LT. COL. SEL TESTIFIES ABOUT BELA CRKVA, CELINA, DONJI RETIMLJE, AND DAKOVICA
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 30, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

The trial of Slobodan Milosevic resumed on Wednesday with the testimony of Janos Sel, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Yugoslav Army.

Lt. Col. Sel, an ethnic-Hungarian from Vojovodina, was a company commander stationed at the Dakovica garrison in Kosovo from 1997 until the Yugoslav Army withdrew from the province in June of 1999.

The witness gave evidence pertaining to specific allegations contained in the Kosovo indictment. Namely: Bela Crkva, Celina, Donji Retimlje, and Dakovica.

The indictment alleges that Serbian troops attacked the village of Bela Crkva on March 25, 1999. It claims that villagers fled from the attack along the Belaja River where they sought shelter at a railroad bridge. The indictment says that Serbian troops opened fire on those villagers killing 12 people. Then the indictment claims that the remaining villagers were rounded-up that men were separated from the women and that the Serbian troops killed another 65 Albanian men.

Lt. Col. Sel was in Bela Crkva on March 25, 1999 and he gives a completely different account of what happened. He said that his unit passed through the village without incident. He said that there was no shooting or combat at all. He denied that there was a large group of civilians by the River or that any civilians were killed. He said that his unit was the only unit in the area on that day and that the indictment was simply wrong.

The only combat that Lt. Col. Sel saw on March 25th took place in the village of Celina.

The indictment alleges that Serbian troops surrounded Celina with tanks. It goes on to allege that Serbian troops shelled the village, and then proceeded to loot shops and burn the old mosque. It is alleged that “thousands” of Kosovo Albanians sought shelter from the raid by hiding in a nearby forest. The indictment says that they were found by Serbian troops, beaten, robbed and forcibly deported to Albania.

Again, Lt. Col. Sel recounted a completely different version of events. He says that his unit was in Celina on March 25th and that it was attacked from three fortified houses in the village. These houses were designed for combat; they had machine-gun nests and had fortified bunkers made out of sandbags.

The witness explained that the army only returned fire against these three houses using anti-aircraft cannons, which have a smaller caliber than conventional mortar shells.

The indictment alleges that the old mosque was destroyed, but Lt. Col. Sel pointed out that there never was a mosque in Celina - let alone an "old mosque". To bear this out he presented a topographical map of Celina that the JNA had drawn-up in 1985. This highly detailed map showed where every building in the village was located, including sheds and out buildings. The mosque referred to by the indictment just didn’t exist.

The topographical map also revealed that there are only about 25 houses in the entire village, therefore it is extremely unlikely that the "thousands of people" alleged by the indictment could have even been in the village, let alone fled the village.

The village was so small that there were not any shops to speak of. Clearly, Serbian troops could not have looted shops that didn’t exist.

The prosecution claims that the witness’s unit attacked the village of Mala Krusa on March 26, 1999. However, according to the witness, nothing happened there at all.

The indictment claims that the village of Donji Retimlje was attacked on March 26, 1999 and that the villagers were ordered to leave. The indictment says Albanian civilians were forced to join convoys of vehicles and persons traveling on foot to the Albanian border. It is alleged that Serbian troops beat and killed Kosovo Albanian men, separated Kosovo Albanian women from the convoy, sexually assaulted the women, and then robbed the refugees of their personal identification documents.

The witness denied that anything like that ever happened. He said that villagers were never ordered to leave their houses, and that soldiers were not permitted to abuse civilians. He said that there were not any civilians in the village on the 26th of March in the first place. The only ones in the village were the KLA.

He testified that his unit entered Donji Retimlje on March 26, 1999 and found it to be a KLA stronghold. The KLA had mined the roads, and dug trenches throughout the village. They had fortified 10 houses and built several bunkers, as well as machine-gun and mortar nests.

When his unit entered the village, the KLA fired anti-armor weapons at him from the minaret of the local mosque. In self-defense, the witness fired on the mosque with a machine-gun mounted on his tank.

Lt. Col. Sel was stationed at the Dakovica garrison throughout the Kosovo war. He testified that the area surrounding Dakovica was a KLA stronghold. He said that the KLA forced Albanian civilians to give them money, and that it forced them to do physical labor, such as digging trenches. In some cases he said that the KLA kidnapped Albanian men and forced them into combat.

The witness ended his examination-in-chief by testifying about the general situation in the Yugoslav Army during the Kosovo war. He said that there were no orders for ethnic cleansing and that no measures were taken against Albanian civilians. He said that there was no deliberate destruction of civilian property, and that looting was not permitted.

The witness was stationed on the Albanian border from April 5, 1999 until the end of the war, and he never saw the army or police forcing civilians across the border or stealing their identification documents.

Mr. Nice spent the rest of the day cross-examining the witness. Mr. Nice spent a great deal of time chiding the witness because he did not bring his personal work notebook to court with him.

Mr. Nice attempted to claim that there really was a mosque in Celina, but that all fell apart when it was revealed that the source of Nice’s information was second-hand information that the prosecution witness Riedlmayer had received from a source who he didn’t name in his report.

Mr. Nice accused the witness of ordering the killing of civilians. Mr. Nice based this accusation on statements from an unknown Muslim soldier who talked to ICTY investigators. Of course the “Muslim soldier's” name wasn't given and he didn’t give the statements on tape, nor are the alleged statements admitted as evidence in the trial. For his part Lt. Col. Sel denied the accusations.

One interesting thing that emerged during the cross-examination is the fact that NATO used chemical weapons in Kosovo. Yugoslav troops had to be issued gas masks to protect them from chemical projectiles that NATO was using. The witness explained that these weapons were designed to emit clouds of noxious chemicals.

Lt. Col. Sel will continue his testimony when the trial resumes tomorrow. By then he should have his notebook that Mr. Nice was so keen on seeing.

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