HAGUE TRIBUNAL IGNORED EVIDENCE AGAINST KOSOVO COMMANDER - SERBIAN JUDGE
BBC Monitoring International Reports - December 13, 2005, Tuesday

Text of report by Kosovo Serb radio Kontakt Plus on 13 December

[Announcer] Material evidence suggesting the guilt of the former Kosovo Liberation Army [UCK in Albanian; OVK in Serbian] commander for Klecka, Fatmir Limaj - evidence of giving orders and murdering Serb civilians - was submitted to the Hague tribunal, an investigative magistrate in the Pristina County Court, Danica Marinkovic, today said in Kosovska Mitrovica. However, she added, this evidence had not been used in the proceedings [against Limaj], which resulted in his acquittal two weeks ago.

In an interview with the investigative magistrate on 6 August 1998, members of the OVK, the brothers Bekim and Luan Mazreku, gave all the details about crimes against the civilian population in Klecka where Fatmir Limaj was the commander of OVK headquarters in this place, Judge Marinkovic said.

She added that they [the two brothers] had also told her what had taken place in Malisevo, after they had become members of the OVK and had put on uniforms and taken up arms. They said that they had carried out orders given by Commander Fatmir Limaj.

Luan Mazreku said that he guarded Lapusnik prison at the time, of which Limaj was also in charge.

[Marinkovic] Photocopies of all the evidence were submitted to the prosecution in The Hague and the tribunal in The Hague, all translated into English. I have been summoned by the Hague investigators to testify about events in Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] on a number of occasions. However, they exclusively wanted me to testify about Racak,* and were in no mood to hear my story about what was happening in Klecka and how many civilians died there - they did not want to hear that those crimes could have been committed by Fatmir Limaj.

[Announcer] The Mazreku brothers gave all the details about the Serb civilians abducted from Orahovac, including women and children. All of them were transferred to Malisevo, and then to Klecka village, where Kosovo Liberation Army headquarters was located, under the command of Fatmir Limaj - who gave orders to abuse the civilians and then execute them, Judge Marinkovic reported parts of the Mazreku brothers' testimony.

[Marinkovic] They [Mazreku brothers] testified that ten civilians had been executed, including three women who were picked from that first row [as heard]. They saw that they [the women] had been raped, those three women. As to the scale of these incidents, and what else was happening there, we can only guess, given that we found a large number of human bones at the scene - I cannot tell their number - some of them were burnt, some had already turned to ashes, and some were still burning.

I could never forget a child's hand, like this, the way it was burning and the smell of the burning flesh, I could never erase this from my memory - it was so sad. God forbid that it should ever happen again.

[Announcer] Criminal proceedings against Bekim and Luan Mazreku are still in progress and these are the responsibility of the court in Nis. In 2000, they were sentenced to 20 years in prison at Pristina County Court. Following the appeal of the defence lawyers, the Supreme Court of Serbia annulled the case and ordered a repeated trial. On 26 March 2002, the Mazreku brothers were transferred to Kosmet, along with other ethnic Albanian inmates then detained in Serbian prisons and they are currently unavailable to our authorities, Judge Marinkovic said.

Source: Kontakt Plus, Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1500 gmt 13 Dec 05

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