JASOVIC AND GVOZDENOVIC CONCLUDE THEIR TESTIMONY
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - April 27, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Dragan Jasovic concluded his examination-in-chief at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday. Jasovic was a police detective working for the Urosevac SUP in Kosovo until June of 1999.

The Urosevac SUP covered the area of Urosevac, Stimlje, Strpce, and Kacanik, as well as the village of Racak. Most of Jasovic’s previous testimony dealt with KLA activities in Racak, and the fact that 30 out of the 40 people who died in Racak on 15 January 1999 had been identified as KLA members.

Today his testimony dealt with the Kacanik municipality, specifically the village of Kotlina. The indictment against Milosevic alleges that Serbian police massacred Albanian civilians in Kotlina on March 24, 1999.

The indictment lists the alleged “civilian victims” in Schedule L. What is striking when one sees Schedule L is the fact that the vast majority of the supposed “victims” are men of fighting age.

Jasovic had information, collected through witness statements given by citizens to the police, that the KLA had a sub staff of 150 men in Kotlina. When one compares the list of KLA members in Kotlina to Schedule L of the indictment, one finds some correlation between the lists. For example S. Vlashi (42), and I. Loku (19), are both identified as KLA members, yet the indictment claims that they were both innocent civilian victims.

Milosevic told the court that he intends to call more evidence about Kotlina to prove what the situation there was.

Mr. Jasovic’s cross-examination was postponed because Mr. Nice claims that he is not prepared to deal with the witness’s evidence. The prosecution has had the witness statements that Jasovic testified about in its archives for years, and has known for the last 20 days that Milosevic would rely on the documents for his defense.

Mr. Nice’s intention is clearly to send somebody down to Kosovo, in order to find some Albanians who gave statements that will now deny that they cooperated with the Serbian police. Getting Albanians to deny their previous statements should not be hard since Albanians accused of cooperating with the Serbian authorities are attacked in Kosovo.

The prosecution is fully aware of the situation Kosovo-Albanians are in. According to the prosecution’s indictment of Fatmir Limaj, “Albanian civilians who were perceived by the KLA either as refusing to cooperate with or resisting the KLA by non-military means were targeted for intimidation, imprisonment, violence, and murder.”

The indictment goes on to claim that “At the Lapusnik Prison Camp, KLA forces under the command and control of Fatmir Limaj unlawfully detained the Serb and Albanian civilians for prolonged periods. Albanian civilian detainees were repeatedly interrogated about alleged ‘collaboration’ with Serbs, often on the basis only of non-military interactions with Serb civilians.”

Today in Kosovo, the police are the KLA. On January 21, 2000 the UN had a ceremony in Kosovo officially transforming the KLA into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), a police force that patrols Kosovo. No Albanian will dare say anything against the KLA, because there is nobody that can protect you from the police. What do you do if the police want to kill you?

Mr. Nice got extra time, and Jasovic will have to come back for cross-examination on May 17th.

The next witness to take the stand was Zonomir Gvozdenovic. Mr. Gvozdenovic is a Serb from Pec, and his son was killed when terrorists attacked the Panda Café. Gvozdenovic is currently a refugee since his home in Pec was burnt down after the war.

The Panda Café was a well known meeting place for Serbian students in Pec. On December 14, 1998, two masked terrorists opened fire on the café killing: Zoran Stanojevic (17), Svetislav Ristic (17), Ivan Obradovic (15), Dragan Trifovic (17), Ivan Radevic (25), and the witness’s son Vukosav Gvozdenovic (18). Vlado Loncarevic, Mirsad Sabovic, and Nikola Rajovic, were also seriously wounded in the attack.

According to investigation results, the terrorists who opened fire at the café used automatic weapons manufactured in China. This indicates that the weapons probably came from Albania, since the Albanian armed forces received most of its weaponry from China, and the KLA received a substantial portion of its weapons when it looted Albanian Army depots in 1997.

Mr. Nice raised an objection when Milosevic attempted to exhibit photographs of the crime scene. Mr. Nice said that the pictures were too gruesome, and that they would “excite the minds” of the public who was watching the trial.

Mr. Nice then gave a cock-and-bull speech about how “sensationalistic” pictures should be avoided by the court. Apparently, Mr. Nice has not seen the ICTY website ( www.un.org/icty ), where on the very front page one can see the picture of the phony “concentration camp” in Bosnia, where the ITN journalists put their camera crew behind a barbed wire fence and then videotaped refugees through the fence to make it appear that the refugees were prisoners. (See: http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/fooled.htm )

Ultimately the photos wound-up being exhibited, but Mr. Nice’s concern for the public's perception demonstrates that this is a political show trial we are dealing with.

Mr. Gvozdenovic testified that the bad security situation in Kosovo prevented him from visiting his son’s grave for quite a while after the war. In 2002 he was able to visit his son’s grave under escort from Italian KFOR soldiers. He testified that the cemetery had been vandalized. Nobody had guarded it. All of the headstones were knocked down, and all of the crosses had been broken off and stolen from the grave markers.

He testified that during the war, the Serbian police in Pec tried to prevent the Albanians from leaving, but that the Albanian population was under pressure from the KLA to leave. He said that on his street, his Albanian neighbors left their keys with some Serbian friends in order to look after their house and property.

Gvozdenovic testified that he did not see the police expelling anybody from their homes in Pec.

Mr. Saxon cross-examined Mr. Gvozdenovic. Saxon did not ask a single question about the massacre at the Panda Café, which was the whole point of Gvozdenovic’s testimony.

In stead, Mr. Saxon accused Gvozdenovic of personally forcing Albanians out of their homes and expelling them from Kosovo. Mr. Saxon did not give the name of a single Albanian who was allegedly forced out by Gvozdenovic, but lack of evidence never seems to bother the prosecution.

The prosecution’s conduct is really to be despised. Here is a witness who came to testify about the killing of his son and the prosecution, without a single shred of proof, is accusing this him of being a criminal. The depravity of the prosecution never ceases to amaze me, I really wonder what sewer the tribunal ever managed to find these people in.

The next witness was not available to testify today, so the trial adjourned until Wednesday, May 4^th at 9:00 AM.
 

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