⁴⁵⁸³⁶

Thursday, 27 October 2005

[Open session]

[The accused entered court]

--- On commencing at 9.05 a.m.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice.

MR. NICE: Very briefly, the position on the Djosan war diary. It was provided last night after hours, and I'm afraid too late for any work to be done on it. It will be looked at this morning. I cast an eye over it, but that's as far as I've been able to go.

I don't yet know in those circumstances whether I would want either, A, to have Mr. Djosan back today to ask him some questions or, B, whether I would be applying for him to come back in due course to deal with the diary in more detail. I'll be in a position to make my position clear later this morning.

On diaries generally, and just so that the Chamber has the picture as a whole, the Chamber will recall that the OTP's requests for war diaries was rejected by the Chamber on the grounds that it was over-broad, the authorities' observations on this point being accepted. Thus whereas at an early stage both the Djosan diary and the Delic diary had been the subject of request, the thinned down request left extant the request for the Delic diary but deleted the Djosan diary because we were told we were asking for too many.

The Delic diary arrived, as the Chamber will recall, from his case and with some resistance and reluctance. It was marked for identification pending translation. It only became clear very recently that the Chamber ⁴⁵⁸³⁷ had identified it as a Prosecution exhibit, so that whereas we were simply waiting for a translation, we now have to take the initiative to have it translated at our instigation. It hasn't yet been translated save for a very limited number of passages.

The Djosan diary is, of course, entirely untranslated save for those few passages that the accused produced as his sample through Djosan and in the tabs that were there available for us. Accordingly, there is either very limited or no translation of these diaries, depending on which diary it is, available, and the diaries are likely to be very valuable material, or may be very valuable material for the Chamber and may have to be looked at beside each other because they cover the same -- in part they cover the same area and the same time. I would be very grateful to know from the accused if the Chamber can ask exactly the provenance of the full Djosan diary. It may be that the diary has been with the accused's representatives throughout and that there's only a sample been provided and that would explain the oddity of there being an English translation for the 26th although the 26th was not provided.

If, on the other hand, it has really been possible for a document of this apparent sensitivity to be produced within something like a five-day period, I'd be grateful for sight of the correspondence that reveals that, because if there is a method whereby this material can be obtained from the authorities in such a short period of time, it's a method completely outside the experience of the Prosecution who have never been able to obtain these documents at all and has never been able to ⁴⁵⁸³⁸ obtain documents of this general level of asserted sensitivity in a short period of time.

In short, then, can I come back to you a little later today with my position on the diaries, but that's the position overall that we face.

JUDGE ROBINSON: The witness then would remain until you let us know later.

MR. NICE: If he could remain until a little later this morning, yes.

JUDGE ROBINSON: The registrar will take note of that.

[Trial Chamber confers]

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, the Chamber would like to hear from you a little more about the provenance of the diary; how you got it and when you got it and any communication that might have led to your receiving it.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, I will inquire during the break and let you know of the details that you're interested in. As far as I'm concerned, I received the diary this morning, which means after Mr. Nice received it because I wasn't able, of course, to receive it last night. It is integral. All the pages are there. But I'd like to remind you of the following, something that I'm sure you already know: The translation service does not accept documents like this to be translated. When they are provided, they return them to us and say that we should provide only the excerpts, selected excerpts. And then one of my associates selects a few examples with the witness and then they are ⁴⁵⁸³⁹ provided as examples during the testimony, because if we were to go into detail and have the entire diary translated and considered here, that would need -- we would require a vast amount of time for that. That's the only reason. There are no other reasons.

But I'd like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the witness who is testifying today, Colonel Vukovic. In his exhibits there are a few excerpts from more lengthy documents, which I have here before me. I haven't read them nor would I have enough time to do so. But, for example, the war diary we have here, a notebook of telegrams sent out, a notebook of telegrams received, and this thickest book, the daily reports notebook. I just have that one copy, or those one copies, and so do my associates. So that is the only copy.

Now, if Mr. Nice would find it useful, I can hand these documents over to you, to be returned to me once they're photocopied, because we don't have any other reserve copies. But from all those books we have chosen just a few examples for the requirements of this testimony, because it would be impossible to go through all this without spending overly much time. So it's quite clear that this can be placed at the disposal of anybody who would be interested to take a look at it. That's all I have on that subject.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, if you know, as indeed you should, the passages that you wish to excerpt, then you should have had them copied. You have the passages excerpted or is it --

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Those passages have been copied, Mr. Robinson, and they are to be found in your binders. All I'm saying is ⁴⁵⁸⁴⁰ that I have here those complete books which I received, and if Mr. Nice is interested, he can read through them all.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, I understand now. Yes. If Mr. Nice wishes, then they can be passed over to him. He does, so will the usher pass them over to him. But you are to obtain the information that I requested about the provenance of the diary and let us have it at the beginning of the next session.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Fine, Mr. Robinson.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Let the witness be called.

[The witness entered court]

WITNESS: VLATKO VUKOVIC [Resumed]

[Witness answered through interpreter]

JUDGE ROBINSON: In order to take account of the health problems of the witness, we'll sit in intervals of one hour today. The first session will end at 10.00, then 10.15 to 11.15, 11.30 to 12.30, and 12.45 to 1.45.

Yes, Mr. Milosevic. Examined by Mr. Milosevic: [Continued]

Q. [Interpretation] Good morning, Colonel. Would you please open this binder to Exhibit 18, which is where we left off yesterday.

JUDGE BONOMY: Our binders seem to finish at tab 7.

JUDGE ROBINSON: This is already exhibited, is it?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, yes. That is why you have a separate list before you with the numbers of the already admitted exhibits. And the new ones have the numbers that Mr. Bonomy mentioned. ⁴⁵⁸⁴¹

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, proceed.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. How, Colonel -- or, rather, as you said yesterday, Colonel, in tab -- or, rather, under number 18 of the exhibits admitted into evidence already --

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And let me stress, Mr. Robinson, that this exhibit was marked for identification in actual fact, not admitted into evidence because it was a statement of this witness, and I'm now going to ask that it be admitted finally as an exhibit.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. So what is contained in document 18? As we can see, it is the activity of the units -- unit operations between the 25th to the 28th of March and your statement dated the 10th of January, 2003. Is that it?

A. Yes. But just not to be confusing to the Trial Chamber, you will notice that all the statements have a subtitle, "Unit operations between the 25th of March to the 28th of March, 1999." That means that that is the title and heading. So it is the time of the entire terrorist operation.

Now, the commission, the expert team, in fact, asked that we had separate statements to deal with each individual day. So in the introductory part, among other things, I state which duties I had, what assignment I had received, the composition of the combat group. But if you look at the fourth paragraph down, that begins by saying: "On the 25th of March, 1999," and then in brackets it says, "The first day of operations." And then it goes on to say what the assignment was and what ⁴⁵⁸⁴² the combat group it. And I said something about that yesterday. I can repeat it today. But anyway, on that day in that morning, which started at 1.00, the combat group effected a march towards the village of Zub, Djakovica, and Zrze. By the silos at the village of Zrze, which is at the exit to the village, and that silo is to be found as you leave Zrze to go to Bela Crkva, we waited there for part of our unit which had taken part in this operation and which was marching from Prizren to pass by, and that is where I received information that in the village of Bela Crkva there were no -- as I was saying, that in the village of Bela Crkva, there were no terrorists, that there was no shooting at the forward security group that had already passed through Bela Crkva, and that contact had been established with a unit of the Ministry of the Interior and that they were already on the eastern sector of the village, that is to say looking towards Velika Hoca village and Celine village.

While passing through the Bela Crkva village or, rather, passed through the village in the early hours of the morning, and by 630 hours, 0630 hours, we were approaching features and facilities where the blockade line had been established, the first positions at the blockade.

JUDGE KWON: I'm not sure whether we are looking at the document the witness is referring to. I couldn't find the passage which mentions the first date of operation.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] If you take a look at number 16 --

JUDGE KWON: There's a confusion again. The witness is referring to number 16, tab 16, while Mr. Milosevic said tab 18.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm looking at tab 18. I had the ⁴⁵⁸⁴³ statements mixed up yesterday, but in tab 18 you will find the statement identified yesterday by Colonel Vukovic, which is the statement explaining and where he says that in that fourth paragraph it refers to the 25th of March, 1999, the first day of the operations, identical to what I have before me.

JUDGE KWON: Mr. Vukovic, tab 18 should start with the 27th of March. The third day, 27th of April -- I don't remember. Anyway, it was the third day of the operation. Do you have the document?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have that document, Mr. Kwon, but quite obviously there's been a mix-up. 18 -- number 18 logically is the first day, but I can, of course, address the third day if you wish me to do so.

JUDGE KWON: Now Mr. Milosevic should have heard that.

MR. NICE: I hesitate to add difficulties, but I'm having trouble locating some of these statements, and it might be that either the accused or possibly assigned counsel could collect together all the Vukovic statements, put them together in a sequential order and they could become a single exhibit, a single tab, because that way we'll not suffer this problem again, but it's -- it may be a suggestion that adds complexity to a problem that's already complex enough, but ...

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, this is more than regrettable. I thought the matter had been set right overnight, but we're faced with the same level of confusion.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I thought so, too, that the matter had been set right. As you can see, the witness has the same number. ⁴⁵⁸⁴⁴ Mr. Tomanovic checked the numbers and the sequence of numbers, which is where the mistake was made, but he has the same number now that I had. I was not able to look through your binders to see the sequence of documents that you have, but we can, of course, have this placed on the overhead projector, if you so desire, and then the witness can address the matter.

JUDGE KWON: Yes.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, let it be placed on the ELMO.

JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, is that document on the ELMO is the one you are referring to? I'm afraid not.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I can't see it.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] That's it.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes. The highlighted portion in yellow, the yellow marker, begins with the 25th of March, 1999, the first day of operations, BG 2 in the region of the village of Zub. That's the document I'm talking about. That's the one that has already been marked for identification.

JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nort, can you identify an English translation for that document? No. Can you see the tab number previously given of that document? No.

MR. NICE: 300, tab 369, Ms. Dicklich tells me.

JUDGE KWON: Thank you. That should be tab 12 of current composition.

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please, for Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This document says D300, tab 406. That's what it says on my list. ^{45845 BLANK PAGE 45846}

JUDGE KWON: No, that's tab D300, tab 369.

MR. KAY: We dealt with that one yesterday.

JUDGE KWON: Yes, we did.

JUDGE ROBINSON: All right. Mr. Milosevic, move on to another document and then we can return to this. Hopefully by then we would have resolved the numbering.

JUDGE KWON: If you could put it on. Yes, Mr. Nort. Yes, that's the one we dealt with yesterday.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. General, on this document, the one we had on the overhead projector a moment ago, you speak of the first day, which is the 25th of March, the first day of the operation.

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the witness, please. Microphone.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I'm a colonel by rank. I think you made a slip of the tongue and said general.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Ah, I see. That mistake was spontaneous, but I would have promoted you anyway quite certainly.

A. Well, thank you for that. I'm talking about the first day of operations, and I already explained this fourth paragraph partially. I don't think I need repeat what I've already said.

Q. No, there's no need to repeat what you explained to us yesterday and what you partially explained to us this morning.

A. I'd just like to draw your attention to one point which I failed to mention yesterday because I was not asked, in fact, but part of my unit ⁴⁵⁸⁴⁷ on assignment was directed to the north-eastern feature, towards the village of Brestovac and Mala Hoca. And that portion of the unit didn't have any operations because the police was able with their own forces to deal with the situation and to solve the problems or, rather, to fight the terrorists on its known -- to fight the terrorists. But they entered Brestovac and a certain quantity of ammunition was found. Topographical maps were found, for instance, as were lists with terrorist groups named and the names of individuals. And also parts of the equipment were found, too, and quite normally that was brought in to me at the command post. And I received a report on that occasion that the village was extremely well fortified, which means that around the village there were shelters, trenches, houses prepared for action, and so on. I would also like to mention, although I did say yesterday when I was referring to Celine, that there were encounters with the civilian population and that the population was always directed away from the area where the combat operations were taking or expected to take place.

Q. General -- in fact, Colonel Vukovic, in connection with this 25th of March, another witness testified here, Rahim Latifi from Prizren. You were not in Prizren but from what I know you were in Pirane. He testified that on the 25th of March, the day in question for which you are describing the activities of your unit, the village of Pirane, Prizren municipality, surrendered to the Serbian police and army, and Serbian forces set fire to the houses in the village whereas the population ran away to Mamusa and Srbica. What can you tell us about this? This witness testified on the 22nd of April, 2002, and the exhibit number is ⁴⁵⁸⁴⁸ 107.

A. The axis of my unit's activity can be seen on the map. However, by radio communication I also monitored the activities of that unit which was my neighbour and relevant to the performance of my assignment. I know that in the early morning, before 7.00, before the operation began, from the villages Velika Krusa and Pirane fire was opened at units that were only in the process of developing for combat. There was action by terrorists, and for that reason Combat Group 1 that was active on that axis was able to advance no more than 400 metres by 1200 hours, emerging on the northern border of Pirane village.

As for the claim itself that the entire village had surrendered to the army, I simply don't understand. Civilians cannot surrender. In our military terminology, only combatants, only armed men can surrender. As for the claim that they went to Mamusa and Srbica, that's possible, because I already said that there was quite a lot of civilian population in Mamusa village, and some of them were probably from Pirane as well. They were also able to go to Srbica, but only the army could have directed them to go there because that side -- that village was outside the area of operations on the 25th.

What else is noteworthy about Pirane village? In the afternoon of the 26th of March, smaller terrorist groups tried to break through our lines precisely through Pirane and across Beli Drim river, probably towards the Albanian border, but they were prevented from doing so because one of our units was holding the blocking line on the asphalt road all the time. ⁴⁵⁸⁴⁹ That's all I can say on this issue.

Q. General -- Colonel Vukovic, you have given evidence about many events in which you were directly involved, and you described the details very clearly. You have a considerable number of daily reports.

A. Yes.

Q. Just before you came in, I produced full volumes of daily reports, incoming, outgoing telegrams, diaries, logbooks, et cetera. Please look at tab 2. Do you see daily reports in it?

A. Yes. There are daily and combat reports both in tab 2, because until the beginning of the aggression, that is until the beginning of the war, daily reports were made, describing the work of the unit, whereas once the war began, this whole volume and these reports were named combat reports.

Q. Since this is very voluminous material, I should like to ask you to go through only some of the daily reports and ask for your comment. So this is your document.

A. Yes. This is a document of my unit and my command. You will see my signature's there. They could only have been signed by me or my deputy, depending on who was on the command post at the time the report was sent.

Q. Just tell me very briefly, how does one compile such a document, and is this a contemporaneous document, day by day?

A. Yes, it is a contemporaneous document, and as any other report, it is written based on information received; i.e., based on reports received from subordinate units or based on information gained by personal insight. ⁴⁵⁸⁵⁰

Q. I will ask you to look at pages 9 and 24. On page 9 --

A. It is a -- an interim report. It's not complete, because it begins on the previous page, but it's an interim report complementing the regular report. It doesn't have a date, but it says: "From 1300 to 1310 hours, at the reception desk of the camp premises in Zub village, a British observers mission arrived in the intention of going to Cafa Prusit pass. I turned them back and informed the garrison command and the liaison officer. The head of the team was Patrick Brook, passport number such-and-such. He did not want to produce his passport for us to see because he is a liaison and he has a proper certificate. He is also a temporary attache at the British embassy in Belgrade. I turned them back, primarily for reasons of their own safety, and one of the measures of security applicable to verifiers was they were not able to enter -- they were not allowed to enter dangerous territory unless accompanied by liaison officers. When they were with liaison officers, they were allowed to move where they wanted as long as they kept in touch, with the application of usual measures of security. Now, on page 24, we see something that is based on the order of a superior brigade. It says in paragraph 1: "In the area of responsibility of the 2nd Battalion of the 549th Motorised Brigade, no movement or activity of armed persons has been noticed."

Point 2 deals with communication. Point 3 says there were no violations of the state border or any other incidents. Point 4 says the conduct of the civilian population was satisfactory. There were no incidents or provocations. Point 5 deals with activities and status ⁴⁵⁸⁵¹ within the unit. The activities are enumerated. Point 6 deals with logistical support. Point 9 suggested activities, proposals to the superior command, et cetera.

I suggest, for instance, that due to low temperatures and a small number of commanding officers, ambushes be laid only as required, only when clues have been detected.

And then point 10, request to the superior command. Movements were very short. The -- there was an observers group present. We list their names, including their interpreters and drivers. The observers required to be allowed to continue towards Cafa Prusit pass. They were not allowed to do so. They were told to contact the liaison officer. The observers replied that it was all part of the game, and of course this comment was not answered. One of them, called Shillemore, had a coded map of foreign origin. Members of the group returned to Djakovica. However, already at 1320, less than an hour later, in the area of Kadar Ruska [phoen], which is less than a kilometre away from the previous village, a patrol from Combat Group 2 stopped a vehicle, licence number 33K35. That's the same vehicle and the same people who had visited me an hour earlier and who had been told that they are not allowed to go into the border belt without a liaison officer. They tried to go to Zulfa block house and Cafa Prusit. They were turned back. They said that they would lodge a complaint, a protest.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, you must ask a question. You know that this is not the approach that I favour. I appreciate that the ⁴⁵⁸⁵² document is not translated, but merely to have the witness read pages and pages, I don't find that very helpful.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, you're now talking about your unit, and I don't want you to tell me your assumptions, only your knowledge. Was your treatment of the observers completely in compliance with the agreement signed and all the other documents signed?

A. The conduct of myself and my unit was completely in the spirit of the orders and prescribed norms of conduct. I have to tell you it wasn't easy at all, but we have -- we had to comply.

If you allow me to give you some examples, you'll see why it wasn't easy.

Q. You may, but very briefly.

A. Well, on page 27, which I happened to open now, they did not want to show their IDs. They even made statements that they were from the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom. That was not correct behaviour at all. And it also happened that the same teams would be found by us in the border belt several times within one day. And they knew, it was known, that they were not allowed to be in the border belt at all. There were also other examples when they were accompanied by a liaison officer and then they were subjected to no control.

Q. Just let us get this clear. When they were trying to do it regularly, that is with the liaison officer, they were not subjected to control and they were not hindered in any way. However, when they tried to act irregularly, they were stopped or turned back. ⁴⁵⁸⁵³

A. Yes. They had no problems when they acted regularly and had a liaison officer with them. And on one occasion, as I said, when they were found in the -- without a liaison officer in the border belt - and incidentally, it was me who found them there --

JUDGE ROBINSON: [Previous translation continues]... verifying group impact on any of the charges that you face?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The entire context is relevant, because from these original documents that we find here we can see not only what the regulations and orders were but we also see that the army strictly complied with those orders. And these reports cover the entire period, and you can see no exception from the army's general compliance with the rules and orders. And if they really complied fully, then it is not surprising that Colonel Vukovic is astonished to hear some of Mr. Nice's claims about the conduct of the army.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Let us move on.

MR. NICE: The position with the --

JUDGE ROBINSON: It's only marginally relevant, in my view.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, the position with these documents is deeply unsatisfactory. The documents are not very easy to read, even, I think, for readers of the language. They come in untranslated. In fact, the witness - and I make no complaint about this so far as the witness is concerned - in fact the witness isn't even reading them verbatim, he's now summarising them, so that at some stage one would want to be able to check whether his summary accords.

The material we've been dealing with, prefaced as it was by a ⁴⁵⁸⁵⁴ leading question by the accused a few questions ago, is, I agree with Your Honour -- I don't agree with Your Honour, I respectfully adopt the point Your Honour is raising, is of tangential value. And when we come to the more obviously important passages in the 23rd to the 30th of March, or in April, if this witness is going to be dealing with Meja, that's where we're going to want to hear these things word for word. We're going to want to know exactly what these documents say. No English translations of them. It may be the best we can do is get this witness to go through them line by line so that we can know what's being reported. Very unsatisfactory. And the accused can't say any longer that he doesn't know how he's supposed to present evidence or it's somebody else's fault. It's not; it's his fault.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, I endorse what Mr. Nice has said. It's really very unsatisfactory, Mr. Milosevic. When we come to the passages that are of crucial importance, we will have to decide what to do. Maybe then the witness will have to read them verbatim. But proceed. Let us move on quickly.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, you pointed out page 27 to us. Now, what is on page 33, 34 in the briefest possible terms?

A. Well, for the most part, in addition to the regular activities set out there during that period, and indeed there were no other operations launched in by the unit except to provide security in-depth and to supply security for the border belt, they are for the most part reports about encounters with the verifiers, members of the Verification Mission. ^{45855 BLANK PAGE 45856}

Q. Were there any incidents concerning members of the Verification Mission?

A. No, no incidents arose except for the fact that, as I said a moment ago, they would frequently state that they would launch a protest with the superior command because we didn't allow them to enter into the border belt, although they knew full well that they had no right to do that. Otherwise, the -- what is termed an incident is when some unauthorised person enters the border belt.

Let me just remind you that every country in the world has a border belt, a designated border belt, and regulations regulating the border crossing regime. And that implies and clearly defines procedure on the part of the citizens and the army and police and all other organs which are performing any sort of duty at the border, at the border belt. And the regulation of entries, movements, sojourns and fishing and hunting and many other things in this area.

Q. Just to make this quite clear, you used the word "entry" or incursion. You meant incursion into the border belt, not entry and crossing of the border.

A. Yes, that's right. Entry as incursion from the depths of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia into the border belt.

Q. So you mean incursion into the border belt?

A. Yes.

Q. Colonel Vukovic, the army otherwise provides security at the border apart from the border crossings themselves?

A. Yes, of course. The army provides security and guards the border ⁴⁵⁸⁵⁷ belt.

Q. You mean where there are no border crossings?

A. Yes, that's right. The border police sees to the border crossings themselves, and this is provided for by the law, but the army protects the rest of the border and frontier.

Q. All right. In order to save time, we're not going to dwell on this series of reports here that I did intend initially to go through, but let me ask you, when do these daily reports become combat reports?

A. When the war begins, on the first day of the war. Daily reports become combat reports, as prescribed by the instructions given to the work of the staffs and commands.

Q. May we now take a look at when that begins? In this book here, book of daily reports, when do they become combat reports? I think it's on page 126 that that transition takes place.

A. On the 24th, we had a regular daily report sent out. At around 1700 hours the reports were sent out, I believe, and the aggression started on the 24th at 2000 hours. So that the very fact and act of aggression is described in the following, the first -- next report.

Q. So on page 126, it says that commander 2/549 - that is to say the 2nd Battalion of the 549th Motorised Brigade - on the 24th of March, 1999.

A. Yes.

Q. Let's have a look what it says there, just by way of example. That is the first day of the aggression. What does it say in that report for the 24th of March?

A. It says, under point 1 -- I'll read it in detail, not to create ⁴⁵⁸⁵⁸ any confusion: "In the area of responsibility of the 2nd Battalion of the 549th Motorised Brigade, no movement or activities were noticed on the part of the Siptar terrorist forces. On the 24th of March, 1999, at around 2000 hours, from the direction of the Republic of Albania, an attack was launched by a bombing and air -- fighter planes of NATO pact, which is when the aggression started on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During these strikes, there were no consequences on members of the 2nd Battalion of the 549th Motorised Brigade. All security measures were undertaken to protect the units from the effects of those forces.

Q. Of the NATO and Siptar forces, it says.

A. Well, it's a poor photocopy so I wasn't able to read that part of it.

Point 3: "An armed aggression was effected by NATO by a synchronised operation setting fire along the edges of the border with the Republic of Albania," and in brackets it says: "This marked the border and frontier of the Republic of Albania. In-depth reflectors were noticed which signalled and lighted up the targets of Milanovac" and so on. This report continues.

Q. What reflectors are you referring to? What sort of reflectors? What is that? What's that all about?

A. Very strong reflectors were used, and we assume that they were turned on or, rather, these reflectors or floodlights were turned on to show the position of the army and army facilities. However, as far as military facilities are concerned, the NATO Air Force had very precise ⁴⁵⁸⁵⁹ information and data which was -- which had been amassed in 1998 and 1999. That information was collected up then. And information was also gathered precisely by members of the verifying commission. The verifiers collected most of that information, and I can say that because I became convinced of that myself. I can tell you why, if you wish.

Q. Go ahead.

A. Well, in my barracks, the Devet Jugovica barracks in Djakovica, they came to visit the barracks very often, very frequently, because among other things there was the liaison officer who was stationed there with his team. So my office was directly hit, for example, and so was the office of the head, the chief officer, liaison officer. It was Colonel Kotur at the time.

In the village of Zub, they would only go to the command post once, when there was a change of shift. When the verifying teams changed over, there was a liaison officer with them there, and I think his name was Captain Ivanovski from the brigade command. And my command post at the village of Zub is -- was hit with a direct hit three times. And the same thing happened to the command post of combat group 3 in the village of Damjan, and so on and so forth. And any way, I would come across them many times taking the coordinates of the facilities and features and drawing maps of the communication network, and they were well trained. If you look at the make-up of the verifiers where there -- there were a lot of retired officers. They had excellent maps, satellite maps. They had GPSs, which means global positioning systems, for automatic determination of coordinates in space over the territory, and so on and so ⁴⁵⁸⁶⁰ forth. I could go on to tell you about this for days, but I don't want to take up too much of your time.

Q. Colonel Vukovic, let me just ask you this, a professional question, if you can explain this to us: On the 24th of March when the aggression started, you saw in-depth these floodlights, these reflector lights switched on. Now, the person switching on these reflecting lights, do they have to have communications and give signals to the individual to determine where to beam the lights and at what distance the operation is supposed to be conducted? Because I assume that nobody is going to direct the floodlights, beam the floodlights to the actual target. Is it possible to have coordination like that without direct communication between those doing the bombing and those switching on the reflector lights?

A. Well, of course, otherwise there would be no sense to it. Unless there was excellent coordination and as we -- we soldiers term an organised communication line. And in that sense, the terrorists did have highly sophisticated devices, including satellite telephones. And in 1998 already, as far back as 1998 when they came into the country from the Republic of Albania, when they entered the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, we found that they had that kind of weapons and equipment because we seized a large part of cutting-edge, state of the art, sophisticated communication devices. So that communication did exist. It was very well organised from day one. And among other things let me remind you that already previously it was -- an operation had been planned, an anti-terrorist organisation had been planned and executed, the one I ⁴⁵⁸⁶¹ talked about yesterday, with the aim of preventing this cooperation between the Siptar terrorist forces on the one hand and NATO Air Force on the other.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, we are going to take the first break for 15 minutes. We are adjourned for 15 minutes.

--- Recess taken at 10.03 a.m.

--- On resuming at 10.21 a.m.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, on the first day of operations, the 24th of March, you noted here the coordinated action between terrorist forces on the ground and NATO planes, NATO -- the NATO Air Force. Let us now take a look at the following pages, combat reports. 144, for example, page 144.

A. That is a combat report for the 21st of April, 1999.

MR. NICE: Your Honours will note we passed over completely page 126, which would appear to be one day, in any event, of particular relevance to our interests which we have no translation, because that appears to be the 24th of March.

Incidentally, while I'm on my feet, one of the problems I was having before the break -- sorry, we've done that. The page for the 24th of March was the page we were looking at. We assumed we were looking at the bottom right-hand corner of the 24th of March, but I couldn't actually tie up the evidence that the witness was giving with the passage we were looking at and I'd be grateful for clarification of that, because in ⁴⁵⁸⁶² relation to item 3 he spoke of something in brackets and I can't find anything in brackets on the text. So I assume we were looking at the bottom right-hand corner of page 126.

If we're now going to page 144, then we are passing over a page the date of which is hard for me to find and the relevance of which may or may not be greater than the material we've looked at already.

JUDGE ROBINSON: So the one which has been passed over is the 24th of March, at the bottom right-hand corner of page 126.

MR. NICE: No, that's I think what we were looking at and what was being presented, and probably was, as the foundation for the witness's evidence. My trouble with that was that I could never find the bracket he referred to in item 3, so I wondered if he was looking at another page and I simply don't know. There's certainly no bracket in item 3 that I can find.

JUDGE ROBINSON: There's no bracket as far as I can see either. Perhaps it's there in B/C/S.

Mr. Milosevic?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I see it here in writing, handwriting. And this page wasn't skipped over. Colonel Vukovic, to the contrary, read the beginning of the note for the 24th of March, every word.

And then it says in point 3 that an armed aggression, a NATO armed aggression was carried out. It's difficult for me to read the handwriting, but it goes on after that. And then putting up fires along the frontier with Albania, which marked the frontier, close brackets, and ⁴⁵⁸⁶³ then it says, comma, and then it says in-depth, reflector lights were noticed which marked the targets at Milanovac mountain, and everything that the witness read out. And if you place that on the overhead projector, you'll be able to see the brackets easily, which means how they marked the frontier with the Republic of Albania.

MR. NICE: I think it shows up as an oblique line and not as a bracket as we would conventionally understand.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] After Republic of Albania, you have the parenthesis. Can you see that? And then the second parenthesis or, rather, close bracket.

JUDGE ROBINSON: [Previous translation continues]... writing, which makes it difficult to determine what is a bracket and what isn't.

MR. NICE: Well, Your Honour, we're clearly passing over the balance of that entry for the page 127, which is the same day, and then it appears the following day, the 25th of March, at least in part, which are days of course particularly important in light of the evidence given by the witness --

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, I'm going to ask you to have the witness -- take the witness through page 127.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, yes, but all I'm doing is highlighting some examples, and I think that what Mr. Nice is interested in or, rather, anything that he's interested in can be raised in the cross-examination.

Now, page 127 --

JUDGE ROBINSON: Just a minute. Just a minute. ⁴⁵⁸⁶⁴

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] If you so desire, let's look at page 127.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, go ahead.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Do you wish to take a look at page 127?

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, on this page, on the left-hand side you have the continuation of the report of the 24th, and on the right-hand side is the report of the 25th.

A. Yes.

Q. Is there anything characteristic there that you'd like to highlight?

A. Point 4. I have highlighted point 4. At the beginning of the page it says the civilian population in our encirclement and in the area of responsibility of the 2nd Battalion of the 549th Motorised Brigade behaved satisfactorily. That -- let me remind you that my command post was along the ridges of the village of Zub, and with that population never, neither in 1999 or 1998, were there any problems with the population. No situations of excess.

And then point 5 goes on to speak about the activities in my unit. Do you wish me to read out the entire report, or do you wish me to comment?

Q. Well, I think that it would be better if we just stuck to the comments. Anybody interested in the report can read it for themselves. ^{45865 BLANK PAGE 45866}

A. All right. Very well. During that day, too, in point 5 I list the activities that that particular unit had for that day. That is to say, that in-depth security was continued for the state border, the border belt, and then mention is made about a group for setting up obstacles and pinpoint certain features and facilities to be knocked down, and organises a protective service.

And I'd like to draw your attention to 5.5, that paragraph, which says that when the march was carried out, the march linked to the activities in the Bela Crkva area, that one of the motor vehicles in the motorcade collapsed, tipped over. So we're informing the brigade of that. In point 8, it says that the focus of activities for the following day, and then it lists the activities, security -- in-depth security for the state border. So although this had been started, the combat group or part of the battalion was in the area and carrying out its daily activities, because we still had not received orders to organise our defence as such.

The second alinea says take measures and steps and procedure to mask and camouflage to protect the units from airstrikes and NATO planes. And under 3, to effect tasks 1278/2 of the 23rd of March, 1999. So this act regulated the participation of a unit in the execution of its assignments. And this particular assignment was in the region of Bela Crkva. That's what that referred to.

Then point 9 are the requirements of the superior command and proposals. And if you go on to page 127, you'll see the rest of it. Point 10, which says proposals to the superior command and from ⁴⁵⁸⁶⁷ them, and permission. The first point is permission for dislocation of the command and the units. From the present location of Zub village to some other location, the proposal was for it to be either Brekovac village or Vogov [phoen] village.

You can see from that proposal that the approval of the superior command has to be required, requested, for every movement of the unit. And down where the signature is, you can see that Major Radic signed on my behalf because on that day I was out in the field, executing a task on a different axis, so I was not present at the command post of the battalion. I spoke about that both yesterday and earlier today.

Q. Yes, you have. Just look briefly at the combat report on the 22nd April, page 144.

A. 22nd.

Q. Page 144.

A. Well, in item 1 it deals with activity by enemy aviation. On that day, there seem to have been no airstrikes. Enemy aeroplanes flew over the defence area from 7.45 to 8.30, from 1200 to 1500 hours, without striking.

Further below are listed requests we made on that day and the strength of the units. However, please look at the left side of the page, which deals with the 21st. If I may comment on that.

Q. Please go ahead.

A. 21st April, item 1 says: "Enemy NATO forces struck the refugee settlement Maja. The pulling out of wounded and dead is under way." The refugee settlement of Maja is along the Djakovica-Prizren ⁴⁵⁸⁶⁸ road. It housed exclusively civilians. In particular, refugees, Serb refugees, from the war in Croatia.

Never has a single military unit or a police unit been present in that settlement. I know that for sure, because it was in my area. Item 2, units are engaged in the engineering preparation of the defence area.

Item 3, request for replenishment with materiel and equipment according to our request 50-1, dated 19th of April, 1999. From this we can see that we were already experiencing problems with the supply of units, but we can see one more thing; namely that combat reports as prescribed by the rules are very brief because they are communicated via radio. For the very well-known reason that communication centres are a regular target, we opted for short transmissions. This particular report was probably sent in writing through official mail. It was carried by a courier.

Item 4 says numerical strength: 36 officers, non-commissioned officers 30, 1.602 soldiers. That's for that day. And item 5, supplement to the previous report, which means this happened a day earlier. It says, "We established forces to secure the civilian population following your record, strictly confidential, 1469-2, dated 17 April, 1999."

And in the next line it says on the 20th of April, 1999, around 1400 hours, the platoon commander on Cafa Prusit block house observed a group of Siptar terrorist forces.

I draw your attention to the first paragraph, namely the ⁴⁵⁸⁶⁹ establishment of forces to secure the civilian population. They were one platoon strong, and their task was -- I have, by the way, that order from the superior command. I can show it to you if you want me to. They had the task to cooperate with the civilian authorities in Djakovica municipality, to alert the civilians of air danger, danger from the air, to shelter civilians and assist them in case of imminent airstrikes, to alleviate and remove the consequences of airstrikes and the fallen projectiles, and to help with supplies. I must say that I had no strength to deal with this particular task because I was commanding my basic tactical unit. I left that to larger commands.

And one task was to protect civilians from any incident of abuse of authority by army members. This unit did have several cases of such intervention, and I can enumerate them if necessary.

Q. On page -- or, rather, sheet 147, we find combat reports for the 27th and 28th of April. But before that, I noticed something while leafing through this large volume of your reports. On page 136, we see an interim report. Do you have page 136 in front of you?

A. It hasn't been copied for me. You would have to give it to me.

Q. I have one copy available. I handed it in for copying, for their needs, but I won't dwell on it with you. I won't detain you. Just look at the pages that have been copied. You have -- on page 147 you have a combat report. What does it deal with?

A. Well, in point 1 we read about the disposition of the enemy, specifically during those days, and the activities of the aviation. ⁴⁵⁸⁷⁰ In point 1, it says: Enemy aeroplanes flew over the defence area during the night from 1.30 to 4.00 and during the day from 9.15 to 10.45, and from 12.00 to 13.45. In the course of the day, they struck with one projectile without consequences. That means no human loss. And that was in the area of the block house Dejan Radanovic, to the south. Point 2, the unit -- or, rather, part of the unit is engaged in the blockade of the area on the following axis: Korenica village --

JUDGE ROBINSON: Just a second, please, Mr. Vukovic. Mr. Milosevic, what are you seeking to establish by the reading of these reports?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm trying to demonstrate that every day of the war was monitored, that every single action of the unit was recorded, very briefly, of course, like diary entries are normally made.

JUDGE ROBINSON: So what if every movement were monitored? Where does that take us?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] To show that the unit acted strictly in accordance with the rules.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, you might consider, then, that you have -- you have been through enough of these reports. If the Prosecutor wishes to raise any particular matter, then he can bring it to the attention of the witness and the witness will read it again. We do have the unfortunate situation that the report is not translated, but he could then go through the same exercise with the Prosecutor if the Prosecutor wishes to cross-examine on any particular matter that you have not dealt with.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. Then I'm no longer going ⁴⁵⁸⁷¹ to dwell on these combat reports.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, you have also brought your war diary --

MR. NICE: Before we move from the reports, may I make a point which I hope won't arise but may. I would respectfully suggest that any court inquiring into these very grave allegations and being presented with what is said to be the contemporaneous account of a relevant unit for the material time will want to have available to it to consider those accounts in translation and will want them to be explored to the degree necessary with this witness to deal with the various possible propositions that the Prosecution may raise in due course; i.e., we simply can't pass over these documents now that they are available. They're exactly the sort of documents we've had an interest in, although I accept, of course, we've never extended our request, formal requests, down to this level of operational reporting because it would have been far too broad and would always have been said so to be.

So that now that we've been provided with documents which cover the relevant days, even though the accused hasn't had any of them produced in his selection, or almost none and has gone through none of them, it really will be my duty one way or another to explore them and possibly to ask questions about them in some detail. That has time and timing implications. I'm doing everything I can to ensure that I will be in a position to deal with these by tomorrow morning. Whether that's remotely possible at the moment, I don't know, but I would alert the Chamber to the fact that the Chamber, I imagine, will want to have this material ⁴⁵⁸⁷² available to consider with this witness before he leaves the court finally. I'm very anxious not to have to ask to postpone cross-examination for a range of reasons, but ultimately that's the only course I'll be able to take.

JUDGE BONOMY: I don't quite see it that way, Mr. Nice. If -- I don't think it's appropriate to carry out investigation on the hoof. If you don't have time to consider the documents properly, then no doubt you'll make an appropriate application, but I don't think the appropriate way to cross-examine the witness is to go through the document, looking for something that might be helpful. I think it's your job to identify before asking the questions what might be helpful to the Court. Now, having said that, I fully appreciate the difficulty you're in, and I would discourage you from using time simply to go on a voyage of exploration and discovery in the course of cross-examination.

MR. NICE: I certainly have no intention of doing that. The position to be contrasted is as follows: Had this material been available in advance in translation, then of course cross-examination could deal with the things singly and comprehensively. If what happens is that the document is produced now, either just the extracts or the whole document, translated later without the witness come back, then the document is available for comment on one side or the other in closing arguments without the document having been properly explored, and that's always a danger, and that's the danger I'm seeking to avoid. What I will try to do, if resources make this possible, is to look at the relevant days, or what seem to be the relevant days, with the ⁴⁵⁸⁷³ witness tomorrow. If I can't do that, it seems to me I'll have to ask for an adjournment. And I certainly have no intention of just going through the documents to find out what they say. I agree with Your Honour Judge Bonomy that would not be an appropriate use of time.

JUDGE BONOMY: In case you envisage us sitting tomorrow, I certainly wasn't aware of it.

MR. NICE: Your Honour is quite right. Next week.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, do your best in the circumstances, Mr. Nice.

Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Once again, I'd like to stress that the translation service doesn't receive whole documents. And in the binders with the tabs linked to the testimony of Colonel Vukovic, you will find these brief excerpts which have been provided as exhibits, and it says here "Daily report, translation pending," for example. Another report, translation pending. And then for the rest, "Translation provided." So for the two we have translation pending, and for the four other ones, it says -- or, no, for two of them translations provided and then translation pending, it says, on the others again. So that has been given over for translation. Some it have has been translated, and you have the passages translated marked. What has not been translated and was submitted for translation on time, pursuant to practice here, is placed on the overhead projector and can then be commented on. I don't know how else we can proceed.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Let us move on, bearing in mind what I ⁴⁵⁸⁷⁴ said, that you may have already referred to enough of these reports.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Demonstrated the point.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Fine. It is my intention to present these exhibits as evidence. I'd like to have them admitted. They refer to events as they took place. They are original documents, and I'd like to tender them into evidence.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Of course marked for identification pending translation.

THE REGISTRAR: D322 for the binder.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, you have brought your war diary with you as well.

A. Yes.

Q. So I'm now going to ask you to go briefly through some of the portions of the war diary.

JUDGE BONOMY: Could I ask you, Colonel, first of all, how you obtained the war diary.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. Bonomy, I obtained the war diary and, generally speaking, all the other documents here which I have in my binder I obtained during the preparation stage, through the legal advisors and representatives Mr. Tomanovic. And I had with me in handwritten form -- all I had myself were the statements in written form that I provided for the International Commission for Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal.

JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you very much. ^{45875 BLANK PAGE 45876}

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel, is this your war diary?

A. Yes, it is. It is my war diary, the war diary of the 2nd Motorised Brigade -- Battalion, and we can see from the previous page, and I do apologise straight away for the very poor handwriting for the first three or four days because I was absent. I was away from the command post during that period of time so these entries were made, as far as I can see from the signature, by my assistant for moral guidance, Major Radic. And later on, I took it up from -- let's just see the date. I'm missing a few pages. I don't know why. From the 3rd -- or, rather, from the 3rd on I made the entries myself. I kept the war diary precisely because it is prescribed that an officer must keep this war diary. And from the first few pages you can see that this is highly illegible. So then I wrote in the entries myself. And therefore this is a document which came into being at the time specified on the pages, first few pages of the diary, beginning with the 24th of March and ending with the 26th of June, 1999, when the federal government abolished the state of war that had been in force up until then, or declared an end to the state of war.

Q. Here we have just a few pages just for illustration purposes so that you can see what this war diary actually looks like, and I'm going to give you -- well, if there are any additional necessary points to quote here, I shall be happy to provide you with the integral copy, the diary in its entirety which my associates have in their possession. So you can see the 24th there and the 25th, the 26th, the 27th, the 28th, the 29th, the 30th of March, and the days following on from each ⁴⁵⁸⁷⁷ other in order. So you have all the days covered there, all the days that you testified about.

A. Yes, that's right. The war diary covers the period of the war, from the 24th, and the first piece of information, the first entry was made on the 24th of March, at 1959. And the dates are very precisely recorded, and perhaps for the benefit of the Trial Chamber I can also say that this diary includes the following matters: The most important orders issued from the superior command, the most important decisions made by myself pursuant to those records, the most important activities that the unit engaged in, and the most important enemy actions. So those are the pieces of information that are recorded for each individual day and with a recording of the time.

And you will see in the diary, for example, that an event is recorded first in, say, at 1700 hours and then at 1200 hours, which means that we received at the command post information or reports of something that happened later on. And that was because the battalion command was capacitated to effect defence on a front which was three to five kilometres long, and in depth it was two to three kilometres. And the zone, the area was about 38 kilometres along the front line and four to 12 in depth. So what happened sometimes was that from the more distance units we would receive reports later on, which explains why the times are different.

Q. So in the diary you have entries recording information as it arrived, as it came into the command post and not in the chronological order in which the events took place; is that right? Is that what you ⁴⁵⁸⁷⁸ mean?

A. Yes, precisely that.

Q. But this was solved by the fact that you record the exact time of an event. So there can be no misunderstanding or mix-up on that score.

A. Yes, that's right.

Q. Fine. Thank you. Now, Colonel, in this complete diary, day by day, we see entries made of all those days, all the days that you testified about. So I'm not going to ask you about that now because you've already testified about them, and the diary exists. And if Mr. Nice needs to ask you any more detailed questions, he will have an opportunity, I'm sure, of doing that in due course. Now, do you consider it necessary for us to look at some other pages of the diary? Would you like to do that? Anything special that you'd like to tell us about, individual portions of the war diary?

A. Mr. Milosevic, all those days are important, as far as I'm concerned.

Q. Well, you heard Mr. Robinson say and indicate that we only want examples, not to waste too much time. So point out the most important points. And I, too, set aside a certain number of pages related to the 24th, 5th, and 6th, and then the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th of April, for example, those days.

A. Well, from these first few pages you can see the beginning of the aggression, how the units left to take up their positions and assignments. I commented on that yesterday and today.

On page 4, for example, you can see an additional entry to the war ⁴⁵⁸⁷⁹ diary, because it was only when part of a unit had returned to the battalion that we were able to write in additional entries linked to the counter-terrorist, anti-terrorist operation that was carried out in the broader area of Bela Crkva and Orahovac.

If you take a look at the report -- or the entry, rather, for the 4th of April, that one might be characteristic, perhaps, precisely because of the passing through of civilians or pass -- the Cafa Prusit -- civilians passing the Cafa Prusit border crossing point, which was in my area of defence. If you want to, I can comment that.

Q. May we have it placed on the overhead projector. It's a short entry for the 4th of April, 1999. Can we look at what it says?

A. Point 2, it says during the course of the day in the direction of the Cafa Prusit border crossing, about 4.000 civilians passed through. And the transport of children and elderly persons was organised. And this same was done, that is to say that relates to the border crossing, on the 30th of March as well. The same thing happened, but let me explain what that's about.

That means that near the command post, which was as far as the civilians were able to come on tractors and motor vehicles, among other things, and then they weren't able to go on further on vehicles and in vehicles because the road from the village of Zub to the border crossing Cafa Prusit had been mind and prepared for destruction at various points. So we weren't able to use that road either for our own needs, and we weren't able to pass that way in motor vehicles. The border crossing itself and the border belt along the border ⁴⁵⁸⁸⁰ and frontier with the Republic of Albania had been -- obstacles had been set up in the anti-armoured protection devices. Anti-tank obstacles had been set up which were concrete boulders weighing several tons, and also a large number of anti-tank mines had been planted as well. So it was quite impossible in that short period of time to de-mine the area and do away with the obstacles, because you need a crane to get rid of those obstacles and any technical machinery would have been noticed and it would have been targeted. Machinery and equipment was targeted with high-precision weapons, that's why we didn't use it. But we enabled the civilians who wished to leave and go to Albania to go on foot. And let me tell you straight away that on the 30th of -- or, I rather -- I spoke to the civilians myself and offered them a number of options. One of those options were to go back to where they had come from. The second option was to put up -- be put up in the villages around the village of Zuga. The village of Zuga, for example, wanted to take in those elderly persons, and there were some 30 elderly persons, mostly, and a few women with children, and quite simply they were not able to continue their journey, and I had to use an interpreter because they didn't speak Serbian. But they didn't take me up on any of the options that were offered to them, and then I ordered my deputy to --

JUDGE KWON: If you could keep your answer very simple.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Do we need all of this detail?

JUDGE KWON: Yes. Mr. Milosevic, I would like you to deal with 27th and 28th of April from this war diary, which should refer to Meja operation. ⁴⁵⁸⁸¹

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, I will do that, Mr. Kwon. There's no problem there. However, please bear in mind that in these fabricated charges that Mr. Nice keeps putting forward, we have the leitmotif of the army expelling civilians, escorting them to the border, expelling them, looting, and so on. Those allegations are made constantly. So what it says here in the war diary contemporaneous with that time completely denies that, just like the testimony of the colonel does.

MR. NICE: I'm not sure why the accused feels the need to embark on that sort comment in answer to a very simple request from the Bench.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. I reprimand you, Mr. Milosevic, for the comment about fabricated charges. We have been through that before.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, they're not comments, they're assertions, Mr. Robinson.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, would you read out the entry for the 30th. What does it say there under the -- or, rather, the third point of your diary as recorded by you.

A. The 30th of what month?

Q. The 30th of March.

MR. NICE: [Previous translation continues]... request. Unless I'm having a problem with comprehension, I thought there was a very simple request that the witness might be taken to the 27th and the 28th, being the days that deal with Meja. They can be found quite clearly on page 21 of this document. ⁴⁵⁸⁸²

JUDGE ROBINSON: Go to those pages, Mr. Milosevic.

JUDGE KWON: 30th of March is not included in the binder which we have. Why don't you deal with 27th and 28th of April and then come back to other items.

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please. Microphone.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, the 28th and 29th of April. No problem.

JUDGE KWON: 27th and 28th.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. The 27th and 28th of April are to be found on the 21st page of your war diary. Have you found it?

A. It's on page 20 and 21.

Q. That's right, 20 and 21. I was just looking at the upper, right-hand corner. Sorry.

But could you go through the 27th and 28th of April now, please.

A. For the 27th of April, the entry made is this: At 0600 hours a blockade was effected along the line of the SAO Korenica, and in brackets we have trig point 360, close brackets, the cemetery, the crossroads, the village of Meja, Orize with Kodra Kikes, and I can show you that position on the map if need be.

Q. You can show it on the map over there.

A. Well, Mr. Milosevic, the scale is 1 to 30.000 here, so of all these projectiles that fell on the area of responsibility of my unit you're not going to be able to see anything, so we would have to take up a ⁴⁵⁸⁸³ different map where the scale is different.

Q. I think we have -- do we have in fact of Meja here?

A. Yes, we do, and I'll tell you, here in my binder it has been marked -- just a moment, please. And as far as I know, General Djosan testified about that, and in the list it says it was admitted. It is number 21 in my binder, and it says Meja, the 27th of March till the 28th of March, and this -- the scale of this map is 1 to 50.000, so you'll be able to see that there.

Q. I did not return General Djosan's binder into the documents I prepared for today, but I see that the map is here. So show us on the map what is written in your war diary.

JUDGE KWON: Can you not put it on the ELMO?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I think that would be better.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, first of all would you please read what is written in your diary for the 27th, and then you will give explanations on the map.

JUDGE KWON: The diary should be put on the ELMO again. He's reading diary, so -- thank you.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] At 0600 hours, a blockade was carried out on the line Korenica village, (trig point 360), cemetery, crossroads, Meja village, and Kodra Kikes.

0830, in the area of the cemetery on the blockade line there was shooting at soldiers holding the blockade line from a group of civilians that included children. Soldiers and volunteers from the 1st Motorised ⁴⁵⁸⁸⁴ Company were wounded. Dobrica Vuckovic from Smederevo and Miroslav Lapadatovic from Kostolac. Soldiers have been given medical aid whereas Vuckovic was transferred to the military medical centre in Pristina due to the fracture of the femur.

At 1420, enemy aeroplanes dropped one projectile on the Grm feature. No losses caused.

2105, two projectiles were used to strike at the barracks. No victims, no casualties. That was for the 27th of April.

Q. Now, read again what you said at the beginning, 0600 hours, blockade carried out on the line Korenica village, cemetery, juncture on the road, Meja village, Orize, Kodra Kikes. Show us all that on the map.

A. I don't know how much you will see here.

Q. Well, we can't see anything, that's why it would be better to put it on the ELMO. Mr. Kwon actually suggested we do that.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Let it be placed on the ELMO.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] So Combat Group 2 that was established to perform this mission was on the southern slopes, southern parts of Korenica village, on the level of the road which reads from Djakovica to Junik.

Second, it weaved through this intersection on the road, which is clearly indicated, covering Meja, Orize village, and curved towards Kodra and Kikes feature, trig point 421. That was the right edge of my unit. My command post is drawn in here. It was an abandoned house on the road between Korenica and Djakovica.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic -- ^{45885 BLANK PAGE 45886}

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone.

JUDGE ROBINSON: In accordance with the revised timetable for today, we will take a 15-minute break now.

--- Recess taken at 11.15 a.m.

--- On resuming at 11.38 a.m.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

THE INTERPRETER: No microphone.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. We had just gone through what Mr. Kwon asked about, and now please look at 28th March. What is written in your war diary?

A. You must have made a slip of the tongue. It's the 28th of April.

Q. I'm sorry. Yes. We were talking about the 28th of April. We've gone through the 27th of April. Now we're on the 28th.

A. On the 28th of April, the following is written in the war diary: Part of the unit is blocking the Reka feature.

0220, Siptars tried to pull out from the blockade in the area of Kodra Kikes. The group was crushed, one person liquidated. Large amount of ammunition and mines for hand-held launcher seized. 1435, a soldier, volunteer, Branimir Letic from Brcko, wounded in the head. After medical assistance was given, the soldier was transferred to the military medical centre in Pristina. Enemy planes flew over all day without striking on the area of defence.

Q. Is that all for the 28th of April?

A. Yes. Those were the most important events for that date.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, have we dealt sufficiently ⁴⁵⁸⁸⁷ with the 27th and the 28th of April?

JUDGE KWON: Yes, thank you. Proceed.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Now, Colonel, I would appreciate it if you would read from these initial days entries for the 30th of March.

A. I don't think I have a copy of the 30th March page.

Q. I'll give you a copy to be put on the ELMO. Would you read only the last bit, the last entry for the 30th of March on the page you will receive in a minute, and the next page, the entry containing a reference to the passage of civilians. You mentioned a passage of civilians on the 4th of April. Now, on the 30th of March, the last few lines.

A. In the course of the day, around 2.000 people passed on their way toward the border crossing Cafa Prusit. Organised transport of children and elderly people.

Q. Turn the next page and read the rest.

A. Djakovica, Prizren clogged up with columns of refugees. There is nothing more sad than to look at columns of poor people moving out of their homes, following somebody's orders. Soldiers, the way soldiers do, give juice and biscuits to the passing children.

Q. Thank you, Colonel. Is there anything noteworthy among these events from your war diary, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of April? You have already commented on the 4th. Four thousand civilians passed. You helped them. Do you think there are any other noteworthy entries?

A. We can see in the following days that work is done on the ⁴⁵⁸⁸⁸ organisation of defence. And later, when you deal with my combat orders, you'll see that I made the first one on the 3rd of April. So the unit worked to organise defence. Soldiers were received from the reserve force. Also a large group of volunteers arrived. They were assigned across various units.

I'm telling you, each of these dates is equally important in my eyes, but if you want us to go through it quickly, maybe we should look at the 17th of May. Here in my copy I cannot see what page it is because it's a bad copy.

Q. The 17th of May. It's either the 31st page or the 39th. The date is the 17th of May.

A. With your leave, I'll read this.

Q. Go ahead.

A. Planes are flying again. Normally -- the previous day, the 16th, was a rare day when there was no airstrikes. So planes are flying again from 0320 to 0830. Enemy planes were flying over. No strikes. 1330, enemy aviation struck with three projectiles on the false position of the 1st Motorised Company and the watchtower of Veva [phoen]. The watchtower is destroyed, no losses.

1340 to 1500 hours, fire opened on the 2nd platoon of the 3rd Motorised Company in the area of trig point 902. The fire was not responded to. This trig point is on the very border with the Republic of Albania.

1410, two projectiles expelled at the watchtower Cafa Prusit. No consequences. ⁴⁵⁸⁸⁹ 1620, in the area of Car village, nine tanks and ten trucks noticed.

1705 until 1720, two tanks escorted by infantry fired on the position of the 2nd Border Company in the area of Cafa Prusit. After fire of the 120-millimetre mortar and 155-millimetre howitzer, one tank withdrew to the area of trig point 816, one kilometre to the north of Maja and Sukit. The infantry scattered and one tank was hit and started burning. We had no losses.

1740, six tanks observed in the area of Dobruna village. 2230, from the area of Dobruna village, tanks were heard. They went towards Car village.

From this we can see, first of all, synchronised, coordinated action of the armed forces of Albania, because they were the only ones who had tanks, the terrorists, who were the infantry, and the aviation of the NATO alliance that gave them air support.

Incidentally, this principle of action was very common and almost a daily occurrence to a smaller or higher extent.

Q. What was this infantry attack on the 2nd platoon of the 3rd Motorised Company? It says fire was opened from infantry weapons and enemy infantry scattered.

A. On which page?

Q. Just after what you read.

A. Oh, that's the 18th May. From 0310 to 0330, there was an infantry attack on the 1st platoon of the 2nd Motorised Company in the area of Guri Bard. Fire was opened from infantry weapons and the infantry of the enemy ⁴⁵⁸⁹⁰ scattered, occasionally opening fire. There were no losses. On the next page, 0400 hours, two lorries were observed on the road from Vlah village to Nikolici village. This probably an aborted mission and the lorries were withdrawn to the depth of the territory. 1230, three freight helicopters flew over from Zogaj village to Maja Sukit.

NATO was the only one who had helicopters. We assumed they were carrying terrorists, which was a frequent occurrence. 1410, six tanks observed in the area of Mahala Camerai. That's a village approximately two kilometres from our border in the depth of Albanian territory.

JUDGE BONOMY: I have two questions arising out of what you've just been saying. You say that the tanks you encountered were part of the armed forces of the Republic of Albania; is that correct?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

JUDGE BONOMY: These armed forces were on Yugoslav territory.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. Maybe I wasn't clear enough, Mr. Bonomy. I'm talking about enemy forces on the territory of the Republic of Albania from where they launched an attack at my unit that was in the process of organising defence.

JUDGE BONOMY: It's now clear. Any action came from their own territory.

And the second question I have relates to what you said about three freight helicopters, and you said, "We assumed they were carrying terrorists, which was a frequent occurrence." ⁴⁵⁸⁹¹ So you're saying it was a frequent occurrence that NATO helicopters were carrying terrorists. Is that your evidence?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, that is my evidence, because usually after those helicopters landed, an infantry attack by terrorists would immediately follow from those areas and the armed forces of Albania. As for tanks, quite fortunately, they acted only from the territory of Albania, because we didn't allow them to come into our territory.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] But they shot at our territory.

JUDGE BONOMY: Please don't interrupt. But you say now that shortly afterwards an infantry attack by terrorists -- or immediately an infantry attack by terrorists would follow from these areas and the armed forces of Albania.

Now, are you saying in that context that the armed forces of Albania were on Yugoslav territory?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no. I was not saying that. The armed forces of Albania, among other things, found themselves on the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia only on two occasions. The first case was on the 9th of April when there was a ground aggression in the direction of Kosare watchtower. And the second case was on the 27th of May when the largest ground operation was carried out. It was a joint ground operation, called Arrow, of the armed forces of Albania, specifically parts of the 2nd Infantry Division, the terrorists from Kosovo and Metohija, mercenaries and others supported by the air force and rockets of NATO. Those were the only two cases when they successfully ⁴⁵⁸⁹² entered our territory.

Here I'm not saying that they are acting from our territory. They're acting against our territory, shooting at our territory.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, since we don't have much time, we will not deal with entries from this diary any more.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, I wish to tell you something about what I just mentioned while reading the list of exhibits where it says "translation pending." That was handed in for translation 40 days ago. Everything that you received in the list. Some of that has been translated, but what has not been translated says "translation pending."

Mr. Robinson, I'd now like to make a request that this war diary in its entirety be admitted into evidence as I handed it over.

MR. NICE: Your Honours, the war diary as handed over this morning is - if I hold it up - that thick. The extract that we previously had as tab 3 is that thick. So it's about probably double the number of pages but it's not a huge document.

You have been referred in the evidence to one, at least, page from the fuller rather than the extracted version. I only mention that so that the position's clear and so that we avoid confusion later. With the earlier document, which is a very, very substantial document, the Chamber has indeed only exhibited the extracts, leaving it for me to cross-examine on additional pages, but here the accused's request that the whole document go in would at least cover the problem that he's referred to a ⁴⁵⁸⁹³ document from here, put it on the overhead projector, and reviewed it. If you take the course he's invited you to take, then you should take out the extract, throw it away, and replace it with this one.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, we'll admit the -- only the excerpted pages. They will be marked for identification pending translation.

We note that you have submitted the diary in its entirety, and it will be a matter for the Prosecutor to determine whether he wishes to utilise the rest, the remaining pages in the diary, in his cross-examination.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, apart from what the -- what was extracted as an example, Colonel Vukovic read out some portions from this entire diary relating to events of the 30th of March. He quoted some things, read out some things, we placed it on the ELMO. He said that it was a sorry sight to see poor people going away from their houses, that soldiers were giving biscuits and juice to the children. I think that what we saw on the ELMO could be exhibited as well.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, the pages that he read out will also be marked for identification pending translation.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Now, Mr. Vukovic, you have notebooks of telegrams received as well, do you not? And that is provided in tab 4.

A. Yes. ⁴⁵⁸⁹⁴

Q. As we can see, part of the excerpts have been translated, or, rather, the excerpts that we see are the translated ones. Tab 4, log of telegrams received.

May we just briefly go through them, go through tab 4.

A. As far as I'm concerned, yes, we can, but I don't think we can do that briefly because there are exceptionally important documents. And also, let me tell you that there's this document with the following document that we're going to discuss later on makes up a whole, and it was kept at my communications centre. Since I was at an independent axis away from my brigade headquarters, I had this kind of device which allowed me - and I'm referring to a radio device - which allowed me to send out and receive messages in written form, and that is how these two logs were compiled, and they contain every message sent out to the brigade command by the RUP20 device, the radio communication device, every message going out to a company, because they had a compatible device to pick up the messages. And also, all the reports coming in and orders coming in from the brigade command sent out by radio and reports sent by my command of the 2nd Motorised Company also went that way.

But these notebooks -- these logbooks aren't complete. There were more of them. And we made our entries for 1998. This is something that was saved from that period of time. A lot of my documentation, combat documentation and other documentation, was destroyed, because as I said, my office received a direct hit and was destroyed and the documents in my office burnt down. And my command post, as I've already said, was targeted three times. So documents about that action were also destroyed. ^{45895 BLANK PAGE 45896}

Q. Can you just briefly go through some of the received documents, received telegram logs that you consider to be relevant and characteristic.

A. Well, I can choose, for example, this one -- or, rather, orders from the brigade command. If you take a look at page 2. And in the middle of that paragraph, it says that the command of the 549th Motorised Brigade, 1600/1 of the 26th of April, 1999. And the brigade command wasn't satisfied there with the manner in which the combat reports were sent to other units.

JUDGE KWON: Colonel, if it is 26th of April, unfortunately we don't have that translation.

Mr. Milosevic, it is for you to choose an important item, not for the witness.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. Fine. I wanted to speed up the process of going through these documents. But you should have the translation of everything contained in tab 4.

JUDGE KWON: It was my mistake. I was corrected by my colleague that it is on page 4. It was received on 27th, but it was dated 26th.

JUDGE ROBINSON: What's the relevant passage here, Mr. Milosevic?

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel, you speak about the way in which reporting was done here.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Explain the relevance of what you're going to do.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Well, I want to ask you, Colonel --

JUDGE ROBINSON: You didn't hear me. Did you not hear me? You ⁴⁵⁸⁹⁷ are to explain to me the relevance, otherwise I will not allow the question.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, there are many reports here or, rather, orders received from the brigade, and the relevance of it is to see what those orders relate to. The army does everything pursuant to orders, so it would be interesting to see what those orders relate to.

JUDGE ROBINSON: I don't consider that that is very relevant. Move on to another topic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

JUDGE ROBINSON: You have dealt with this topic ad nauseam.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I marked some portions here, but I just can't find them now so I won't dwell on that any more now.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Just tell me this, Colonel, please: This is the original logbook of telegrams received, is it not?

A. Yes, it is. It's a photocopy, in fact, of the authorised book, the original book. And I assume that the original logbook is in the military archives because it was handed over to them to be archived.

Q. In tab 5 we have a logbook of the outgoing telegrams.

A. Yes. This is another document that was kept at the communication centre and by them. And the operator on the radio device made these entries, and they relate to part of my reports and information received -- or information sent out to the brigade command and orders which went to the 2nd Motorised Company that I mentioned a moment ago. But once again let me say that this is a part of them, because part of the orders were ⁴⁵⁸⁹⁸ personally conveyed and recorded.

Q. Let me just take a moment to look through this, please. This is rather a long logbook of outgoing and incoming telegrams, so I won't dwell on that any more now because I can't go through them all. That's why we're going to go back to some of the events that you took part in and that we haven't dealt with yet.

Can we go back for a moment to some events that are mentioned in the indictment; Retimlje, Prizren municipality, for example. Did you take part in the Retimlje events in Prizren municipality?

A. Yes, but let me put you right, if I may. In the village of Donje Retimlje I personally took part, otherwise this whole operation, anti-terrorist operation that I mentioned yesterday, was entitled Retimlje, because in Retimlje was otherwise where the command of the 124th Terrorist Brigade was located.

Q. Let's just briefly go back to a document which we looked at yesterday under number 3. It was the order by the commander of the 549th Brigade, and it says: "Order for the destruction of Siptar terrorist forces in the broader region of the village of Retimlje, deblockading the communication line from Suva Reka to Orahovac, and establish control the territory."

A. Yes. That is the order that relates to this village, Retimlje and Donje Retimlje.

Q. All right. Fine. It is on -- number 3 on the list of previously admitted exhibits. It is D300 of tab 357, and it was adopted on the 1st of July, when General Delic testified. ⁴⁵⁸⁹⁹ Here we have a map which is marked as Donje Retimlje, TK 50/2160.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Let it be put on the ELMO.

MR. NICE: Following the accused's list of previous exhibits is not proving to be very easy.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This is on the list of previously admitted exhibits.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. What do we have on the overhead projector now? What is that?

A. It is Donje Retimlje, precisely what you were asking for.

Q. Is it a map?

A. Yes.

Q. All right, fine. And it's on the list of previously admitted exhibits and its number is 13. D300, tab 377, admitted on the 5th of July this year, the map of Retimlje.

Can you just briefly explain to us where you were and what happened there.

A. Well, this is a map which shows the, among other things, the deployment of my own unit at 1200 hours. Up until 1200 hours, we had managed to take control of trig 371, the village of Randubrava, and the Grm feature. You can't see it well here, it's very small letters. And Kabrin [phoen] here by 1200 hours. And along this line my combat group and Combat Group 1 was stopped by heavy shooting, firing from the Donje Retimlje village. The fighting against the terrorists, the combat in Donje Retimlje lasted a little more than five hours, because there was very high precision shooting coming, strong shooting. And one company ⁴⁵⁹⁰⁰ commander succeeded in using this area here, the depth of which was five to 15 metres, the water, and -- gully, and he managed to reach the terrorists from the north-western side. There was very precise and intensive shooting coming from the mosque in the village of Donje Retimlje. Otherwise, the minaret of the mosque had been organised as a fire pyre spot -- spot. And when we searched it we found an enormous number of casings and ammunition that they had not managed to pull out from the minaret and from inside the mosque itself. But when we're talking about Donje Retimlje village, let me say that it was the most strongly fortified place that my unit encountered during this anti-terrorist operation. And all the houses around the village, on the outskirts of the village, were prepared to be shot from, which means that on the windows, for example, they had put sandbags and sacks containing earth, and that in the walls around the houses there were rifle holes that had been made for rifles to be able to shoot through, and shelters also made.

And in front of the village, that is to say from the southern side of the village, several lines of trenches had been dug out, and communicating trenches. And along the road which joins Donje Retimlje to the village of Pirane, there were some 30 anti-infantry mines that had been planted, produced by hand but nevertheless with high deadly powers. In the village of Donje Retimlje itself, a large quantity of arms were seized. Rifle grenade mines, mortars, parts of uniforms, several kilogrammes of explosives, projectiles. And I said that my unit took them by surprise, so that's how we came to seize those weapons and ammunition. ⁴⁵⁹⁰¹ And they had to flee from the area very quickly.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, we're going to take the third -- oh, it's half past twelve, half past twelve.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, in order to be able to use our time as rationally as possible, let us clear up some things that have to do with these exhibits.

In this tab 13, the map in front of you, it's, generally speaking, the map of that Retimlje area.

In tab 14 -- it all falls within the decision from the 25th to the 28th.

Tab 14 is the map of Retimlje and the disposition of forces on the 25th of March; and tab 15 is the map of Retimlje and the disposition of forces on the 26th of March.

A. Yes.

Q. So now when you're explaining, lest I have to interrupt you all the time, bear in mind that we have this general description of the situation in tab 13 that gives a map of Retimlje with a general deployment of forces, and then in tab 14 we have the disposition of the forces on the 25th; and tab 15 the disposition of forces on the 26th of March.

A. I'm sorry, but I do have to correct you. In these tabs and these maps that are just called Retimlje, only general things are indicated, whereas individual details are given in the maps of Retimlje, Brestovac, Nogavac, Bela Crkva, and so on.

This number 14 that I have is a map of Retimlje of the 25th of ⁴⁵⁹⁰² March. It shows precisely how this anti-terrorist action proceeded. And yesterday when I was talking about Bela Crkva, Nogavac, Celine, Brestovac, et cetera, I spoke about this. The only additional thing that we can see on the map, if we put it on the ELMO --

Q. You mean the map from tab 14?

A. Yes, I'm talking about the map from tab 14.

JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, those were items dealt with by General Delic. Do you have to go over, through them again? Can you not proceed more promptly?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I am trying to advance more quickly. Mr. Kwon, please bear one thing in mind: I wanted to use the example of one brigade, the 549th, to show you from the aspect of different levels. Delic spoke about the entirety of the brigade. Colonel Vukovic is speaking about his unit, which ranks practically as a battalion, 1.600 soldiers. And we'll have some more officers. So you can see all that on the example of one brigade.

General Krsman Jelic will speak about his brigade so as to cover the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija so that you can see what the army in fact was doing and how drastically it contradicts the allegations in the indictment in terms of diaries, documents, testimony of commanders who were on the ground. So Colonel Vukovic was on the ground in this area. He's talking only about the activities of his unit.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Please go ahead, Colonel.

A. Speaking of this map, Mr. Milosevic, one more thing, important ⁴⁵⁹⁰³ thing remains to be said; namely Combat Group 2, that is my unit, by the end of the day, by 1600 hours, emerged on the line of its primary task; Celine, Nogavac, Brestovac, Mala Hoca, Velika Krusa. We stopped at those positions because dark was already near. And let me remind you, search of terrain and anti-terrorist combat is in principle not carried out during the night. So we organised ourselves for rest and, of course, to block the terrain as well so that terrorists would not flow over back into the terrain that we had already searched.

I moved my -- the largest part of my forces to the right wing because I expected the terrorists to attack from Randubrava the next day, which turned out to be correct.

My unit did not experience any action that night, but I heard from the distance and also via radio equipment that there was action in the area of Studencani, Opterusa, and also firing from the direction of Pirane village.

That would be briefly about --

Q. The 25th. Now, move to the 26th. That is the map in tab 15.

A. On this map depicting the disposition of forces and the action of our unit for the 26th of March, 1999, we can see the disposition of forces at 0600 hours. Let me remind you it's the same disposition as in the previous map at 1800 hours.

In the course of the 26th -- I mentioned yesterday that our first activity, if you can call it an activity, was in the area of Shala Sahar feature. A group of civilians was observed, and I told you that they were pulled out of the area of combat activities. Search of terrain continued. ⁴⁵⁹⁰⁴ The first activities were against the left-wing platoon from the Brestovac slope and from Randubrava village. In Randubrava village we managed to neutralise the terrorists in some 30 minutes, which was strange even to me because even that village was very well fortified. We assumed that those forces had withdrawn to Donje Retimlje. There were no civilians in this village. The search of the village was conducted by a unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

Here, further on -- let me just mention that we had by that time begun to find a lot of military equipment which testified to the fact that terrorists changed clothes and started blending with the civilian population.

This yellow mark, yellow lines, are the disposition of our forces by 1200 hours. By that time, we had taken up trig point 371, Randubrava, Grm and Brinje.

Speaking about the previous map, I described action in Donje Retimlje, and the only thing I can add is that in Donje Retimlje village there were no civilians. There were lots of traces of blood, but no terrorists were found wounded or dead.

The civilians had pulled out as early as on the 25th to the Mamusa village. I spoke about that too.

Q. Thank you. We explained that entire situation on the 26th. Now, in tab 16, and I hope that by now all confusion has been dealt with.

MR. NICE: I see the time and I don't know if the Chamber is about to rise, but in case it is, I better make my position clear about the ^{45905 BLANK PAGE 45906} witness who has been held back. Not only do we now have his material to look at, but of course we've got a quantity of material that may relate to it or to which it may relate. Obviously, it would require a very substantial army of translators to deal with this material by Monday. It may be possible by one means or another for me to consider some of the more relevant material by Monday, and I forecast that I would have some questions, were he to be retained, of Mr. Djosan. I will not be in a position to deal with him this morning should the examination-in-chief conclude, and would ask that he be kept back until Monday so that I can deal with him then.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Very well. Mr. Milosevic, I must also bring to your attention that your estimate of three hours for the examination-in-chief of this witness has already been exceeded, and you really have to tighten up presentation of your case. We are going to adjourn and we'll take a 15-minute break.

--- Recess taken at 12.30 p.m.

--- On resuming at 12.52 p.m.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. This anti-terrorist action from the 25th to the 28th being very important, we will only briefly go through what we have here. You have explained the 26th.

In tab 17 of earlier admitted exhibits is the map for the 27th. And number 19 is the map for the 28th. Is it necessary to explain these two as well? ⁴⁵⁹⁰⁷

A. There's no need to go into detail. What is peculiar about the 27th -- As I said, what is characteristic for this date is that on the 27th, the activity of the unit continued on two axes; the first Retimlje-Neprebiste, and the second axis is Donje Retimlje village-Mamusa. During this day there was less activity, minor activity by smaller groups of terrorists because we mainly crushed them during the previous day in the main areas, but there were lots of discarded uniforms and parts of uniforms. That was typical of terrorist activity in 1998 and 1999. When they see that they have nowhere to go, they discard their uniforms, they put on their civilian clothes that they always carry with them and blend with the civilian population, in this case, with the mass of civilians that were in Mamusa village.

Around 8.00 I got the assignment to send a reinforced platoon to assist Combat Group 1, because it had been stopped before Memlica [phoen] village. That was decided at 12.00, and already at 12.00 one part of my unit arrived before Mamusa village. We had information there were a lot of civilians in Mamusa village, that nobody was shooting at the police or the army from that village, and my brigade commander told me, and I told my subordinate officer, to stay in the area they reached until we reach an agreement on further action.

Since there was no hostile activity against us, we passed through this area. We had established contact before that with the civilians in the village. They told us there were no more terrorists because terrorists had left before that towards Studencani and Samodreza. The unit passed through Mamusa already at dusk, when from these ⁴⁵⁹⁰⁸ elevations north of Mamusa strong fire was opened against my unit. There was fighting for just under an hour, and then my forces joined up with Combat Group 5 that was acting in the north around Neprebiste village. I received the assignment from brigade commander then to gather, to rally my units and to prepare to go back to my main area of disposition, of deployment, that is Zub village. You can see here also that part of the units was already on the way back around 2000 hours to their areas, but I was not with them, because just outside Mamusa village one tank capsized outside of combat, and I stayed there to deal with the consequences, to pull out the equipment, this time to Bistrazin village.

Q. What do we see on the map dealing with the 28th? That is number 19 of previously admitted exhibits. Just very briefly, what is characteristic of that day?

A. You see that most units that had taken part in this anti-terrorist action are absent from this area, which means that they had gone back to their areas of deployment save for Combat Group 7 and Combat Group 5, which continued towards Milanovac mountain.

As for my group, from Retimlje and Donje Retimlje part of my unit went on a march starting at 0900 hours, returning to Bistrazin village. This part of my forces in the area of Mamusa pulled out that tank that I mentioned, and I returned together with them to Bistrazin, which is where I talked to the natives of that village. And I must say the locals were helping us with the tank that we needed to pull out. We had good cooperation with them, and they were probably grateful and appreciative that we had driven away terrorists from their area. ⁴⁵⁹⁰⁹ I could give you more details, but you have them in my statement under number 20.

Q. That is all that I wanted to ask you about this operation in Retimlje.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, I would only like to ask for the statement of Colonel Vukovic, which is on the list of prior exhibits, under 16, since it had only been marked for identification, as well as the statement under number 20 - the first statement relates to the 16th and number 20 relates to the 28th - I would like them to be admitted.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, they're admitted. Yes.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. We will now move on to events in Djakovica. Colonel, were you in Djakovica; and if so, when?

A. I was in Djakovica from the 3rd of August, 1998, until the 14th of June, 1999.

Q. Was the area of Djakovica significant for terrorist forces?

A. Yes. The area of Djakovica was extremely important for terrorist forces, because it was one of the major cities that were very close to the border with Albania. And let me remind you it was one of the axes through which, in 1998 and 1999, terrorist forces were injected from training centres in Albania such as Sahar and others, carrying with them large amounts of weapons and other equipment.

The city itself -- or, rather, in the city itself we did not come across any terrorist activity, but there were many villages around. In ⁴⁵⁹¹⁰ the city there was no terrorist activity simply because we had our own forces there as well as police forces. However, in the villages around, there were strong terrorist strongholds. Ponosevac, Smonica, Nec, Raca, Rogovo. There were more of them, but these are the most characteristic of this municipality.

In the course of 1998, this road leading from Djakovica to Junik was even cut off, and it was used solely to supply border units that manned watchtowers.

Q. In paragraph 63(h) of the indictment, it says that the number -- the population of the town of Djakovica had increased significantly due to the large number of internally displaced persons who fled their villages to escape deliberate shelling by forces of the FRY and Serbia during 1998, and to escape the armed conflict between these forces and members of the KLA.

What can you tell us about this?

A. I can say it is not correct. Until the 25th of March -- or, rather, the 24th in the evening when the bombing began, but until the 25th there were no major movements of the civilian population. And it's not correct that the population of Djakovica increased significantly due to the incoming internally displaced persons. It's not really in my zone. It's on the outer bank of the Renik river [phoen], but I know that on one occasion there were internally displaced persons from Smonica and Nec villages. And let me remind you, those were strong terrorist strongholds. Smonica was one of the major strongholds in Kosovo and Metohija. And even before I arrived in that area, there had been another anti-terrorist ⁴⁵⁹¹¹ action, and as far as I know, after that operation, the civilian population did not return.

As for this deliberate shelling of villages by forces of the FRY and Serbia in 1998, that, too, is untrue. In those villages there was only fighting against terrorists. But if you're interested in 1998 --

Q. We're not going to dwell on 1998.

A. I can tell you in detail. As for this claim that they were fleeing armed conflict between the armed forces of the army of Yugoslavia and the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, but what it doesn't say here is that it was a terrorist organisation. That is partly true, because it is quite normal that civilians who do not support terrorists pull out, before fighting, to some other area. But I have already said that whenever combat operations were completed, we always enabled those civilians to go back home.

Q. Then it goes on to say in that same paragraph that the continual movement of these internally displaced persons increased after the 24th of March. Following violent expulsions in the town of Djakovica, many internally displaced persons returned from the town of Djakovica to the outlying villages only to be expelled from these villages again by forces of the FRY and Serbia.

Did anybody expel civilians from the town of Djakovica?

A. No, nobody expelled civilians from the town of Djakovica. What did happen were examples where the civilians, during the course of the night between the 24th when the bombing -- on the night of the 24th when the bombing started and part of the cruise missiles, which had a high ⁴⁵⁹¹² destructive power, fell on the residential areas of Djakovica. So part of the civilians assumed that they would be -- first of all, assumed that it would be military facilities that would be targeted. So around the Devet Jugovica barracks, it was quite normal that people from there went to other parts of town to stay with friends and relatives and so on. And they moved out of the region of Nova Kasaba, the new barracks. That barracks was never targeted. And probably they thought that the war would be over in two or three days and then they could use that barracks for their own purposes. But they did target the Devet Jugovica barracks every day and destroyed it completely.

So it is not correct that anybody expelled civilians from the town of Djakovica or from the outlying villages either.

Q. Then it goes on to say that Serb forces controlled and coordinated the movement of these internally displaced persons as they travelled from these villages to and from the town of Djakovica and finally to the border between Kosovo and the Republic of Albania. Persons travelling on foot were sent from the town of Djakovica directly toward one of the several border crossings. Persons travelling in motor vehicles were routed first towards the town of Prizren before approaching the border and crossing into the Republic of Albania.

Now, my question is this: Did the army control the movement of these refugees, as it is claimed here by the other side?

A. No, this is not correct.

Q. So what assignments did the army have, then?

A. At the time, the army dealt with the -- with organising the ⁴⁵⁹¹³ defence, defending the state border, that is to say the territory of the country. And as mention is made here of the 24th, 25th, and 26th, and part of the units were on assignment in the Bela Crkva, Retimlje area.

Q. That's what we've been going through in detail and we needn't go back to that. Is that right?

A. Yes.

Q. Now, in paragraph 63(i), it says from on or about the 24th of May through to the 11th of May, 1999, forces of the FRY and Serbia began forcing residents of the town of Djakovica to leave. Forces spread out through the town and went from house to house, ordering Kosovo Albanians from their homes.

Is that correct or not? Is that true or not?

A. This is absolutely not true, because it says up until the 11th of May, through the 11th of May.

Now, in the town of Djakovica, of the units there since the -- as of the 3rd and 4th of April, all that remained was the logistics battalion of the 52nd Artillery Rocket Brigade, the PVO. So just a non-combat unit remained.

Now, during a certain period of time when the bombings became much more intensive, much stronger, I moved my own logistics platoon to the town of Djakovica, for instance, because I could not organise the unit to be supplied with the supplies it needed.

Until the 4th of April, there was part of the military territorial detachment in Djakovica, and it provided security for some vital facilities, which was my intention. And then on the 6th or 7th, that ⁴⁵⁹¹⁴ military territorial detachment was subordinated to me.

Q. It says which was my intention, and it ought to have said which was the intention of that particular detachment. So not your intention but the detachment's intention and purpose.

A. Yes, and purpose.

MR. NICE: For the sake of ease of reading the record, it's not paragraph 63(i) but 63(h)(i) that the accused is asking questions about.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, I have that.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] May I continue?

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, go ahead.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I did not complete my answer. So that military territorial detachment was then given quite a different assignment. And once again, one of the purposes of it was to protect my left -- my right wing. And so from Djakovica it was sent on to the north or, rather -- sorry, south-west, four or five kilometres south-west. But what I want to say in saying that is this: In the town of Djakovica itself after that date, right up until it says here the 11th of May, there were no combat units there. There were no parts of units able to do this, so that this part of the indictment absolutely does not correspond to the truth.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. It goes on to say that on the 24th of March, the old mosque in Rogovo and the old historic quarter of Djakovica, which included the bazaar, the Hadum Mosque and adjoining Islamic library were among the several cultural sites substantially and/or totally destroyed. ^{45915 BLANK PAGE 45916}

A. Well, yes, that is quite correct. On that first night, the first night of the bombing, the destructive projectiles, and I assume they were cruise missiles but don't hold me to that, it was night-time so we weren't able to ascertain that with any full certainty, but they did fall on this part of Djakovica precisely. And that old bazaar was -- the old quarter was totally destroyed, as it says here. The library was damaged quite a bit. It was one of the oldest libraries in that part of Metohija. And so was the mosque. The mosque was damaged too. It was only, unless I'm very much mistaken, but I learnt that from what my colleagues told me who were in Djakovica, because during that night I had left Djakovica, but they told me that it was only at about 10.00 or 11.00 of the following day that the fire brigade, the MUP fire brigade of Djakovica went in to put out the fire where these facilities had burnt. And the fire had been caused by the NATO bombings.

Q. Colonel, you issued an order for defence on the 3rd of April, 1999, and you say that the terrorist forces in the border belt, the area behind the border belt in Albania and the places you mentioned were training people and preparing to infiltrate them into the area of Kosovo and Metohija.

So could you tell us something about that document? And it's tab 6 in the exhibits, your exhibits.

A. Yes. Mr. Milosevic, this is a combat document which I issued on the 3rd of April, 1999. Don't be misled by what it says, the village of Zub. My command post at the time was located in Zub village, but it refers to the overall area of responsibility of my battalion. And ⁴⁵⁹¹⁷ otherwise, it is a document which is written according to a precisely defined way, including different points.

If you want me to, I can read through it in detail, but in principle, in the first point, you give the deployment of enemy forces and position of enemy forces and assessments are made of the possible targets -- target axes of the enemy.

In point 2, one records the assignments of the unit, assignments issued by the superior commander. In my case, the commander was the commander of the 549th Motorised Brigade, at the time Colonel Delic, Bozidar Delic, colonel as he was at the time.

In point 3 or section 3, pursuant to an order by the Supreme Commander, data is introduced about neighbouring units, which influence the carrying out of my unit's assignment.

Q. Just a few questions with respect to this document, Colonel, please. At the very end of point 1, for instance, it says that: "The attack will be preceded by NATO airstrikes and we can also expect the use of armoured mechanised forces of the OS of the Republic of Albania and operations by small Siptar terrorist forces from inhabited area in Kosovo and Metohija."

Does that talk about the coordinated action between NATO, the forces of the Republic of Albania and the terrorist forces in Kosovo and Metohija?

A. Yes, certainly. It speaks of that coordinated action. And later experience has shown us -- showed us that our estimates were quite right. We were quite right in our assumptions. ⁴⁵⁹¹⁸

Q. Thank you. Now, further on in point 2, towards the end of point 2 on that same page, your tasks are defined in the following way: Not to allow the enemy to conjoin with Siptar terrorist forces in Kosovo and Metohija. Do not allow them to link up with the Siptar forces in Kosovo and Metohija.

A. That's right. That would have been the worst variant for us had we allowed them a frontal breakthrough and the units to act in the rear, in depth, and to have those forces link up. That would mean cutting off our units, breaking up sections of our units, and therefore our destruction, which would certainly have been the object the enemy wanted to achieve throughout the war.

Q. Thank you, Colonel. Now, staying with page 4 of your order, in point 19 can you see the following sentence where it says: "Behave towards the civilian population properly, treat civilians professionally and prevent unnecessary destruction of buildings, pay particular attention to the protection and welfare of children and the elderly."

A. Yes, but what do you want to ask me in that regard?

Q. What was your relationship, your attitude in all those critical situations, very difficult situations during the NATO aggression towards civilians? How did you treat them?

A. Well, our attitude and our treatment of civilians was as it says here, extremely professional, and not a single soldier, especially not commanding officer, can -- he has his officer's honour so he cannot engage in anything dishonourable and dishonest. And vis-a-vis the civilian population, the treatment as it was, as it was set out and as ordered by ⁴⁵⁹¹⁹ me. And I controlled the situation, controlled the work of my subordinates, and wherever there was any deviation from this order and these instructions, steps and measures were taken to uncover the perpetrator and to hand them over to military courts, to court-martials and to file criminal reports against them.

And in the order of the brigade commander there was this provision. It did not only relate to my unit but to all units in the area. And I have the brigade commander order if you would like me to show that.

Q. So an order from the brigade commander comes before your order.

A. Certainly. It is on the basis of that order, pursuant to that order that I write my order and say that orders have come from the Supreme Command, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a separate document which is duty binding for me and enables me to assess the situation and to decide further down the line to engage my units.

Q. You issued another order, and it is to be found in tab 7. It is a defence order dated the 8th of April. Do you have that before you?

A. Yes, I do.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Before we go on to tab 7, I'd like to tender into evidence tab 6 and the order contained in it.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, it's admitted.

JUDGE KWON: Have we dealt with tab 4 and 5? I didn't hear the position of the Prosecution. It's obvious it's -- he referred to it briefly.

MR. NICE: Your Honour, on this occasion I'm in a position to ⁴⁵⁹²⁰ overhear the short exchange, and I think the position is they haven't been referred to in detail at all. In reality, they haven't been relied upon, and when the accused was asked to explain their relevance, he had difficulty doing so. I would ask them not to be produced at this stage, although of course, I may land up asking questions about them when I have a chance to review them in light of his evidence overall.

JUDGE KWON: You'd like to keep it rather than returning them.

MR. NICE: I think that would be prudent.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, I can go back to tab 6 and look at it in greater detail, but I considered that the document was accessible, translated. I quoted just several portions --

JUDGE ROBINSON: 6 we admitted.

JUDGE KWON: Tab 4 and 5.

JUDGE ROBINSON: The issue related to 4 and 5.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] 4 and 5 relates to the books, the logbooks of incoming and outgoing telegrams; messages, telegrams, which I provided. I didn't deal with them. It would have taken up too much time. That is true, yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Colonel Vukovic, what does this order contain, this order of yours, tab 7?

A. It is the second order for defence, defence order, and before that there was another order from the brigade command, because a company was returned to my unit which had previously made up Combat Group 3. So a ⁴⁵⁹²¹ completely new order was issued.

Once again, in point 1 we deal with the deployment of enemy forces, their positions, and it says that rocket strikes had taken place, because it's the 8th of April and rocket strikes throughout the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had been conducted, and that we assumed that in ten to 15 days at the latest -- by the 10th there would be a ground aggression, an aggression by the land forces, ground forces. And this proved to be correct, because on the 9th of April one such all-out attack took place in the watchtower of Kosare.

Q. Colonel, let's just clarify one point. In tab 1 we have a map. That map in tab 1, is it a component part of this order of yours?

A. Yes. The map in tab 1 is indeed a component part of this particular order, with the proviso that this order, the other order, underwent certain corrections. And you can see that from the documents, but you went -- unfortunately, you went over those documents much too quickly, and you would be able to see that from the brigade command I received corrections to the defence order. But anyway, these deviations were slight in relation to this particular map.

And here we can see my decision for the defence of the state borders, and marked here are the zones, the areas. This is the defence zone of the battalion. I spoke about that yesterday.

Q. Just one moment, please. You issued this order on the 8th of April, 1999?

A. Yes.

Q. Is the map of the same date? ⁴⁵⁹²²

A. Yes.

Q. So the original map of that date is an integral part of the order.

A. Right. I drew the map myself. And this inscription, if I remember correctly, was written by my deputy, or one of the commanding officers present.

Q. So this document says that in the Republic of Albania, about 10.000 Siptar forces from Kosovo and Metohija have been trained by NATO instructors.

A. Yes. Those were reports from superior commands that had their own intelligence. I can tell you more about the way intelligence is collected, if you're interested.

Among other things, in the very town of Djakovica, there was part of the 52nd Company for electric surveillance and anti-electronic action. They monitored radio traffic and drew their conclusions about the number of terrorists, their movements, the strength and movements of the armed forces of Albania, but also of NATO, and the grouping of those forces in the Mediterranean sector, in Turkey, in other countries, and based on that information, this estimate was made.

I already mentioned earlier that for the most part I copy data about the enemy from my superior command's order, and I only add the most probable, the most likely axes of attack of the enemy against the area of defence of my battalion. And I can tell you that our estimates were very good as far as their axes of attack are concerned. And we didn't let them break through our lines in this area. That was of extreme importance for the entire Pristina Corps, because if you look at the map, there is only ⁴⁵⁹²³ six and a half kilometres between Djakovica and the border and Pec-Djakovica communication would have been cut off. The Pec-Djakovica-Prizren road would have been cut off had they been successful, and that would have had a major impact on our defence in the future.

Q. While you were showing this, you thought you were showing it on the screen but you were showing it on the map.

A. Right.

Q. In this order, you mention coordinated action between Siptar terrorist forces with the ground forces from the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Albania, and you forecast, this is in "The Aggressor" paragraph, that it is to be expected that about 2.000 would attack together with NATO air strikes. You say: "We can expect an attack from 2.000 Siptars and the attack will be preceded by NATO airstrikes." Did it happen that way?

A. Well, there were two documents that we didn't deal with at all, the volumes of incoming and outcoming dispatches. It was confirmed that our assumptions were correct, and that was lucky for us, because had we not anticipated this, our losses would have been much heavier.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Do you think, Mr. Robinson, that this explanation why the volumes of telegrams are important provide additional reason to enter them into evidence?

JUDGE ROBINSON: It's not for you to ask me that, Mr. Milosevic.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] ⁴⁵⁹²⁴

Q. Colonel Vukovic, in paragraph 14 of your order, the last sentence reads: "In all situations consistently adhere to all provisions of the international laws of war."

A. Yes. This is within the paragraph dealing with psychological support. And I suppose that Colonel Delic had a similar sentence in his order.

Q. Towards the end of paragraph 19, it says that prisoners of war should be turned over to the garrison commander in Djakovica and that civilian population should be treated professionally and unnecessary destruction of buildings should be prevented. Special attention should be given to the protection and welfare of children and the elderly.

A. I was commander of one such unit, regardless of the number. I was able to interrogate prisoners of war only to the extent that it concerned my activities in my area. But we didn't do that either, because we had a specialised organ, namely the chief of security of the 52nd Artillery Rocket Brigade of air defence who was, professionally speaking, much better prepared for that sort of task in case we took any prisoners, regardless of who took the prisoners. If they were from the ranks of terrorists, they would be turned over to him to be interrogated, for which he was properly authorised.

As for the protection of civilian population, you can see how it was done, in the spirit of orders issued.

Q. In paragraph 63, it says --

THE INTERPRETER: Interpreters would appreciate an exact reference. ^{45925 BLANK PAGE 45926}

MR. MILOSEVIC:

Q. [No interpretation]

JUDGE ROBINSON: What is the passage -- paragraph you're referring to?

JUDGE KWON: Paragraph number.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 63.

JUDGE KWON: Of the indictment.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, yes.

JUDGE ROBINSON: There are many subparagraphs in that paragraph.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I will tell you now. It's (h)(i).

JUDGE ROBINSON: (h)(i).

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] You found it, Mr. Robinson? In the third third of paragraph (h)(i), it says, "During the period from 2 to 4 April, 1999, thousands of Kosovo Albanians ..." et cetera, et cetera.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Why did these people leave, Colonel Vukovic? I'm asking you about the cases you came across personally.

A. That's what I'm trying to say. On several occasions I had opportunity to talk to people who were passing through the area of the 2nd Battalion. On the map, this is a road that goes from the town of Djakovica and leads to the border crossing Cafa Prusit in the area of my command post, which is Zub village.

The first such column was stopped on the 30th March, which was notified to me by my deputy via radio. To remind you, I was in Bistrazin at the time. ⁴⁵⁹²⁷

Q. I remember we read about that day when dealing with your war diary.

A. So on the 30th, I talked to a smaller group where there were elderly, infirm persons, women with children who simply had no strength to go on foot any more. And I told you why it was impossible to go through this border crossing in vehicles.

I talked to them personally. I gave them several options. I told them where we could find accommodation, but they still insisted on going to Albania. I asked them why. Their first reason that they gave was their fear from NATO airstrikes. Their second reason was that terrorists had ordered them to leave their villages.

It's true that there were people who also said they were afraid of the army, but the main reasons were the two first reasons I stated. And I can give you my personal opinion as well, if you're interested, as to why such large numbers of civilians left Kosovo and Metohija.

Q. On what is your personal opinion based?

A. It's based on my conversations with those civilians. It's based on my presence there, and it's based on the fact that my assumptions were later proven true. I personally believe that this course of action was geared to engineer some sort of humanitarian catastrophe. Not only for the benefit of their public opinion but also the public opinion of neutral countries to justify --

MR. NICE: [Previous translation continues]... preface this by saying it's an opinion. He's not an expert and I don't know if he's got access to material different from that which we have. It's a matter for ⁴⁵⁹²⁸ the Court.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE ROBINSON: I don't think it's expert evidence, Mr. Nice. He's talking from his experience.

Yes, Mr. Milosevic. Continue, Colonel.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] If Mr. Nice had heard me out 'til the end, he would have understood --

JUDGE ROBINSON: [Previous translation continues]... Mr. Nice. I have ruled on the matter. So continue.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] All right. So I came to the conclusion that an alleged humanitarian catastrophe was engineered in that way to justify the aggression. Why am I claiming this? I'm claiming this for another; namely that this enabled NATO to target everything in Kosovo and Metohija indiscriminately, and that proved to be true already in the few coming days. Already on the 8th of April, massive strikes started on all targets in Kosovo and Metohija, including targets in this border belt. Furthermore, this theory of mine is also proven by the following -- I'm sorry, my speech is beginning to slur already. But whenever there were cases when civilians tried to go back home, they were targeted by NATO aviation. And I can give you specific examples of this if you wish. But naturally, in my area of responsibility, there is no populated area that had not been targeted by NATO Air Force. So my forecasts were eventually justified by specific events on the ground. As for the targeting of civilian population, I can tell you more ⁴⁵⁹²⁹ about that if necessary.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic --

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE ROBINSON: The witness has indicated that he is beginning to have problems.

You are to provide me with information about the provenance of General Djosan's war diary.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I received information from Mr. Tomanovic that in the afternoon of the day before yesterday his office was informed regarding the request he had submitted last week, that approval had been received to provide Djosan's diary. So his office was informed the day before yesterday, his office received the diary, and they sent it on yesterday, and yesterday it was handed in here to the other side and to me.

JUDGE ROBINSON: When was the request made initially?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That request was marked urgent and made last week.

JUDGE ROBINSON: When last week?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't know that exactly. I informed you when it was done, because you told me to make an effort to get hold of that diary.

And incidentally, I want to tell you that my associates did not have a single sheet of the diary in excess of what we all received. It was only late in the night the day before yesterday that we received its entirety in the manuscript. Mr. Nice will be able to check whether the ⁴⁵⁹³⁰ typed out pages correspond to the handwritten pages from A to Z.

JUDGE BONOMY: Does it follow that your associates must have had the diary at an earlier stage to make a selection of the pages which they chose to produce in court initially?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] They had only what you had, and that's the same thing that I had, the smaller --

JUDGE BONOMY: I understand that's what they ultimately had, but I take it that they initially had the whole diary to make a selection from it and decide which pages to copy. No.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] No. No, they did not have the entire diary, because they got hold of those portions of the diary through private channels. They didn't have the whole diary. But now you have it, all of it.

MR. NICE: Your Honours, I see the time, so can I have two very tiny points. I assume we're coming to the end of examination-in-chief. I probably will have some questions for Djosan. Questions, should he be interposed before I start cross-examination so that he's not detained until Tuesday and so that to that extent you have material in order should he come at the end of the witness. I'm neutral on the point but it's a matter of convenience, and possibly his convenience. Second point while I'm on my feet: I hadn't appreciated, because my vision was restricted, but Ms. Dicklich did observe and has drawn to my attention that the witness does appear to have been referring to a series of handwritten notes, and I know the Chamber prefers to know when that's happened. He moved them finally to the left of the monitor and I saw it ⁴⁵⁹³¹ then. I'm sorry I hadn't observed it before. If I'd done so, I would have drawn it to your attention.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, how much longer do you have with this witness? I presume not much longer.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Not much longer. I will be done within the first session of the next day. I don't believe 15 minutes will be enough, but 30 minutes hopefully. Because this witness has details to give about Meja as well, although when Mr. Kwon asked for portions of the war diary to be read, he explained partially, and we even had the map of Meja on the ELMO, so we'll save time on that. There will be no need for more detailed comment.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE ROBINSON: General Djosan should be here on Monday. Now, Colonel, it has been brought to our attention that you have been making reference to some handwritten notes. Are these your notes?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, I still haven't used them, but I intend to. They are indeed my notes.

JUDGE ROBINSON: When did you make them? When did you make the notes?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] A couple of days ago during the preparation for this testimony, and when I received concrete questions and the tabs and all this documentation on the basis of which I was supposed to testify.

JUDGE ROBINSON: You say you have not yet utilised them. If you ⁴⁵⁹³² are going to use them, then you must bring that to our attention first.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Very well. They are accessible to you. There's nothing special there. It just lists dates and figures, which you will agree with me sometimes one tends to forget on the spur of the moment.

JUDGE ROBINSON: Very well. We will adjourn, and we will resume on Monday, 9.00.

--- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.50 p.m., to be reconvened on Monday, the 31st day

of October, 2005, at 9.00 a.m.