THE PROSECUTOR LIES, THE JUDGES SABOTAGE, AND
GEN. DELIC STICKS TO HIS GUNS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - July 14, 2005
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
The cross-examination of Gen. Bozidar Delic, former commander of the 549th
Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army (VJ), continued at the trial of Slobodan
Milosevic on Tuesday (July 12) and Wednesday (July 13).
THE JOINT COMMAND
During the cross-examination Mr. Nice repeated the prosecution's allegation that
a special body called the Joint Command was established during the Kosovo war so
that Slobodan Milosevic could directly, and illegally, control the Yugoslav Army
(VJ) and Serbian police (MUP). The prosecution claims that Milosevic used this
body to bypass the legal chain of command to issue orders for ethnic cleansing.
The prosecutor showed Delic orders from the Pristina corps headlined “pursuant
to the decision of the Joint Command.” Of course the documents did not contain
orders for ethnic cleansing, but the prosecutor contended that the documents
proved that the Joint Command issued binding orders to the army and police.
Gen. Delic explained that the Joint Command was a body established to facilitate
cooperation between the army and police. The Joint Command did not bypass the
legal chain of command. The army and police maintained their command structure,
all the Joint Command did was give the army and the police a forum where they
could coordinate their activities.
PROSECUTION WITNESSES K41 AND K32 PROVEN LIARS
During the prosecution case a pair of secret witnesses codenamed "K41" and "K32"
testified against Milosevic. They claimed that Gen. Delic personally ordered
troops of the 549th brigade to attack the village of Jeskovo. They claimed that
the purpose of the operation was to kill civilians, and "K32" even went so far
as to claim that Delic ordered that "nobody should be left alive".
In an attempt to discredit the witness, Mr. Nice confronted Gen. Delic with the
accusations of these two secret witnesses. Gen. Delic dismissed their
allegations as nonsense. Delic first denied saying "nobody should be left
alive," then he pointed out that "K32" was three kilometers away during the
operation at Jeskovo, which meant that he was out of earshot anyway.
Gen. Delic explained that the only ones in Jeskovo were eleven well-armed KLA
terrorists who had to be killed because they refused to surrender. He said that
they were Islamic fundamentalists and that they fought down to the last man.
The final proof that K41 and K32 were lying came in the form of a report of the
OSCE/KVM regarding the Jeskovo operation. Gen. Delic showed the befuddled
prosecutor the part of the report that explained how KVM monitors found the dead
bodies of uniformed KLA soldiers in the village, not civilians.
Gen. Delic went on to explain how K32 was a criminal who hid out at K41's house.
Given the connection between K41 and K32, and given the manifestly false nature
of their testimony. Delic theorized that K32 and K41 may have been coached to
give false testimony. This obvious conclusion ruffled some feathers at the
tribunal, and drew angry reactions from the prosecutor and the judges.
PADDY ASHDOWN'S PERJURY
Another prosecution witness that Delic discredited was Paddy Ashdown. Ashdown
went to Kosovo in June of 1998 and on March 14, 2002 testified that he was on
the Kosovo-Albania border near Junik. From his perch at Junik, through his
binoculars, Ashdown claimed to see Serbian forces torching, looting and shelling
several villages.
Gen. Delic spent the last 15 minutes of Wednesday's hearing going over Ashdown's
testimony. Some of the villages that Ashdown says he saw were more almost 15
kilometers away, thus he could not see the details he claimed to see through his
binoculars.
Other locations that Ashdown claims to have seen can not been seen from Junik
because there are hills and mountains that would have obstructed his view.
Gen. Delic went through Ashdown's testimony point by point, and proved beyond
any doubt that Ashdown could not have been telling the truth when he testified.
The fact that Paddy Ashdown is guilty of perjury will certainly be overlooked by
the tribunal. A real court would bring him up on charges, under the tribunal's
statute he can be prosecuted for contempt. But this is a political show trial
and politics dictate that Paddy Ashdown won't get prosecuted.
MR. NICE'S DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT
It has become standard practice for Mr. Nice to mislead the witnesses and the
court during his cross-examinations, and Gen. Delic's cross-examination was no
exception.
Mr. Nice claimed that more than 200,000 Kosovo Albanians had been internally
displaced prior to the NATO bombing. He claimed to base his assertion on the
testimony of former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who testified for
Milosevic as a defense witness.
Gen. Delic said that the figure of 200,000 was greatly inflated. Not happy with
the answer, Judge Bonamy intervened and advised the witness that the figure of
200,000 could not be disputed because the prosecution and the defense witness
Primakov had both relied on it.
During the break Milosevic looked up Primakov's testimony and found that
Primakov had testified that he didn't know how many internally displaced persons
were in Kosovo prior to the NATO bombing. Mr. Nice and Judge Bonamy were both
lying, and both intentionally trying to mislead the witness. Although Bonamy did
back off and try to say that he was only picking up on the prosecutor's
assertion.
Of course being repeatedly exposed as a liar himself does not stop Mr. Nice from
accusing others of being liars. Throughout the cross-examination, Mr. Nice tried
(and failed) to depict Gen. Delic as a liar and a "Serbian nationalist".
Mr. Nice and the ICTY prosecution have no sense of morality at all. Before Gen.
Delic testified in Milosevic's defense, the prosecution wanted to use him as an
expert witness against Ramush Haradinaj. It would seem that the Office of the
Prosecutor (OTP) judges credibility based on whether the witness is testifying
for them or not. When Gen. Delic would help the OTP in their case against
Haradinaj he was credible, but as soon as he testified in Milosevic's defense he
was magically transformed into a liar, a Serbian nationalist, and a criminal who
went around Kosovo ordering the killing of civilians.
SABOTAGING THE DEFENSE
In an effort to sabotage Slobodan Milosevic's defense case, the trial chamber
issued an order on Thursday asking the tribunal's cardiologist, Dr. van Dijkman,
to determine whether Milosevic's health would allow the court to sit for longer
than the current three days a week at four hours a day.
The Chamber's order proposes several ways to extend the working hours. One way
is to continue at the present pace of three days a week, but with extended
working hours. Another option is to sit for four or five days a week, and the
third is a combination where there would be two or three four-day weeks in a
month.
The idea to expand the working hours was originally proposed by the prosecutor
at the April 14th status conference. The scheme was submitted to the trial
chamber under the guise of "speeding-up the trial".
The real idea behind the scheme to extend the working hours is to sabotage of
Milosevic's defense. Anybody who watches the trial on a regular basis has seen
the extraordinary amount of time that is wasted every time a document does not
get translated from Serbian into English.
By extending the working hours the tribunal will reduce the time that Milosevic
has for preparation. Its simple arithmetic, the more hours he spends in court,
the fewer hours he has to prepare his case. He will have less time to proof
witnesses, and less time to submit documents for translation. The result will be
that less of the defense evidence gets heard, because more time will be wasted
in court dealing with things that would not have been an issue, such as document
translation, if the defense had had more time to prepare.
The Milosevic trial will continue next Monday with the continuation of Gen.
Delic's cross-examination.
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