MILOSEVIC CALLS HIS FIRST EXPERT WITNESS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org – December 6, 2004

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Slobodan Milosevic called his first expert witness on Monday. Dr. Slavenko Terzic, the director of the Historical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, gave evidence pertaining to the history of Kosovo and Metohija.

It was obvious that Dr. Terzic had thoroughly prepared to testify. He gave very detailed evidence, and always cited the documents that he was relying on in his testimony.

In light of his extremely detailed and thorough testimony, I find myself unable to properly summarize or do justice to his evidence. I will endeavor to obtain a copy of his expert report and publish it here. In the mean time, I will give a brief summary of the topics that Dr. Terzic dealt with in the first half of his examination in chief.

Dr. Terzic spoke about Kosovo as a historic part of Serbia. He spoke of the thousands of monuments and artifacts of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which exist on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija.

Dr. Terzic exhibited centuries old historical maps, which were published in Western European countries, showing that Kosovo was clearly Serbian territory. These maps often referred to Kosovo simply as “Old Serbia.”

Terzic provided the tribunal with historical data from the archives of Western countries showing the ethnic structure of Kosovo’s population. This data showed a radical decline in the Serbian population. The data demonstrated that the Serbs went from being an overwhelming majority of the Kosovo population to the small minority they are today.

The first mass-exodus of Serbs occurred between the 17^th and 19^th centuries during the wars between the European Christians and the Islamic Ottoman Turk Empire. This diminished the size of the Serbian majority in Kosovo, but the Serbs maintained their majority status and were still, according to western sources, the ethnic majority in Kosovo as of 1871.

The next mass-exodus of Serbs occurred between 1878 and 1912. During this time the Berlin Congress was held and the Prizren League was established.

Dr. Terzic explained that the Prizren League advocated the spread of radical Islam, and the Greater Albanian concept. To bear this out, Dr. Terzic presented a British government diplomatic cable to the tribunal. The cable dated 1880 said that Prizren was the “most dangerous place in the Mohammedan world” for a Christian to be outside of Mecca.

It was during this time that Kosovo Serbs lost their majority status. Terzic exhibited a British document from 1899 showing that Serbs were 43% of the population and Albanians were 47% of the population.

Terzic presented British documents dating from 1901 detailing large-scale racist crimes committed by Albanians against Serbs in Kosovo.

The next great exodus of Serbs from Kosovo began in World War II and has continued off and on until the present day according to Terzic.

He explained how Fascist Italy took over Albania and then annexed Kosovo to the Greater-Albanian state during the war.

He presented documents detailing statements by Fascist Albanian leaders saying that there would be “no Serbs left under the Kosovo sun.” To prove this point he presented an American document, which stated that Albanian Fascists had massacred at least 10,000 Serbs between April of 1941 and August of 1942.

He testified, and presented documents, detailing the continued expulsion and violence against Serbs from Kosovo after World War II. He showed documents from the Serbian Orthodox Church detailing the fate of its members in Kosovo.

Dr. Terzic presented Yugoslav intelligence documents showing that the Stalinist Albanian regime of Enver Hoxa was sending Albanians to Kosovo in order to carry out sabotage and destabilize Kosovo and Yugoslavia.

Over the course of his testimony, Dr. Terzic dealt with the work of Albanian academicians. He pointed out the fallacy of the Albanian claim to Illyrian heritage noting that the first mention of Albanians occurs 800 years after the last mention of Illyrians on the Balkans. He also quoted from the reports of Albanian academicians where they called for greater Albania, most recently in the documents of the Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences dated 1995 and 1998.

Dr. Terzic’s testimony is not yet complete. His examination-in-chief will continue on Tuesday, followed by cross-examination from Mr. Nice who unsuccessfully attempted to block Terzic from giving evidence in the first place.
 

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