GEN. STEVANOVIC’S CONTINUED TESTIMONY & THE CONTEMPT OF KOSTA BULATOVIC
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - May 17, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Gen. Obrad Stevanovic continued his testimony at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday. Stevanovic formerly served as Serbia’s assistant interior minister. He has worked in law enforcement since the late 1970s. He also worked in Kosovo throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The orders that the police in Kosovo were issued were part of the exhibits accompanying Gen. Stevanovic’s testimony. He testified about the structure and contents of the orders. He testified that the police were ordered not to use lethal force against the KLA if civilians would be harmed. He said that the KLA exploited this, and mingled itself among the civilian population so that the police could not do anything to them.

He testified about the subordination of Serbian Interior Ministry personnel to the Yugoslav Army. This re-subordination only occurred during the state of war, and only on certain combat operations. Under the law on re-subordination, the police could only be subordinate to the army during a state of war.

Stevanovic testified about the so-called “Joint Command” that operated in Kosovo. The prosecution has alleged that the Joint Command was a parallel command structure outside of the normal vertical chain of command. Stevanovic testified that the Joint Command was a cooperation body. He said that the top military and police personnel would meet to exchange information, and they called this cooperation body the Joint Command.

The Joint Command had no command authority. It was a group of military and police commanders who met to exchange information. The Joint Command did not issue orders, and did not operate outside of the normal vertical chains of command for the military and police.

The witness testified about confidence building measures that the Serbian Interior Ministry took to quell the fears of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. One of these measures was called the “Local Security.”

The Local Security program allowed the Kosovo-Albanians to elect their own local policemen in their own villages. The Local Security allowed Serbian Interior Ministry personnel to leave the villages. The Local Security was issued firearms and had the authority to arrest people. It was Local Security’s job to provide law enforcement, and according to Stevanovic they did their job pretty well.

The Local Security operated in Kosovo from 1998 until the end of the NATO bombing. Milosevic exhibited numerous documents generated by the Local Security forces during the bombing.

The documents demonstrated that these ethnic Albanian police officers continued to function normally and do their job in Kosovo at precisely the time when the prosecution claims that Serbia was ethnically cleansing the Albanians.

Gen. Stevanovic testified that the KLA attacked members of the Local Security because they did not want there to be normalized relations between the Albanian population and the state authorities.

The witness said that the KLA forced Albanian civilians to join the KLA; also that it forced them to do manual labor. He said that numerous Albanians sought protection from the KLA. Among them was Ibrahim Rugova who, according to Stevanovic, personally asked him for the protection of the Serbian Interior Ministry.

Stevanovic testified about the measures the police took to cooperate with the OSCE’s Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM). He said that the army and police fulfilled their obligations and fully cooperated with the KVM. His testimony is corroborated by the testimony of Roland Keith, the commander of the Kosovo Polje KVM field office. When Mr. Keith testified he said that the army and police cooperated fully with the KVM.

Stevanovic came to court with the statistics on terrorism in Kosovo. The statistics showed that terrorism was sporadic between 1991 and 1998. In those seven years there were only 134 terrorist attacks, and only 39 people were killed.

In 1997 the Albanian Government collapsed, and the depots of the Albanian Army were looted. Stevanovic said that this looting allowed the KLA to arm itself and radically increase its terrorist activity.

In 1998 there was 2,010 KLA terrorist attacks, and 328 people were killed (over 10 times as many as the preceding seven years combined). Over half of the civilians killed in those attacks were Albanians. In 1999 the number of KLA terrorist attacks was even higher.

Even though the Serbian police withdrew from Kosovo on June 10, 1999 they still keep track of the events there. All of the Interior Ministry secretariats that had been based in Kosovo are now maintaining their offices in Serbia proper, and they still record crimes when the civilians living in Kosovo report them.

According to the statistics generated by the reports received after June 10, 1999, there have been more terrorist attacks in Kosovo since NATO and the UN occupied it than there were in the eight years before the occupation.

As of 2004, when the last statistic was generated, there had been 7,338 terrorist attacks in Kosovo. 1,114 persons had been killed in the attacks, and 1,141 people had been abducted. Most of the victims were reported to be Serbs and other non-Albanians, but hundreds of Albanians were also reportedly kidnapped and killed by the KLA.

The actual number of terrorist attacks in Kosovo, since the UN/NATO occupation began, is probably higher than the statistics indicate. If an attack were not reported to the police, since they are no longer allowed in Kosovo, then that attack would not have been recorded in the statistics.

Gen. Stevanovic will resume his testimony when the trial resumes on Wednesday.

In other news, the trial chamber convicted Kosta Bulatovic of contempt on Friday, May 13th. Bulatovic is the witness who refused to continue his testimony in Milosevic’s absence.

Bulatovic was given a suspended prison sentence of four months, which means that he will not have to serve any time in prison unless he commits a crime in the next two years. Mr. Bulatovic’s health is poor and it is not known whether he intends to appeal the verdict.

It is clear that the tribunal intends this verdict to intimidate future defense witnesses. The trial chamber wants to show that it is above the law. It would have been a violation of Article 21.4 (D) of the Tribunal’s statute to continue the trial in Milosevic’s absence. It would have also violated Article 14.3 (D) of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees all accused persons the right to be tried in their own presence.

Bulatovic’s refusal to testify under those circumstances was heroic. If he had complied with the Trial Chamber’s demands and testified in Slobodan Milosevic’s absence, then he would have been participating in a flagrant violation of Milosevic’s rights.

Kosta Bulatovic stood firm and scrupulously observed the law even though the Trial Chamber did not. Only at a kangaroo court like the ICTY could a man be sentenced to four months imprisonment for refusing to commit a crime.

The tribunal is engaging in a classic power play, by convicting Kosta Bulatovic of contempt they are trying to show that they are above the law. They want to sow fear in potential defense witnesses by demonstrating that they can impose a prison sentence on anybody who does not tow their line.

# # #