Page 3556
1 Monday, 22 April 2002
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.04 a.m.
5 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Nice, we're told that there's some difficulty
6 about getting the witnesses here this morning. They're in a traffic jam.
7 MR. NICE: Your Honour, so I understand. Might the time first be
8 used conveniently to deal with the application in respect of Neill Wright.
9 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
10 MR. NICE: The position has been set out in our motion of the
11 admission of his evidence pursuant to Rule 92 bis, dated the 22nd of March
12 of 2002. I trust that the Chamber has had both the statement and an
13 opportunity to consider the motion.
14 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
15 MR. NICE: In the absence thus far of reaction by the accused or,
16 I think, the amici, I will simply remind the Chamber that the -- and for
17 those who will be observing the trial, that the statement produces various
18 statistical material provided to a human rights organisation and, in
19 particular, deals extensively with numbers of displaced persons.
20 The formal requirements of Rule 92 bis have been complied with so
21 that the Chamber is left to consider its discretion guided, as that
22 discretion is, by factors listed in 92(A)(i) and (ii).
23 It is our case that the evidence is cumulative in nature because
24 other witnesses have given oral evidence of similar facts, and, indeed,
25 Patrick Ball has dealt with statistics to a broadly similar effect and has
Page 3557
1 relied on the material produced by the proposed 92 bis witness so that
2 it's corroborative of two types of evidence that the Chamber has already
3 admitted and considered.
4 As to cross-examination, we would respectfully invite you to say
5 that although it's of course a matter for discretion, in this particular
6 case the accused's cross-examination has been not to the fact of
7 displacement but to the motivation or cause of it, and therefore, that
8 doesn't bring him with any of the tests automatically giving him a right
9 to cross-examination, it remaining a matter of discretion for the
10 Chamber.
11 Your Honours, perhaps that summarises the position for the time
12 being and I'll await what, if any, reactions are there for me to respond
13 to.
14 JUDGE MAY: Before you do, perhaps you could deal with one or two
15 matters. The first is attachment number five, the statement of Mrs. Ogata
16 made to a working group on the 6th of April, 1999. I'm not sure that it
17 adds very much in any event, and it speaks of forced displacement and the
18 like, and I don't think we need be minded in any event to admit that
19 through this particular witness.
20 MR. NICE: As Your Honour pleases. She's been referred to in
21 evidence very recently.
22 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Perhaps more important would be, accepting for
23 the moment your argument that really what is being dealt with by this
24 witness is the statistics, the fact that there were refugees, which hasn't
25 been disputed, the issue being as to why there were -- why there was
Page 3558
1 displacement, attachment four, just the emergency update, that is the
2 day-to-day reports, I take it.
3 MR. NICE: Your Honour, yes.
4 JUDGE MAY: Yes. And this witness is in Colombo.
5 MR. NICE: Sri Lanka, I think, at the moment, but he is available.
6 I'm not pretending that he --
7 JUDGE MAY: No. But if he was forced to give evidence, he would
8 come rather a long way.
9 MR. NICE: He would indeed, yes.
10 JUDGE MAY: But that's, of course, not a compelling factor, just a
11 practical matter.
12 Yes. Thank you. We'll hear from the amicus.
13 MR. WLADIMIROFF: Thank you, Your Honour. I've not identified any
14 further issue that might assist the Court except for one; that is, we
15 believe that the accused does have the right of cross-examination if he
16 wishes to do so. And that's the only observation we have.
17 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Mr. Milosevic, we're dealing with the statement
18 of Mr. Neill Wright. His statement has been served. He is a witness from
19 the UNHCR who deals with displacement. And the point the Prosecution make
20 in asking that the statement be admitted, and without cross-examination,
21 is that what he deals with is the statistics of displacement. He does not
22 deal with the reasons for it, that being the -- that latter being the
23 issue in the case.
24 Now, is there anything you want to say to us about that issue?
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I didn't have a chance of seeing his
Page 3559
1 testimony, his statement, and as he's not on the list of the next 30-odd
2 witnesses, this is very far in advance, and I don't go that far in
3 advance, of course. So I don't know anything about his statement or
4 testimony.
5 JUDGE MAY: His statement was served with the Prosecution motion
6 of the 22nd of March. Very well.
7 [Trial Chamber confers]
8 JUDGE MAY: There are two matters we have to deal with. The first
9 is this: Mr. Milosevic has not addressed us on the issue, saying he
10 hasn't read the papers. But the fact is this: that this motion was served
11 as long ago as the 22nd of March. We bear in mind that he is representing
12 himself and there are a large number of papers. It is therefore more
13 difficult than it would be in a simple case or more difficult than it
14 would be for an accused who is represented. All that we bear in mind.
15 But nonetheless, he had notice that this matter was to be dealt with. He
16 had notice on Friday that we would be dealing with it this morning. So he
17 had every opportunity to read the papers and be in a position to address
18 us. He hasn't taken that opportunity. We deal with it on the basis that
19 his reaction would be similar to his reaction to other such motions for
20 the admission of written statements, namely, that he would wish to
21 cross-examine the witness, and on that basis, we consider the motion.
22 We will admit this statement under Rule 92 bis. It is of
23 cumulative nature since it deals with the statistics of displacement.
24 There has been evidence from many witnesses about the fact of
25 displacement. There has been evidence from Dr. Ball about the statistics
Page 3560
1 of displacement. Therefore, this evidence is cumulative of other evidence
2 and is admissible.
3 We do not consider that cross-examination in this case is
4 necessary, in the exercise of our discretion, since the witness deals
5 purely with the fact of displacement and not with the reasons for it.
6 There has been no issue that people were displaced. The issue has been:
7 Why were they displaced?
8 The statement will be admitted as evidence of the statistics of
9 displacement and the fact that people were displaced. It will not be
10 admitted as evidence of why they were displaced. And in any event,
11 attachment 5, the statement of Mrs. Ogata, will be excluded. It would not
12 be admissible through this witness in any event, and it deals much more
13 closely with the issue which we've identified, namely, the reasons for
14 displacement, which is a matter which is very much in dispute.
15 Accordingly, we admit the statement under Rule 92 bis. We exclude
16 attachment 5, Mrs. Ogata's speech.
17 MR. NICE: Your Honour, I'm grateful. I'm not sure whether the
18 witness has yet arrived. If not, there's another procedural matter that I
19 can raise and make use of the time in doing so.
20 JUDGE MAY: Is the witness here?
21 THE REGISTRAR: They have arrived, Your Honour.
22 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Yes, Mr. Milosevic, what was it?
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I would like to say something
24 precisely with respect to the statistics you were talking about.
25 Statistics can serve a purpose if it deals with the facts introduced and
Page 3561
1 if those facts are correct, if it deals with the correct facts and
2 figures. But in the practice so far this has not -- here, this has not
3 been the case. We heard the testimony that you mentioned a moment ago by
4 Patrick Ball, for example, which I wholly challenged.
5 And secondly, we are not talking about displacement. And I don't
6 know what you imply by using the term "displacement," because just one
7 thing is without a doubt and that is that there were refugees who had
8 fled, fled from the places where there lived due to the war.
9 Now, if statistics -- if the statistics is about statistics
10 related to refugees, then we can only look at it if the input is correct,
11 the facts are correct, and not -- it does not apply to any displacement
12 that is not connected to refugees. Refugees and war are two things that
13 have always been linked, two phenomena that have also been linked. There
14 has been no war without refugees or refugees without war, as far as I know
15 anything on the subject.
16 So we're talking about - how shall I put it? - an endeavour, I
17 think, to have the reasons for some sort of displacement ascribed to some
18 other elements and points in time, intentions, plans that we have been
19 listening to here the whole time but never anything than rumours and
20 hearsay, people having heard about something. And that is why I think
21 that statistical presentations of this kind, in my opinion, can be
22 qualified as being worthless.
23 JUDGE MAY: We've ruled, Mr. Milosevic, and you've heard the
24 reasons for our ruling.
25 Yes, we'll have the witness.
Page 3562
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And as I say, I see that we have a
2 little time. May I just say that my telephone isn't working again. I
3 don't know how many times this telephone, which is supposed to be at my
4 disposal, is out of order and I can't use it because it's not working,
5 it's not operational.
6 JUDGE MAY: Yes. We'll have that looked into.
7 [The witness entered court]
8 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Salihi, we'll conclude your evidence now. You'll
9 remember the declaration that you gave on Friday, which of course still
10 applies.
11 WITNESS: RESHIT SALIHI [Resumed]
12 [Witness answered through interpreter]
13 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, it's for you to continue your
14 cross-examination. It appears that there are about 40 minutes left.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I won't need as much time.
16 Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic: [Continued]
17 Q. [Interpretation] Mr. Salihi, in your statement, it says that you
18 heard, when the events that you described took place, that in the Serbian
19 language somebody said, "There are terrorists here." Is that correct?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. As far as I was able to understand, you said that in your village
22 there were no members of the KLA. Is that right?
23 A. No, there haven't been any.
24 Q. And do you know that in the close vicinity, right next to your
25 village, in the villages of Bela Crkva, Zrze, Mala Krusa, Pirana,
Page 3563
1 Medvedza, Samodreza, Studencane, Zociste, that in those villages there
2 were members of the KLA and their groups present?
3 A. I have no idea.
4 Q. Did you hear of any occurrence taking place nearby your village,
5 such as an abduction or killing or anything else that might have happened
6 in those villages? Did you hear anything like that?
7 A. Well, we've heard about it when we've heard that Serbian forces
8 have gone in and killed people, slayed them. They've done everything.
9 Q. I'm asking you whether you heard of events and occurrences when --
10 involving KLA members, when the KLA members perpetrated crimes in the
11 villages around your village, the villages I enumerated.
12 A. At -- there's been -- there's been no KLA in Celine, and this
13 question is not for me.
14 Q. I'm not talking about Celine. I'm talking about what you say you
15 heard and if you heard anything from the surrounding villages, and I'm
16 talking about what we're referring to as the KLA, that organisation.
17 A. I've not heard anything about any KLA or anything of the sort.
18 Q. And do you think that they might have come into conflict in those
19 villages, clashes, and that a group of KLA members fled towards your
20 village and that they were following that group?
21 JUDGE MAY: The witness has said that he knows nothing about the
22 KLA in the surrounding villages, and that's his answer. He can't add
23 anything to that.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, the witness doesn't know
25 anything with respect to the KLA. He just knows one side - that's quite
Page 3564
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Page 3565
1 clear - one side of it.
2 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
3 Q. You said in your written statement that the policemen, according
4 to what it says here, had assault rifles. What do you mean when you say
5 "assault rifles"? What are they?
6 A. Serbian forces came into the village of Celine and they did
7 everything against us.
8 Q. I'm asking you about rifles. You said that they had assault
9 rifles.
10 A. Yes. I can't say what kind of weapons they had, but Celine came
11 under shelling. And we were not there in the business of going out into
12 the open for them to shell us, and then that's exactly what they did.
13 Q. In the last paragraph -- I'm asking you a specific question. On
14 page 2, in the middle of this paragraph -- I only have the text in English
15 and I'm going to read the sentence.
16 [In English] "I can't remember anything about badges on their
17 uniforms. These policemen were armed with assault rifles."
18 [Interpretation] That's what I'm asking you. What makes these
19 rifles different from other rifles? What are assault rifles, since you
20 claim that they carried some kind of assault rifles?
21 A. They had -- [indiscernible] automatic guns. This is some kind of
22 a grammatical exercise, and I'm no good at grammar of this kind.
23 Q. I'm not twisting anything. I'm just reading what's been written
24 here.
25 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, we see what's in the statement. The
Page 3566
1 witness has answered as best he can.
2 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] All right.
3 Q. So it all boils down to the following: Your village, until the
4 25th of March - and that is the date on which this event occurred that you
5 described - it was a peaceful village and there were no incidents; is that
6 right?
7 A. Until the 25th, there was nothing of the kind. After that, we
8 came under siege and the Serbs did what they always wanted to do.
9 Q. All right. Do you know that on the 24th of March, the NATO
10 aggression against Yugoslavia started, that war started?
11 A. Yes, I do know this, and that is the reason why Serbian forces
12 besieged us and threw all their revenge upon us, because we were very
13 happy that NATO intervened, of course.
14 Q. So until the end -- the beginning of the war, it was peaceful, and
15 you did not have any problems; and then when the war began, the events
16 that usually accompany a war started. Do you ascribe everything that
17 happened to the war or to something else?
18 A. What happened upon the civilians by the Serbian forces only -- can
19 only be laid at their door.
20 Q. But I hope that we are clear on one thing, and that is that until
21 the beginning of the war, there were no events of this kind whatsoever;
22 all the trouble began when the war began. Is that right or is that not
23 right?
24 A. Yes.
25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] I have no further questions.
Page 3567
1 JUDGE MAY: Thank you.
2 Any re-examination?
3 MR. NICE: Only one question arising from last week.
4 Re-examined by Mr. Nice:
5 Q. Mr. Salihi, you've told us about people being killed in your
6 village. How many people were killed, roughly, or exactly, if you can
7 help us?
8 A. I do know that exactly. Until the 25th or the 28th, I can explain
9 everything here, because I've got everything here in my head.
10 Q. How many people? Just tell us that.
11 A. Seventy-five in the village of Celine, aged from 1 year old to 90
12 year old. They were all killed and massacred in their own households.
13 Q. I'm not going to ask you any more.
14 MR. NICE: Thank you very much, Your Honour. I should explain
15 that this witness, as several witnesses do, come to Court with photographs
16 and documentation that they think will help us. It's always a balance as
17 to whether we should take time producing that material. With this
18 particular witness, although he produced the material, it seemed to me
19 that his witness statement dealt with matters, and I don't ask for it to
20 be produced in evidence. But they bring this material, as this witness
21 did, hoping that they can help the Chamber. Thank you.
22 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Salihi. Thank you for coming to
23 the Tribunal to give your evidence. It's now finished and you're free to
24 go.
25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you very much.
Page 3568
1 [The witness withdrew]
2 MR. NICE: Your Honour, before the next witness comes, and because
3 I'm not going to be here after the break, myself, until next week, I
4 wonder if I could explain one or two procedural matters in a way that I
5 hope will help the Chamber and set out the way we're going to deal with
6 things from now on. I hope that will be convenient. It will take about
7 five minutes or perhaps a little longer. I hope that's acceptable.
8 Your Honour, we're now in a position, prosecuting this case in the
9 three indictments, to take account of all decisions that this Chamber has
10 made, indeed the Appeals Chamber's decision in relation to joinder, and we
11 can take account of the experience of the time being taken, for example,
12 with the 92 bis witnesses. And we obviously have our concerns.
13 First of all, we appreciate that there are, or may be, different
14 views about how long these trials should take, or this trial should take,
15 in particular how much time should be taken by crime-base evidence. And
16 although the Prosecution will, and does, hold to its view of what's
17 appropriate, reflected in the list of witnesses we've served, it would be
18 quite wrong of us not to take account of the views of others, as expressed
19 or implied, to respect them, and to recognise that of course our view may
20 well be wrong. We don't believe it's wrong, but we must take that view
21 and we must respond to those possibilities.
22 Now that we can work out how long evidence in the Kosovo limb will
23 take, the evidence that we've served, we've done the statistics, and if we
24 were to call the evidence listed and on the most favourable assumptions
25 that, for example, four 92 bis witnesses a day and live crime-base
Page 3569
1 witnesses half a day, and experts and internationals one and a half days -
2 you can do it various ways - the time that would be taken would take us
3 well beyond the break, into October.
4 It appears to us that there are only a few remaining issues that
5 can affect the length of time that need final resolution. I'll identify
6 them and ask to say one or two words about one or two of them in a
7 second. There's the binders, what use may be made of them; there's the
8 cross-examination of amici, which is being dealt with by a separate
9 motion; and then there's the final position of summarising witnesses.
10 I'll come back to two of those shortly.
11 But in light of the statistics as we've understood them - and of
12 course those statistics are in line with the original time estimates given
13 by the Prosecutor and by myself on earlier occasions - we've decided to
14 re-order the witnesses to give a priority not to the crime-base witnesses
15 now, or at least after this week, but, wherever possible, to the other
16 witnesses; the internationals, insiders, and the witnesses of linkage.
17 What we intend to do is to get as many of those witnesses in as soon as
18 may be.
19 This, to some degree, disrupts the order and presentation of
20 evidence, but we think that's a necessary course to take, and we'll keep
21 92 bis witnesses in reserve - we hope not at their inconvenience - so that
22 they can fill gaps as gaps may appear if we have trouble, as we may well
23 do, getting these witnesses from around the world to come sooner than had
24 originally been planned.
25 We don't yet know, incidentally, what is the outcome of the Kosovo
Page 3570
1 interpretation booth dilemma, but if -- we hope that this won't waste
2 interpretation booth time if it's limited, we've got that in mind, but
3 nevertheless, we have to have in mind the overall time scale.
4 Now, merely calling those witnesses early isn't going to solve the
5 problem if there is a problem between the time that we believe is required
6 and the time that the Chamber has allowed, and so I intend to do the
7 following in respect to basically all witnesses in this trial unless I'm
8 told not to, and all witnesses in all parts of the trial: I will take
9 steps where possible to have their evidence in chief admitted under the
10 provisions of 92 bis, and that will apply for all witnesses. I will come
11 to detail of that, but before I do, the accused has been saying that from
12 time to time that having witness statements as evidence in chief is not
13 known to any system of law. I haven't bothered to correct him because
14 when he says things that are wrong, if I stand up to correct them, it
15 always takes time.
16 He's quite wrong about that. Just to take one jurisdiction, the
17 English, in all cases that are not criminal in nature, including the large
18 commercial cases that attract litigation from around the world, I believe,
19 as Your Honour will know, examination-in-chief has been a thing of the
20 past for years. All evidence is adduced by the way of production and
21 adoption of written statements.
22 And of course there are plenty of arguments that one can deploy
23 for saying that this sort of litigation is much more like large civil
24 litigation with professional Judges and big, detailed issues of the type
25 that are handled by both the small civil courts in England or the large
Page 3571
1 courts that deal with banking and other associated matters and so on.
2 So he's quite wrong in saying that this is without precedent.
3 It's absolutely with precedent, and it's been recognised as a technique
4 for saving time, certainly in England and I expect around the world. And
5 of course what happens is exactly what Your Honours have allowed in the
6 case of these 92 bis witnesses; that the witness adopts his statement as
7 accurate and is allowed a few questions of -- to settle him in, maybe one
8 or two matters of detail covered, and than he is exposed or she is exposed
9 to cross-examination.
10 So it seems to us if there is going to be problems of getting a
11 sufficient quantity of evidence in within the time allowed, that we must
12 use every available technique to abbreviate time. And of course, not
13 having evidence in chief is not something that we want, but it's something
14 that we think we can certainly live with. But it would require some
15 constructive use of 92 bis, which has its own provisions.
16 As the Chamber will recall, 92 bis may only apply in respect of
17 evidence of a witness which goes to proof of a matter other than the acts
18 and conduct of the accused. So that any statement that deals and only
19 deals with such matter, it seems to us, probably couldn't qualify under 92
20 bis. But there is another part of 92 bis that is of value. 92 bis (E), I
21 think, which says that: "... The Trial Chamber shall decide, after
22 hearing the parties, whether to admit the statement or transcript in whole
23 or in part and whether to require the witness to appear for
24 cross-examination."
25 So that if there are statements from witnesses -- and I'll come to
Page 3572
1 the other difficulties that arise in relation to this possible technique,
2 but if there are statements that in part deal with acts of the accused and
3 in part deal with other background matter, then, and entirely sensibly, it
4 should be to partition the witness's statement up. I don't mean
5 physically, but to say, Well, as to paragraphs 1 to 10, admitted under 92
6 bis with entitlement of the accused to cross-examine; as to paragraphs 11
7 to 20, which deal with acts of the accused, well, that will have to be
8 given in chief in the regular way.
9 So it seems to us that if I can bring ourselves within the
10 provisions of 92 bis for any witness, for all witnesses, then this will
11 save a great deal of time.
12 Of course, it won't be possible to go around the world and go
13 through the process of 92 bis'ing, as it's rather unelegantly called, or
14 inelegantly called, every conceivable witness, but witnesses, when they
15 come here, of course go through their existing statements which have been
16 served on the accused and the amici, and if they simply adopt the
17 statement as accurate, it can then be taken to the independent limb of the
18 Registry who can deal with the attesting process that makes the statement
19 potentially valid before this Chamber. If the witness wishes to add to or
20 to amend or correct the statement, a second statement could be taken and
21 that statement can itself be taken through the 92 bising process.
22 Now, if that happens, there will be potential difficulties arising
23 from the notice provisions set out in 92 bis (E), because, of course,
24 statements have to have 14 days' notice to the opposing party for
25 provision of seven days' objection. Well, it's always open to the Chamber
Page 3573
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Page 3574
1 to abbreviate time. If the statement in substance or the statement has
2 been served in advance on the accused, as they all have been, there would
3 be no prejudice to him, especially if the Chamber were to decide to allow
4 the statement in, in whole or part, subject to cross-examination.
5 And so we might find ourselves in the position again -- unless the
6 Chamber rejects this altogether as a useful technique, we might find
7 ourselves in the position of saying, well, as forecast, Witness X is
8 available today or tomorrow. His statements have been attested to under
9 the provisions of 92 bis and we would ask the whole statement to go in as
10 his evidence, subject to such cross-examination as the Chamber may allow.
11 Alternatively, if the statement is one where certain paragraphs
12 could not qualify under the opening provisions of 92 bis, we'd say the
13 Chamber should have the whole statement, there being no embarrassment in
14 the Chamber having the whole statement, other Chambers do, but we would
15 seek to apply the provisions of 92 bis to the parts that don't
16 specifically concern the conduct of the accused.
17 There's one other potential difficulty, and this is a procedure
18 and I've tried to think of all problems in advance and alert the Chamber
19 to them, and it's to do with the language of the statements, given the
20 problems of translation that we have.
21 What happens at the moment is that the witnesses come in, their
22 statements, which have been served on the accused in English and in B/C/S,
23 are then subject to review and the proofing summaries that are served are
24 prepared, but they're only prepared in English because they're not -- it's
25 not possible to prepare them in B/C/S in the time available, and they are,
Page 3575
1 of course, a voluntary provision in excess of our duties.
2 We now know better than the Chamber did when the matter was raised
3 earlier, that the accused speaks English to a very high level, and we
4 would invite the Chamber to say that it would be possible in these
5 circumstances again to be satisfied that there is no prejudice in the
6 provision of 92 bis statements in this way.
7 So, Your Honour, it has yet to be seen how it operates in
8 practice. Of course the Chamber may rule against us, but I hope it
9 won't. But it does seem to us that this is a technique that will save
10 some more time, be consistent with modern practice, and the Chamber will
11 always be able to afford the accused the opportunity to cross-examine,
12 which is what is important to him, even though the Prosecution will lose
13 that which they normally value, which is the opportunity for their cases
14 to be given in public.
15 With that in mind, I'll therefore give oral notice now that it's
16 our intention to -- under this method, to seek to rely on the provisions
17 of 92 bis for any and every witness forthcoming, and I'll deal with the
18 details witness-by-witness as we are able to provide revised witness
19 lists, but I hope that that notice will serve a purpose.
20 [Trial Chamber confers]
21 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, I think what you propose to do is quite
22 interesting, but it seems to me that there is a certain basic screening
23 that should be done by the Prosecution in this exercise rather than
24 throwing everything at the Chamber, every possible witness. The
25 Prosecution should itself do some screening, because there's no point
Page 3576
1 putting any and every witness up for 92 bis if the very basic requirements
2 are not met. The evidence must purport to go to matters other than the
3 acts and conduct of the accused, and then the provision also sets out some
4 indicia as to admissibility.
5 So if you have a witness whose testimony doesn't meet those basic
6 criteria, why put up that witness? So while I find it interesting, I
7 believe that there's an onus on the Prosecutor to do what I call this very
8 basic screening. Because what you propose is really an indiscriminate
9 exercise in which any and every witness will be put up as a possible 92
10 bis, and I believe that you should be a little more selective.
11 MR. NICE: Well, I certainly wasn't seeking rulings today. I was
12 simply trying to give the Chamber an indication of what was in my mind, as
13 I always do, so that the Chamber can think ahead and dwell on these
14 matters. And of course, there may be witnesses who don't qualify at all
15 because they are all about the acts of the accused, in which case, of
16 course, we wouldn't put them in.
17 And as to screening, of course we're screening witnesses. We're
18 very mindful of the additional burden that this exercise will place on
19 everyone. There's no need to expose people to unnecessary labours if it's
20 simply wasted. So of course we'll be reviewing each witness on a
21 witness-by-witness basis, but this is my broad plan at the moment.
22 So when I say I'm, as it were, giving notice that any such witness
23 may be subject to 92 bis, that is exactly what I'm doing, and we'll review
24 it as times comes along. And of course this will apply not only for the
25 Kosovo limb, but in due course it will apply to the other limbs of the
Page 3577
1 case. But we don't know what the timetables are going to be there, we
2 don't know whether there will be the same pressure, for example, in
3 Croatia, or whether it would be possible, as it would certainly be
4 desirable in all cases, to have at least some witnesses give their
5 evidence in chief fully. But as long as we have, and must respect and
6 reflect, timetables that are operative on us, we have to look at all
7 provisions, and that's why I've said that we're considering it for, and
8 give notice that we may be considering it for, are considering it for,
9 every witness.
10 Can I -- because I've got a few other things to say, so that I can
11 be entirely transparent about what our plans are and exactly how they are
12 going to take shape - come back to what I think are the only outstanding
13 potential timesaving issues that are not formally and finally resolved.
14 As I say, cross-examination by the amici is on hold, because it's
15 obviously right that that should be the subject of a written motion for
16 them to deal with.
17 Location binders. In light of Your Honours' ruling last week, it
18 would appear to us, although it wasn't said in terms, that the Chamber may
19 not be inclined to use the binders as a tool for engaging the accused in
20 the exercise of deciding what's admitted and not admitted.
21 JUDGE MAY: That's right.
22 MR. NICE: And equally, that it may be the case that the Chamber
23 is not minded to use the binders as a way of identifying on any not
24 collective but joint basis what evidence may be valuable. Now, if that's
25 the case, the residual value of the binders becomes more limited, and it
Page 3578
1 does, of course, picking up from His Honour Judge Robinson's point, add to
2 the burden of work really upon the Chamber. We don't want to flood the
3 Chamber with material to be considered unless it's for a good purpose. We
4 can carry on with the binder exercise if the Chamber thinks that it's
5 useful.
6 Now, I know it's never right for an advocate to ask a tribunal any
7 question, and I don't. So we can carry on doing it, but of course, were
8 the Chamber to indicate that it doesn't regard that as an exercise that
9 brings a dividend of efficiency or the saving of time, then we won't, and
10 we'll simply adduce the evidence in line with the rulings that are to be
11 either implied or drawn directly from the ruling in relation to the
12 binder.
13 JUDGE MAY: Speaking for myself, it might be a convenient way in
14 which to have the evidence together in one place about a particular
15 village rather than having it given by perhaps a series of witnesses.
16 MR. NICE: Very well. Then we'll carry on, pruning them down in
17 the way that you indicated, and make them available on that basis.
18 There is then one other outstanding issue, which hasn't been the
19 subject of a formal ruling, and that's the issue of the summarising
20 witness. Now, we know that from the binder concerned, the summarising
21 witness was excluded, as it were, in consideration of the binder. We're
22 not sure whether that amounts to a general ruling about summarising
23 witnesses, but --
24 JUDGE MAY: We haven't yet, I think, allowed one application for
25 summarising witnesses. Now, it may be that you have another approach in
Page 3579
1 mind.
2 MR. NICE: Well, again, I'm hoping to set out in advance what I'm
3 doing rather than seeking rulings today. It seems to us that there is no
4 Appeals Chamber jurisprudence on summarising witnesses. There's practice
5 in different Chambers that I've drawn to your attention. And it would be
6 desirable, if there's not to be a ruling in favour of a summarising
7 witness in this case, that there might be Appeal Chamber jurisprudence
8 available to all of us to guide us. Because what will be the most
9 regrettable position would be to find - any case - to find itself in a
10 position on appeal where the sufficiency of evidence is argued and where
11 the Appeal Chamber says, "But there was another way of getting this in,"
12 and that matter hasn't been dealt with.
13 So what I'm proposing to do is this, probably next week: I will
14 seek to lead a witness. It will probably be the summarising witness in
15 Racak, and if so, we'll serve his statement upon you in advance. And
16 that's one, because it's a particularly large site and because this is an
17 investigator who has prepared the maps, indeed the maps we've already used
18 with Major General Drewienkiewicz, his maps and so on. But he's been to
19 the site and he's conducted an investigation, but his statement also does
20 contain a summary of what witnesses have said to him.
21 We'll then seek your ruling in relation to that witness. And if
22 it's favourable, then we'll be pleased to adopt the policy of using such
23 witnesses. If it's -- or not "favourable"; if it's to admit. If it's to
24 reject, then we would ask the Chamber at that stage to certify that this
25 was a discrete topic suitable for appellate consideration, and then we
Page 3580
1 could possibly fast-track that consideration. So that one way or another
2 we could know where we were in relation to that category of evidence, not
3 just for this sector of the trial but for others.
4 So with all those changes in mind - not "changes" - with all those
5 proposals in mind, we will come at whatever the final deadline for the
6 Kosovo sector of the trial is, to a position where we have got in, we
7 would hope, the best evidence. Of course we'll be putting in evidence of
8 crime base, probably start off with one per site for the killing sites,
9 because it may be there won't be time for more, and we'll try and use 92
10 bis, of course, for all crime-base witnesses, as we were always going to.
11 But we'll come to a time when we'll know how much the Prosecution's been
12 able to adduce. We will have the advantage of those documents that I
13 proposed using right at the beginning of the trial, documents where we
14 fill in what aspects of the indictment are covered by particular
15 witnesses. The Chamber will remember I proposed they might be jointly
16 prepared. It was rejected, but I think Your Honour Judge May suggested
17 they might be quite useful. Well, they're being prepared. We can make
18 them available to the amici and to the accused in the meanwhile for
19 correction or comment, things like that. But they will be available to
20 show where there may be gaps in the evidence measured against the
21 indictment.
22 There will then be a residue of evidence - I can't think of any
23 other word - the evidence we haven't been able to get in using the various
24 techniques that are available to us, and at that stage we may, and
25 probably will, apply for such extension of the timetable as will
Page 3581
1 accommodate whichever of those witnesses, all or some, we still regarded
2 as important to have in the case. But we'll have reached that position
3 having done everything we can to get the maximum amount of evidence in,
4 giving the evidence that we suspect the Chamber thinks may have a higher
5 priority and that we can understand may have a higher priority, giving
6 that evidence its priority. And so we'll be in a position to make any
7 application for extension, having respected and reflected the view as to
8 the length of time the trial should take and done everything we can. And
9 hopefully, we won't have to make any such application. It just depends
10 where we are by then.
11 But, Your Honour, that is a completely open and transparent
12 explanation of what I propose. The same overall procedure can then follow
13 for Croatia and Bosnia. I had no hesitation in deciding that for this
14 case, crime-base evidence had to come first, not least because I could see
15 there would be a range of procedural problems that would need to be sorted
16 out, and that if we put crime-base to the end of any projected time period
17 for trial, it would be too late, given the difficulties of amassing the
18 witnesses and so on, gathering witnesses, it would be too late to deal
19 with them. Well, we've now identified the problems, the potential
20 solutions, and so on.
21 So in Croatia and Bosnia, it will probably be the case that we'll
22 call crime-base evidence later and the other evidence earlier, and in each
23 case, or in each part of the case, when we come to the end of such
24 allotted time as there may be, we'll be able again to see what residue of
25 evidence it's not been possible for us to accommodate and make our
Page 3582
1
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and
13 English transcripts.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 3583
1 decision as to whether we seek any extension of the time.
2 In Bosnia, of course, as the Chamber well knows, there are already
3 in hand steps - you don't take steps in hand - there are already in hand
4 various processes for reducing the amount of time that the Prosecution
5 would seek, in any event, by consideration of the municipalities and how
6 many of them have to be proved to the full extent, and the Chamber will
7 also know that there are also time-saving procedures in contemplation,
8 time-saving not just for this trial but for all the Bosnian trials,
9 including the Plavsic/Krajisnik trial. And of course in the Bosnia case,
10 there are other potential time-saving mechanisms available to us by
11 incorporating, if we may, by 92 bis, evidence in other cases,
12 possibilities that don't arise in Kosovo or, barely, in Croatia.
13 So that's what we're doing, and I hope it's helpful to know it in
14 advance. We will -- this week we'll carry on with 92 bis witnesses, and,
15 it may be, next week, because I don't know how soon we'll be able to get
16 other witnesses here. But we will be reordering our priority of witnesses
17 and taking the steps I've outlined.
18 JUDGE MAY: Two matters arising about timetabling. At the moment,
19 the order is for 90 witnesses, so if you want to extend that, you'll have
20 to apply to do it.
21 MR. NICE: Yes.
22 JUDGE MAY: And it may be the sooner that's done, the better, so
23 we all know where we are.
24 The second matter is this: Looking at the timetable for the
25 summer, what we have in mind is this: that you said you would be calling
Page 3584
1 linking witnesses in July, having, it's to be hoped, finished Kosovo. We
2 think that, at the very least, the accused and the Trial Chamber should
3 have another two weeks besides the vacation to prepare for the next parts
4 of the trial. So we have in mind adjourning on the -- I think it would be
5 the 19th of July, leaving two extra weeks before the recess begins.
6 MR. NICE: Your Honour, it's helpful to have notice of that. Our
7 arithmetic of how long witnesses may or will take, on the best estimates,
8 mean inevitably that the 19th of July is a date when there will be a very
9 substantial residue of witnesses we would want to have admitted into
10 evidence by one means or another, probably before we get to the linkage
11 witnesses who link one case to the next, or one indictment to the next.
12 But we'll have that date in mind as a date when proceedings may come to an
13 end, tailor our calling of witnesses accordingly, and try and give
14 appropriately early attention to such applications as we must make, not
15 only for extending the number of witnesses but also when we should be
16 looking at the residue of witnesses.
17 The Chamber will, I think, recall that the Prosecutor herself and
18 I - I may have said this earlier - always envisaged that the Kosovo trial
19 would last very much longer than the time that's been available since
20 February and until July, even without cross-examination, and of course
21 there has now been extensive cross-examination. But in due course - but
22 I'm not arguing points now, and certainly not taking other than, I hope,
23 an entirely cooperative and helpful approach - the Chamber will have in
24 mind that the way things have worked out, the accused is occupying over 50
25 per cent of court time and we're occupying about 45 per cent, and that's
Page 3585
1 going to change dramatically with the statistics for the 92 bis witnesses.
2 JUDGE MAY: The other matter I wanted to raise was the OSCE
3 report, about which there was talk earlier, and as the case goes on, I
4 think the more helpful it would be to have it. Have we got copies of it?
5 MR. NICE: It's come down most mornings, and not this morning.
6 They will be down with you at the break. I am proposing to call the
7 witness who can produce and give evidence of the methodology of that
8 report. She is already on notice and she is willing to come. So we'll
9 call her; if leave is granted, to call the additional witness at the
10 earliest opportunity, so that methodology can be explained. The reports
11 themselves will be available to you after the break.
12 [Trial Chamber confers]
13 JUDGE MAY: Very well. We'll have the report when it's available
14 and we'll hear the witness in due course.
15 [Trial Chamber confers]
16 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic. We're not making, as you'll
17 understand, any ruling at this stage. There's no ruling about the future
18 of the case or about the evidence or anything of that sort. We've merely
19 heard the Prosecution outline its plans, and we'll consider them insofar
20 as they affect the case in due course. So no ruling has been made or is
21 asked for today.
22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I understand that you have not made
23 a ruling, but I assume that, for making a ruling, it will not be too much
24 if I say something about what Mr. Nice has been talking about.
25 The first question relates to written submissions, written
Page 3586
1 statements. He explained himself that written statements are used in
2 cases that are not criminal cases. I'm glad to hear that, because I have
3 been claiming anyway that this is not a criminal case. This is a
4 political case. It's not even court proceedings from the point of view of
5 law and justice. However, since you treat this as a criminal case, then I
6 assume that it is quite unacceptable to introduce a practice for such
7 considerations and for such deliberations which is not really applied
8 anywhere.
9 As you have emphasised several times, I'm not an expert in these
10 matters, but during one of the breaks, I asked Mr. Kay, who is a
11 distinguished English barrister, and I asked him if this existed in
12 English law, and he said no, this kind of practice does not. So I imagine
13 that the other side, the opposing party, is aware of this as well. So
14 this idea of imposing this kind of thing --
15 JUDGE MAY: There must have been a misunderstanding, Mr.
16 Milosevic, because in English law, in criminal cases, statements, written
17 statements, can be admitted in certain circumstances, and that applies in
18 a great number of jurisdictions that written statements are admitted. The
19 issue really is in a case of this sort, and we'll have to consider it when
20 we come to your case, too, in the evidence you want to put in front of us,
21 the issue really is: Is there such a dispute about this evidence that
22 cross-examination should be allowed? That's what we're dealing with, the
23 issue that we're having to answer. Because if the matters are not in
24 dispute, there's no reason it should not be put in in written form.
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, everything is challenged
Page 3587
1 here. Everything is in dispute, everything that this indictment brings
2 forth. However, this effort to move on from such -- two such witnesses
3 from regular witnesses, so to speak, is something that reveals Mr. Nice's
4 recipe or prescription or that side of his to avoid the weaknesses that
5 became obvious during the testimony of many of his witnesses during the
6 examination-in-chief. In this way, he would make them invulnerable
7 because they would only be tied to their written statements. And in this
8 way, everything would be resolved by paper. And in this way, it would be
9 easier for him to prove the alleged facts that he wishes to prove.
10 I also wish to draw your attention to the following: A few
11 minutes ago, this main deception that is called Racak is something that he
12 heralded as a case that he will seek to prove on the basis of some kind of
13 cumulative witnesses and on the basis of some kind of expert opinions;
14 that is to say, on the basis of witnesses who do not know anything on
15 their own but collected other people's statements; that is to say, on the
16 basis of the statements of his own clerks.
17 JUDGE MAY: I'm going to interrupt you because he merely stated
18 that he was going to put in an application to do this. We have not
19 ruled -- we haven't seen the application, and we haven't ruled on it, and
20 it is something which there's little point discussing further now, taking
21 up time with. We'll deal with it when the application is made, and then
22 we'll know what the application is and we can rule on it.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. Then I shall only dwell
24 on one more issue quite specific. I heard an explanation here that I will
25 be receiving all information related to witnesses in the English language,
Page 3588
1 and I simply refuse that. If that is the way to prevent the normal
2 functioning of my associates, and at any rate a different way of
3 proceeding would be better. So I find all of this unacceptable. He is
4 duty-bound to give me papers in my language, and I cannot accept this, and
5 I won't accept it. I inform you thereof in advance. It is out of
6 goodwill that I took these statements in English and I read them in
7 English, because it is not in my interest either for this to go on for too
8 long. But the fact that they are duty-bound to provide all of this in the
9 Serbian language is something that should be abided by.
10 JUDGE MAY: That's a matter we will have to rule on and consider
11 in each case.
12 I should say we will be sitting today from 9.00 until quarter to
13 two. We will sit the normal 9.00 day, 9.00 morning.
14 Mr. Wladimiroff, since we've been dealing with procedural matters,
15 is there anything the amicus wants to add or mention?
16 MR. WLADIMIROFF: No, Your Honour, not at this stage. We will
17 deal with it when it comes to a concrete proposal of the Prosecution.
18 JUDGE MAY: Yes. We'll have the witness, please.
19 MR. NICE: [Microphone not activated]
20 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
21 [The witness entered court]
22 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let the witness take the declaration.
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly declare that I will speak
24 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
25 JUDGE MAY: Yes. I'm sorry you've been kept waiting. We were
Page 3589
1 dealing with some procedural matters. If you'd like to take a seat.
2 WITNESS: ALI HOTI
3 [Witness answered through interpreter]
4 Examined by Ms. Romano:
5 Q. Mr. Hoti, you were interviewed on May -- 18 and 19 of May, 1999,
6 by members of the Office of the Prosecutor; is that correct?
7 I think we have a problem with translation.
8 A. I have problems with the translation. Too faint.
9 JUDGE MAY: Can you hear us now?
10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, it's better now.
11 JUDGE MAY: If we could have the witness's full name, please,
12 Ms. Romano.
13 MS. ROMANO: It's Ali Hoti.
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can't hear very well.
15 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It's better now. It's okay now.
17 MS. ROMANO:
18 Q. Mr. Hoti, just for the record, your full name is Ali Hoti?
19 A. My name is Ali Hoti.
20 Q. You were interviewed on 18 and 19 of May by members of the Office
21 of the Prosecutor; is that correct?
22 A. Yes, it is correct.
23 Q. And at that time, you gave a statement?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. On the 3 of February, 2002, you attended a meeting where you
Page 3590
1 appeared before an officer of the Tribunal, and at this meeting you were
2 provided with a copy of your statement in the Albanian language, which you
3 had the opportunity to review and confirm that all its contents are the
4 truth of the best of your knowledge; is that correct?
5 A. Yes, that's right.
6 MS. ROMANO: At this stage, I would like to formally submit the
7 statement into evidence.
8 JUDGE MAY: Yes. We'll have an exhibit number.
9 THE REGISTRAR: Prosecution Exhibit 105.
10 MS. ROMANO:
11 Q. Mr. Hoti, where were you born?
12 A. I was born at Krusha e Madhe on 6th of April, 1961.
13 Q. Are you married?
14 A. Yes, I am married.
15 Q. And do you have family, children?
16 A. I have four children.
17 Q. What is your profession?
18 A. I'm a doctor by profession.
19 Q. Have you lived all of your life in Krusha e Madhe?
20 A. Yes, I've lived all my life at Krusha.
21 Q. Thank you, Mr. Hoti.
22 MS. ROMANO: I will give a brief summary of the witness
23 testimony.
24 The witness describes the attack on the village of Krusha e Madhe,
25 where the witness lived, on 25th of March, 1999. He describes the village
Page 3591
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and
13 English transcripts.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 3592
1 being surrounded by Serb troops. He saw tanks, APCs, and he will describe
2 also the Pragas approaching the village and the village being shelled,
3 policemen and paramilitary looting property. His own house, as well as
4 those in the surrounding village, were burnt and destroyed.
5 The witness describes that his family started to leave the village
6 that day and headed for the hill which is east of the village and went to
7 the direction of Nagafc, another village. After he had left, the rest of
8 the population also left. The population went in separate directions.
9 When the witness arrived in a valley, he saw about 20.000 people
10 altogether, refugees who came from the surrounding villages. The witness
11 describes how they were ordered by Serb police and soldiers to go back to
12 the village of Nagafc where they were spread out in houses and stayed for
13 several days. While in Nagafc, on the 28th of March, the witness and his
14 family were subjected to demands for cash at gunpoint by Serb police
15 officers. The witness describes also several incidents he heard from
16 refugees he treated while in Nagafc. One of them, Mehmet Krasniqi, had
17 been burned, together with 109 men, by Serb police and paramilitary.
18 And 1st April, 1999, the witness describes that Nagafc was bombed
19 by planes he believes to have been Serbian. The witness saw many corpses
20 at various locations throughout the village.
21 On 2nd of April, 1999, he joined a large convoy of Kosovo
22 Albanians heading for Albania. On the way, people were humiliated by Serb
23 soldiers. At the Albanian border, Serb police confiscated all documents.
24 While taking the documents, the witness heard them saying, "Kosovo is of
25 Serbs, go to Albania where is your place. You are not citizen of
Page 3593
1 Yugoslavia any more. You do not need to come back."
2 JUDGE MAY: Just help us with the municipality, can you,
3 Mr. Hoti? Which municipality do you live in?
4 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In the municipality of
5 Rahovec/Orahovac.
6 JUDGE MAY: Thank you. Yes.
7 MS. ROMANO: No further questions.
8 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
9 Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic:
10 Q. [Interpretation] Your village is right next to the villages of
11 Bela Crkva, Celine, and Zrze; is that right?
12 A. I can't understand the translation very well. It is okay now,
13 yes.
14 Yes, it is near.
15 Q. And then after those villages, we come to the other villages of
16 Mala Krusa, Pirana, Medvedze, Samodreza, Studencane, Zociste, and so on.
17 A. No, this is wrong. Krusha e Vogel is near in Pirana as well, but
18 Zocishte, Samadrexha, and the others are on a completely different
19 distance.
20 Q. All right, yes. The other ones too. And do you know that in all
21 those other villages, the ones that I mentioned, there was a considerable
22 presence of the KLA and that, throughout the time, there was a lot of
23 tension? There were a great deal of kidnappings, killings, and other
24 crimes. People were beaten up and so on and so forth by the KLA. Are you
25 aware of that? Do you know about that?
Page 3594
1 A. Yes, I know that there has been a KLA presence, but not in the
2 village where we lived because there was quite a lot of inhabitants and
3 refugees. The KLA used to stay in its own bases, and there's been
4 absolutely no KLA activity in the villages that you mentioned. I mean any
5 military activity.
6 Q. A moment ago, you answered a question put to you by Mr. May that
7 you were in the municipality of Orahovac.
8 A. Yes, this is true.
9 Q. You're a doctor. You had your clinic in Velika Krusa, and it
10 would be logical for you to know what was going on in the surrounding
11 villages and in your municipality generally because Orahovac is a small
12 municipality, isn't it?
13 A. Yes. I will answer this question. I was a doctor, but I was
14 never given a licence to practice by yourself. I have never worked in a
15 state-owned practice. I've had my own practice, which I help the
16 population of the villages around there to the best of my abilities
17 without having had a formal licence by the organs of government, your
18 organs of government. And my -- my freedom of movement has also been
19 curtailed.
20 Q. All right. From what you have said, you had your clinic, and you
21 did treat the population from the surrounding villages, which means a
22 broader area, the area in which you lived, in fact, in the Orahovac
23 municipality.
24 Now, on that basis, can we take it that you know about what was
25 going on, the events that took place in the area in which you lived and
Page 3595
1 which you worked, in which you treated the population?
2 A. Let me repeat. I've treated people from Krusha e Madhe, Celine,
3 Nagafc, and Krusha e Vogel not on a broader range, because people did not
4 come to my practice, but they went elsewhere, to Rahovec and other
5 villages. On those -- on those four, yes, I have been a doctor.
6 Q. And where did you graduate from the faculty of medicine?
7 A. Prishtina.
8 Q. When did you graduate?
9 A. I graduated in 1994, after the Prishtina University had been
10 closed down.
11 Q. I'm not quite clear what your answer means. You graduated, you
12 say, in 1994, the faculty of medicine in Pristina; is that right? Is that
13 what you said?
14 A. Yes. I will give a longer answer. The Serbian government closed
15 the medical faculty in 1992, and I was left without completing my final
16 year. And then I went on in our own university, which we opened without
17 your permission, and I graduated from the University of Kosova.
18 Q. And where did you graduate at the University of Kosovo? Was that
19 in Pristina?
20 A. I said once, and I'll say it once again: In Prishtina.
21 Q. Do you know that throughout the time that you're talking about,
22 during that period, the faculty of medicine functioned in Pristina, was
23 working, and that many students studied at the faculty of medicine in
24 Pristina? Are you aware of that?
25 A. I know very well, but I also know that the medical faculty
Page 3596
1 operated only for the Serbs of Kosova and not for the Albanians.
2 Q. But it was at that faculty of medicine of the Pristina University,
3 for which you claim functioned for the Serbs, Albanians were educated
4 there too, weren't they?
5 A. No. After the closure of the faculty, we studied on other
6 premises.
7 Q. Now, could you explain to me, please, whether the faculty was
8 closed or was it only the Serbs that attended the faculty and were
9 educated there? What are you saying? I'm not clear on what you're
10 saying. Are you saying that there was no longer a faculty of medicine at
11 the Pristina University, or are you claiming that the medical faculty did
12 exist but that Albanians were not students there? Which of the two?
13 A. I didn't say that the medical faculty didn't exist. I'm saying
14 that the Prishtina faculty existed only for Serbian students, because the
15 Albanians were dismissed, both staff and students, and we opened our own
16 faculty on other premises. And in the faculty in which you're talking
17 about, only Serbs studied and not Albanians.
18 Q. Now tell me this: Do you claim that the Albanians were not
19 allowed to enrol in the faculty? Or shall I be a -- put this in a
20 different way: Could Albanians not enrol in the faculty at all, that
21 faculty of medicine of the university in Pristina? Which?
22 A. At the Prishtina medical faculty, after it was closed by your
23 government, only Albanians who agreed to speak and study in the Serbian
24 language, not in Albanian, only these Albanians were allowed to study at
25 your faculty.
Page 3597
1 JUDGE MAY: We must adjourn now. It's past the time for our
2 break.
3 Mr. Hoti, could you remember during the break not to speak to
4 anybody about your evidence until it's over, and that includes members of
5 the Prosecution team.
6 Mr. Milosevic, we have checked with the communications unit about
7 the problem with the telephone. The problem apparently lies with the
8 external connection to Belgrade, which is beyond the control, of course,
9 of the Tribunal. The unit is unable to predict when the lines will be
10 working again. So that's the answer.
11 Twenty minutes, please.
12 --- Recess taken at 10.35 a.m.
13 --- On resuming at 11.00 a.m.
14 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Ryneveld, we are being given copies of the OSCE
15 report, as I understand it.
16 MR. RYNEVELD: Yes. Yes, Your Honour. Those are the copies that
17 we have available, and hopefully that will be of assistance to the
18 Chamber.
19 JUDGE MAY: And the accused has a copy, I take it? Or if not, he
20 should be given one.
21 MR. RYNEVELD: Yes, I do believe he has a copy, but I will check
22 to make absolutely sure that he does.
23 JUDGE MAY: If you would.
24 MR. RYNEVELD: Yes, he has a copy, right there. He's pointing to
25 it. So that's now been confirmed.
Page 3598
1 JUDGE MAY: Very well. We'll get an exhibit number.
2 THE REGISTRAR: Your Honour, it will be Prosecutor's Exhibit 106.
3 JUDGE MAY: Thank you.
4 MR. RYNEVELD: Thank you.
5 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could you give me a clarification?
7 I tried to shorten the cross-examination of the previous witness in order
8 to leave more time for this witness, because all the witnesses are not the
9 same. Can I count on that time or not?
10 JUDGE MAY: We'll see how we get on, see how much time you need,
11 and we'll look at it at the end.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. Secondly, the telephone
13 doesn't work even when you want to talk to The Hague, let alone
14 Yugoslavia. The answer I keep getting is that the telephone is not
15 authorised.
16 JUDGE MAY: We'll look into it.
17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. So let us go on. We've come to some facts. So there was a
19 medical faculty at the University of Pristina, and as you say, in addition
20 to Serbs, other students who were studying there were only Albanians, who
21 agreed to have the curriculum taught to them in the Serb language. Is
22 that right?
23 A. I explained this before.
24 Q. So there were no restrictions for Albanians. They could study
25 medicine at the University of Pristina. Is that right or is that not
Page 3599
1 right?
2 JUDGE MAY: He said that they had to agree to the Serb curriculum,
3 as I understand it.
4 Is that right?
5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] That's quite right.
6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Well, that's the curriculum that applies throughout the country.
8 Are you aware that diplomas of Yugoslav medical faculties are easily and
9 readily recognised in many countries precisely because of the curriculum
10 that is taught?
11 A. I know this, but these diplomas were also accepted when Albanian
12 teachers were there. But with the removal of Albanian teachers from the
13 faculty, we were denied the right to study in the Albanian language.
14 Q. And do you know that at the medical faculty of the University of
15 Pristina there were also Albanian professors?
16 A. The occasional one remained. I'm not saying there weren't any,
17 but these were those who agreed to teach and to give reports in the
18 Serbian language, not in the Albanian language.
19 Q. That means that Albanian professors were not expelled from the
20 university.
21 A. I've already explained this once.
22 Q. Well, give me an answer to my direct question: Were Albanian
23 professors expelled from the university or were they not expelled from the
24 university?
25 A. The great majority of lecturers were expelled from the university,
Page 3600
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Page 3601
1 except for one or two, who agreed to work under the conditions that I
2 mentioned a short time ago.
3 JUDGE MAY: We've spent a quarter of an hour on this topic,
4 Mr. Milosevic. It's not the crucial part of his evidence at all, which is
5 what happened in his village. Now, can we move on to another topic.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. Then I shall first move
7 on to this subject in the narrowest possible sense, but I think this was
8 important because of what he claimed at the very outset. If that were
9 true, that would have meant that the Albanians' human rights were
10 violated, and as you could see, they were not. They could study, they
11 could teach --
12 JUDGE MAY: We've heard the evidence about it. We don't need to
13 go over it again.
14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. In your statement, you spoke about a boy who was shot at. You
16 were not present when they shot at him; is that right?
17 A. At the moment he was shot, I was inside, at home. But he was
18 brought into the yard, and I was in the house and I was able to come out
19 and give him first aid.
20 Q. My question was: You were not present when he was shot at? So
21 you were not present, were you?
22 A. No.
23 Q. You talked about the alleged killings on the other side of Velika
24 Krusa. You also didn't see that; right?
25 A. I can testify that 241 people were killed in Krusha e Madhe. Two
Page 3602
1 hundred six were from Krusha e Madhe and thirty-five were refugees who had
2 come to this village from other villages. Of these, 171 were buried, of
3 whom 86 have been identified by name, and the remainder have remained
4 unidentified because they were burned, and only their bones were found.
5 And there are 120 others of whom we have no details down to the present
6 day, whether they are alive or where they are. They are still missing,
7 and you must be held to account for where these people are.
8 Q. That's a different matter altogether. My question was that these
9 alleged killings on the other side of Velika Krusa were something that you
10 did not see, or did you see it?
11 A. I couldn't see everything at the same time because I am not
12 omnipresent.
13 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Hoti, if you didn't see it, just say you didn't
14 see it.
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I saw what I said in my statement,
16 but not everything.
17 JUDGE MAY: Were you present at any of the funerals or burials of
18 the people you've mentioned?
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. You also spoke about what happened to Fahredin Hoti. You didn't
22 see that either. Is that right or is that not right? You can just say
23 yes or no.
24 A. I can't answer yes or no, because Dr. Fahredin Hoti was a medical
25 doctor and was killed in the presence of the members of his family. And I
Page 3603
1 can say that Fahredin Hoti is both a relative of mine and my colleague,
2 and he was killed in the presence of the members of his family.
3 Q. Yes, but you didn't see that either.
4 A. I didn't see the actual murder, but I was present at his burial.
5 Q. You spoke about an event in Mala Krusa in relation to Mehmed
6 Krasniqi. You didn't see that either; right?
7 A. It's very well put in the statement. I wasn't present at the
8 event, but after Mehmed Krasniqi got out of the place where 117 people
9 were murdered and burned, he came to seek my aid. That's what the
10 statement says. And the words, the account of the event, is his.
11 Q. So it's not yours.
12 JUDGE MAY: What condition was Mehmet Krasniqi in when he came to
13 see you?
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] When he came to the village of
15 Nagafc to ask for help, Mehmet Krasniqi was burned all over his body, and
16 his clothes were still wet from the blood of the people who had fallen on
17 top of him. He was totally burned, and we had difficulty in taking the
18 clothes from his body he was so badly burned. And also his face. We
19 tried to cover his legs with other clothes, but when we -- when we started
20 to take off his clothes, the flesh started to come off because of the
21 severity of his burns.
22 JUDGE MAY: What did he tell you had happened?
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] He explained in detail, after I'd
24 given him first aid, that in the village of Krusha e Vogel, Serbian
25 forces, together with local Serbs whom he had known, had gathered together
Page 3604
1 all the men they could in one house belonging to the Batusha family, put
2 them inside, brought straw and what we call dried maize stalks and started
3 to fire on people. Then people fell, and two people fell on Mehmet. So
4 Mehmet was lying there. And then they set fire to them, those people who
5 were killed and wounded.
6 Mehmet told me -- told me that after a short time, because of the
7 smoke in the room, he returned to consciousness and got up, and there was
8 nobody else around who was alive, and he got through a window and fled
9 through the field and reached Nagafc.
10 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
11 Q. You also spoke about the case related to Selami Elshani from
12 Retimlje. You didn't see that either; is that right?
13 A. Selami Elshani also burned in other place at Krusha e Madhe at a
14 time when Serbian forces separated 17 people mainly from other villages
15 and put them in a room and did exactly the same as they did in Krusha
16 e Vogel. But fortunately, Selami was not hit by a bullet but was merely
17 burned, even though he was much worse burned than Mehmet. And after a
18 time, he regained consciousness and he came to Nagafc, where a refugee
19 population was, and sought help, and I secured him what help I could. But
20 Selami's condition was much worse than that of Mehmet. He was almost
21 totally burned.
22 The data I have given there is what Selami says.
23 Q. All right. My question was whether you had seen that or not. So
24 you had not seen that; right? You are talking about --
25 JUDGE MAY: He's not saying -- he has not said in either case that
Page 3605
1 he saw these events. What he has narrated is what those who had been
2 through them told him.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, that is precisely what I wish
4 to establish here. I have already mentioned seven or eight cases by now,
5 and it is obvious that none of them were direct eyewitnesses.
6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Then also you talked about Celine and the church, but you didn't
8 see anything by yourself. Is that right or is that not right?
9 A. I will answer this in this way, if the Court will allow me: If --
10 all these people who were at the scene of the incidents were all killed,
11 so those who -- because those who were captured at the scene of the crime
12 were -- all died. So there is no way in which we can give direct evidence
13 of this.
14 JUDGE MAY: What were you told happened in Celine?
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] When we were sheltered at the Prroni
16 i Cilave at Nagafc, we began hearing bombing, and smoke -- plumes of smoke
17 coming out of Celine. Nobody came to tell us anything, but we could
18 surmise that something major was happening.
19 After the case of Celine, Serbian forces reached Nagafc, burned a
20 part of it but not all of it. And through our place into the valley, you
21 went into the Krusha Mala and Nagafc, overlooking both of them, because at
22 that time, dusk was falling and Serbian forces did not operate at night,
23 with the occasional fire, gunfire. They paused. They usually paused
24 overnight.
25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
Page 3606
1 Q. You said somewhere in your statement that the soldiers were
2 setting the houses on fire using some kind of pistols. Did you actually
3 see that, setting houses on fire by pistols?
4 A. We have seen this from a distance, from the part that overlooked
5 every single activity. After the looting of the villages, like I said,
6 with pistols -- they were fired with pistols and the house was set on fire
7 immediately after that.
8 Q. All right. After these many allegations that you made, I would
9 like to read to you now what you saw personally. Again, I do not have --
10 I shall read what I have in English.
11 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Which page is it, Mr. Milosevic?
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Page 7. Page 7.
13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. The second, third. [In English] "[Previous translation
15 continues]... 1999 became the most tragic day for the people who were in
16 Nogavac that day. It was the early morning that Nogavac was bombed. It
17 was a real hell. While I was asleep that morning, at about 2.00 I woke up
18 by the noise of an aeroplane. I heard that it had to be very close to the
19 village and that it made a powerful noise. Soon after I heard the noise,
20 I heard the big explosions. The window from the house where I was
21 staying -- I was staying in broke and pieces from the ceiling were falling
22 down. In the house where I was staying, only one woman was wounded. I
23 gave her first aid and stopped her bleeding. People from the village
24 called me to help the wounded people. When outside of the house, I saw
25 that the houses were burning and heard that people were screaming. On my
Page 3607
1 way in the village, I came across wounded people, mutilated, whose hands
2 or legs had been cut off. In the first house where I stopped, five men
3 had been wounded. One of them had cuts on his back and some of his ribs
4 were broken. Another had a cut on his forehead. Another one had his arm
5 broken because of the wall that had fallen on him. On the top of two
6 others one of the walls had fallen down, and they had problems with
7 breathing. Another one had died. His name was Gashi Sinan. He was the
8 father of the one whose forehead was cut. The house where they were
9 staying was the house of Gashi Sinan. I gave them the first aid with a
10 few medicaments. I had continued to go into the other houses to see if I
11 could give any help. I saw a 2-years-old child whose leg had been cut
12 off. I saw 40 to 50-year-old man whose head had been completely destroyed
13 and whose brains had all spread on the ground. I heard screams coming out
14 of house, and when I arrived there, I saw that the ceiling had fallen
15 down, and people told me that 20 persons had stayed inside the house.
16 When I came close to the house, I heard that there were people still alive
17 because I heard their screams. People outside around me were screaming
18 also. I will take -- it would take hours to dig and take them out. It
19 was impossible to do that because all the people in the village were
20 scared and wanted to leave, to leave Nogavac as soon as possible. They
21 were all afraid that Nogavac might be bombed again. The people got into
22 their cars and left Nogavac. The 20 persons in the house must have
23 died."
24 [Interpretation] So you describe bombing, which is undeniable on
25 the basis your statement. Is it clear to you that Serb aeroplanes were
Page 3608
1 not doing any bombing, that this was NATO bombing?
2 A. Let us clarify here a little bit, because what I've described,
3 there's no need to go over again. It is like it existed in the
4 statement. I said we were asleep at the beginning, because it was late
5 into the night, and we had gotten used to the noise of NATO airplanes.
6 Ten days into the bombing, it was. NATO airplanes used to stay at high
7 altitudes. We had never heard such an echo, such a big noise. At Nagafc,
8 as opposed to NATO airplanes, the aircraft was flying very low, and the
9 aircraft first went all over to the Pashtrik mountain, and after that, on
10 its way back, it started bombing.
11 Later on, pieces from the shells were to be found with the
12 Cyrillic writing on them, which goes to show that these aircraft were
13 yours and not NATO's. I am fully convinced that not unintentionally did
14 your police keep us detained for days on end at Nagafc, where only a few
15 houses had remained intact. There were houses with about 300 people
16 inside. You can only envisage and then try to think of their conditions
17 in one house. Your forces had intentionally put us and kept us in one
18 single place, for the simple reason that they wanted to show that this was
19 as a result of a NATO mistake.
20 Q. What the intentions of these forces were can only be assumed. But
21 do you know that our airplanes, because of this vast air supremacy, were
22 not flying there at all? Are you aware of that?
23 A. I did make the distinction between the NATO aircraft, which for
24 ten days on end we had seen, and the flight of that very night, where the
25 aircraft was flying very low.
Page 3609
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Page 3610
1 Q. But do you understand what is being interpreted for you? Do you
2 understand the translation, that it is something that can be checked out?
3 And it is quite clear that our planes weren't flying there at all and were
4 therefore not able to bomb you.
5 A. First of all, can I plead with Your Honour so that the accused
6 does not offend me, because I do understand my own mother tongue very
7 well. Whether the aircraft flew or not, I'm not in the military and I
8 can't say that. I can't say whether it was your aircraft or NATO's but
9 all I can mention here is what I've heard and what I've seen.
10 Q. Well, without a doubt, you saw a bombing take place. Now, the
11 question is: Do you understand that it was NATO bombing and not
12 bombing --
13 JUDGE MAY: The witness has given his evidence.
14 Mr. Hoti, there's no need to reply to this.
15 He's given his evidence. He's said what he saw and heard. He
16 can't take it any further. If you've got some contrary evidence, you can
17 put it before us in due course, but meanwhile, there's no point arguing
18 with the witness.
19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
20 Q. And is it clear that those planes used inflammatory devices, from
21 what you have been saying here and claiming? Because you say that many
22 houses were on fire.
23 JUDGE MAY: Can you answer that or not?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I will try very briefly. In the
25 beginning, I said, after the bombing, pieces from the shells were found
Page 3611
1 with Cyrillic writing, which I in no way can think that the NATO learned
2 from the Serbs, with the Cyrillic script. That's why I think that this
3 was not a result of a NATO bomb.
4 JUDGE MAY: Can you help, from what you saw, whether, as it's put,
5 inflammatory devices were used or not?
6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honour, it was 2.00 in the
7 morning on that very night, and every one of us was not outside but inside
8 our houses. And you can only think of the speed with which an aircraft
9 operates. So we've not been in a position to know these things at night,
10 at that very particular moment. Then I don't think that flames alone
11 would be able to pull houses down without some kind of explosive device,
12 and there have been quite a few of these houses that were pulled down this
13 way in Nagafc.
14 JUDGE ROBINSON: Had you seen the shells with Cyrillic writing or
15 was that something that somebody told you?
16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I said they were found later and
17 handed over to the competent organs. I don't know who exactly. But I
18 know that from people who told me that they had been handed over to the
19 internationals to be verified and checked.
20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. So destructive and explosive devices were used, according to what
22 you say; is that right?
23 JUDGE MAY: The witness has given his evidence about that.
24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
25 Q. And what you were talking about a moment ago, perhaps, about the
Page 3612
1 people who suffered great burns, serious burns, was that perhaps also the
2 result of the bombing in which, in addition to the destructive powers,
3 incendiary devices were used too?
4 A. Even earlier, when I referred to the burned people, those who had
5 been burned at Krusha e Vogel, this had happened before the bombing, some
6 days before the bombing, at Krusha e Madhe as well. There were 68 burned
7 persons from Krusha e Madhe who had been burned before the bombing. So
8 that I saw no similarities at all between the two.
9 Q. And do you believe that this was the only bombing, the sole
10 bombing, or was there some bombing before that as well?
11 A. In the villages nearby - Krusha e Vogel, Krusha e Madhe,
12 Nagafc - this was the only bombing and the last that we saw before leaving
13 for Albania. We don't know what happened afterwards, and I can't say, but
14 this was the first until that very day.
15 Q. And the bombing began on the 24th of March, and there are 31 days
16 in the month of March, which means that this was nine days into the
17 bombing; it was the ninth day of the bombing. Are you aware of that?
18 A. That's correct. But civilians have never been targeted, and there
19 were 20.000 people over there. There was bombing of your forces. Your
20 forces had been targeted, but not the civilian population. The only case
21 upon a civilian population up until that moment was this one at Nagafc.
22 Q. But as you can see, the target here was the civilian population.
23 And are you aware of the fact -- or rather, do you know of other cases,
24 for example, of the bombing of columns of Albanian refugees carried out by
25 NATO --
Page 3613
1 JUDGE MAY: That is outside the scope of his evidence. It's not
2 mentioned in his statement. What he says is that this was the first
3 bombing, as far as he was concerned.
4 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Nevertheless, Your Honour, if you
5 could allow me, I will reply. I haven't seen this, but I heard that the
6 Serbian forces used the civilians as human shield.
7 JUDGE MAY: It only leads to an argument.
8 Yes, Mr. Milosevic, move on.
9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. And do you consider that the column of Albanian refugees bombed by
11 NATO was something that --
12 JUDGE MAY: No. That's irrelevant, as far as this witness is
13 concerned, and I'm going to stop that questioning.
14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. And is it clear from the statement made by this witness and his
16 testimony here in Court when he says that the most tragic day of
17 everything that he says in his statement was precisely that April 1st,
18 when the bombing occurred at 2.00 a.m. in the morning?
19 JUDGE MAY: I don't follow the question.
20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. Is it clear, in addition to the fact that our airplanes were not
22 flying, that before that in your statement you explained the large
23 presence of the army and the police in the area? Is that correct? Is
24 that right?
25 A. Yes. I said in my statement that on the 25th of April [sic], one
Page 3614
1 night after the start of the NATO bombing, the villages of Bellacerkva,
2 Krusha e Madhe, Krusha e Vogel, and Celine and Nagafc were surrounded on
3 all sides by a steel siege, and we heard these forces arriving from
4 Gjakove, Prizren, Hoca e Madhe, and we were surrounded on all sides by
5 large police and military forces.
6 JUDGE MAY: There's a mistake in the transcript. It should be the
7 25th of March, not the 25th of April.
8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I apologise. It was my mistake.
9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. And how long did those forces hold your village, have control of
11 your village and the other villages that you mentioned were surrounded, as
12 claim? For how many days did that go on?
13 A. I said in my statement that after the siege and intermittent
14 shooting, the people withdrew from Krusha e Madhe because it's very close
15 to the main road from Prizren to Gjakove. And I mentioned earlier that
16 these forces passed from Celine to Nagafc through Krusha e Madhe, and we
17 were in the streambed, and we could not see what was happening on the main
18 road, but the forces were above us. And on the next day, when we went to
19 Prroni i Cilave, we heard from the Serbian forces themselves that we
20 couldn't go through Krusha because there were troops there. And we were
21 entirely isolated in our houses until the day when we set off for
22 Albania. So I cannot say what was going on round about.
23 Q. So throughout the time you were isolated by the army and the
24 police or what you refer to as the Serbian forces; is that right?
25 A. The Serbian forces were always on the hills round about us. I've
Page 3615
1 put it in my statement. And on the 28th, they entered the village. They
2 entered the village and they looted us. And a soldier or a policeman got
3 hold of me and said that, "We are on the hills round about." And this is
4 how we were restricted in our movements. We were made aware that they
5 were there.
6 Q. All right. They, in fact, blocked you. Now, apart from the fact
7 that our planes were not flying, did it occur to you that during the
8 night, at 2.00, that even if they were flying, they would not be able to
9 bomb a terrain in which there were our forces on the ground as well?
10 JUDGE MAY: That's not an answer he can give.
11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I hope that it is quite clear
12 what kind of bombing was afoot, even without that.
13 JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues]... in due course.
14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. Do you happen to know that the only village with a Serb majority
16 population in your area was Velika Hoca in the Orahovac municipality?
17 A. Yes. Hoca e Madhe was indeed the only village with a Serbian
18 majority population. But it also had the most weapons and the largest
19 military and police presence. I know that too.
20 Q. And do you know that in the course of the summer of 1998, in your
21 municipality there was a great deal of violence and that, as can be seen
22 from the OSCE reports, in that area there was a great deal of tension as
23 they themselves state?
24 A. The mission was -- there was tension not only in these villages
25 but throughout Kosova. The situation was very tense. But as far as I
Page 3616
1 know, there had never been any military activity against Hoca e Madhe.
2 There was no operation by the KLA against Hoca e Madhe.
3 Q. I'm asking you about the area of the Orahovac municipality, your
4 area and your village, because you say you know the situation broader
5 afield in Kosovo. So I'm sure that you know about the situation in the
6 Orahovac municipality even better. Isn't that so?
7 A. I wasn't talking about the situation in Kosova, but I said that
8 the situation was very tense throughout Kosova at that time.
9 Q. And do you know that in your particular municipality during
10 February 1999, that there was -- there were repeated clashes between the
11 army and the KLA?
12 A. What time period are you talking about? Could you tell me again?
13 Q. Well, let me repeat. During February 1999, which means the period
14 immediately prior to the events which you describe, that clashes became
15 prevalent again between the army and the KLA.
16 A. With a full sense of responsibility, I can tell the Court that in
17 the villages that I have been talking about so far, that is
18 Krusha e Vogel, Krusha e Madhe, Nagafc, and Celine, I can say that there
19 was no military activity. Whereas what happened on the front line between
20 your forces and the KLA, I'm unable to say. But in the villages I have
21 been talking about, there were no military operations and no provocations
22 of any kind.
23 Q. I'm talking about your municipality, the municipality in which you
24 lived. I assume that as a citizen and a physician communicating with many
25 people, that you were aware of the situation in your municipality.
Page 3617
1 Orahovac is a small municipality, in actual fact.
2 JUDGE MAY: He's given his answer that he knows of no KLA activity
3 in the surrounding villages.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, judging by the book you
5 received a moment ago, it says there that there were clashes once again in
6 the Orahovac municipality. But let's move on.
7 JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues]... decide that.
8 Did you know anything about the clashes in the municipality
9 generally?
10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honour, in that we had no
11 freedom of movement and we were isolated, how could we know what was
12 happening in the municipality at large? We were cut off.
13 JUDGE MAY: Very well. Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. As of what date were you isolated? When were you cut off?
16 A. It's not a question of dates, but for years on end we didn't have
17 the right to movement freely, because if we went out onto the main road,
18 there would be police checkpoints and we would be mistreated. So we
19 restricted our movements to a minimum and went out only for very pressing
20 reasons. Otherwise, we didn't travel at all.
21 Q. And when was the checkpoint, the police checkpoint, set up on that
22 main road leading out of your village?
23 A. There were always checkpoints, both in the direction of Prizren
24 and the direction of Rahovec. But they increased, and the mistreatment
25 increased after the clashes between your forces and the KLA.
Page 3618
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25
Page 3619
1 Q. And do you know that already in the summer of 1998, the summer of
2 1998, that there was a big clash between the KLA and our own forces, and
3 that on the 17th of July, 1998, the KLA took control of Orahovac? Do you
4 remember that?
5 A. We heard this from the many refugees who on that day came to our
6 villages, nearby villages, and came to us out of fear. We heard about
7 this from them, but otherwise I'm unable to reply.
8 Q. It was a battle, fighting in which the KLA took control of
9 Orahovac. There was a lot of shooting. And as the KLA had taken control
10 of Orahovac, what do you think your refugees were afraid of, the refugees
11 that turned up in your village?
12 JUDGE MAY: That's a comment. The witness has said what he knows
13 about it.
14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. And do you know that Malisevo, which is also in your municipality,
16 was where the KLA had its headquarters?
17 A. I would like to correct the accused here because Malisheva is not
18 in our municipality but is a municipality in itself and is a long way from
19 us.
20 Q. You knew nothing about the headquarters of the KLA in Malisevo
21 then?
22 A. I have heard that there was a KLA headquarters there, but I never
23 was in Malisheva in this time, because to go there I would have had to go
24 through Rahovec itself, and Malisheva was a long way away.
25 Q. And do you know that in your particular municipality, the
Page 3620
1 municipality of Orahovac, there were many cases, perhaps you at least know
2 of some of these cases, of the abduction and killing of Albanians whom the
3 KLA thought were inclined towards the Serb authorities?
4 A. I don't know of any particular case, but I know very well that
5 there are still 120 people missing from my people, that my cousin and a
6 university professor is missing from my village. I do not know where
7 these people are, but you are responsible for them, so you can tell us
8 where these people are.
9 Q. Well, I asked you about the many cases of people being abducted
10 and killed, Albanians, people whom the KLA --
11 JUDGE MAY: He has given his answer.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Just in passing, that is what it
13 says in this book "As Seen, As Told." Precisely what I'm asking him
14 about.
15 JUDGE MAY: You can put all of that in front of us in due course,
16 but for the moment there's no point going on arguing with the witness.
17 Now, you've had the hour which you were allowed. You can have another ten
18 minutes because you were quicker with the last witness and there is quite
19 a lot in this witness's evidence, if you need it.
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] But I saved a full 30 minutes of
21 time with the last witness, as you know.
22 JUDGE MAY: We'll give you to the break. You can have quarter of
23 an hour.
24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
25 Q. And do you know that in June 1998, in your own municipality, an
Page 3621
1 Albanian was abducted who was well disposed towards the Serb authorities,
2 and he was abducted in Brestovac by three KLA members. He was held in
3 prison in Ratkovac. Do you know about that case? This is also mentioned
4 in the OSCE documents here.
5 A. I'm sorry, I haven't read this document, but I don't know why
6 you're so -- why you're so careful about this Albanian and not interested
7 in all the others who have disappeared.
8 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Hoti, would you just answer the questions. We'll
9 get on more quickly.
10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I don't know.
11 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
12 Q. Would you bear in mind that I'm not asking you as the reader of a
13 book but as a citizen of Orahovac and a physician at that who must have
14 known what was going on in his municipality.
15 Now, do you know when the KLA in your municipality killed two
16 Albanians and a third --
17 JUDGE MAY: He has given evidence about that. He said he didn't
18 know of any particular case. Now, there's no point putting these matters
19 to him when he says he doesn't know. As I've said, you can put your
20 evidence before us in due course.
21 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. Do you at least know of the daily protests on the part of
23 families, of persons who were abducted and who had disappeared? Abducted
24 at different times by the KLA and many of them later found dead.
25 A. I have never heard of these protests, and I don't think they took
Page 3622
1 place. I did -- I heard very well of protests that were held by the
2 Albanian side about the thousands of people of -- the thousands of
3 Albanians who've disappeared, and no doubt you've heard about them too.
4 Q. And as this was something that was quite loud, you couldn't not
5 hear it; do you know anything about the mortar attacks of the KLA on the
6 village of Zociste, also in your municipality? In March 1999.
7 A. In March 1999, as I said before - I'll repeat it - we were unable
8 to move. We were restricted in our movements. I know that at that time
9 Zocishte was not inhabited by any Albanians because their houses were
10 burned. The Albanian residents were refugees. So we couldn't go to
11 Zocishte to find out what was happening there, so I don't know anything
12 about what was going on beyond the villages I've mentioned. What was
13 happening in Zocishte or Malisheva or Rahovec, I just cannot say.
14 Q. But the refugees from Zociste came to your own village, as far as
15 I was able to understand you, and you mentioned refugees from Zociste.
16 A. I did not say in March 1999, but Albanian refugees from villages
17 had been staying with us for over a year. They had left the village a
18 long time before, because their houses had been burned down by their
19 Serbian neighbours.
20 Q. And how far away is Bela Crkva from your village?
21 A. Bellacerkva is about 15 kilometres away from us.
22 Q. And did you know anything about what was going on in Bela Crkva?
23 A. Again, what time are you referring to?
24 Q. Precisely the period starting with the beginning of 1999, because
25 KLA presence was in that village from then on.
Page 3623
1 A. I have no idea that the KLA have ever been at the Bellacerkva or
2 that there has been a KLA staff in there. Your information could be
3 incorrect on this.
4 Q. This information is correct, but we are not going to spend any
5 more time on this.
6 Are you aware of any one of these killings that were carried out
7 by the KLA in your municipality? I'm going to read this out to you and
8 you're going to tell me whether you know about any one of these.
9 JUDGE MAY: You said earlier you didn't know of any particular
10 cases. If the accused reads out a list to you, will you be able to answer
11 or not?
12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, because I don't know anybody. I
13 have absolutely no idea.
14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. Yes, but I'm asking you about whether you had heard of any one of
16 these killings, because there are a great many killings that were
17 committed there by the KLA.
18 JUDGE MAY: It's pointless to read out a list when he can't give
19 an answer.
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] He knows in advance that he does not
21 know about any one of these killings?
22 JUDGE MAY: He doesn't know about any particular cases. Now,
23 Mr. Milosevic, you can put this evidence before us in due course. It's
24 pointless going on arguing with the witness. Now, is there anything else
25 you want to ask him, anything new?
Page 3624
1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
2 Q. And do you know, for example, about the name of Muharrem Berisha,
3 an Albanian, born in 1951, from Brestovac, from your municipality? Have
4 you heard of him?
5 A. How could I know everybody from other villages? You're talking
6 about a village that is four villages apart from my own village. I can
7 hardly know people from my own village, with about 6.000 people, let alone
8 someone who lives about four villages apart.
9 Q. Yes, but if somebody is killed, then people usually hear about it,
10 at least in the area where he lived. So you've never heard of him? And
11 did you hear of Marko Gashi, another Albanian, born in 1927, from the
12 village of Dobri Do, also from Orahovac?
13 A. Are you aware how far Doberdoll is from my own village? And would
14 you believe me that I've never been there, and I've got absolutely no idea
15 which way it is located. If you start asking about all the honest
16 Albanians, as you refer to them, as to who they are, I do not know them.
17 Q. And why do you qualify these killed Albanians in that way?
18 JUDGE MAY: It was a comment. It's not taking us --
19 There's no need to answer.
20 It's not taking us any further. Mr. Milosevic, you've had
21 practically all the time. Unless you've got a new topic, I'm going to
22 bring this examination to a close.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I have many questions that
24 pertain to the crimes committed by the KLA, but obviously you do not seem
25 to be willing to make it possible for questions of that nature to be put.
Page 3625
1 I have a few pages of questions.
2 JUDGE MAY: You have put them, you've heard the witness's answers,
3 and I've said it's pointless to go on. You can put your evidence before
4 us when it's your opportunity to do so.
5 Mr. Tapuskovic, have you got any questions of this witness?
6 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
7 THE REGISTRAR: Your microphone.
8 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, thank you. I do
9 have a few questions related to the statement that was read out here.
10 Questioned by Mr. Tapuskovic:
11 Q. On page 1, in the second paragraph, Mr. Hoti, you said that in
12 Velika Krusa there were about 6.000 people. After July 1998, this number
13 increased because refugees had arrived from Retimlje, Zociste, and
14 Opterusa; is that correct?
15 A. That is correct. Yes, that's how it is.
16 Q. And can you give me an answer as to how many people came in that
17 July of 1998, that summer of 1998, how many people came to your village?
18 A. As you mentioned it, and I've written about it, about 3.000 to
19 4.000 refugees stayed with us in our village. It is approximately around
20 that number. I can't give an exact figure. About 4.000.
21 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Before I put the next question,
22 Your Honours, I would like to draw your attention to page 9 of the English
23 version, paragraph 6.
24 Q. Mr. Hoti, in your statement, it says that the first Serb offensive
25 took place in the spring of 1998. Is that correct? In the spring of
Page 3626
1 1998.
2 A. It could be wrong through the translation. In the summer of 1998
3 and the offensive on Rahovec and its municipality. I'm referring to the
4 summer - June, July - but not the spring of 1998.
5 Q. Perhaps it's a question of interpretation, but is that the time
6 when these 3.000 or 4.000 people came to the village, to your village? Is
7 that that particular time?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Well, if we understand each other now, then this offensive that
10 you mentioned, does this offensive pertain to a clash between the KLA and
11 the army of Yugoslavia, or the police, and that that is why these people
12 primarily came to your village?
13 A. For several times it was mentioned that there was an offensive in
14 Rahovec and Bellacerkva, and the population, out of fear, fled and came to
15 our village. All I know is that refugees reached our village and stayed
16 with us throughout.
17 Q. I have understood that part. But this offensive was launched
18 against what, against whom? Was it aimed at driving these people out of
19 their villages or was it aimed against the KLA?
20 A. No. Against the KLA.
21 Q. Thank you. Another subject. I'm not going to go back to this,
22 that Mr. Slobodan Milosevic read out, but again, it's page 7, of the
23 English version, that is. In addition to everything that you have already
24 confirmed while you were being examined by Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, I would
25 like to go back to the third paragraph from the bottom. It says here that
Page 3627
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13 English transcripts.
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Page 3628
1 after this bombing that occurred that night, immediately during that
2 night, you say: I came across a burned van where seven young men had
3 fallen asleep -- had been sleeping. The young men were burned also.
4 Does that mean that the van was not hit at all but that the young
5 men in the van had burned?
6 A. The burning after the bombing of that van, the van was completely
7 charred, and during the bombing, these youths were only buried after we
8 returned from Albania.
9 Q. All right. I'm satisfied with your answer. That's not the way
10 you had put it.
11 But now for something else. The next day --
12 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour -- Your Honour, Judge
13 May, do I have a bit more time?
14 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
15 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. That you said when you had set out for Prizren, that you took 15
17 wounded persons with you. "We put them on a truck and sent them to
18 Prizren. Most of them had been mutilated by shrapnel." Is that correct?
19 A. It may either be a mistake in translation or incorrect, because
20 what I said is the night we set out for Prizren, a lorry, driven by an
21 elderly person, was filled with some wounded people who were coming from
22 several villages and headed towards the Prizren hospital, not with the
23 population, but the lorry was filled at Nagafc with wounded people. It's
24 only the driver who took the wounded people there.
25 Q. That's not the way it's been explained here, but all right. This
Page 3629
1 is the explanation you give now, and I'm not opposed to that explanation
2 either. You said that that night in Nogavac, 40 to 50 people were
3 killed.
4 A. That's correct. This can be corroborated with the reburial of all
5 of them after our return from Albania.
6 Q. Could you please explain just one thing: That night you only
7 heard the sound of aircraft, but you didn't see any aircraft?
8 A. No, because one cannot see an aircraft at night.
9 Q. That was the first thing I wished to refer to. The second one:
10 You were in a house. You heard detonations and you say that the window
11 broke. But the house itself had not been hit; right? Is that right? I
12 mean, it wasn't hit by a bomb?
13 A. The house where me and my family were sheltered, and alongside
14 another 80 persons, because of the tremors of the explosion by a grenade,
15 or whatever it was - it was in the close vicinity - the roof was
16 completely destroyed and the window panes were also shattered, but there
17 was no burning.
18 Q. And this happened to many other houses too, right, due to the --
19 A. This happened to many, many houses at Nagafc. Almost all of
20 Nagafc was completely destroyed that night.
21 Q. Just one more question. Did you see, on the next day, before you
22 set out - as you explained here, you were frightened - did you see any
23 craters from these bombs next day in the village, and were they big?
24 There were about ten of them. Were some of them 10 metres long and 7
25 metres wide? Did you see that?
Page 3630
1 A. These craters, I did notice them even on the night when I set out
2 to help the wounded, and I've seen the craters and I've seen -- because of
3 the flames of the burning houses. On the very next day, before dawn, we
4 set out for Albania.
5 Q. They were that big?
6 A. Yes, they were that big.
7 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you. Thank you.
8 JUDGE MAY: Any re-examination?
9 MS. ROMANO: No, Your Honour.
10 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Hoti, that concludes your evidence. Thank you for
11 coming to the International Tribunal to give it. You are free to go.
12 JUDGE MAY: We'll adjourn now for 20 minutes.
13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you.
14 [The witness withdrew]
15 --- Recess taken at 12.17 p.m.
16 --- On resuming at 12.40 p.m.
17 [The witness entered court]
18 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Ryneveld.
19 MR. RYNEVELD: Thank you, Your Honour. If it please the Court,
20 the Prosecution calls Rahim Latifi, spelled L-a-t-i-f-i, as our next
21 witness.
22 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let the witness take the declaration.
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly declare that I will speak
24 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
25 JUDGE MAY: If you'd like to take a seat.
Page 3631
1 WITNESS: RAHIM LATIFI
2 [Witness answered through interpreter]
3 MR. RYNEVELD: Mr. Usher, I wonder if you could secure Exhibit 83,
4 page 10, and put it on the ELMO. Thank you.
5 Examined by Mr. Ryneveld:
6 Q. Now, Mr. Latifi, I understand, sir, that you were born in Pirana,
7 is that correct, near Prizren, in Kosovo?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And did you live there most of your life?
10 A. Yes, all my life.
11 Q. I'm going to ask that you look at the map that's on the ELMO. I
12 don't know if that's displayed on the video screen. Do you see your town
13 of Pirana on that map that's now before the Court?
14 A. Yes. It is there.
15 Q. You're now pointing to --
16 MR. RYNEVELD: Your Honours, on page 10 of Exhibit 83, there is a
17 number 23 in the right-hand column. About two inches to the left of that
18 is Pirana.
19 Q. All right. You're pointing to Pirana now, thank you, on the
20 screen. Thank you. And that's in the municipality of Prizren, is it?
21 A. Yes, the municipality of Prizren.
22 Q. Thank you, sir. You can -- that's --
23 Sir, I understand that you took your secondary education in
24 Prizren, and you studied agriculture for some time at the university. Is
25 that also correct?
Page 3632
1 A. Yes, that's correct.
2 Q. Are you married?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Do you have any children?
5 A. Four children.
6 Q. And did you, in 1998 and 1999, live with your parents and another
7 brother in the same house with your family in the village of Pirana?
8 A. Yes, that's right.
9 Q. Thank you.
10 MR. RYNEVELD: I would now propose if I may, Your Honours, to give
11 a very brief skeleton summary of what is contained in the witness's
12 statement, but before I do, I should ask him some questions about that
13 statement.
14 Q. Sir, were you interviewed by members of the Office of the
15 Prosecutor on the 28th of April, 1999?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And you gave that statement. And was that statement subsequently
18 translated into Albanian and given to you to review on the 29th of
19 January, 2002, of this year?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And did you appear before a presiding officer at that time and
22 indicate that the contents of that statement were true to the best of your
23 knowledge and belief at that time?
24 A. That's true.
25 MR. RYNEVELD: Might that statement now be tendered as the next
Page 3633
1 exhibit in these proceedings, please, Your Honours.
2 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Prosecutor's Exhibit number 107.
3 MR. RYNEVELD: While that statement is being distributed, I
4 propose, with the Court's permission, to read a brief skeleton summary.
5 I've made, actually, a copy of it for the benefit of the translators, and
6 I believe a copy has also been handed to all the parties.
7 In the statement, Your Honours, he describes incidents in the
8 spring of 1998 when he found three dead villagers. All of them had been
9 shot in the back of the head. One had his hands tied with a metal string,
10 behind his back. Another's body was black and blue from having been
11 beaten. All were civilians.
12 He describes that on the 24th of March, 1999, in the evening, the
13 NATO started its air campaign. And by 4.00 of the next day, the 25th of
14 March, 1999, his village was surrounded by the army and MUP units, by
15 tanks, various military vehicles, and a lot of personnel.
16 At 8.00 in the morning, the first house in Pirana was set on fire,
17 and at approximately the same time, the Serbs started shelling the
18 village. Later, the police burned the whole village to the ground.
19 According to his statement, when the attack on the village began,
20 the residents started to evacuate. There was a free corridor to Mamusha
21 village, so 80 per cent of the population of the village, which he
22 estimated to be about 1.900, started moving towards Mamusha. The rest of
23 the population, including the witness, went towards Srbica. On the way to
24 Srbica, a sniper killed one villager and wounded another.
25 In the village of Srbica, some Serb families met the refugees and
Page 3634
1 asked the police that they not be harmed, but next day, about 70 police
2 started shooting at their tractors. Some Serb residents tried to protect
3 them from the police. And the witness's family stayed there for over a
4 month.
5 About three weeks later, the chief of police of Prizren came and
6 said that whoever was not originally from Srbica village should leave the
7 village and go to Albania. The local Serbs from Srbica then organised six
8 buses for the refugees, but the witness and his family of 86 members
9 stayed in Srbica for ten days longer because there was no room for them in
10 the buses.
11 On the 25th of April, 1999, the Serbs started a big offensive in
12 the area of Srbica. From Srbica area, they would shell the villages of
13 Pirana, Reti e Ulet, Reti, and Randobrava.
14 On the 26th of April, his family hired a bus for about 2.000
15 German marks and they were escorted out of the village by local Serbs.
16 They proceeded with the cars both in front and behind the bus until they
17 reached the village of Zhur. At the border crossing at Morina, their
18 personal documents were taken away.
19 Now, the witness also describes several incidents in his statement
20 about bodies that he saw, and there are some eight of them. First of all,
21 in a dry stream near Pirana, the police buried several bodies with a
22 bulldozer. Secondly, one day he saw two police trucks on the road from
23 Krusha with many bodies inside, but he doesn't know where they took them.
24 Three, he describes an incident where he reburied three bodies in Pirana.
25 Four, he describes an incident in the village of Randobrava where a shell
Page 3635
1 hit a tractor and a convoy and all six members of a family got killed.
2 Five, in the same village, he found the body of a man about 45 to 47 years
3 old whose fingers were cut off and his abdomen was cut open. Six, in the
4 village of Reti e Ulet, he describes a gravesite where he helped bury 25
5 people who came from the village of Krusha e Madhe. Seven, he also found
6 12 more bodies in Randobrava that they buried in the field. And finally,
7 number eight, he describes finding 52 people killed in the houses in the
8 village of Velika Krusa, most with gunshot wounds to the head.
9 That is a very brief skeletal summary and I have no further
10 questions at this time. Thank you.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Excuse me, may I make a correction?
12 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Srbica, it is called Srbica but not
14 Skenderaj. Skenderaj is not near our territory where I live. It's a
15 technical error.
16 MR. RYNEVELD: That must have been a translation, because I do not
17 recall using the word "Skenderaj." It certainly is not contained in the
18 skeleton statement that I read out.
19 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
20 Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic:
21 Q. [Interpretation] You said that you graduated from high school in
22 Prizren and that you attended the faculty of agriculture for two years in
23 Pristina.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. When were you enrolled in secondary school; which years?
Page 3636
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13 English transcripts.
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Page 3637
1 A. 1987.
2 Q. You graduated from secondary school in 1987; is that correct?
3 A. 1989.
4 Q. And when did you enrol in the faculty of agriculture; which year?
5 A. In 1990, in September.
6 Q. And when did you leave the faculty of agriculture?
7 A. In 1992.
8 Q. And why did you abandon your studies at the university?
9 A. Because our university was closed and I didn't have the right
10 conditions to continue in private houses. Because after the university
11 was closed, classes continued to be held in and among private houses.
12 Q. But do you know that at the university in Pristina, there was a
13 faculty of agriculture all the time?
14 A. It's true, there was, but only for Serbs and people who accepted
15 your regime.
16 Q. And could Albanians freely study at the faculty of agriculture at
17 the University of Pristina?
18 A. When are you talking about?
19 Q. In that period from 1992 onwards, when you left the university.
20 A. No, it wasn't free.
21 Q. And do you know that a large number of Albanians did study at the
22 faculty of agriculture in Pristina after 1992?
23 A. Yes, among private houses. Not on the faculty premises.
24 Q. All right. Let's just clear this up. It is your claim that the
25 Albanians did not study at the regular faculty of agriculture of the
Page 3638
1 University of Pristina?
2 A. This question is not clear to me. I tried to study in premises
3 because to get the right conditions, but the truth is that we were evicted
4 from them.
5 Q. All right. If I have understood your answer correctly, Albanians
6 were evicted from the faculty of agriculture in Pristina, and from 1992
7 onwards, you say that there weren't any Albanian students at the faculty
8 of agriculture of the University of Pristina.
9 A. On the premises of the faculty, there weren't. In private houses,
10 in rooms 4 metres square, there were, but they didn't have access to a
11 library or anything.
12 Q. All right. Therefore, I understand that you said that at the
13 regular faculty of agriculture of the university in Pristina, from 1992
14 onwards, there were no Albanian students. Have I understood you
15 correctly?
16 A. I can repeat again: On the faculty premises, the premises of the
17 agricultural faculty, there were no Albanian students, but there were
18 among private houses.
19 Q. All right. Thank you. When you say "among private houses," this
20 did not belong to the faculty itself; this was some kind of parallel
21 studies. So nobody was studying at the university any longer?
22 A. You can't call it parallel. We tried -- that is, our students,
23 our professors, we were trying not to leave students on the streets. You
24 can't study in private houses like you can in university premises, and
25 even among private houses, our students were harassed and persecuted.
Page 3639
1 Q. What do you mean, they were harassed and persecuted?
2 A. Everywhere: on the streets, in their flats, at the bus station, in
3 the bus.
4 Q. Who persecuted them?
5 A. Uniformed policemen mainly, civilians. There was no way we could
6 protect ourselves from the police. You couldn't bring your faculty
7 identity card home. If they found you with a faculty identity card, you
8 were in trouble.
9 Q. Were any students arrested? Or let me be more precise: What did
10 this persecution consist of?
11 A. All kinds of things. There's no dispute about this.
12 Q. But describe at least some of these forms of persecution, when you
13 say that students were persecuted in Pristina or in Kosovo.
14 A. In April 1992, in Aktash II, seven students, friends of mine, were
15 arrested. They were mistreated until they lost consciousness, on the
16 street and then in the police station. There's a short description for
17 you.
18 Q. And how long were they detained in the police station?
19 A. About 24 hours. Just because of these 24 hours, they had to
20 interrupt their studies for two months, because of the way they were
21 beaten and mistreated. Whether they were women or men, the question was:
22 Are you a student? Are you studying? They were concerned to brainwash
23 us.
24 Q. You, therefore, claim that it was the police that prevented
25 Albanian students from going to their studies, from studying?
Page 3640
1 A. The police received orders from somewhere and obstructed us.
2 Q. And do you know, at that time, the time that you're talking about,
3 how many Albanian students were enrolled at the regular university in
4 Pristina, as regular students?
5 A. I only know about my faculty. In the first year, there were 120
6 students, and in the second, the number was reduced. Merely in the arable
7 department. I can't talk about the rest of the university. I don't know
8 about it.
9 Q. All right. At the second year, the number is reduced anyway,
10 minus those students that don't complete the first year. Was that the
11 reason or was there some other reason?
12 A. I was a good student. I passed all my exams on time. I am
13 talking about myself as an example. But what worried us most of all was
14 the treatment of the girls, because they were unable to travel from
15 Prizren to Pristina because of the maltreatment, and we had to protect
16 them because of our honour.
17 Q. And who abused girls?
18 A. The police. Who else? The civilians were not authorised.
19 Q. Well, can you quote an example of the police abusing some girls?
20 A. For example, two girls from Suhareke got off at Stimlje and were
21 maltreated, but they didn't come with us in the bus. We had to leave them
22 there. And then what happened to them, I don't know. I don't know who
23 they were. I just know that they came from the Suhareke area. I don't
24 know which faculty they were studying at.
25 Q. You lived in Prizren, in a town in which there were Albanians,
Page 3641
1 Serbs, and Turks alike, and also a number of Roma; is that right?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. At that time, the time you're talking about, in the Prizren
4 municipality, were there Albanians and Serbs and Turks and Romas holding
5 responsible positions?
6 A. In the recent years, I don't know of there having been any
7 Albanians. There were reduced number of Turks, and I don't think there
8 were any Roma, and the majority were Serbs. All the managers were changed
9 at that time, all the employers, all the supervisors, all the bosses.
10 Q. And do you know Sokol Qyshi from Prizren, for example?
11 A. No.
12 Q. He's an Albanian. I assume you know him because his name -- you
13 can judge that by his name. And he was a director in Prizren throughout
14 that time, right up until the war. Do you know about that? Do you know
15 about him?
16 A. From his name, he's an Albanian, but I didn't work in the
17 administration. I had no way of knowing him. This is the first time I've
18 heard of his name.
19 Q. Well, his name just came to mind, but I have a number of other
20 names, Albanian and Turkish, who held responsible functions.
21 Now, did it occur to you, in view of the structure of the
22 authorities in Prizren municipality, which was composed of Serbs,
23 Albanians and Turks, that for the incidents that you spoke about, that you
24 asked their assistance, that is to say that you appealed to the
25 authorities in the municipality for their help? And it was a municipality
Page 3642
1 that had representatives of both the Serbs, Albanians, and Turks.
2 A. What sort of aid should I be looking for? I don't understand this
3 question.
4 Q. The question is: If there were certain incidents that took place
5 against people from Prizren, those of you who were studying, did it ever
6 occur to you to go to your own municipality, the municipality of Prizren,
7 and go to one of the functionaries in the municipality who was an Albanian
8 or a Turk or a Serb, whatever, to report to them that something had been
9 going on that was not normal and proper, that was out of order? Did it
10 ever occur to you to report that to them?
11 A. We did think of this, but we didn't follow it up. We went into
12 the police station, and our farewell was, "I hope you -- God willing
13 you'll come out alive. And if you don't, you get buried."
14 Q. I didn't understand you. Who told you that?
15 A. That's the sort of thing that happened. This is not just rumour.
16 Anybody who went to the police station, that sort of thing happened. You
17 had no one to complain to, because we had a -- a parallel municipal
18 authority in which the Albanians were predominant. But we had -- we had
19 no reason to go to these police stations.
20 Q. All right. Let's move on to the next part of your statement. I
21 don't understand that if something happens to you that you don't go and
22 report it or complain to somebody about that. I don't quite seem to
23 understand that.
24 A. That's how it was. That's how it was. There was no one to
25 complain to. And if you did complain, nobody paid you any attention.
Page 3643
1 Q. Yes, but you did not complain. So you don't know if anybody would
2 have paid you any attention or not. You didn't try.
3 JUDGE MAY: He's given his evidence about this.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.
5 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. You say in your statement that in the spring of 1998, you found
7 three dead farmers, Mehmet Elshani, his son Afrim, and a worker of theirs,
8 Sali Gashi.
9 A. Yes, that's correct. We found them.
10 Q. Do you know that they were liquidated by the KLA?
11 A. I don't know who they were killed by. What I'm saying is we found
12 them killed. I don't know who killed them, because it happened at night.
13 They were killed at about 10.00 at night. We heard the gunshots. And it
14 was impossible for us to emerge out of our houses at night-time.
15 Q. All right. You said that from the autumn of 1998 onwards, as far
16 as I was able to understand, the situation calmed down, relatively
17 speaking, and that there were no major incidents.
18 A. There was -- forces were preparing. Military and police forces
19 were rotating and deploying, especially the army. So they were not
20 dealing with the local population. It was quite obvious that they were
21 preparing. They were just swapping locations.
22 Q. What were they preparing for?
23 A. I do not know. You should know this better. You should be aware
24 of the tactics better.
25 Q. You said that on the evening of the 24th of March, air -- the air
Page 3644
1 campaign started, and that in the early hours of the morning on the 25th
2 of March, your village was surrounded by the army and Serbian police units
3 with tanks, various military vehicles, and a lot of personnel, as you say
4 in your statement. Now, where were you surrounded?
5 A. We were surrounded on the 25th of March. The noise of the tanks
6 and other heavy vehicles could be heard since early on in the morning at
7 4.00, whereas movement within the village started at about 8.00 when the
8 burning, shelling, uncontrolled, indiscriminate, started.
9 Q. What village are you talking about?
10 A. Pirana. Pirana.
11 Q. How far is Pirana away from Prizren?
12 A. Eleven kilometres.
13 Q. Were you able to see from Pirana the bombing of Prizren?
14 A. Prizren was not bombed from Pirana.
15 Q. I didn't mean bombed from Pirana but bombed from the air by NATO.
16 A. You can only see a little. I understand. I understand. But
17 there's very little leeway because Prizren is on high ground and Pirana is
18 not. So very little can be seen.
19 Q. All right. Let's go back to the incident you describe. You say
20 that at the same time, they started setting houses on fire and shelling
21 the village -- and shelled the village. How was it possible for them to
22 be in the village and set fire to the houses and at the same time to throw
23 shells on that village and burn the houses, as you say?
24 A. They set fire to the houses by hand from the vicinity, not from
25 Prizren.
Page 3645
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Page 3646
1 Q. I'm not talking about Prizren. I'm talking about on the spot.
2 You say that they were setting houses on fire and shelling the villages at
3 the same time. If they are setting fire to the houses, it means that they
4 are in the village. If they are shelling the village, then they are
5 shelling the village that they were in. Now, how is that possible? How
6 can these two things take place at the same time simultaneously? How can
7 they be in the village setting fire to the houses and shell the village
8 from elsewhere?
9 A. The shelling did not occur at the same time as the police forces
10 entered the village.
11 Q. I asked you about this because you say in your statement that it
12 occurred at the same time. You say, "Approximately at the same time," et
13 cetera. And later on --
14 JUDGE MAY: It ought to be read --.
15 THE WITNESS: Approximately --
16 JUDGE MAY: It ought to be in context. "At 8.00, the first house
17 in Pirana was set on fire. This was the house," and the name is given.
18 "Approximately at the same time, the Serbs started shelling the
19 village." Now, that's the context in which it's put. And in fact, it
20 goes on: "There was no damage. I saw later the police burnt down to the
21 ground the whole village."
22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May we proceed?
23 JUDGE MAY: Yes. But you must put the whole statement to the
24 witness so that he can -- it can be dealt with fairly.
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I hope that I have supplied
Page 3647
1 the essence, the substance of it, because in the statement, it says that
2 the house was set on fire, too, and the village shelled at the same time.
3 So that was what my question referred to. But that's just a comment.
4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. You said that the next day, you went to Donja Srbica and that the
6 Serb population in the village helped you to find your way and go into the
7 houses, and you say that your family stayed in the village for one month.
8 A. Not on the morrow but on -- because the day after that was the
9 26th, and this happened on the 25th. And we left the house at 8.00. We
10 headed towards Srbica. And in that convoy, Xhafer Elshani was killed.
11 Mehmet Elshani was wounded. And we lay down on the ground for over two
12 hours until we started heading towards the village. Local Serbs prepared
13 us for staying in local villages, in the local village.
14 Q. Well, that's what I was asking you. Your family stayed in the
15 village for a whole month, as you say in your statement.
16 A. Yes, for a month.
17 Q. During that time, did anybody mistreat you in any way, or did
18 anything to harm you, or was rude to you?
19 A. In Srbica, this did not happen, as did in other places like
20 Krusha e Vogel, where Serbian inhabitants lived as well. In Srbica, it
21 was a bit different. There was partial provocation, but they were not of
22 the extent that it endangered one's life. But certain Serbs and Albanians
23 who could have been able to cohabit even today, but it was only the war
24 that marked the parting of the ways, as it were.
25 Q. I'm sure that what you said is quite correct, and that is that the
Page 3648
1 war was the cause of all this. You said: The police kept coming, but
2 they did not harm us. The police would come but do no harm to us. That's
3 what you said. You said that the Serbs from Donja Srbica later organised
4 six buses for you to help you be able to seek shelter.
5 A. I do not know how this came to pass. From Prizren, from the
6 municipality, six, seven buses came to Srbica and told us to leave because
7 our life was in danger. Your police and army -- from your police and
8 army.
9 Q. And where did you go then?
10 A. The first group left for Albania, or set off for Albania, and we
11 later learned that they had made it, whilst we stayed in Srbica for
12 another three weeks, the rest, that is.
13 Q. In your statement, you describe an event on the 25th of April,
14 when a big offensive started. You say the Serbs started a big offensive
15 in the area of Donja Srbica, and from Donja Srbica, they would shell the
16 villages of Pirana, Retimlje, Randubrava, et cetera. Do you know of any
17 KLA presence in the area, and do you know what was happening in the area
18 with respect to the clashes that were going on between the army and
19 police, on the one side, and the KLA, on the other?
20 A. No, we were not aware of what was happening, but we could only see
21 the shelling, police, Serbs, and the infantry assaulting these villages.
22 That part of those villages that had escaped the burning of the 25th,
23 26th, 27th of March was burnt on that very same day. I am not aware of
24 what pretext or excuse.
25 Q. I'm not talking about any pretext. I'm just asking you whether
Page 3649
1 you are aware of the present course of events and the attack on the police
2 and army by the KLA in that area.
3 A. No, I'm not aware of any KLA there.
4 Q. As you're from those parts, do you know, in October 1998, when
5 about -- when the KLA killed a soldier? His name was Srdjan Simonovic,
6 and he was killed precisely in those parts where you come from.
7 A. I do not know. I have not heard of this case.
8 Q. Did you hear about another case, when, on the 17th of March,
9 1999 - that means that the Verification Mission of the OSCE was still
10 there, they were still on the ground - that another soldier, by the name
11 of Vladimir Markovic, was also killed, also in your area?
12 A. I have no information.
13 Q. And do you happen to know that in the village of Pirana, in actual
14 fact, on the 27th of March, 1999, that a soldier by the name of Bojan
15 Jovanovic was killed?
16 A. At that time, I was not staying in the village, and I do not know
17 who has been killed.
18 Q. And in the next village, the village of Landovica, on the previous
19 day, soldier Slobodan Gasparic was killed. Did you hear about that
20 killing?
21 A. No.
22 Q. I have here -- it says here that during the time you were still in
23 your village in the Prizren municipality -- I have here a fairly long list
24 of soldiers who were killed. Now, I'm not going to read it out to you and
25 ask you the individual names, but let me just ask you generally: Did you
Page 3650
1 hear, throughout the time that you spent in the area, about the killing of
2 any soldier at all, soldier or policeman, in the Prizren municipality,
3 either in your village or in the neighbouring villages, or did you hear
4 about anything similar happening? So any of these events or anything
5 similar happening. And the press, radio, television broadcast this. It
6 was on Radio Prizren in Albanian, Turkish, and Serbian. But tell me, did
7 you hear of any of these events?
8 A. The media at the time worked under restricted conditions. There
9 was no information on true events. There was disinformation. Even what
10 was broadcast, we did not take that to be resembling the truth, but simply
11 misinformation. It was not our media, because if it had been ours, it
12 would have been like the ones that we have at this very particular moment,
13 and we have not followed the media of the time.
14 Q. And once again in the village of Pirana, do you happen to know of
15 another event? It was the killing of a policeman by the name of Zvezdan
16 Tasic and it took place in April, the time you're talking about. Were you
17 there then?
18 A. When the burial of Zvezdan occurred -- and I've known him
19 personally. He was an unusual criminal in our areas, not only in our
20 areas, but elsewhere as well. When he was buried, we were in Srbica, and
21 we were scared, because when we saw police on four buses, we were not
22 aware of why they were there. When we heard that Zvezdan had been killed,
23 that's when we heard what had happened.
24 Q. So you just heard about that one killing; is that right?
25 A. At that time we were staying in the village, and I lived near the
Page 3651
1 cemetery, so that we were kind of participants over there and we had heard
2 about it.
3 Q. Apart from him, you didn't hear about the killing of any other
4 Serb, whether policeman or soldier?
5 A. No.
6 Q. And this man, Zvezdan Tasic, who was killed, he was a policeman.
7 Why do you refer to him and call him a criminal?
8 A. That's what he was. We had heard that at the Rahovec clash he had
9 wreaked havoc, and that's why I call him a criminal. If he had been
10 alive, he'd be here with you, because there were people who had known him,
11 because he served in the area.
12 Q. Do you know also that all these present-day leaders - Thaci, the
13 Selimi brothers, Cekve [phoen], et cetera - are criminals as well?
14 JUDGE MAY: No. That's a general comment. No need to answer
15 that.
16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Since you do not know about the killing of a single Serb, I'm
18 going to read out to you the names of a few Albanians who were killed in
19 your area. So now we are going to see whether you know of any one of
20 them. You knew about this one personally, but have you ever heard of the
21 killing of any one of these: Marjan Doni, Bojaxhiu Fatmir, Dejcaj Binak,
22 Ponik Arsim, Cemaj [phoen] Beha, Likaj [phoen] Hamit, Rijazit [phoen]
23 Avdyl, Morina Sali?
24 JUDGE MAY: That will do for the moment. The witness is to
25 answer.
Page 3652
1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
2 Q. Do you know of the killing of any one of these persons whose names
3 I've just read out, that were committed by the KLA? These are Albanians,
4 first and foremost, and this was precisely in your area.
5 A. I have never known any of these people. I didn't know them, and I
6 have no information about how they were killed, or anything of that kind.
7 Q. I'm not asking you about whether you knew them; I'm asking about
8 whether you heard about the killing of these persons.
9 JUDGE MAY: He's mentioned that he has no information about how
10 they were killed.
11 It's alleged -- just a moment. It's alleged they were killed by
12 the KLA. No doubt other names are about to be read out to you with the
13 same allegation attached. Can you help us as to that? Do you know
14 anything about this at all, these allegations?
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I don't know anything about this.
16 JUDGE MAY: No. It's pointless to go on reading out the names.
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. Then I should not ask
18 any more about any one of these killings that had taken place where the
19 witness was staying.
20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. And do you know about an event -- I mean, I'm asking you about
22 this because, if I understood your assertion correctly, you've been saying
23 that you did not know anything about any KLA activity whatsoever, at any
24 time.
25 A. In our villages, in the places where we were staying in Pirana and
Page 3653
1 Srbica, there were no KLA soldiers. I never saw them. So I can't comment
2 on things I haven't seen.
3 Q. I am asking you whether you know about this, whether you've heard
4 of this, because you've been talking about a great many things that you've
5 only heard of, not seen. Have you heard of KLA activities?
6 A. It's not true that I've been talking about things I know from
7 hearsay.
8 Q. All right. I am asking you. Have you heard of any KLA
9 activities?
10 A. No. I had no connection, either direct or indirect, with the KLA,
11 and I never heard about these things.
12 JUDGE MAY: It's pointless to go on asking about the KLA of this
13 witness, so you should move on to another topic.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Just one more question related to
15 this.
16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Have you at least heard of a big event, in terms of the numbers
18 involved, between the 13th and 14th of December, 1994, when almost 100
19 members of the KLA in the region of Prizren, on the border, clashed with
20 the army that were manning the border? A number were killed, a number
21 were arrested, and also a large quantity of ammunition, weapons, materiel
22 were taken. Do you remember at least that incident that had to do with
23 the KLA in your area?
24 A. The border area is not near my village. It's a very long way
25 away. There's no way I could hear of these things.
Page 3654
1 Q. Well, this is an incident that was talked about a great deal, and
2 I had assumed that --
3 JUDGE MAY: He's answered the question.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right.
5 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. You said that together with 20 people, you buried the bodies of
7 the killed persons from Velika Krusa. Who are these people that you did
8 this with?
9 A. In the evening - I'll say it as it originally happened - that a
10 child's voice came to us and we had the idea that we would put ourselves
11 at risk because perhaps there were children left by themselves in the
12 fields. And we saw many corpses near the Randobrava in the fields, in
13 Krusha e Madhe. They were terribly, terribly badly -- they were wounded
14 in the head. They were burned. They -- they were -- there was no one to
15 bury them. There were some cousins of mine, and there were some civilians
16 who had been left behind in Randobrava and Krusha e Madhe, and that's how
17 we did this job together.
18 Q. You did not see who killed these people and how?
19 A. We know who killed them. They were your troops. But how they
20 were killed, well, we saw the corpses. They were killed in the most cruel
21 fashion.
22 Q. You said that the KLA took pictures of the graves and the
23 corpses.
24 A. On that day in the evening, we accidentally met in Randobrava two
25 uniformed soldiers. They were also armed. And they had come out to
Page 3655
1 reconnoiter the territory with the same idea, that there should not be
2 unburied bodies left on the ground. And we told them about this event.
3 And we handed over these photographs because we were scared to have them
4 in our pockets, because -- because for the sake of a photograph, we would
5 put our lives and our entire families in danger. How would we put
6 ourselves at risk for the sake of a photograph?
7 Q. That's not what I've been asking you. Quite simply, I'm putting
8 the following question to you: You were in contact, therefore, with the
9 representatives of the KLA. So far, you've been saying that you had never
10 had any contact with them whatsoever and that you had never heard of any
11 kind of KLA activity. Did you encounter anyone else? Did you talk to
12 anyone else? Did you have any other contacts with the KLA except for
13 these two that you've just mentioned?
14 A. It was a very fleeting contact, accidental. On that day it
15 happened, but never again. And when I came back from Albania, I saw them
16 again. But it was a very fleeting contact on that day.
17 Q. All right. I just wanted to clarify this in view of what you've
18 written.
19 And in Velika Krusa, you did not see who had killed these people
20 and how?
21 A. Who killed them? I told you. They were your forces, because this
22 was an act of revenge because of NATO. And after the bombing started,
23 this action of vengeance on the part of the army and the police started,
24 because we were defenseless. We had no army. It was vengeance against
25 the civilian population. It was murder, rape.
Page 3656
1 Q. Well, just awhile ago you said that you would not speak of
2 anything that you had not seen, of anything that you had only heard about,
3 but this that you've just said is something that you've only heard about.
4 Is that right or is that not right?
5 A. These are things we experienced, not things we heard.
6 Q. Well, I asked you whether you saw who had killed these people, and
7 you had not seen anyone. But you claim that it was, as you had put it,
8 the Serb troops that had done that.
9 JUDGE MAY: He's given his answer about this. Mr. Milosevic, we
10 should try and finish this witness today since we're not sitting
11 tomorrow.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, we can finish with this
13 witness, because I have other questions related to victims in the area.
14 However, since the witness answered that he did not know absolutely a
15 thing about them, I think it's pointless to ask him, because he said that
16 he knew nothing about any kind of KLA activity. There is no need for me
17 to ask him anything.
18 JUDGE MAY: Very well.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Then just one more thing.
20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. You did not have an army. And just a few minutes ago you said
22 that you encountered these two soldiers. These two soldiers that you
23 encountered, did they belong to this army, the KLA, that you consider to
24 be your own army, or did they belong to someone else?
25 JUDGE MAY: He's dealt with that.
Page 3657
1 Yes. Mr. Tapuskovic, have you any questions for this witness?
2 Thank you.
3 Any re-examination?
4 MR. RYNEVELD: Just one, if I may.
5 Re-examined by Mr. Ryneveld:
6 Q. Witness, you were asked by the accused about the organisation of
7 the six buses when you left Srbica. Did you want to leave for Albania?
8 A. Nobody ever leaves their own home of their own free will, but it
9 was a question of saving our families, because our houses were being
10 burnt. Murders were starting. We thought the same thing would happen to
11 us, because that -- we were thinking that NATO was our rescue, and then
12 this happened.
13 MR. RYNEVELD: Thank you.
14 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Latifi, thank you for coming to the Tribunal to
15 give your evidence. It's now concluded, and you're free to go.
16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you too.
17 [The witness withdrew]
18 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Ryneveld, will you be calling the witnesses in the
19 order on the list?
20 MR. RYNEVELD: That is our proposal, health and everything else
21 and availability, but, yes, we intend to call the witnesses as -- as
22 scheduled.
23 JUDGE MAY: So we can make our preparations. We're not sitting
24 tomorrow because there's a Plenary, a meeting of the Judges, but we shall
25 be sitting again on Wednesday, when? If I'm right, the time is 9.30.
Page 3658
1 MR. RYNEVELD: Yes. And we have the extended hours then to 4.00?
2 9.30 to 4.00?
3 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
4 MR. RYNEVELD: Thank you, Your Honour.
5 JUDGE MAY: We will sit into the afternoon. We will adjourn now.
6 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.45 p.m.,
7 to be reconvened on Wednesday, the 24th day
8 of April, 2002, at 9.30 a.m.
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