Mitrovica. You told the Court about the murder of three or four members of the Alushi family on the 28th of March, 1999. Do you remember?

A. Yes, I remember very well. There were four members of the Alushi family, the two sons of Alush Alushi, his brother, Fehmi, and his son. They were shot at the yard of their house.

Q. Thank you. You don't need to repeat what I put to you. Let me ask you the question. Am I right in thinking you said murdered by the Serb police, and if so, how do you know? Were you present or was the incident reported to you?

A. I did not say that they were -- they were killed by the Serb police but by plainclothes Serb civilians. And it was reported to me that -- by people who were there and who saw the scene, and I attended the funeral. ¹³³³

Q. Mr. Barani, you have been reminded that you gave an earlier statement to an investigator of the ICTY last year in August, and you said you remember that. Is that correct? Yes or no.

A. There is no interpreting.

Q. Let me repeat the question. You gave -- you were reminded that you gave an interview to an investigator of the ICTY in August last year; is that correct? Yes or no.

A. Yes. To an investigator.

Q. Thank you. Now, I would like to ask you, would you describe fighting, clashes, and killings between the KLA and the Kosovo authorities in 1998 and 1999 as war?

A. The question is not clear to me. Are we talking about any killings?

Q. Fightings, clashes, and killings between the KLA and the authorities of Kosovo. Would you describe that as war?

A. On -- about these cases, about any killings, I have no knowledge about these things.

Q. Let me read you a quote. According to your statement given in August last year, you said, and I quote: "When I'm talking about the start of the war in Kosovo, I would mean it started on the 26th of November, 1997. On that date, the first bullet was fired back from an Albanian against the Serbs."

A. Yes, that's true.

Q. I repeat the question. Would you describe fightings, clashes, and killings between the KLA and the authorities of Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 as ¹³³⁴ war?

A. In my previous statement, I said that the first shot was fired on the 26th in Vojnik, which is part of the Skenderaj municipality.

Q. That does not answer my question.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Evidently he is not understanding. You consider that, Mr. Barani, to have been the start of the war, the firing of that shot?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I consider it as the beginning of the war, because from after that date, immediately on the 28th, during the funeral of a teacher which was killed by the Serb police, members of the KLA appeared openly, and from then, the war did not end up until the peacekeeping forces entered Kosova. But --

JUDGE ROBINSON: [Previous translation continues]... he considers that war. If you have another question, you can put it but it is rather technical.

MR. WLADIMIROFF: I think it is, but it clarifies what I could not find in his statement.

Q. I've got a further question, Mr. Barani. Did you have a weapon in the spring of 1999, and if so, did you carry that weapon with you when you were travelling around in the area?

A. I -- my only weapon was the camera, the pencil, and the video camera.

Q. Thank you very much.

MR. NICE: Can I deal with a few matters quite quickly? Re-examined by Mr. Nice: ¹³³⁵

Q. The Mr. Kelmendi from whom you obtained a document you've been asked about, the document in Cyrillic, is he still alive, to your knowledge?

A. Yes, he's alive. He lives in Mitrovica.

Q. You say that you provided this document, or you've been asked questions about providing this document to another organisation.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I have here what is, as it were, the original that we have. The document is said to be a forgery. If the witness would like to identify whether it's the first or second generation of the document, then maybe it's a document that the Court would like to retain, as the allegation of forgery has been made.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. NICE:

Q. Perhaps you would just like to look at it and tell us about. Could you just look at this document, which I think you may have brought with you when you came here. Is this the very document that was given to you by Mr. Kelmendi or was it something that was copied from the document given to you by Kelmendi, or can you not now be sure?

A. I'm sure that this document that this document that I'm holding was given to me by hand by Ramadan Kelmendi. It's the same document.

Q. If you can hand that to the usher. That can stay with the Court.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, as to --

JUDGE MAY: Have we not seen this document before?

MR. NICE: I'm not sure that you've necessarily handled the original itself because you had a photocopy to go on. But in any event, ¹³³⁶ now that it's asserted it's a forgery, it's good for the original --

JUDGE MAY: Yes. It will be exhibited.

MR. NICE: While I'm dealing with witness statements --

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice, the accused should see that document which you've just produced.

There is a question of time. I would ask the interpreters if we could sit a bit later. Some indulgence. Thank you.

THE INTERPRETER: Yes, Your Honour.

JUDGE MAY: Not many minutes.

MR. NICE: While the witness is looking at that, I observe my learned friend's, the amici's comment about the invalid woman. I checked the record. I certainly didn't put it that he observed something himself. The question was put neutrally about her.

As to statements, can I simply, rather, at this stage for convenience, inform the Chamber that, in addition to the witness's statements to the ICTY investigators, others of his statements to the International Coalition for Justice and to OSCE have already been disclosed to the accused weeks and months ago.

Can I deal with another administrative matter arising from cross-examination without wearying you with any detail? The OSCE report comes in two volumes of this size that I'm holding up. There will be OSCE witnesses called. The status of the report is, of course, entirely uncertain at the moment. I don't know one way or another whether we will seek to put the report in. Probably not in its entirety for that would be a very substantial document to lay before you being the conclusions of ¹³³⁷ another. Whether parts of it will be, as it were, adopted and dealt with in evidence, I don't know. The document is available but its status is probably something that ought to be considered quite carefully, given its overall nature.

As to the cross-examination -- as to the cross-examination on the basis of that report, and I'm not going to take you through the various passages, but it would be my submission that the cross-examination has been extremely selective and it will be necessary to look at passages in full to take value from it.

Q. As to the lists, I wonder if you could help us with this, please, Mr. Barani. We've seen two lists, in each case all names end in "I-C," in "-ic" ending. Is that a name ending of Albanians or not?

A. Which names are we talking about?

Q. The list of soldiers, for example, that all end in "-ic." Is that an Albanian name ending or not, or is it not significant?

A. It's not Albanian.

Q. Thank you.

MR. NICE: That applies to both lists, as the Court will recall. Again, just as a matter of checking the record, the witness was asked, in relation to the declaration about employment, what he had said about the significance of the reference in the declaration to language. In his evidence, he did not ascribe any significance to that at all in his evidence in chief.

Q. This is a general point, Mr. Barani: It's been suggested to you that you are not telling the truth to this Chamber about your level of ¹³³⁸ knowledge of crimes by the KLA. What do you say about that?

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone.

A. Are we talking about crimes committed by the KLA?

MR. NICE:

Q. Yes.

A. Which ones?

Q. Just in general. It's been suggested that you are not being truthful about your level of knowledge, having been asked questions by Mr. Milosevic.

A. Regarding crimes committed by the KLA, I have no knowledge of any being committed by an army which I only know of was out there fighting for the protection of their own people from their total extermination.

Q. I have three more questions, I think. The man Kadriu, the Albanian theatre manager, do you remember that?

A. Yes, I remember very well.

Q. By whom was he killed?

A. This is again a mystery murder, but it is presumed that at the time when he was killed, which was the 13th when he was found dead in Stari Trg, near the mine, and mutilated - his right ear was cut off - it is presumed that he was killed by the Serb police.

Q. That's all I need to know. Thank you.

MR. NICE: Another matter of detail. Your Honour, there was a suggestion that the revelation by this witness of his having been theatre director is a revelation. It is in his witness statement.

Q. Two last questions. You were asked about listing names in the ¹³³⁹ library beside a list of -- names of perpetrators beside a list of those killed. At the time that you listed those names, were Serbian police inquiries into the deaths of Albanians being conducted in a thorough-going way?

A. When I opened that exhibition at the city's library in Mitrovica, I had the pictures of those who were killed and mutilated put up. At the same time, many names of those who have perpetrated crimes.

Q. Yes. The question is: At that time, to your knowledge, were Serb police investigating the deaths of Albanians in a thorough-going, in a thorough way?

A. I have no knowledge that there has been such a thing. I'm talking about investigations.

Q. Thank you. Last question touches on something that you dealt with in earlier evidence, but this: You spoke in cross-examination of handing your reports from time to time to the media. The word used was "the media." To whom did you make your reports with your findings available in the media?

A. When I talk about handing reports to the media, I'm talking about the papers in Kosovo, Radio Deutsche Welle, and the Voice of America.

Q. Contemporaneously; that is, at the time of making those reports?

A. I -- I handed over copies of the reports, but the original was retained with me.

Q. Did you hand those reports over at the time, at the time of events and at the time you made the reports?

A. On many occasions, the report was written just hours after the ¹³⁴⁰ incident, but in other cases, it was written up two days later, immediately after I received statement -- statements from witnesses. And then as soon as the report was written, was handed over simultaneously to the media. And I have all the -- possession of all the copies of these reports with the details of who committed the crimes, the killings.

Q. There was just one supplementary question I should ask relating to an earlier question I did. As to Albanian names, are you familiar yourself with Albanian surnames in the Presevo valley? Just yes or no.

A. No. Questioned by the Court:

JUDGE KWON: Thank you. Mr. Barani, you said today, early in the morning, that during the 15th and 17th of May, 1998, you had some official meetings with KLA commanders. Do you remember?

A. I remember, but that was after the 15th and the 17th, but not in September 1998.

JUDGE KWON: Sixteen Albanians were dead. Sixteen Albanians were dead?

A. Yes, after the killing of the Albanians.

JUDGE KWON: Yes. My question is what do you mean by official? In what capacity did you attend the meeting?

A. I took part in these meetings as the president of the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mitrovica.

JUDGE KWON: Very well. Later on, you also testified that you met them, the members of KLA or commanders of KLA, when you passed by the village of Vaganice. What do you mean by "passed by"? Wasn't it that you ¹³⁴¹ went to Vaganice specifically for the purpose of meeting them?

A. No. I wasn't going there to meet them, but as I was passing by to -- to find out about the situation in other villages, what was happening in other villages. But I have not gone specifically to Vaganice to meet the KLA.

JUDGE KWON: If my memory's correct, I remember that you said that you got the -- some information from members of KLA on what was happening around the region. Am I right?

A. Yes, but we were talking about the region of Shala and not about the village of Vaganice.

JUDGE KWON: Did you also give some information to the KLA members about what you collected and information?

A. They were not interested in what information I had initially, but I continued to collect information which was interesting to me, which I was interested in, in order to compile the reports and then pass them on.

JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Barani, that concludes your evidence. Thank you for coming to the International Tribunal to give it. You're free to go.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you.

[The witness withdrew]

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice, is there something else you want to raise?

MR. NICE: Just something I wanted to mention, possibly immediately after the witness has withdrawn.

JUDGE MAY: The videotape is running out. Can you deal with it in one minute? ¹³⁴²

MR. NICE: Yes. All I was going to say is that it's forecast that the first witness tomorrow will be a witness who will give evidence in fully closed session.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. NICE: It's probable that the evidence of that witness will last the full session, but it may be two. There are some associated matters of a procedural nature that should be dealt with and, by order of the Court, have to be dealt with themselves in closed session, but it's only in relation to those matters that, at our application, the Court will be in closed session. It would, of course, have been difficult -- I think the Court knows the issues. It would have been desirable to have dealt with them today, if possible, but if we've run out of time, it's not possible, it will have to be tomorrow..

JUDGE MAY: We'll have to deal with them tomorrow. Very well. Half past nine tomorrow, please.

Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 4.18 p.m., to be reconvened on Friday, the 1st day of March, 2002, at 9.30 a.m.