THE KLA ATE FOOD PROVIDED BY THE US GOVERNMENT

THE KLA ATE FOOD PROVIDED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – April 7, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Judge Danica Marinkovic concluded her testimony at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday.

She was re-examined by President Milosevic after having been cross-examined by prosecutor Nice the previous day.

During her evidence Judge Marinkovic produced contemporaneous statements that had been given to the police by ethnic Albanians in the region around Racak. These sworn statements identified Racak as a KLA stronghold.

Mr. Nice attempted to rebut this evidence by going out and tracking-down the Albanians who gave the statements. Not surprisingly the Albanians who Mr. Nice tracked-down are not standing by their previous statements, claiming that they had given them under duress.

As the prosecution well knows, finding an Albanian who will say anything against the KLA in today’s Kosovo is impossible because of the terror and intimidation that the KLA inflicts against its enemies.

On October 12, 2004, the ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte told the Kosovo-Albanian newspaper Koha Ditore, “You cannot imagine what kind of problems we are having in the investigations into UCK leaders in Kosova. There is huge intimidation of witnesses in Kosova, and now they do not want to cooperate with us. We are not receiving any assistance, either from the international community in Kosova or from local authorities.”

On April 1, 2005, IWPR, a U.S. State Department-funded, pro-tribunal website, published an article on the subject of witness intimidation in Kosovo. Their article noted, “There are signs the tribunal’s work with Albanian indictees faces significant problems of witness intimidation.”

In spite of the prevailing atmosphere in Kosovo, Mr. Nice exhibited videotaped statements from the Albanians who had given statements to the police regarding KLA activities in Racak in 1999. The Albanians said exactly what you would expect somebody in their position to say. They said they had lied in their earlier statements about the KLA.

After Judge Marinkovic concluded her testimony, Mr. Nice spent a great deal of time in legal argument. Mr. Nice claimed that the Albanian denials of their earlier statements, coupled with things Natasa Kandic has said, prove that documents produced by the Serbian authorities are unreliable and should not be admitted as evidence.

President Milosevic responded saying that Mr. Nice’s submissions were nonsense. He said that the documents produced by the Serbian judiciary were taken contemporaneously, and had been produced before the ICTY indictment had been issued against him.

He noted that the videos Mr. Nice produced were made last week, specifically for use in the ICTY proceedings. Further more, the tapes were made in Kosovo, in an atmosphere that is hostile towards those who would say anything negative about the KLA.

As far as Natasa Kandic is concerned, Milosevic denounced her as a propagandist. Her NGO, the Belgrade-based “Humanitarian Law Center,” is directly financed by the U.S. Government. She receives funds from the National Endowment for Democracy, a Washington-based organization that is funded by the U.S. State Department, and aims to play a “complementary role to official U.S. Government efforts to promote democracy abroad.”

Natasa Kandic is so beloved by the U.S. Government that they gave her an award. In 2000 the NED awarded her their “Democracy Award.” She was given the award in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Building on May 3, 2000.
(See: http://www.ned.org/publications/00annual/pdf/NewsAndEvents.pdf )

Ms. Kandic’s credibility is severely compromised by her connection to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government led the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999. The U.S. Government finances Natasa Kandic’s NGO through the NED. The U.S. Government was so happy with the return on its investment that it flew Ms. Kandic to Washington D.C. and gave her an award. Natasa Kandic is nothing more than a Serbian name masking American war propaganda.

After spending the entire 2nd session making legal arguments, Milosevic called Slavisa Dobricanin, professor of forensic medicine, who is also testifying about events in Racak.

Professor Dobricanin corroborated Judge Marinkovic’s testimony. He accompanied her when she carried out her on site investigations in Racak.

He also saw the traces of a KLA presence in the village. He saw the KLA’s trenches, bunkers, and weapons. He went into the KLA’s headquarters in the village, and saw all of the same things that Judge Marinkovic reported seeing. He did add another interesting detail. He went into the KLA’s mess hall and found yellow food packets that were labeled “USAID.”

USAID is the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID is supposed to provide humanitarian relief to victims of wars and natural disasters, not to feed armed terrorist bands. The presence of USAID food in the KLA headquarters means that the KLA was stealing humanitarian aid from Kosovo’s civilian population, or that the KLA was receiving direct aid from the U.S. Government.

Professor Dobricanin corroborated, Gen. Gojovic and Judge Marinkovic’s testimony that the Yugoslav Army was not in Racak on January 15th. He said that no army personnel or vehicles were present in the village when he arrived on the scene.

He will continue his testimony when the trial resumes on Friday.