DRAGAN JASOVIC’S “VICTIMS” NEVER ACCUSED HIM UNTIL HE TESTIFIED AGAINST KLA COMMANDER FATMIR LIMAJ … SIX YEARS AFTER THE FACT
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – June 20, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic resumed on Monday with the continued testimony of Dragan Jasovic. He was a police detective working for the Urosevac SUP in Kosovo until June of 1999. The witness provided the court with testimony about events in Racak based on statements given to him by witnesses in 1999. According to the statements he took, 30 of the people listed on Schedule A of the indictment were known KLA fighters.

Mr. Nice took the first hour of Monday’s hearing asking “a couple of additional questions” that he said he forgot to ask before he concluded Jasovic’s cross-examination last week. After Mr. Nice concluded, Milosevic began his re-examination of the witness.

Milosevic started the re-examination by going over the job that Jasovic had in the Urosevac SUP. Jasovic explained that his job was to gather intelligence about the KLA from informants and members of the public, not to carry out operations on the ground. Jasovic explained that the narrow scope of his duties made it impossible for him to answer the many questions that Mr. Nice asked about things that were outside the scope of his duty.

Milosevic then turned his attention to the hypocritical position of the prosecution. He read out a passage from the transcript of the Limaj trial where Jasovic was as a prosecution witness. In that trial the prosecution was trying to build-up Jasovic’s credibility, but in this trial the prosecution took the opposite track and tried to destroy his credibility.

Milosevic cited the 6 June 2002 testimony of Shukri Buja, the KLA commander in Racak. According to Mr. Buja, the KLA had 47 soldiers in Racak and on January 15, 1999 they opened fire on the Serbian police who were entering the village. Jasovic said that this largely accorded to the information that he received.

During the prosecution’s case a KLA book called “Fallen Heroes” was tendered. This book, although incomplete, attempts to list the names of KLA members who were killed during the war. Milosevic read the names of 20 KLA members listed by the book as being killed in Racak.

The main point of Jasovic’s evidence was that 30 out of the 40 corpses found in Racak were known KLA members. This evidence is based on statements that he took from informers, friendly contacts and eyewitnesses. In order to discredit the witness, the prosecution sent investigators to Kosovo over the last two months to checkout the people who gave the statements that Jasovic’s evidence relies on.

Not surprisingly, the Albanians who gave the statements to Jasovic now deny that they willingly collaborated with the Serbian police. Some deny ever giving statements to him at all, and others say they were tortured into giving false statements. However, these witnesses, even under these circumstances, did not actually deny that 15 of the 30 names listed by Jasovic were known KLA members.

Milosevic asked Jasovic what has happened to ethnic Albanians who collaborated with the Serbian police since KFOR occupied Kosovo. Jasovic recounted how one of his informants was killed, and he named a number of other cases where Albanians who collaborated with the police were later killed by the KLA.

On many occasions during his cross-examination, Jasovic tried to explain that Albanians who were known to collaborate with the Serbian police found themselves in a dangerous situation. He said that this was why the Albanians who gave statements to him during the war are denying it now.

Jasovic thought it was strange how none of the Albanians who claim to have been beaten by him ever complained to his superiors or to UNMIK about the treatment they allegedly received.

Indeed, Mr. Nice did not produce any evidence to suggest that any of the crimes that he accuses Jasovic of were reported to the international or domestic authorities in the six years before Jasovic testified against KLA commander Fatmir Limaj.

Milosevic will continue Jasovic’s re-examination when the trial resumes on Tuesday.

# # #