BARRY LITUCHY DECIDES TO GIVE PUBLIC EVIDENCE IN CLOSED SESSION
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - March 9, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Slobodan Milosevic concluded Dietmar Hartwig's re-examination on Wednesday. During cross-examination, Mr. Nice had insinuated that Hartwig's testimony was unreliable since it largely relied on his draft notes that he sent to the EU, and not on the official reports issued by the EU.

Mr. Nice tried to act as if he was unfairly disadvantaged by the fact that the official EU documents were not used by the witness during his examination-in-chief. Mr. Nice acted as if he did not have access to the documents, and insinuated that the documents may have contradicted Hartwig's testimony.

In Re-examination, Slobodan Milosevic noted that all of the EUMM documents were already in the tribunal's posession as Rule 68 exculpatory material provided by the prosecution.

Milosevic engaged in a lengthy re-examination, and he used the official EUMM documents to corroborate the testimony of the witness and refute the prosecutor's point.

The documents included numerous incident reports filed by EU observers, such as the kidnapping of Skender Krasniqi, an ethnic Albanian, by Ramush Haradinaj the former prime minister of Kosovo.

Another EUMM report dated 17 March 1999 made reference to an operational collaboration between NATO and the KLA.

When asked about the collaboration between the KLA and NATO the witness said that the KLA relied on foreign support. He made reference to Madeline Albright's February 21, 1999 statement at Rambouillet when she said, "If the talks crater because the Serbs do not say yes, we will have bombing. If the talks crater because the Albanians have not said yes, we will not be able to support them, and in fact we will have to cut off whatever help they are getting from the outside."

Mr. Hartwig asked a contact in the U.S. Government what Albright meant when she said that the Albanians could be cut off. The contact said that Albright was referring to the so-called "humanitarian aid" that the KLA was getting from the Mother Teresa Society.

The EU reports also contained statements given to EU Observers by Kosovo-Albanians. Some of the Albanians told EU Observers that they were afraid of the KLA because of its involvement in terrorism and kidnapping.

Following the conclusion of Mr. Hartwig's testimony, Barry Lituchy a college professor from New York took the witness stand.

Lituchy provided his CV to the court. He briefly spoke about World War II and the history of Nazism in the Balkans. He mentioned the fact that Alija Izetbegovic was a Nazi collaborator.

The witness spoke briefly about the mass-exodus of Serbs from the Krajina following operations Storm and Flash.

Lituchy was called to give evidence based on interviews that he conducted with Kosovo refugees. The witness said that the refugees fled Kosovo because of NATO bombing and KLA terrorism. He said that refugees fled Kosovo after the NATO bombing because KFOR and UNMIK failed to provide security, and people did not feel safe without the protection of MUP and VJ forces.

The witness came to the tribunal with the tapes of interviews that he conducted with the refugees. Unfortunately, the witness insisted that the tapes of Albanian refugees should be played in only in closed session.

Mr. Lituchy said that open session "would be risky. And we would be putting the lives of Albanians at risk if their identities were known. I don't think it would be wise to do that."

Mr. Nice objected to the closed session on the grounds that the prosecution could not check the persons on the tape to determine the circumstances those persons were under when they gave the interviews. Mr. Nice's objection is nonsense since he knows exactly who the people interviewed on the tape are.

The witness's request for closed session is equally nonsensical. Mr. Lituchy published the text of those interviews over five years ago, the identity of the Albanians who gave the interviews is openly contained in the publication. This material has been freely available in the public domain since 1999. His sudden desire to keep this material a secret is really mystifying.

At any rate, the trial went into closed session and stayed there for the rest of the day. This is really unfortunate, those interviews would have shown the people watching the trial or reading the transcript that Albanians were not discriminated against. All of the Albanians that Lituchy interviewed held prominent positions of power and authority in Kosovo while Milosevic was in power.

The interviews would have shown trial watchers that the Serbs were not killing Albanians. The Albanians that Lituchy interviewed fled to central Serbia (while Milosevic was in power) to escape from the KLA and NATO. Unfortunately, the witness does not want these interviews revealed to the public.

As I said before, the interviews have been in the public domain for the last five years. You can read them at:
http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosovo_crisis/Sep_20/3.html

Mr. Lituchy is closing the barn door five years after the cow escaped. 

# # #