¹⁶⁴⁴

Thursday, 7 March 2002

[Open session]

[The witness entered court]

[The accused entered court]

--- Upon commencing at 9.05 a.m.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice.

MR. NICE: We're on page 5 of the witness's summary.

JUDGE MAY: Before you get there, just to deal with the arrangements for today and tomorrow may be convenient. We are in the middle of this witness. We think it right to say that, having considered the evidence and considered too the time constraints, that they should be applied to the Prosecution too and that you should finish with this witness today. So would you tailor your examination-in-chief to do so, and we shall say that cross-examination will follow, if necessary, tomorrow. If we can start earlier, so much the better. And we shall expect it to be, and in fact it must be, finished tomorrow. We'll give four and a half hours, which should be ample.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, thank you.

JUDGE MAY: That leaves out the Rule 92 bis argument.

MR. NICE: Might that conveniently be taken next week in these circumstances?

JUDGE MAY: Yes. When would be a convenient time?

MR. NICE: There's something I'm going to want to say about the order of witnesses right at the end of today, and probably in what's called private session because it may touch on a protected witness, but ¹⁶⁴⁵ subject to that, Monday.

JUDGE MAY: It may be convenient to deal with the timing of that argument when we hear about the witnesses.

WITNESS: SABIT KADRIU [Resumed]

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

Q. You've heard, Mr. Kadriu, about the time constraints, and therefore, even more than yesterday, if you'll listen to my questions and, where possible, deal with them by yes/no answers, I would be grateful. We touched on the September 1998 offensive in the Cicavica Mountain. In that area, was there the presence of Serb forces, to your knowledge, in September 1998? Just yes or no.

A. Yes.

Q. Were villagers suffering, and, in a sentence, if so, how?

A. They suffered because they were surrounded on all sides, and for the first time they were not allowed to leave their villages. But they were being subjected to an unprecedented terror and violence. There were killings, people injured, there were arrests of many people. About 30 people were arrested.

Q. Thank you. And very quickly, did you yourself receive information of a man in Pasome, a man of about 55 years of age?

A. Before the 22nd of September, there were attacks on the village of Sllakofc and Pasome. On that occasion, a 55-year-old was killed and another one was injured.

Q. All right. Thank you. ¹⁶⁴⁶

A. And they were killed from the Serb army.

Q. Did you see - just yes or no - villagers from Novolan who came to see you on the 22nd of September?

A. Yes. We're talking about the village of Novolan.

MR. NICE: Yes. May Exhibit 18 please be prepared for showing to the witness.

Q. At that time, did you become aware of forces in your area generally?

A. Allow me to explain to you. It was the morning of the 22nd of September when we realised that we were surrounded on all sides. We were informed by some villagers of Novolan village who are nearby. They had abandoned their houses when police intervened and came towards our village.

MR. NICE: Novolan, by the way, Your Honours, can be found immediately north-east of Brusnik on map 4/10. I don't desire to see it on the overhead projector for reasons of time.

Q. Did you yourself see those forces? Just yes or no.

MR. NICE: And if so, may the witness have Exhibit 18.

A. Yes. Including the police and military forces later.

MR. NICE:

Q. Will the witness please look at on the ELMO, on the overhead projector, Exhibit 18. Which, if any, uniforms here match what you saw on that occasion, the 22nd of September?

A. It's number 6. Later, I saw people in number 9 uniform, and then there were some police or soldiers who were wearing kerchiefs on their ¹⁶⁴⁷ faces.

Q. Thank you. When did the Serbian forces withdraw from the area of your village Novolan and so on?

A. From our village, they withdrew on the 24th, whereas from the other surrounding villages on the 25th, because there were two circles of encirclement, as it were, in the villages who were along the road which leads to Obilic.

Q. Did you - just yes or no - tour neighbouring villages to discover the extent of damage caused?

A. Yes.

Q. And from memory -- from memory, no doubt having reminded yourself from other records, can you tell us anything about the percentage or number of houses damaged in Oshlan?

A. In Oshlan, there were about more than 70 per cent of the houses were burnt, as far as I remember.

Q. I take it that's north-west of Brusnik. In Balinca?

A. In Balinca, it was approximately a similar situation.

Q. Thank you. That's also to the north-west. In Dubofc?

A. In Dubofc, it was more than 80 per cent of the houses which were burned.

Q. Is Dubofc south-west or is that not the same place?

A. Dubofc is located -- let me say west of Vushtrri and my village. That's west.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I made further inquiries last night. The Pristina information office that publishes the map I'm hoping to provide ¹⁶⁴⁸ you has run out of them. We're making inquiries of the publishers themselves.

Q. Okrashtica?

A. In Okrashtica, there were fewer, comparatively fewer houses which were burnt down.

Q. And that's to the west of Vushtrri. And then in Pantina, which is just above --

A. Pantina was most affected by the burning. More than 90 per cent of the houses were burned.

Q. And Pantina is north of Okrashtica. And then --

A. North-west of Pristina.

Q. And Zhilivode?

A. In Zhilivode, too, 80 per cent of the houses were burned.

Q. I haven't immediately located Zhilivode. Where is that in relation to your village?

A. This village is located south-west of Vushtrri and my village.

Q. Did you make inquiries in relation to the neighbouring municipalities; Mitrovica, Skenderaj, Gllogofc?

A. Yes. These municipalities, too, were surrounded from the 22nd to the 25th of September. They were surrounded like in a quarantine. And it was an iron encirclement in two layers. The second was the army. The second layer was the army with all the armoured vehicles and weapons. If you allow me to explain. On this occasion, there were killings in the mountain region of Cicavica and people were mutilated. It was the 22nd of September, 1998. Between the 22nd and the 24th, the people were ¹⁶⁴⁹ displaced and had settled in Cicavica. That was before the police intervened, before the police raided their houses. And they left their houses to settle in the mountainous area Cicavica where they found many residents of the region.

Q. I'm going to ask you, Mr. Kadriu, if you wouldn't mind, please, to deal with the following in summary simply for want of time. Galice is on the Skenderaj map, and it is itself north-east of Skenderaj, about halfway between there and the edge of the map. Did you find 14 men or 14 males there?

A. In Cicavica, after people had left from the Galice into Cicavica, 13 people had died and a woman was killed not far from the site where the 13 were killed. So it was 14 altogether from the village of Galice who were killed and massacred. It was a big tragedy for the village.

Q. When you saw the bodies, were they naked, piled on top of one another? Just yes or no.

A. I got the information from a young man who said that in the village of Cicavica was terrible because the massacred bodies were placed one on top of the other. And we went there to see for ourselves. It was really terrible. There were young people who were mutilated. They had stuck their eyes out, and they had cut off parts of their bodies, and they were placed one on top of the others.

Q. Thank you.

A. There were six or seven there.

Q. Did you see four men, or the bodies of four men in the mountain area Cicavica itself? ¹⁶⁵⁰

A. It was less than a kilometre away. There were four bodies. We investigated this with other people too. They were there. And from the horror they saw, because the crime was -- was committed with knives. There was -- they had slit their throats. They had been hit on their heads with a hammer and their brains were scattered around. And we have photographed this, and all the material is with the Council for Human Rights and Freedoms in Pristina.

Q. In Oshlan, which is back on the Vucitrn municipality map, just south of Vushtrri, across the -- I beg your pardon. It's west of Vushtrri and towards the left-hand side of the map.

In Oshlan, what did you see?

A. Also in the village of Oshlan -- I went to Oshlan a bit later, though, because it was very difficult to move around because everywhere there were bodies. I went there in the evening. I didn't see the bodies because they were being prepared for burial, and there were women among those who were executed by the Serb forces, and they were buried that very night.

At the same time when the burial of the bodies in Galice took place, I forgot to say that in the Cicavica mountain, those people who were executed in Galice, two or three of them were pupils, were students in our school. And for this we have documents to prove --

Q. Very well.

A. -- this fact.

Q. Sorry to move you so fast and in an apparently unsympathetic way, but it's just a matter of time. ¹⁶⁵¹ So in Oshlan, how many -- you may have told us. How many bodies did you see there or how many bodies were you told about there?

A. About 15 bodies. The bodies of Oshlan, I couldn't see them for myself because they were prepared for burial.

Q. You've told us about that. Just yes or no: Did you speak to an elderly woman and her son? Just yes or no.

A. Yes.

Q. And --

A. Yes, I spoke --

Q. And did they give you an account - yes or no - of the people who had committed the offences there? Just yes or no.

A. Yes.

Q. How did they describe them?

A. As they were going up the mountain, the wife of the late person explained to us that they were surrounded on all sides, and they were approached by people who were wearing kerchiefs on their faces, and a policeman, as they say. She sometimes said "policemen," sometimes said "soldiers," but she's not educated. She begged them not to kill her husband because, before, they had killed the mother of her husband, and she wanted her husband to be safe. And as she was begging them not to kill him, they shot him dead.

Q. Did she say --

A. And she was explaining all that to us.

Q. Did she describe the uniform the policeman or soldier was wearing, and its colour? ¹⁶⁵²

A. She was saying that they were mixed. Some were wearing kerchiefs on their faces, some were wearing blue uniforms, but there were also green uniforms and camouflage uniforms because very often --

Q. Thank you.

A. -- police was wearing anti-bullet -- bulletproof vests in these colours.

Q. All right. We move on briefly. In Zhilivode, did you see one body of a man? If so, his age approximately?

A. He was a very old man, between 70 and 90 years old. It was the body of a 70- to 90-year-old man.

Q. Had his body been mutilated?

A. His body did not have any limbs and it was difficult to bury him. He --

Q. Thank you. That's all I need to know. In Bivolak -- I haven't located Bivolak yet, but don't worry about it. We'll find it if necessary. What did you see in Bivolak?

A. In Bivolak, in addition to a young man who was shot by guns, firearms, there was an adolescent girl. She was in her teens. She was shot. A shell had hit the trailer and she died as they were fleeing the village. Vitore Klinaku is her name, as far as I remember.

Q. Did you see the body of an old man there or not?

A. Yes. In Bivolak and Zhilivode, there were killings. Some of them were discovered later. One of those killed was buried later, because the people tried to preserve the bodies so that they could identify them. Because some of them were so badly mutilated and transformed that they ¹⁶⁵³ could hardly be identified.

Q. I'm going to summarise the balance, coming back to it only if we have time at the end of the morning. Did you discover evidence of killings in Beciq, Balinca, Smrekovnica, and indeed in other places? Just yes to that if it's true.

A. Yes, with the exception of the body in Beciq, who I did not manage to see for myself, but I have it in my documents, and the victim there was a 60-year-old woman.

Q. I'll move on now to Reznik. On the 25th of September of 1998, were you informed about the displaced persons in Reznik?

A. On the 25th of September.

Q. 25th of September, yes.

A. I was informed by two or three people who were coming from there, and they told me that an unprecedented number of people had managed to leave Cicavica, because many killings had happened there and they didn't dare stay there. They came to settle in Reznik. I tried to go there, but it was difficult to move around. It was difficult to reach the area because I had to go through several villages which were inhabited by Serbs, and the Serb police was still there, and I didn't succeed in going there.

I was told that there was more than 50.000 people. They were hungry, they were frightened, wounded. And I phoned on my mobile to the Council of Human Rights that there a considerable number of people was being surrounded, so do what you can, because we are on the verge of a catastrophe. And the male civilians were separated from women and they ¹⁶⁵⁴ were executed later.

Later I informed the American office with the same mobile, because I thought that the Council for Human Rights and Freedoms did not have the authority or the strength or the power to do anything for those people, and later I was told that some bodies which had some influence had intervened to save these people.

MR. NICE: The Chamber will recall that Reznik is due south of Vushtrri, immediately across the railway lines.

Q. Of the bodies that you were told --

A. Reznik, yes.

Q. The bodies you were told had visited the village included, did they, somebody comparatively well-known?

A. Yes. Later, the Council of Human Rights of Freedoms told me not to worry about the fate of those people because in Pristina, Sadak Ogata happened to be there at the time, and she was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And on that occasion she had intervened, and with her arrival, the Serb leadership and the Serb army and police began to withdraw their forces and to put several buses from the Kosova Trans company to distribute the people from the area, to spread them around.

Q. To whom did you understand had orders been given that this should be done?

A. I think this was a secure situation because the then chairman of the municipality, who, as of the 16th of June, 1998, was appointed the chairman of the staff for military police, civilian, and humanitarian affairs, Slobodan Doknic, to do what he could to release these people and ¹⁶⁵⁵ to send them home. Doknic himself had a gun, as far as I remember, there once, and he had ordered the tanks to withdraw from the road which is near the railway, and then military and police forces too withdrew, so the people could go where they could to find accommodation, to various homes in Vushtrri, Pristina, and elsewhere, because they could not return home.

Q. Thank you. We're going to touch on the role of Mr. Doknic.

MR. NICE: And Your Honour, through this witness we can deal directly with the structure of municipality crisis staffs that we would otherwise be dealing with by an expert, which is why I will focus -- we may deal with it by an expert or other witness in due course, but this witness may deal with these matters directly.

May the witness now please have the next exhibit, which we've called SK3, in its original form and with the translation available. Can we place the original on the overhead projector. Can we place the original on the overhead projector, please, briefly, so that we can see it.

Q. That's in Cyrillic. We can see it has a list of names. We'll look at the translation in a second, but before we move from that: Is the signature one that you recognise?

A. Yes. It is signed by Slobodan Doknic. I know this signature, because the person who has signed this was a professor of mine when I was a student.

MR. NICE: Can we then have the English version on the overhead projector.

Q. The document bears a date, the 17th of June, 1998. It lists the ^{1656 BLANK PAGE 1657} members of the Vucitrn Municipality Crisis Staff and 11 names. Are those names all Serbs or are there any Kosovar Albanians listed there?

A. No, there isn't any Albanians listed here. No, not a single one.

MR. NICE: May that be given an exhibit number, please.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 33.

MR. NICE: Thank you very much.

Q. Can we move on to the arrival of the OSCE, KVM. Was that mission deployed between October 1998 and February 1999, and in your area, were things relatively quiet for some or most of that period?

A. No. The situation was not completely calm. It was relatively calm, with conflicts occurring now and then. The chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, I asked this monitoring mission to open an office in Vushtrri too, because until then, the office was only in Mitrovica. Because of the violence, we asked them to be placed under their monitoring and control.

Q. Thank you. In February 1999, was there shelling again in the Cicavica Mountains?

A. Yes, there was. At the end of February 1999, there was shelling of Cicavica, and the local Serbs of the villages thereby, together with police forces, were organised and patrolling the streets which were leading to our villages, to Albanian villages, that is. That was the same also in Novolan, Troje ose village, and so on.

Q. And for villagers who were compelled to move, did they move to Vushtrri, and was this the first, second, or third time that many of them had been compelled to move? ¹⁶⁵⁸

A. I can't know for sure. It probably was the third time for even my own family members to leave their home. In this case too, they were forcibly evicted from their house by the police, who entered to every house and forced the people to leave. The same happened with my family in March. They settled in Vushtrri, all of them, while once the people left, the houses were set fire to. We could see from Vushtrri our homes on fire and in flames. The smoke and the smell came up to Vushtrri town.

Q. Thank you.

A. Not only of our village, but also of the other surrounding villages.

Q. When did Serb forces achieve control of the area, if they ever did?

A. It was by middle of March, I think, when the military forces, with tanks, penetrated in some parts west of Vushtrri. In Vulan [phoen] they settled earlier, Okrashtica, then they arrived in a village near Cicavica hills. So they had penetrated, as I said, in several remote villages inhabited mainly by Albanians.

Q. When did the OSCE leave Vushtrri?

A. The OSCE did a great job to mediate and to prevent conflicts arising between the Serb army and people who were fleeing their homes, as well as the KLA. That was settled in Cicavica. From what I remember, it was 19th of March when the OSCE left Vushtrri.

Q. What happened to their office and their houses?

A. It is interesting to know that, once they left, on the next day, the first house that was set fire to in Vushtrri was the house which used ¹⁶⁵⁹ to be the offices of the OSCE, and then the houses where its official representatives lived also was burned. Then the largest part of the town began to be torched every day.

Q. Between the 24th and -- I beg your pardon. Between the 22nd and the 24th of March, did you receive reports of people being injured or killed?

A. Yes. There were injured people and people who got killed every day. I think it was the 22nd of March. I was in town, together with my family. We were staying with my uncle. I heard that a colleague of ours, a professor - his name is Skender Bllaca - he was executed in the most mysterious way near the road and his body was thrown in a ditch. I may inform you that Skender was being wanted by the police even earlier, who kept demanding money from him. They asked him to give them about 20.000 Deutschmark. I don't know what that was. He had managed so far to escape the police, but on the 21st of March, a jeep of green colour had taken him away and had executed him. The next day I saw his body with Miran Halili [phoen] and took him to his family.

Q. And apart from that one person, just by number, how many other deaths in like or similar circumstances were reported?

A. I can't give you an exact number, but I know that another man was killed in Vulan [phoen].

Q. If you can't give an exact number I'm going to move on. Or even an estimate. Can you give an estimate of how many people were killed in that two-day period or three-day period?

A. From the 22nd of September, I wrote a report for the OSCE, and you ¹⁶⁶⁰ perhaps can find that report in their documents. The number of killed was about 70. Some were injured, some were arrested. As of 22nd of September, they were in Mitrovica prison. Some were sent to Serbia. The number of the arrested persons might be about 30. Most of them were released from gaol. Some of them, maybe five or six, were taken to Serb prisons where they served their sentence until late.

Q. Yes. You've given a figure, but I want you to give it again. Just the figure. How many of those were killed, on your recollection? If you don't have a recollection, don't guess.

A. As of 22nd of September up to now that we are talking, there were about 70 persons.

Q. Not 22nd of September. We're concerned, and it may be my mistake, I'm concerned simply in the period 22nd to the 24th of March.

MR. NICE: The summary is not very clear on this, Your Honours.

Q. What number were reported killed, if you can help, and don't guess if you can't.

A. Okay. You mean the 22nd until the 24th of March. I can't give you an exact number. People were killed, but the relevant document on that incident got burned, so I don't have the number.

Q. Did NATO bombing begin on the 24th of March?

A. Yes. It was the evening of 24th of March when NATO bombing began.

Q. Were the Albanian people happy or sad about that?

A. The Albanian people were very happy.

Q. Thank you. Thank you. ¹⁶⁶¹

A. Because we were under --

Q. [Previous translation continues] ... time. A few days later, did you become aware of where the Serbs were gathering in Vushtrri?

A. I think this was on the second day, that is, on the 25th. In the afternoon hours I was at my uncle's, as I said, staying with my family. This apartment is located near the school, and from the window we saw when the police forces, together with civilians, people, some of whom you might know, arrived there. They were Serb citizens of Vushtrri. Since they didn't have a key to the door, they broke it down with an axe. It was a strong iron door with some glass windows, parts. And I think they form the headquarters of that neighbourhood there.

Q. Over the following days, were houses in Vushtrri subject to looting and burning and damage of any kind?

A. Yes. Houses were burnt constantly. Burning went on up until very late at night. It started in the northern part of Vushtrri. Then it went on in the eastern part. And this operation continued in the centre. It was difficult for people to move from their homes because they had to pass through many police roadblocks who checked all the ways.

Q. Was there a mosque in Vushtrri from the seventh century?

A. There were three mosques, but one of them dated back to the seventeenth -- sorry, to the, yes, seventeenth century. It was situated in the centre of Vushtrri. There was also an oriental complex of homes, because Vushtrri, per se, is a very old city. And it started to burn. It was the 28th of March when the mosque started to burn, along with the complex around it. ¹⁶⁶²

Q. Did you hear Serbs calling anything or saying anything that might have been provocative?

A. The house I was staying -- I had already abandoned the previous apartment at my uncle's because it was surrounded by police forces. I can tell you that on that afternoon, close to where we were staying where a house was burnt which used to be the house of OSCE member staff, we left, went, took to the hills. Together with us there were many other citizens. And we stayed at another relative of ours. On the 28th, looting and raiding and large-scale burning began.

Q. Mr. Kadriu, you realise the time problems we have. You haven't answered my question. I know it's difficult. It would help me ration the time and use it to the maximum -- make best use of it. Just yes or no: Did you hear Serbs calling anything out in the course of these operations that you've described? If so, what sort of things were they calling out?

A. Yes. When -- since we were not very far from the centre -- actually, we were close. They were shouting, "Allah, Allah," all the time that the mosque was burning. We couldn't see them, but the fire, I mean, could be seen. The flames could be seen from our home, and we were scared that it, too, might be burnt.

Q. On the 29th of March, did you learn of bodies lying near the old bridge in the middle of Vushtrri?

A. The brother and an aunt of our relatives who had come from another part of the town told us that in the vicinity of the old bridge, the stone bridge, there were two or three executed bodies that had been lying there ¹⁶⁶³ for two days, even though the police were close by, checking and controlling the road leading out to other villages.

MR. NICE: Dealing with things chronologically, Your Honour, I'm going to ask the witness, with the Court's indulgence, to look at the next exhibit, indicated as SK4 in the summary. It is a handwritten book for which there is no translation, but the only thing I desire to have translated, if the witness can read it out from the original and we can follow, is the heading of what is a list of names. And if that could be made available to him. And to save time, if that could go straight onto the ELMO. These, then, for everybody else. Thank you.

I will obtain a translation, if the document is admitted into evidence, of the title page, of the title, and have it made available as soon as possible.

Q. Mr. Kadriu, can you just move the book so we can see the title? Thank you very much. Can you read what is at the top of that page, please. Just the title.

A. Yes. The first line reads: "The list of tasks" --

Q. Just read it out, if you can.

A. "List of tasks and commitment to ensure the general protection of the population in Vushtrri."

Q. Thank you.

A. I'm not so very well familiar with Serbian myself.

Q. Can we see --

JUDGE MAY: I'm sorry, I didn't follow that. What is the heading ¹⁶⁶⁴ at the top?

MR. NICE: That's what the witness has read out.

JUDGE MAY: Well, there is a heading right at the top. I thought he was reading the second row. I might have been mistaken.

MR. NICE: Yes. Your Honour may be right.

Q. The very top word. What's the top word, please?

A. The heading says "List." The "List." Sorry.

Q. There is -- then we see a list of names with dates starting on the 23rd of -- 25th of March and spanning periods until April of 1999. We have those lists. We have those names before us. Where did this document come from, please?

A. We found this document after the war in an office of the municipality where the popular defence staff was staying during the war, in room number 8 of the municipality building.

Q. And the names here, are they names of Serbs or are there names of Kosovo Albanians?

A. Generally, they are Serbs. And among these names, I know someone who is from Novolan village, a village nearby my town. I know the names of one or two Serbs whom I know really existed.

MR. NICE: May that document have an exhibit number, please.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 34.

MR. NICE: Can we then look at Exhibit SK5, as it's described, for which there is a draft translation. I beg your pardon; the final translation is available.

Your Honour, this document and a great number of other documents ¹⁶⁶⁵ have associated with them declarations of authenticity as to where they have been found, made by an investigator and indeed the senior investigator at the time in charge of matters in Kosovo. I don't wish to burden the Registry with paper that it may not require. If there's any challenge to the authenticity or provenance of these documents, then I can make these documents available as they're produced. Alternatively, I can keep them back until it becomes an issue, which is what I would prefer to do.

Q. Is this document at which you're looking --

MR. NICE: And if the original can go on the overhead projector so that we can just see it once. And then if the original can go to the witness with the English draft -- with the English final translation onto the ELMO, onto the overhead projector.

Q. Is this a document --

A. Yes, it is a document.

Q. -- titled "The Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Interior, Secretariat of the Interior for Kosovska Mitrovica," and then coming down, being the police station at Vucitrn on the 11th of January, 1999, listing something called "RPO," or, "OUP, members who were issued with automatic and semi-automatic rifles"? And then there are a number of names with rifle numbers and the bullets they were provided.

MR. NICE: Can that have an Exhibit number, please.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit number 35.

MR. NICE: And then next in the small collection of exhibits produced at this stage, may the witness have the document identified in ¹⁶⁶⁶ the summary as SK6, a report of the 29th of March. Original, please, straight onto the overhead projector. Straight onto the overhead projector original. And translations. Thank you very much. Yes.

Q. I'm going to ask you one more question about the last exhibit, but I'll come to that in a second.

MR. NICE: The original then is on the overhead projector. May that now be substituted by the English translation and may the witness have the original in front of him. Thank you.

Q. Is this a document signed by the same Slobodan Doknic?

A. Yes. I know his signature very well.

Q. Being a decision apparently of the Vucitrn municipality Crisis Staff, recording at a meeting held on the 29th of March, pursuant to an Article 2 of the decision on education and so on, that an order issuing authority is appointed for execution of Crisis Staff under war circumstances of the Vucitrn municipality, and it says the transfer account number. And it says "Slobodan Doknic, the President of the Crisis Staff under war circumstances."

Yes?

A. Yes, this is a document.

Q. Does it fit with your understanding of the position he was then holding as President of the Crisis Staff?

A. I would like to make an explanation, if possible. As of 1998, according to the previous documents, from the 16th of June, all the regular body which was the Municipal Assembly in Vushtrri, after the establishment of the Crisis Staff, this Assembly was overruled by this ¹⁶⁶⁷ body. The Crisis Staff assumed all the powers then. It was called the Political, the Military, and Civilian Staff. Sometimes it was called the Staff for Military Affairs, sometimes the Crisis Staff. That is, in all the documents you will see it named by civilian names. The fact is that there were -- there was no more Assembly of the municipality after that.

Q. Thank you. On the 1st or 2nd of April or thereabouts, what happened to the occupants, inhabitants of Vushtrri?

A. On the 1st of April, the population started to leave the town, mainly going east of Vushtrri.

On the 2nd of April, from the centre of the city, police started to go house -- to every house and tell the inhabitants to leave. Therefore, like all the other inhabitants, we too decided to leave. We went to the road where we were told to go. Everybody knew that we were supposed to get together at the cemetery. And then we didn't know what would happen afterwards.

Once we arrived at the cemetery, there was a large group of people there. It seemed to us that the whole city had turned out there. Three buses came belonging to Hajra Tours, which the -- the drivers of which said that we were supposed to go to Macedonia.

MR. NICE: May the witness see Exhibit 18, please, the uniforms montage again. Did I get an exhibit number for SK6? Sorry. May I have an exhibit number?

THE REGISTRAR: The exhibit will be numbered Prosecution Exhibit 36.

JUDGE MAY: At some stage, Mr. Nice, we'll have to know what this ¹⁶⁶⁸ means.

MR. NICE: Certainly. In a way, I think the witness has dealt with it by his summary of his understanding of the position of Doknic at that time, and there will be some other documents dealing with and some other evidence dealing with what the Crisis Staff was engaged in doing at that time.

JUDGE MAY: The English translation doesn't make much sense.

MR. NICE: It is the final translation, though. It's what we've got. And, of course, he's not himself a person who has this as his first language. So, yes, I entirely agree. We will need some further assistance with it.

May the witness look at Exhibit 18.

Q. In the movement of people to the cemetery, what, if any, uniforms did you see, please?

A. They were dressed in uniforms I see in photo number 6, but they didn't have helmets there. I recognised him accompanied by two people. I saw Dragan Petrovic, who was deputy commander of the police chief of Vushtrri. Dragan Petrovic led this expedition. I saw him with my own eyes. I didn't see carefully his escorts, because I was afraid they might detect me; therefore, I left in haste and mixed up with a crowd of people who were leaving.

Q. And Dragan Petrovic was dressed how? You're saying he was dressed as in uniform number 6, without the helmet?

A. He was dressed in camouflage uniform, but he did not have the bulletproof vest underneath. ^{1669 BLANK PAGE 1670}

Q. Did you see any other uniforms from that montage that you recognised?

A. I could not see the uniforms because I had to leave, out of fear that he knew about my activity in the context of human rights and freedoms protection. So I left and mixed up with people and didn't wait for him to come closer, fearing that he might arrest me or do something else to me.

Q. What attitude did you take to this forced movement of people from the area? What, if anything, did you try and persuade the people to do?

A. People were really scared. They moved by their own cars. Someone walked. They all went to the cemetery, as I said, where the buses came. I felt deep pain. I thought that this was the last time we were seeing Kosova and would not return there any more. So I talked to someone: Why should we leave Kosova? Let's go to some other place. And if they are going to execute, let them execute all of us. Some people tried to respond and think about what I said, and then later I realised that I was not right. They were right, because if we went to the cemetery, many people would have been executed. So we got on buses. Some went by their cars, some by tractors, some on foot. Despite the rain, they walked towards Macedonia.

Q. And where did you land up? In which village?

A. The convoy continued along the main road and I took shelter in one house on the outskirts of the city, and I walked to the other side of the region, which is called Shale e Bajgores, because I didn't want to go to Macedonia and leave Kosova altogether. I felt pain to do that. So my family came back to Vushtrri and stayed there. ¹⁶⁷¹

Q. Yes. And in Vushtrri itself or in a village outside Vushtrri?

A. I settled in a village outside Vushtrri. At the beginning I went to Studime e Eperme, and the second night I spent between the village of Sllakofc -- at a friend of mine who is the local president of the Council for Human Rights and Freedoms, and there I stayed for a month.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, this is all going from Vushtrri, on map 4/10, north-east. One can see the road leading up there, and that becomes of some significance in a minute.

Q. How many refugees, approximately, were there in that area, that road leading up through Studime towards Cecile and Sllakofc?

A. It is of interest to stress that the convoy which was going towards Macedonia, they managed to leave the convoy and settle in the villages along the main road between Mitrovica and Pristina, and they settled in the mountainous areas there. There were three areas where the people had amassed. There were people from Podujeva, Vushtrri, and Mitrovica. They had settled in this mountainous area because it was more relaxed and safer there. It was controlled by the Kosovo Liberation Army. And we thought that we could be safer, a great safety there. But there was no food. Food was not sufficient.

Q. How many refugees, roughly, in the area where you were?

A. There were residents from more than three communes. More than 30.000. And that was the region stretching from the vicinity of Pristina. And all the houses there were full of people, but there were people who were staying the nights in trailers, in a very difficult situation, without water, without food. And I was thinking about this, ¹⁶⁷² because if I had a mobile, I was going to phone human rights organisations to tell them what hell it was in that area, and we -- the people lacked the minimum of conditions there.

MR. NICE: May we have map 4/10 available for the witness in a minute.

Q. Did you, at the end of April, become aware of shelling in the area of Popovo?

A. I remember that case, yes. We were taking a walk with a friend of mine, and as we were --

Q. I'm sorry. Mr. Kadriu, I know it's difficult for you because these are important matters of your own history. We've gone through an hour and ten minutes and we've got through four pages, and we're only just going to be able to finish the evidence by the end of the morning at this speed. We're going to have to go faster and you're going to have to reduce the detailed account.

If you'd like to have a look at the map, please. It's coming your way. Map 10 of Exhibit 4. And if we focus immediately on the area north-east of Vushtrri, if you'd like to point out the Studime area where you were and others of the 30.000 were.

A. [Indicates]

Q. That's there. Now, if you look at that road, there's a road which has a sort of bend in it between Vushtrri and then going up to Studime. Were there people living in that area there - just yes or no - refugees?

A. In the Studime e Poshtme village, there were no people. They were evacuated and had settled in the mountainous area. It's very close to the ¹⁶⁷³ city. They had left much earlier. But in the Studime e Eperme village, there were people.

Q. Thank you. Now, if we look still at the map, you've spoken of the shelling in Popovo or whatever it was. We'll hear about that in a minute. That is to be seen a little to the north and to the east, towards the edge of the map. Just point that out.

A. [Indicates]

Q. There. Thank you very much. Was it shelling or bombing or what that you heard of, and if so, by whose forces?

A. We heard bombing. We didn't know what was going on. That night, we were informed that there were killed people, people who were killed. And we went to Popova, together with my friend, and there we saw two Mig aircraft which had flown over the valleys and dropped bombs, thinking that there was the headquarters of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Several people were killed on that occasion, and among those killed there were girls, as well as males, and we attended the funeral.

Q. Can we come, in order that we can deal with things chronologically, to a couple of other documents. Can you look, please, at SK7, to see what was happening elsewhere.

MR. NICE: Original immediately to the ELMO and distribution of copies. Thank you.

Q. This document, then, again over Doknic's signature, 17th of April, Crisis Staff decision, just as an example, that Milislav Kostic, the owner of an enterprise, would be mobilised and the lorry would be placed at the disposal of the Crisis Staff. Now, is Kostic, incidentally, a Serb name? ¹⁶⁷⁴

A. Yes.

Q. And indeed, do you remember we looked earlier at a document showing the distribution of rifles and ammunition? Were the names on that list - we don't have to look at it again - Serb, or Serb and Kosovar Albanian, or a mixture, or what, if you can remember?

A. It was Serb names.

Q. Thank you.

A. And that was part of the list. And he is from the village of Prelluzhe, of the Vushtrri municipality.

MR. NICE: The next document we'll look at shortly, SK8.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 37.

MR. NICE: Thank you very much. I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that. And this one, original straight to the overhead projector, if you can.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, just a clarification in the document just admitted. The lorry that would be placed at the disposal of the Crisis Staff is a lorry belonging to the enterprise Cobanka?

MR. NICE: As I understand it, yes.

JUDGE ROBINSON: That's my understanding.

MR. NICE:

Q. The document at which we are now looking is the 21st of April, 1999, and this doesn't come from Doknic. It's from someone else. But it says as a consequence of war actions in the territory of your municipality, there are abandoned cattle and nobody to look after them. So to prevent the cattle from straying, perishing, and since there are ¹⁶⁷⁵ citizens interested in grazing and breeding cows in the area of Leposavic municipality, we would appreciate if you would approve of providing 200 head of dairy cows from your area, would be allotted to citizens for grazing and breeding. And then it's signed by President Dragan Jablanovic for the Leposavic Crisis Serb area, and that's going to the crisis headquarters in Vushtrri. Is this from one crisis headquarters to another, or something like that?

A. This was issued by the same Crisis Staff, but I must explain that Leposaviq is a town which is north of Kosova and largely inhabited by Serbs. And the Albanian property, which were the properties which were looted from the Albanians, were sent -- stuff looted was sent to Leposaviq for the needs of the citizens there or for the needs of the army there. There was large-scale crime in this respect. This is just a document, but at that time there were many cases when the property of the Albanians was used for the needs of the Serbian army and police.

Q. Move on in the narrative. In May of -- sorry.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 38.

MR. NICE: 38. Thank you very much.

Q. By the end of May of 1999, had the position changed in that the KLA were giving different advice as to what people should be doing?

A. It was on the night of the 1st of May when we were informed that the Serbian forces were advancing on all fronts, and some members of the army, of the KLA, said that because of the lack of ammunition and weapons, they were no longer in a position to cope with the offensive. So they advised: Do what you can to go to safer places, because if you stayed ¹⁶⁷⁶ there in that area, that would be dangerous.

So many people decided to go towards Vushtrri and then to Macedonia. So the offensive progressed and approached the area surrounding the villages of Sllakofc, and the artillery moving. On the 2nd of May, a big convoy of people began to be created, moving towards Vushtrri. Even before, people were trying and then managed to get into Vushtrri, and they had paid their way out of the dangerous area, and that was on the way which passes via Studime.

A woman from the village of Kolle had been to get some food in Vushtrri, and as she was coming back, where the river passes, the Serbian forces which were deployed in the hills nearby, they shot and killed her. Three other people were also killed in similar circumstances. But the situation was very difficult from the point of view of lack of food and water, and it was made worse from the intervention of the police and army, of the Serb police and army, and now the column was on its way towards Vushtrri.

Q. Yes. Now, this convoy is the subject of an amateur video; is that correct?

JUDGE MAY: Let me know if the witness was on it. It's not clear.

MR. NICE:

Q. Were you on this convoy yourself?

A. As the rest of the population -- and myself and my friend were the last to join this column. There was an unprecedented number of people, and the column was kind of stood put, was staying in place, because the road was overcrowded. ¹⁶⁷⁷

JUDGE MAY: All we want to know is whether you were on it. That's the only point for the moment.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, I was.

MR. NICE:

Q. And it's the subject of a video; correct? Just yes or no.

A. Yes. We have a videotape which is about the massacre that took place on the night of the 2nd of May, when within one hour, starting from 9.00 in the evening, a massacre was carried out.

Q. Has there also been a report prepared with photographs and an extensive map of this convoy?

A. We have prepared a technical report describing the route of the convoy before the shelling started.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, we have managed, although this document only arrived recently, we have managed to have it copied and to have it associated with a legend that provides a translation. If I can produce that now before any break, then I'd perhaps ask the Chamber, if it has time in the break, simply to look at it.

MR. KAY: Perhaps we could find out who the "we" was who prepared it that the witness referred to.

MR. NICE: While these are offered for distribution --

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It was prepared by a group of experts, lawyers. From the technical point of view, there was another person who, before he was sacked from his job, he worked for the Kosovo police. He did not have good equipment, but he was the one who managed to produce this technically. ¹⁶⁷⁸

MR. NICE:

Q. You have a look on this document. It has in the front part of it on yellow paper - white paper in the photocopy - a long map showing the route of the convoy. Yes?

A. Yes.

Q. And there's a little part that's --

A. Yes.

Q. -- that lifts up from that in the middle of it, showing where bodies were buried and later exhumed, I think, by the ICTY; is that correct?

A. Yes, that's correct. To this day, in this site, there are the graveyards where the exhumation was carried out by the ICTY investigators.

MR. KAY: Perhaps it should be made clear whether any of this work is this witness's work or the work of someone else. It's certainly not clear to me at the moment. I think the Trial Chamber should be satisfied as to the nature of the document that's now being presented for it and whether this witness can properly speak to it. There's been no notice that he's an expert witness or anything like that.

JUDGE MAY: No. And it's untranslated.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, there is a legend, and if it hasn't been distributed, that's an oversight. Here comes the legend. But I'll get the witness to deal with his contribution to the document in any event.

Q. The things set out on this report, are these some or all of the things you saw yourself? ¹⁶⁷⁹

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honours, may I say something?

JUDGE MAY: Please just answer the question.

MR. NICE:

Q. Are the things that are set out here or some or all of them things that you saw yourself?

A. Yes.

Q. When the report was compiled, were you involved in its compilation or not?

A. I was one of the supervisors. I was organising the work that was being done. It was the expert personnel who was carrying out the actual reporting, who was compiling the report, and the person who worked before 1990 for the Kosova police force.

Q. Was it prepared for your organisation?

A. We did not know that this court was going to be organised. We were thinking about processes which would start in Kosova.

MR. NICE: And, Your Honours, what I would like to do, apart from have the document exhibited and available for inspection over the next break, is just to ensure that the Chamber understands where the route shown on the pull-out plan is reflected on the map itself. I think that would be helpful.

So if the witness could now have Exhibit 4/10, the map again, on the overhead projector.

Q. Can you look at the overhead projector, please, Mr. Kadriu, and tell us where the road shown on the pull-out plan is shown on the map on the overhead projector. ¹⁶⁸⁰

A. This is Studime e Eperme village. We passed via Studime, and we continued the route towards Vushtrri.

Q. So it is as I -- it's the road with the bend in it that I drew to your attention earlier, starting at Studime and ending up in Vushtrri?

A. On the map, we have the road from the Studime e Eperme and the other villages have not been included, and the population was coming from all the surrounding villages. But on the map here, we have the road from Studime to Vushtrri.

JUDGE MAY: What is on the front? Do we have that translated?

MR. NICE: If we haven't got that translated, that's an oversight. Perhaps the witness can read it out. It is in his language.

Q. Can you read the cover of the -- no, absolutely the cover. No. This bit here, Mr. Kadriu. Can you read that out in your own language? I will have it translated.

A. It writes: "The sketch with pictures on the case of Studime e Eperme and Studime e Ulet on the date of the -- dated May, 1999," it's the, "2nd of May, 1999, where people who have been Albanians who were leaving the area were executed."

Q. And the title in printed script, or in print, rather, what does that read? Can you just read that out, please.

A. Yes. It writes in both languages because at that time we did not have relevant documentation. It writes in Albanian: "The bundle of documents," and then it's in Serbo-Croat, which is the same material. These files were used for the needs of the commission.

JUDGE ROBINSON: What I would say, Mr. Nice, is that the map is a ¹⁶⁸¹ very graphic illustration of the length of the convoy, because I am unable to pull it out to its full length with one arm.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I can understand that. I'm very grateful to those who managed to put this together at such short notice, but it seemed appropriate to have it in the identical form for the Court as it existed in the original.

I don't know if that can be given an exhibit number, and if by its production before the break I will be able to make great savings of time about the convoy after the break.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 39.

MR. NICE: Thank you very much.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. We'll adjourn now for 20 minutes.

--- Recess taken at 10.30 a.m.

--- On resuming at 10.55 a.m.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice, I know you've been making as good speed as possible. We understand that there is a problem as far as the accused is concerned in sitting late because of the visit by his wife only being available today. So the greater speed we could make, the better.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, I shall do my very best. Exhibit -- before we move on, Exhibit 36, the document the Chamber could not understand. If I said it was a final translation, I was wrong. It's a draft translation. And I'm grateful to the interpreters in the booth who unraveled the dilemma a little bit. The word "education" is a mistranslation. A similar word, but in fact it's "establishment." So ^{1682 BLANK PAGE 1683} that in the first line, the document should read: "At its meeting on the 29th of March, 1999, pursuant to Article 2 on establishment of the Municipal Council." That, I think, renders the document more intelligible.

Your Honour, if we can return to the evidence of the witness. The video of which he speaks is one that I think the Chamber has already seen. The six-minute extract that has been carefully and helpfully compiled is one I will not play unless I find I have time before the end of the morning.

The Chamber having now had the advantage of seeing the general form of preparation of the exhibit that's just been produced, I propose to go through the witness's account of incidents in the convoy in as short a period of time as I properly can, just getting him to deal with particular events.

Q. Mr. Kadriu, forgive my compelling you to be brief but it's essential we do so.

You've already explained to the Judges that you were certainly initially at the end of the convoy, and you've told us about there being up to 30.000 people in it. Did there come a time - and please use yes or no answers wherever you can - did there come a time --

A. Yes.

Q. Did there come a time when the convoy appeared to stop, to come to a halt? I think that "yes," will do to that?

A. The column, convoy, was stopped at about 50 -- 17 hours. That is at 5.00 in the afternoon. ¹⁶⁸⁴

Q. Was a 17-year-old girl found to have died as a result of something?

A. In Upper Studime, when we heard fire coming from all sides, this young girl was injured and died afterwards. She was injured in Upper Studime --

Q. Thank you.

A. -- when we started.

Q. Did you learn of who was at the head of the column and what they were apparently doing?

A. We saw that the convoy was very slow in moving because of the very large number of people. Then we found out that the column was headed by three representatives who were waving a white cloth, and we were moving in the direction of Vushtrri so that the Serb forces who were stationed along and -- along the road and especially in a hill didn't fire at us. But they kept firing now and again.

Q. Thank you. Did you go to the front of the convoy? If so, who did you find to be leading it?

A. At the head of the column was a 65-year-old man by the name of Brahim Muliqi; then Bajram -- Muharrem Shabani, former deputy of Kosovo parliament; and then Professor Bajram Mulaku. And we consulted them as to why the convoy was stopped, and they said that it was getting late.

Q. Was there a white flag?

A. Yes, there was a white flag which they had put on a concrete hole -- pole so that the Serb forces could see it.

Q. Thank you. Did you, at 9.00 p.m., hear sounds of forces, Serbian ¹⁶⁸⁵ forces?

A. Yes. When we were settled there on the fields, some sitting on their tractors, at the end -- by the end of the convoy we heard some shouts. We thought they were police and soldiers' shouts. Then people's shouts, then the roar of the engines. Then we heard fire shots, gunshots, and people were getting killed.

Q. Did the Serb forces give any instructions to the convoy that you heard?

A. When we were hearing people being killed at the end of the convoy, we didn't know why, but later found out why. We saw that -- I mean, some Serb forces had entered the convoy. It was night. We couldn't be sure who was in the convoy: who was police, who was soldier, and so on. I heard them saying -- there were three people. I saw one of them as a silhouette. He was accompanied by two others. They said, "The convoy should come after us," and they were insulting us. And this is what we did. At the beginning, I didn't leave right away, but then we did follow them.

Q. In the course of this period of time, did you hear anything being said over Serb radios?

A. We had not made a long way before I heard some policeman or soldier. I'm not sure, because it was dark, very dark. He smelled of alcohol. I heard that he was talking on the radio. Before that, he killed someone ahead of us. It was about 20 metres before us. He placed a battery in front of people's faces -- he placed a torch in front of people's faces, and then we saw him kill one of the people in the convoy. ¹⁶⁸⁶ He threw his body on the river bank. We were very scared and feared that he would recognise us and kill us too.

Then after about 50 metres, we could hear very well the sound of the radio. He was asking someone, "How many until now?" That was what he said. This was heard not only by me but by others. And we heard him saying, "Sixty." I thought he was talking about people being killed --

Q. Thank you. Did there come a time when the convoy was split in two, at a time when you were aware there were no Serbian escorts near you?

A. They escorted us for a time and then this guy stopped behind. The others were at the beginning of the convoy. For a moment we heard some shots. I think it came from some mortars [as interpreted]. I have done the military service. I think they were grenades. The first grenade fell in the river. I heard children cry. The cries were so horrible that I could never forget them, even when I was in gaol. Then we heard two other grenades fall, but I wasn't sure where they did fall or where they did come from, and then I saw the convoy stop.

Q. Did the convoy start again in due course, and were you taken to the agricultural cooperative in Vushtrri itself?

A. While we were walking, people were being shot. We heard the gunshots. We continued helping each other. We helped a mother who was carrying a child on her back. That mother knew nothing of her own family. We helped her until we went near the city. There we saw other forces coming towards us in cars, and we were afraid that they would recognise us and so left the lady alone. Together with Fadil, we followed with the others in the convoy. ¹⁶⁸⁷ Once we arrived at the entrance to the city, we saw that all the doors of the houses that were empty now were ajar. Some were very scared and thought -- without knowing where we were going. And we wanted to leave the convoy, but the fact was that in those houses that we believed were empty were Serb troops who were ready. Once someone tried to leave the convoy, they fired at them. This was the case with two people who attempted to flee the convoy, which happened in the vicinity of Vushtrri before going to the main road.

Q. Now, we've come, as it were, to the end of the convoy, because you're in Vushtrri, in the cooperative. The Judges have the report that was prepared. Can you just help me with one detail so that we can understand it. In the map that is produced as part of the report, there's the pop-up or fold-out part that deals with the graveyard and has a legend attached to it starting at numbers 9, I think, roughly, dealing with the graveyard.

In as short a period of time as you can, just a couple of sentences, can you explain the history of events that led to this graveyard? Where were the bodies killed that were buried there? When were they buried there?

A. The murders started at about 9.00 in the evening and continued even after midnight, while the convoy kept moving and people kept being shot. People were shot mainly in the road between Studime e Eperme and Poshtme, where we had decided to spend the night so that we could find out what happened next morning. While the executions were taking place, Studime e Eperme and other villages were being torched. We could see this ¹⁶⁸⁸ very well because of the flame that shone in the sky that night.

Q. How did the people who were killed come to be buried at that particular site that we know was subsequently exhumed?

A. There were 109 people who got killed that night in a short period of time. One hundred and four or one hundred and three were buried in Studime e Eperme on the next day, after their bodies were collected by some people who were sheltered in the mountains, ordinary people, but also by the KLA, who returned one day later. Some of the soldiers of the KLA returned on the next day and helped the farmers bury the dead bodies executed on the night of the 2nd of May.

Q. If I can now pick up the story in the agriculture cooperative. When you were taken there, was anything said - just yes or no - about what was going to happen to you?

A. Yes.

Q. And what were you told was going to happen to you?

A. While we were entering the cooperative -- because the cooperative and the factory that there is there are divided by a road. While we were entering it, we saw a motorised convoy of Serbs. I think it was led by two tanks. Then the others were armoured cars and APCs. There were about 17 of them. When they were driving past us, they told us that, "We have orders to kill all of you, whereas your wives, your sisters, we have raped all of them up there," up there when the crime scene was.

MR. NICE: Thank you. May the witness be shown in due course Exhibit 17, please.

Q. Who appeared to you to be in charge or one of the officers in ¹⁶⁸⁹ charge of people at the time?

A. Everybody who was there - not only myself, those eyewitnesses who saw their relatives being killed - said that first the army passed, then they were followed by other groups of policemen whom they knew. They knew the police chief, Vucina Janicevic [phoen], Ljubisa Simic, Petrovic. When we arrived at the courtyard, I heard myself one policeman shouting in Serbian, saying, "Where is Petrovic?" The other answered, "He's coming." And then they herded us in the cooperative storehouses which are about 30 or 50 metres long. I am not sure about the size of these storehouses.

Q. Before we move along to what happened inside, Exhibit 17, please. Can you look at this on the overhead projector and tell us which, if any, vehicles you are now able to recognise as vehicles that you saw on that occasion.

A. It was number 4. The tank might be like this one here, the two tanks that I saw. One was at the beginning. The two others were at the end of the convoy of armoured cars. There was a truck like this and like this one here, 8. But on both sides they had two rubber tyres. This type here, this APC --

MR. NICE: Number 9.

A. -- was also used. Number 14 that I see here, from 1997, end of 1997 and 1998, they saw such kind of cars patrolling the streets, but not white like this, but of dark green, I think. SMB, dark SMB. They had dark glasses [as interpreted]. You could not see inside.

Q. Thank you. And in what uniforms, if you were able to recognise the uniforms, were the men dressed who were controlling the convoy and its ¹⁶⁹⁰ move to the agricultural cooperative?

A. That night it was dark. Until after 10.00 it was really very dark. Then the moon started to shine. On the next day, in the courtyard of the cooperative, I saw camouflage blue uniforms that were usually worn by the police, as well as some other uniforms that the police used to wear in the past, only blue. On their shoulders, I remember very well they had some insignia which -- I think it was red and green and maybe white. Blue and white, I think.

Q. Very well. We must move on. On the 3rd of May -- I beg your pardon. You were detained overnight. Roughly how many civilians had arrived with your group?

A. My group -- I told you the convoy was separated in two parts. My group didn't have more than 1.000 persons. They pushed us. "Go to this warehouse."

Q. Thank you. Mr. Kadriu --

A. But people arrived all night.

Q. It's a pity to abbreviate your account, but we have to. The people arriving, were some of them injured? Just yes or no.

A. There were some injured and some killed who people had brought, their bodies, had brought in their trailers. People who had been executed in those very trailers, and they had kept them there.

Q. Did the Serb police who were controlling you offer any type of aid to those who were injured?

A. No. I remember very well this detail. Next morning, it was about 9.00, a mother whose child wanted water -- we were all thirsty. We were ¹⁶⁹¹ standing. People were crammed there, and the courtyard was full of people. I remember that lady trying to go to a fountain to get some water. The Serb forces who were deployed along the road and who looked at us --

Q. Mr. Kadriu, thank you very much. We get the point. No water was provided.

A. No. We were not -- allow me please to finish this detail, if I may.

JUDGE MAY: Let counsel decide what's important, please, Mr. Kadriu. He knows what's relevant.

MR. NICE:

Q. Mr. Kadriu, the only reason we're abbreviating it is because there is a finite amount of time that we have.

The 3rd of May, was there a separation of men from women?

A. Yes. On the 3rd of May at about 10.00, they came and ordered us to separate men from women.

Q. Did the women and children indeed go to an adjacent field and did they appear to be being registered?

A. Yes. They ordered us that people -- men from the age of 15 or 17 - I am not very sure - up to 17 -- 75 should stay on the -- on one side of the yard. The women and the children shall stay in the yard where we all were before.

Q. Who was in charge of this operation?

A. The person in charge of this operation was Dragan Petrovic. Vujanovic was not there that day. Draganovic led the expedition. And ¹⁶⁹² Dragan Mihajlovic from Maxhunaj village - he worked in the secret police service in Vushtrri - was there too.

Q. In the course of operations at this time, did something happen to a man called Ali Mernica?

A. While we were waiting for the trucks to transport us to the prison of Smrekovnica, there is a narrow street that separates the yard. Then we saw two policemen calling -- talking with family members of Ali Mernica. Then we saw him being taken away. Then they crossed the road and went to the extra factory yard. Then we saw --

Q. I'll stop you there. What was Ali Mernica well known for having done earlier in relation to education?

A. I remember that at the time when we were dismissed from schools during 1991, he gave his three houses for -- put them at the disposal of Albanian teachers to use them for education purposes.

Q. He was taken aside by the police. What happened to him?

A. One of the police stopped. The other accompanied him behind the factory where we couldn't see what was happening, but we heard the gunshots. Then we heard the policeman returning alone. The other part of the population were being registered on the other part of the road where the civilian population --

Q. And indeed --

A. -- was.

Q. And indeed Ali Mernica had been shot dead?

A. We heard that Ali Mernica was executed that day. And his body was exhumed by the ICTY. His corpse was found, because we didn't know where ¹⁶⁹³ he was buried.

Q. Was the -- were the documentation of men checked?

A. Yes. They checked all our documentation.

Q. Were you allowed to keep your documentation at this stage or not?

A. At that moment until we were in the yard of the cooperative, they checked our documents and separated us. They took some of us who were drivers and they told them to stay aside, whereas we who were supposed to go to prison were told to stay aside. The operation went on simultaneously. The population was transported --

JUDGE MAY: All you were asked was whether you were allowed to keep your documentation. Mr. Kadriu, could you just listen to the question and just give a fairly short answer. If there are relevant matters, counsel will mention them.

Were you allowed to keep your documentation?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. At that place, yes. They returned our documents back then.

MR. NICE:

Q. And at the same time, were Serb police telling you something about where you were to go or where people were to go?

A. They didn't tell us anything. Many people went to police and offered them money, up to 2.000 Deutschmark, just to let them escape. I remember that other people on the other side of the street were shot.

Q. Pause. Was anything said to people about where they were to go? Was anything said about Albania at this stage? Just yes or no, and if yes, what? ¹⁶⁹⁴

A. We didn't know where they were taking these people, but we saw them being escorted by police on both sides. We were sitting there with our hands tied behind our heads.

MR. NICE: Can we just look at another document to see what's been recorded in the Crisis Staff at this time, SK9. The original straight to the overhead projector.

This is a document dated the 3rd of May, recording a decision of the municipal Crisis Staff. We can now put the English version on the ELMO and hand the original to the witness. Thank you very much. The decision is by the same Slobodan Doknic, recording that the municipal Crisis Staff should establish a census-taking commission, the named individuals to take a census as soon as possible, and associated orders.

Q. Were you aware of any census-taking at that stage by the Crisis Staff?

A. We were seeing the census being taken, that is, the registration of people, of civilians, and we knew those people who were registering --

Q. Thank you very much.

A. -- the people.

Q. You were then, I think, taken to Smrekovnica prison.

A. Yes, that's true.

JUDGE MAY: Exhibit number.

MR. NICE: I'm so sorry. Exhibit number.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit number 40.

MR. NICE: Thank you.

Q. At Smrekovnica prison, were your documents checked, and if so, by ^{1695 BLANK PAGE 1696} what type of person?

A. We arrived there by trucks that were taken away from the Albanians. We were in the last truck. We were transported to Smrekovnica prison at 4.00. We arrived there.

Q. Yes.

A. When we arrived there, we saw Serb security people seated in some long tables.

Q. Were your documents checked? Yes or no.

A. Yes, they were checked. We were all registered. Then they pushed us against the wall, some others, some other guards.

Q. And how did the police treat you on arrival or when you were pushed against the wall?

A. Very badly. Someone has hit his head or his forehead on the wall, if you were not careful, because they forced us to face the wall --

Q. Just one moment.

A. -- after we were registered.

Q. So you were registered. Was that the ordinary police who were doing these things to you or was that the secret police?

A. The registration was done by the secret police. I recognised Janic there. Simic was from Vernica village, not far away from us. We used to work in the secret police. And some others I didn't know.

Q. Can we now -- and you were taken to a cell. The dimensions of the cell and the number of people in it? And that's all I want from you on that.

A. We were placed in a hall in the second floor, and in the cell ¹⁶⁹⁷ where I was taken, it was 4 by 5 metres. We were not more than 17 or 18 people at the beginning, but then when other inmates came, we became 63 people shut in one -- in the same cell. Even the corridors were full of prisoners. People used to sleep in the toilet too.

Q. And how many days were you kept in a cell in those numbers?

A. From the 3rd of May up to the 23rd of May when we were released and deported to Albania.

MR. NICE: May the witness now see Exhibit SK10. Again, Your Honour, associated declarations by the investigator are available for this document if its provenance or accuracy is challenged in any way.

All right. English version onto the overhead projector, original to the witness.

Q. This is a document from Vucitrn Department of the Interior, dated the 3rd of May, to the -- with the department heading that's -- an expansion of which is unknown, to the Secretariat of the Interior and to the heads of the Department of Police, the Criminal Investigation Department, as well as to the duty service shift leader for Kosovska Mitrovica. And does the document we all see is signed by someone called Ljubisa Simic, assert that on the 3rd of May, 1999, members of the police force engaged in breaking up Siptar terrorist gangs in the sector of the Gredec mountain, retaining a total of 887 individuals who are strongly suspected of participating in the armed attacks against members of the Republic of Serbia MUP and Yugoslav army.

All of those taken to the KPD penal and correctional facility in ¹⁶⁹⁸ the village of Smrekovnica for further operative processing. Then it records 17.000 to 19.000 inhabitants willingly left the territory of Vucitrn municipality in their own vehicles. The municipal authorities of local self-government registered a total of 716 families and 7.969 members who were put up on their own accord in the villages of Karace, Donja Sudimlja, Smrekovnica, and Kicic. The municipal authorities distributed food, water, and medicine. Just help us with this: So far as you were concerned, were the people detained, if it's the same people identified as the 887 here, terrorist gangs attacking the MUP and the Yugoslav army?

A. It is of interest to say that all of us who were taken to the prison of Smrekovnica, we were unarmed. We were civilians. The army had left Studime a night earlier to avoid crimes, and none of us was armed and we did not take part. We were not members of the KLA. Had we been members, we wouldn't have joined the convoy. We would have run away, stayed away from it like others.

MR. NICE: May that become Exhibit 41, please.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 41.

MR. NICE:

Q. Did you go without food for three days, thereafter receiving some water and bread? Did you all get diarrhea and were you taken out from time to time from the cells to be dealt with by the police?

A. It is correct to say that no one turned up for three days to see us, and there were people who had many days who hadn't eaten a thing and that was because of their movement around the mountainous area, and we ¹⁶⁹⁹ thought they were going to leave us die from hunger. A day before they brought bread to us, they also allowed water to come to the area, and everybody rushed to there, but after drinking that water that they brought to us, we had diarrhea. All of us were suffering from diarrhea. Later, they brought some tanks, tankers with water. Then some policemen turned up to our rooms to bring some ordinary prisoners, and they also delivered some bread to us, and they called names. They threw the bread to us, pieces of bread to us from a distance.

Q. Were you taken out from the cell from time to time by the police? If so, what did the police do to you?

A. Time after time, policemen would come and ask, "Who is from the village of Bajgora," for example, or from X village. And then they took them away and they mistreated them, and no one dared not to turn up. And then there were cases when they did not identify themselves. And it was not only the prison wardens who were doing it, but among them, I would like you to know there is Sasa Milojevic, from the village of Druar, who before the war worked as an official in the municipality offices of the village, and Vukotic, the terrible Vukotic, who has committed many murders in the town, as well as in the village of Maxhunaj. He worked in the municipality court.

Q. Thank you.

MR. NICE: Can we look at the next exhibit, please, SK11. We'll proceed with the photocopy for the time being. Lay the photocopy of the B/C/S on the ELMO. Thank you very much. Having viewed that, if you would hand that to the witness and the English onto the ELMO. ¹⁷⁰⁰ Your Honour, I think that the original produced on the last exhibit -- I'm holding the original for the last exhibit, and I think the original handed in as the last exhibit is this one, but we'll sort that out later. That's for the last exhibit, I think. The one that was handed in for the last exhibit is probably this one.

Q. Does this document, please - have a look - does this document, headed "The Republic of Serbia," dated the 11th of May - yes, it does appear to - does this read as a request of the Kosovska Mitrovica Correctional Institution?

A. Yes.

Q. And does it record: Since we've been dealing with an enormous number of detained people in need of food and supply in the correctional institution in Smrekovnica, ask the headquarters to provide -- and then potato flour, oil, and so on. In view of the transport requirements under war circumstances and lack of vehicles, asking for passenger, car, van, and a water system. And then for food requirements, 15 to 20 head of cattle and three dairy cows, laying hens.

Did you, as a matter of fact, in your time in the prison see any meat or have any meat?

A. We never -- we were never given meat. We were given soup, and we were not allowed to even finish it. Because there was a prison warden who was hitting us with a baton, and we were forced to leave it unfinished. Sometimes we took bread with us.

Q. Thank you.

MR. NICE: Next document, Exhibit SK12. ¹⁷⁰¹

JUDGE MAY: Number for the last one.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 42.

MR. NICE: The original straight to the overhead projector, please. If we can now place an English translation on the overhead projector, hand the original to the witness.

Q. Is this a document recording that at a meeting on the 11th of May of the Municipal Crisis Staff of Vucitrn, a decision was made that 150 to 200 head of cattle would be fattened and used for the requirements of the Yugoslav army and police, and that a copy of that decision should be delivered to the veterinary service, the farming cooperative, the army, the Ministry of the Interior, and signed again by Slobodan Doknic? Is that correct?

A. Yes, that's correct. There are other cases when things were sent towards Leposaviq for the needs of the army and the police, and they were considered as free cattle.

Q. In any event, we see here Doknic making provision, although he was a civilian - or making provision through his Crisis Staff - for both the army and the police.

A. On certain occasions the Crisis Staff was called the Staff for Military, Police, and Humanitarian Affairs. That's what it was called.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 43.

MR. NICE:

Q. Moving on with your account of what was happening inside the prison, somewhere between the 12th and 14th day of your detention, were you men taken into rooms for -- or were you initially lined up outside a ¹⁷⁰² supervisor's office and then taken into different rooms where you were spoken to by men in civilian clothes, or a man in civilian clothes?

A. Yes. They took us in groups and took us away to the prison's directorate, where there were many rooms, and then separated us, and we were waiting in turn to be questioned. And there were civilian officials there who were asking questions. They told us that -- for example, they told me that, "You have conducted terrorism in Cicavica and that's where you were captured." And I reacted to that and said that, "You captured me -- or you got me in Studime, not in Cicavica, and that I'm an activist of human rights and freedoms, and I went there to check the situation, the humanitarian situation, which was very difficult." And he turned to me and said, "No one is asking you to say that." And we didn't communicate later since that moment. And he was dictating and his secretary was writing, and we were forced to sign that document. And I remember a person, 68 years old - he was ill. He was very ill - in the prison cells, and he did not know how to write. And so they forced him -- they got his finger and he put his finger as a kind of signature or stamp on the document.

Q. Now, these documents that you were compelled to sign, were you given a copy of them?

A. They gave each and every one of us a copy of these documents, where we were accused of having committed terrorist acts, including that 70-year-old man.

Q. What happened --

A. All were civilians. All of us were civilians. ¹⁷⁰³

Q. What happened to the copy that you were given of yours?

A. On the 23rd, a day before that, people were taken away and we did not know where they were taken to. On the 23rd they called up our names. A policeman who had thrown across his shoulders a chain of bullets --

Q. I must stop you for a minute. It's a very simple question. What happened to the copy of the document that was provided to you? Just tell us in a sentence.

A. What I want to say: As we were coming out of the prison, we saw the same people who were there when we entered. It was Janic and Simic.

JUDGE MAY: It's very difficult, Mr. Kadriu, for us to assimilate a huge amount of information which you are trying to give us. Now, I have no doubt you want to tell us, of course, the very important events which happened to you, but in order for us to be able to retain and obtain the important information, you must concentrate on what counsel says. Now, just going back to something, who was it who was asking you questions in the prison? If you don't know his name, just tell us what sort of a person he was.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I didn't understand. The person who was questioning us, I didn't know him.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Was he a policeman? Was he from the prison? Who was he?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I didn't know him. I hadn't seen him before.

JUDGE MAY: And if I understand you right, he got you to sign a document; is that right? ¹⁷⁰⁴

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, that's correct.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. And what was on the document?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] They gave a copy of that document to us, me included, and we had a copy of the document with ourselves. But then on the 23rd of May, they forced us to hand them back.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. NICE:

Q. And one other thing about this exercise where you signed this document: Did the civilian, the man dressed in civilian clothes in the prison, did he inspect your identification documents, your ID documents?

A. Not mine, but some people were deprived of carrying their identity documents.

Q. But you kept yours at that time?

A. Yes, we kept them until we reached the border with Albania, where they took all of the documents that we were carrying.

Q. We're going to come to that in sequence, you see. Following this business of signing the document that you did sign, was there another influx of a number of prisoners?

A. There were prisoners coming non-stop, and they were coming from the Mitrovica region, and from the 17th of May, there was an extraordinary influx of prisoners.

Q. Thank you.

A. There were trucks coming all day full of prisoners.

Q. Thank you.

MR. NICE: Exhibit SK13, then, next. Your Honour will remember ¹⁷⁰⁵ that I earlier said that there were declarations about the problems of all these documents, of some of them, the documents that we are producing that have been produced before they arrive at the witness. They have, of course, been made available to the amici, and indeed to the accused, but if there's anything that arises, it may be the amici will be able to deal with it and we can save burdening the docket with these additional declarations. They're available if wanted.

Now, this document, then, if we can have the English version on the overhead projector now, now that the original has been viewed.

Q. From the department of the Interior at Vucitrn on the 16th of May, to the head of the police department and to the duty service shift leader, under the heading "Kosovska Mitrovica," says:

"On the 16th of May, 1999, in the course of their work aimed at suppressing the activities of the Siptar terrorist gangs, members of the police force of the Kosovska Mitrovica Secretariat of the Interior detained a total of 830 men of military age who were members of the Siptar national minority. All of them were put up in the penal and correctional facility in Smrekovnica, where operative work will be conducted with them to determine whether they were possibly involved in crimes as members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army."

And does that recorded transfer of, in this case, 830 men match the sort of numbers of people arriving at the prison at the time you've told us about?

A. Probably at the beginning, when we were taken to prison, we were about a thousand in there, but later, when the other influx was taken to ¹⁷⁰⁶ the Smrekovnica Prison, we could say there were about 3.000 people, and that was also explained by the enormous amount of food that was required.

Q. Thank you.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 44.

MR. NICE:

Q. Did you become aware of prisoners being taken to the basement? When they were taken there, did you hear sounds coming from the basement?

A. Unfortunately, I was at that part of the prison. Nearby there was a small building with a basement, and several people were taken to the basement.

Q. Did you hear noises coming from the basement when they had been taken there?

A. Yes. After we had been there for several days, the people there were mistreated. I remember a person who was in there, in the afternoon, who was taken there in the afternoon, and the tortures continued against him. And we were silent in the cell where we were because we could hear the cries coming from him, and we were hearing everything from the window of the cell.

I was secretly lurking, staying there, and I saw Sasa Milojevic and the prison warden. And they were pale in the face, and we understood that something had happened to that person, but we were not sure exactly what happened to him. I didn't know the prison warden.

Q. Did you on one occasion see a body in a blanket being brought up from those stairs?

A. The following day, in the morning, the police patrol came there ¹⁷⁰⁷ and collected those people. The same police car but with some civilians on came out and took out of the basement someone wrapped in a blanket. It was covered in a grey blanket.

Q. Some days later, were you with other men put in trucks and driven to Mitrovica, the truck first stopping at the technical school. Sorry, the first truck stopping at the technical school with you and some others?

A. As you said at the beginning, I cannot remember exactly the date, but it was between the 18th or the 19th. They sent two trucks. They loaded us -- loaded us on two trucks towards Mitrovica, and they left us at the medical school, the secondary medical school, and there they started mistreating us, and at the same time we were questioned by the prosecutors.

Q. Who mistreated you? What category of person?

A. As we arrived in the secondary medical school, they took us inside the gym of the school, which was close to the main building of the school. We were lined up with our hands behind our heads and kneeling down. There were five -- four or five rows of people like that. And the prison wardens were hitting us on the back and were calling names on us. They were humiliating us. And those people who could not resist the hits and kicks, they fell down. They collapsed. And there were some young people there who were kicking us and hitting us with rods. And then these young men were taken away after they had done this to us. Sometimes they mistreated us, and sometimes there were people who were playing basketball in the gym. And there were people who were ^{1708 BLANK PAGE 1709} bleeding after the mistreatment. And my left leg was numb, and I was dragging it when I was taken to -- when I was being asked to walk away from there. My left leg was numb. I couldn't move it. I was dragging it. And the position we were asked to stay at was also very difficult, with our hands behind our heads, tied.

Q. The young people who were beating you, were they of an age to be members of the police or the army or anything of that sort? Did they have any uniform that suggested they were part of an official grouping or not?

A. We didn't dare turn our heads to see. But from their voices, from the way they were talking, we could understand that they were adolescents. They were young.

Q. You've spoken of prison wardens. Is this a separate category of person from the police or not or can't you help us?

A. Prison wardens had distinct uniforms which were different from those of the police, but they cooperated very well with each other. And there were policemen coming to the prison, and they took them away from the prison, mistreated them, manhandled them. And they played music while they mistreated people.

Every now and then, they -- they called people from this village and then from another village. In turn they called people from individual villages, and they mistreated them. You had to be very courageous, very brave not to identify yourself as coming from a particular village.

Q. Were you interrogated while at the school?

A. Yes. It happened to me that I was called, I was taken away halfway through the period. And I was aching all over. I was covered in ¹⁷¹⁰ sweat. And when I arrived at the investigator's office, I was questioned by two civilians who I did not know.

Q. And what were the nature of the things they said to you? Very, very shortly. Just a sentence.

A. They asked us -- of course they knew that I was an activist of the Council of Human Rights and Freedoms. They had that information. And they asked me whether any of my relatives was a member of the KLA, and they were putting provoking questions to me about the problems over the years as if -- they were asking me, "Why did you do this?" and, "Why did you do that?"

Q. That's enough for the time being. Were you physically maltreated in the course of interrogation or not?

A. Yes. Not only me. All of us were maltreated. Very much so, I would say. Sometimes they beat us with sticks, batons.

Q. Thank you. Were you returned to the prison from the school?

A. Yes. At about 5.00, they returned us to the prison. First it was our truck that returned and then the others followed.

Q. And was it at about this time that you returned, because you were forced to, the documents you had earlier signed?

A. Yes. We had to hand over the documents on the day we were released from prison, which was 23rd of May.

Q. And after that, where were you taken and how?

A. After all this that we went through in the prison of Smrekovnica, they loaded us on some buses. I'm not sure of the number. We had to wait for some time. Then they drove us to some unknown direction but passing ¹⁷¹¹ through Vushtrri. We didn't know where they were taking us.

Q. In the course of this journey, were others allowed onto the bus to do things to you?

A. Yes. We were all the time with our hands tied behind our back. When we arrived in Shtime, in the town of Shtime, which is situated in the vicinity of Ferizaj along the way from Pristina to Prizren, the buses stopped. There were also policemen in the buses who were taking away the last money we had on us. And they started to speak to some Gypsies who were close by and were watching. Then they threw open the doors of the buses and those Gypsies entered the buses and started to beat us up. I think the buses that were before us suffered worst. We waited there until some trucks arrived of a dark green colour. There were some soldiers with bandanas around their heads. Some were -- had long hair. They had -- they had worn different uniforms. I can't say they had the same uniform. Then they were -- they stayed before our bus, so they were situated in between the buses.

We waited there for an hour. Then we left for Suhareke and Prizren.

Q. And where did you end up eventually, taking this story comparatively shortly?

A. It was the Zhur village, the graveyard of Zhur village. The cemetery was on -- on a forest. We saw a large number of police forces who had surrounded the place. I don't remember if there were also army troops. I'm not sure about that. They ordered us to get off the buses, and they kept beating us with their arms, bats, and kicking us and beating ¹⁷¹² us with anything they could lay hands on. They forced us to line up. I am speaking about my bus, the bus I was in, I mean. Then they told us, "Go that way and never look back, and you must run." And they kept beating and kicking us all the time.

Q. Did you move as fast as you were able?

A. Some of us started to run. Professor -- Professor Bajram Mulaku and myself, we could not run. We ran for a little while, but as I said, my leg was hurting me. I couldn't run. And our hands were tied behind our heads. And in this state we went up to the border point separating Albania from Kosova.

Q. At the border, what happened so far as your documents were concerned?

A. At the border, we had to wait in a column, because before us there were people who got off the other buses. There we -- there were about seven or eight policemen there and were waiting for us. They told us to show everything we had in our pockets, all the documents, and to keep them in our hands. And they warned us that if they would check us and find some documents in the pocket, "You will see what will happen to you." And some of us were very upset because their IDs, their passports, were taken away in the Smrekovnica prison. And they turned to one of the policemen and said to him that, "We don't have our IDs because they were taken away in the prison." They said, "Come here, each and every one of you. Even the driving licence, all the documents you have on you, you should keep them in your hand and keep walking in a line."

We kept walking in a line in front of them, and then we went on to ¹⁷¹³ Albania after we handed over to these policemen every document we had on us.

Q. And as you went to Albania, was anything said to you by the Serbs at the border?

A. Those who were there, those guards, when we were waiting to go to the border, one of them came and cursed us and said, "You want to be with Albania," while he was speaking ill of our mothers, saying words about our mothers. He said, "Go to Albania, and you'll never return." We felt in a very bad situation, because we felt this was the last time for us to see Kosova.

Q. Did you stay in Albania in various refugee camps until the 19th of June of 1999, when you returned to Vushtrri?

A. Yes. I stayed in a camp funded by the Spanish government in the vicinity of Dures, put up for the refugees coming from Kosova.

Q. On return, did you become deputy mayor, or deputy president as we referred to it yesterday, of the municipality, and did you also become president of the War Crime Commission for Vushtrri in which capacity you have been collecting, as is clear, documents recording things that happened in the municipality?

A. Yes, that's correct.

Q. And in that capacity, may we look at a few more exhibits.

JUDGE MAY: If that would be a convenient moment. We'll have a short break. Ten minutes.

--- Recess taken at 12.12 p.m.

--- On resuming at 12.23 p.m. ¹⁷¹⁴

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Nice.

MR. NICE: A few documents. SK14 next, please. It can go straight to the ELMO. Thank you.

Q. Mr. Kadriu, you've told us already about the connection of the army and the police, and you've told us about the role of the Crisis Staff, and we're looking at these documents just with a few points of an associated kind.

This first document is dated the 26th of May of 1999. So just about the time you were leaving for Albania. And from the Vucitrn Municipal Administration here to the "Municipal Council of the Municipality, Displaced Persons, Municipal Headquarters," and it reads as follows: "On the basis of the felt need, we ask you to provide the following items to meet the requirements of the conscripts of the 54 /VTOd, Territorial Defence Platoon in Vucitrn," and it sets out various items.

The -- the Territorial Defence Platoon of the Territorial Defence, did you see anything of them in the course of these events?

A. The document we have here shows that --

JUDGE MAY: No. I must ask you, please, to listen to the question.

Mr. Nice, would you repeat the question. Don't bother about the document for the moment.

MR. NICE: Yes, certainly.

Q. Did you see anything of the Territorial Defence in the course of the events you've described? ¹⁷¹⁵

A. Yes. I have seen many civilian persons. I mean, many members who used to be working in various civilian offices, were recruited in these Territorial Defence platoons.

Q. And the second question: This document, what does it show us, from your knowledge, of how the Territorial Defence was obtaining its equipment?

A. The Territorial Defence were obtaining their equipment through the Crisis Management Staff, for anything they wanted.

Q. Thank you. The same. So that's the same staff as we've been looking at earlier?

MR. NICE: Next Exhibit, please, SK15.

JUDGE MAY: Next exhibit number?

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 45.

MR. NICE: If we can now look at the English version on the overhead projector. This is a document, I think, that's a note signed by the same Slobodan Doknic, and the note records that the Vucitrn Municipality Crisis Staff confirms the purchase of ten combat jackets for the Yugoslav army. The note is issued for tax exemption and so on. So here we have a document from Doknic providing or arranging for the provision of the material for the army.

Q. Does that fit with your understanding of what the Crisis Staff was doing?

A. Yes. The Crisis Staff coordinated its work very well with the military authorities. This certificate proves this to the best.

MR. NICE: Thank you. Next document -- I'm sorry. Exhibit --? ¹⁷¹⁶

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 46.

MR. NICE: 46. Next document, SK17 -- I'm sorry, 16. Exhibit SK16.

JUDGE KWON: While you're waiting, the 18.200 dinars would be how much in US dollars, or something like that?

MR. NICE: I'm afraid I actually can't tell you. I don't know whether the witness can give us the approximate dinar exchange rate --

JUDGE KWON: Or what the combat jacket is.

MR. NICE: The combat jacket. It's 1.800 dinars per combat jacket.

Q. How much would that translate into dollars as at 1999?

A. One thousand, eight hundred dinars would be equivalent to - an approximate figure - of about 6.000 Deutschmark. That was the rate of dinar to the Deutschmark then, around this figure.

MR. NICE: If right, a rather expensive jacket. Can we look at the next document, then, SK16. If the original now can go to the witness, having been displayed on the overhead projector. The English version tells us that this is a document recording a meeting on the 28th of May -- a meeting of the coordination of Civil, Army, Police, and Humanitarian Affairs headquarter, a decision about the establishment of a commission for abandoned vehicles. The composition of the commission is identified, and its duty is identified as gathering abandoned vehicles, and so on. There is also, I think -- let me just find it.

Q. In any event, this is the same body, is it, Mr. Kadriu, that we've ¹⁷¹⁷ been concerned with, however it's headed?

A. Yes. The name is different. It's the same signature, the same name of the person who has signed it, but only the heading is different. The staff for civilian, military, police, and humanitarian coordination of the Vushtrri municipality.

MR. NICE: That's all I need from that. And then I think the document of this kind --

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 47.

MR. NICE: Thank you very much. SK17. This document, then - English version now, please, to the overhead projector - 6th of June, from the Vucitrn municipality coordination headquarters, signed by Slobodan Doknic again, a request for release from conscription, asks that the above-named war unit, which is set out above, release conscript Petar Toplicevic from conscription since he is --

A. Yes.

Q. -- indispensable to the Vucitrn Prevos [phoen] company due to public transport requirements under war circumstances. So that here we have the same president of the Crisis Staff, or otherwise described, being required for the transportation of public transport requirements under war circumstances.

MR. NICE: Right. Well, that's all I want from that type of document, and I've got a few more topics, but very few, to deal with.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 48.

MR. NICE:

Q. First, in the course of your function for the war crimes ¹⁷¹⁸ commission, you prepared or had prepared reports, I think.

A. Yes, to some extent. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the entire campaign of violence and terror that was perpetrated. We tried to do our utmost, but we didn't have the necessary conditions to work properly. This is very little by comparison to the large-scale violence and terror.

Q. You've managed to bring some reports with you. We've looked at the one on the convoy and we may look at a little bit of video if we have time in due course, but can we go now to the - I'm not sure of the pronunciation - Gerxhaliu family massacre, please. First of all, what's the correct pronunciation of the family's name?

A. Yes. It is Gerxhaliu.

Q. Gerxhaliu. Thank you. And have you brought with you a report that was prepared in respect of what happened to that family on the 31st of May, when, of course, you were already in Albania yourself?

A. Yes, I was in Albania myself, but the documents about this massacre we prepared after my return from Albania, on the basis of photos and evidence. It was a very tragic event that occurred on the morning of 31st of May. The house of Selatin Gerxhaliu was surrounded by Serb forces stationed in Rashica neighbourhood. After they surrounded the house, all the family members were put in a room. Selatin and two others were taken to another place. The other members, including women and children, were all executed in a couple of minutes.

MR. NICE: Can I hand, then, in the following --

MR. KAY: Your Honours, again an evidential point arises about the ¹⁷¹⁹ status of this evidence. It's quite clearly based entirely on information provided for this witness, it hasn't been served as an expert's report on any of the other parties in this case, it's completely without notice. It's coming through the witness as he's giving evidence, and one really wonders what the usefulness of this evidence is to the Trial Chamber.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, in this case there are photographs, as well as other documents that were prepared contemporaneously, and I think they will be of assistance, because the photographs themselves --

JUDGE MAY: Can we find out what role the witness played in the preparation of this report? He used the word "we." He uses it very often, and it's not at all clear what he's talking about.

MR. NICE:

Q. You've heard His Honour's question. What part did your commission play, what part did you play personally, in the preparation of this report?

A. We were a commission. Our role was to collect information about the number of people killed, massacred, and disappeared. My role was that of a coordinator of its work. We collected all -- that is, the commission collected all the documents related to different places and persons. It is true, as I said, that we didn't succeed in collecting all the material that there is on such cases, but the most conspicuous ones are there.

JUDGE MAY: I think we have the point. He was the coordinator.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE MAY: We shall admit this report. The witness was close enough to it and played an important enough role as coordinator to allow ¹⁷²⁰ him to produce it. It is the practice in the Tribunal to receive reports of this sort. It will be for the Tribunal to assess what weight to place upon it.

MR. NICE: May I distribute the original to the witness. Then there are colour copies - one, two, three, four, five, six - and two in black and white, and there are then translations of the legends associated with the photographs.

JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice, while we are waiting again, are these Gerxhaliu family members, 11 of them --

MR. NICE: Yes.

JUDGE KWON: -- included in the victims of murder cases? We have Schedule H in the indictment. Could you check it?

MR. NICE: Certainly.

JUDGE KWON: It's page 53 of the indictment.

MR. NICE: Thank you very much. Your Honour, I should have checked that in advance. I'm sorry.

JUDGE KWON: There are a lot of Gerxhalius in the schedule.

MR. NICE: Yes, certainly. I think we'll have an answer either from myself or from the witness.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, there were over 33 people who were executed that day.

JUDGE KWON: But in the indictment, it said 104 persons were killed at the murder site, and that seems to me that it means the convoy massacre of the Gerxhaliu family. So could you clarify later.

MR. NICE: Certainly. I may have to clarify a little later. ^{1721 BLANK PAGE 1722}

JUDGE KWON: Yes. And the date of the murder was written as May 2nd, not 31st.

MR. NICE:

Q. On both of those points, can you help, us, please, about the date of this massacre, the Gerxhaliu family massacre.

A. Yes, I can. The people executed from Gerxhaliu family comprise over 30 persons. They were executed on the 31st of May, but of the overall number of people killed on the 2nd of May, this is not -- the number 104 is not included. One hundred nine were executed, but 104 have the graves in this mass cemetery that the ICTY has exhumed.

JUDGE KWON: Yes. That is my understanding.

MR. NICE: Thank you.

Q. If we can look at this document, and showing the photographs as necessary on the ELMO and working through it.

MR. NICE: Is there a spare copy for the usher to lay on the ELMO? And if the witness can keep the original with him.

Q. The first page is a plan which shows the house, the heading being that the -- it's called "Selatin Family." Can you explain that to us?

A. Yes. This is the scheme of the house of Selatin Gerxhaliu. In the legend it says -- number 1, it says it shows the door of courtyard, because we have yards, courtyards in our homes. Number 2 shows the door of the house which leads to a corridor. Then number 3, the door of the corridor where the massacre was perpetrated of all the members of the family.

Q. And then we have -- ¹⁷²³

A. Number 4 shows the beds on which the family members were sleeping. It was still early morning.

Q. If we then go to --

A. Number 5 --

Q. We can go to the photographs now, having understood that. The first photograph simply shows some of the family I think some years before, but before death, before they obviously -- while they were alive. If we then go to F1, which is said to be the photograph of -- perhaps you'll pronounce the name for me properly.

A. Yes. Fegjrije Gerxhaliu.

Q. F2, show us, please.

A. The corridor where they were killed, the members of the Gerxhaliu family were killed.

Q. The second photograph shows, I think, the beds in the room where several people were killed.

MR. NICE: The usher has got the wrong one on the projector.

Q. The first one, F1.

A. That's Fegjria Gerxhaliu.

Q. And underneath that, F2.

A. It shows from another angle the place where several members of the Gerxhaliu family were executed, the state in which they were found after they were executed.

Q. Over the page to F3.

A. F3 shows the listless body of Sofije Gerxhaliu, who was at this posture where she was after the execution. ¹⁷²⁴

Q. F4.

A. Shows the place where Selatin and Shaban Gerxhaliu were massacred outside the house. They were taken out of the house, taken to another place where they were executed and massacred. You can see on their forehead.

Q. Can you read out, because it's been omitted from the key, can you read out what is said under F5, please.

A. F5 shows the bed on which a young girl, Mybera Gerxhaliu, was killed. You see she was trying to reach her mother when she heard the shots, automatic shots. She has tried to reach to her mother.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. I think we can see the rest of these photographs.

MR. NICE: And then the remaining photographs are self-explanatory, perhaps, with the guide to them.

MR. NICE: Just one point as a matter of detail. If we could turn over to the last page, please, and focus not on the particular distressing photograph on the left but on the grave on the right. Just as a matter of detail, because we may come upon this later.

Not that one. The photograph on the right, please, usher. The grave.

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. NICE: Just a minute. Can you go, please, to the -- that's right. The photograph on the right. Yes. Leave it like that. That's fine. Can the -- no, not that one. The one at the top right-hand corner, please. All right. We can see a little bit of it. I don't want to look ¹⁷²⁵ at the body. I want to look at the grave on the right. That's it. Thank you.

Q. Now, we see there an open grave, and we see some boards, slats of wood, to the right, cut to perhaps a uniform length. Can you just explain -- it may turn up later in other witnesses. Can you explain, please, how these boards are used for the process of burying bodies in Kosovo?

A. Yes. The police executed them and left. Then this grave shows that because of the shortage of time, people were scared that something else might happen to them. They dug up this grave quickly, and the planks of wood usually are used before throwing the earth over the dead body. Instead of the coffin, that is, I would say.

Q. Now, am I right, and correct me if I'm wrong, the board's lowered over the body but at an angle, and the intention is to keep the earth off the body.

A. Yes.

Q. Yes. We may see that repeated elsewhere. Thank you very much.

MR. NICE: Exhibit?

THE REGISTRAR: Exhibit 49.

MR. NICE: Thank you very much. Now, Your Honour, if we look at the -- if Your Honour would be good enough to look at the summary. Although that particular event happens to have been documented here, the witness is also able to tell us about a great many other killings of which the most important ones have been highlighted in the summary. The others come without documentary support so that they would be effectively the ¹⁷²⁶ same but it would simply be coming from his mouth. And I would ask leave to make very brief reference to each of them, and I will ensure that the witness is brief in dealing with them.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. NICE: Thank you.

Q. Now --

A. I would single out here on the 2nd of May, when we were the agriculture cooperative --

Q. I was going to single it out, actually. So if you wouldn't mind very much just listening to what I'm going to ask you. I'm going to ask you questions that will be susceptible to very short answers, and I want you to tell the Judges about that.

On the 22nd of May, was there an event concerning people who had returned to their homes in Vushtrri and were walking towards the cemetery? Simply yes or no.

A. Yes. Yes, there was an event.

Q. Thank you. According to the inquiries that your commission made, were they stopped by a house owned by Sezaj Pasome, by Serbs in green camouflage uniforms? Yes or no will do.

A. Yes, that's true.

Q. And --

A. Camouflage, with masks --

Q. Thank you.

A. -- and accompanied by motor vehicles.

Q. And of the, I think, 74 people concerned on that incident, how ¹⁷²⁷ many have never been accounted for?

A. Seventy-four people on the 22nd of May are still unaccounted for. And on behalf of their families, I would ask this Court to do something to know -- to find out about the destiny of these people. But number -- the overall number of those who are considered disappeared are 109.

Q. And you'll -- but as to these 74, the material you collected suggested that shots were heard and that blood was found in the area. Thank you.

A. Yes, that's correct.

Q. Was the body of a man called Shefki Dallku found in the house of Dr. Ramadan Xhoni?

A. Yes, that's correct. Not far from the house of Sezaj Pasome, 50 metres away. His body was exhumed from the ICTY.

Q. Then over the page. Reznik, on the 6th of April, according to your inquiries --

A. April.

Q. 6th of April, in the afternoon, were members of the Ujkani family --

A. The Ujkani family.

Q. How many people were involved?

A. Mainly nine, nine members of the Ujkani family were executed. Among the nine, as far as I remember, three were women. There was a couple, a married couple, and some others. They were brothers of the same family, Ujkani family. Some of the bodies were even burned, because the houses were torched and the bodies were inside. ¹⁷²⁸

Q. Thank you. According to your inquiries, were gunshots heard there as well?

A. Yes, that's correct. According to the eyewitnesses who made statements on this, on this case, on this occasion there were gunshots and then houses torched, and there were people inside, those who were executed.

Q. Finally on this topic, and subject to the tape of the convoy, on the 24th of May of 1999, near Studime e Eperme, according to information were there women who were attacked?

A. Yes, that's correct. They were coming to collect food for their children and to take food to the Studime e Eperme village.

Q. The -- I think it was a local KLA commander who collected the bodies. Would that be right?

A. That's correct, because no one dared to come and collect the bodies. That's why soldiers from the KLA went there to collect the bodies, the lifeless bodies of the women, because the Serb forces were not far from the scene of the crime. Probably 200 metres away.

Q. How many dead women involved?

A. There were eight, eight women, as far as I remember. They were not all women. Some of them were girls, little girls. They were raped, mutilated, completely mutilated, and they were found -- the bodies were found in a terrible state. And the surviving members of their family are still suffering from shock, from the trauma they suffered.

Q. When you say "mutilated," just give us a couple of examples of what was done to them. ¹⁷²⁹

A. According to the testimony of family members, of the surviving family members, the girls and women had bruised the parts of their bodies, and they were stained with blood. Some of them did not have fingers, things were cut off, and some bodies lacked certain limbs. Initially they were -- they were raped - and I'm sorry to say this in public - and they were shot afterwards in the most savage, inhuman way. The bodies were found in the village of Studime e Poshtme, as they were crossing the river, because the riverbed was the area which gave you the opportunity to -- to walk along and move around unnoticed. But they were ambushed and killed.

Q. Very well.

MR. NICE: Can I return the Chamber very briefly to page 7 of the summary in case these details need cross-referencing later. It's unlikely but it's possible.

Q. Can I ask you, please, Mr. Kadriu, to take your memory back to the September offensive and just to say yes or no to these questions: In the September offensive, was there the killing of a 50-year-old man in the village called Beciq? Yes or no.

A. During the September offensive, many people were killed.

Q. Did that include one man in Beciq whose name you've provided?

A. Yes, that's correct.

Q. And two men in Balinca?

A. Yes, that's correct.

Q. You saw these men, and I think you estimate their ages as what?

A. Hyseni was about 60 years old, and I saw his body, his mutilated ¹⁷³⁰ body, lifeless body. They were buried on the same day when the funeral took place in Oshlan, because Balinca is not far from Oshlan. They're very close to each other.

Q. Thank you very much. I think I still have to deal with in Smrekovnica there was a man I think you saw there killed in his yard.

A. Yes. That was before the 22nd of September. One was killed as he came out to the courtyard of his house. Initially he was wounded. And then from a close distance, he was shot behind his ear.

Q. Thank you.

A. And his brains were scattered around.

Q. Thank you.

A. Another one was wounded.

Q. Back to page 16 of the summary. Can you help us with the total figures of victims for your municipality as revealed in the exercises you engaged in? How many people killed in 1999? Forget 1998. In 1999, how many civilians killed by Serb forces?

A. According to the statistics, which are also in possession of the Pristina Council for Human Rights and Freedoms in Pristina, there are 594 civilians killed by the Serbian forces.

Q. How many of those under the age of 18 at the time of death?

A. I can't remember exactly those figures. I couldn't say that. I have had to remember very many figures and dates. I'm sorry, I can't remember that.

Q. Can you remember the number injured by -- injured in some significant way by Serb forces? And if not, just say so. ¹⁷³¹

A. More than 300 wounded, injured civilians.

Q. How many civilians still missing, not accounted for?

A. There are 109 civilians missing, and there are 74 only from a date in May. And I have pictures of each and every one of them.

Q. As a result of these events, what number of children have been identified as having one or both of their parents killed in 1998 and 1999?

A. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't remember the figures. If you allow me, I do have the exact statistics, but I can't remember them.

Q. The total number of houses burnt? Do you know roughly or precisely what that was?

A. It's more than 8.000 houses were shelled, were demolished, were torched. And they have been classified into three categories; one, two, three. More than 4.000 houses belong to a fifth category, to a fifth group, which is that of houses which need to be rebuilt from scratch, more than 4.000 houses.

Q. How many mosques destroyed?

A. I can't remember, because there were also many cattle, sheep, and other livestock which was destroyed then, but I wouldn't like to guess.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, the tape, the compilation tape of the convoy, which we passed over comparatively briefly, would take 5 minutes and 55 seconds to play.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. That will be --

MR. NICE: That's it.

JUDGE MAY: -- it, yes. ¹⁷³²

MR. NICE: I have an index of the passages that are being played, and I'll distribute those.

JUDGE MAY: Let's have the index, and we'll play the tape.

MR. NICE: In answer to His Honour's question, none of the names that we've given are actually scheduled in the indictment. If the tape could be played, and if I'll be permitted to read the legend.

[Videotape played]

MR. NICE: First of all, we see villagers gathering in a field and a tractor coming down a hill.

This is the second excerpt, and it shows clearly soldiers talking to the villagers.

There's a general view of villagers and displaced persons in a field, including, I think you may already have seen, a picture of a very young child.

Now you'll see some evidence of destruction following an attack. A destroyed tractor is immediately apparent, and smoking houses in the background.

Q. Can the witness tell us where the village is that we are looking at from this position?

A. [No audible response]

MR. NICE: Houses destroyed after the attack, the convoy, and a man collecting timber for the purpose of the burial that I dealt with in the still photograph, not the particular funeral, but --

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The boards are used for the burial ¹⁷³³ process, for the burial of the bodies.

MR. NICE: Now looking at some bodies that were killed in the attack on the convoy.

Burial of some of the victims. There's a woman.

Q. And the only question you didn't answer, probably because you didn't understand I was asking you a question, Mr. Kadriu: Where we were looking at houses that were burning, we were looking over a valley or towards the other side of a valley, it would appear, can you tell us which that village was we were looking at, or you are unable to say?

A. Yes. We were looking at the Studime e Eperme village, and also part of the road between the two villages, Studime e Eperme and Studime e Poshtme. And the burial took place not far from Studime e Eperme, where the bodies -- close to the site where the bodies were found.

JUDGE MAY: It may be sensible to give that compilation an exhibit number.

MR. NICE: Yes, please.

THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 13/1.

MR. NICE: That's all I ask this witness.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Before we break, was there something you wanted to raise about Monday?

MR. NICE: About witness order, yes.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Very briefly.

MR. NICE: I don't know if we can deal with it just in private session. I don't know if the Chamber is going to do that. It involves ¹⁷³⁴ one protected witness. If we can just go into private session.

JUDGE MAY: We'll go into private session.

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--- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.19 p.m., to be reconvened on Friday, the 8th day of March, 2002, at 9.00 a.m.