Page 37496
1 Wednesday, 16 March 2005
2 [Open session]
3 [The witness entered court]
4 [The accused entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 9.03 a.m.
6 JUDGE KWON: Judge Robinson is absent due to Tribunal business, so
7 we'll sit pursuant to 15 bis.
8 Mr. Milosevic, for you to continue examination.
9 WITNESS: RADOMIR GOJOVIC [Resumed]
10 [Witness answered through interpreter]
11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Kwon.
12 Examined by Mr. Milosevic: [Continued]
13 Q. [Interpretation] Good morning, General Gojovic. Yesterday, we
14 went through tab 14 containing a number of documents from which it
15 transpires that you as the head of the general administration of the
16 General Staff were informed about the work of the courts and the
17 prosecutors' offices. Was the Supreme Command Staff informed of the work
18 of the military judiciary organs?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. I wish to draw everyone's attention to tab 15. It contains a
21 paper titled "Information." Was that the kind of information that was
22 supplied to the Supreme Command Staff?
23 A. Yes. That's the kind of report we received.
24 Q. It contains all the general data about formation, 1st Army, 2nd
25 Army, 3rd Army. In the penultimate paragraph, concerning the 3rd Army, it
Page 37497
1 says: "The difficulties encountered by this court in its work also exist
2 when it comes to delivering subpoenas because of the lack of security and
3 safety of movement in combat operations zones, the intense attacks carried
4 out by the aggressor's air force and the covert operations by dispersed
5 terrorists groups."
6 A. Yes. This is typical of the military corps and the military
7 prosecutor's office of the Pristina Corps.
8 Q. The Pristina Corps, in fact its zone of responsibility covers the
9 entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Is that correct, General
10 Gojovic?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. On the next page, in paragraph 3, we see information about the
13 number of cases. It says: "From the moment of establishment of military
14 judicial organs, military prosecutors received 7.807 criminal reports,
15 filed reports for the investigation of 2.911 persons, and charged 3.928
16 persons. A total of 2.825 requests to start an investigation were
17 submitted. 1.395 were implemented. Some 3.897 persons have been
18 indicted ..."
19 That is the kind of information you showed us in the form of
20 tables.
21 A. Yes. I would just like to give a clarification about this. This
22 paper was prepared for over a number of days, and it's dated 12th
23 September, but this information is as of the 15th September, because that
24 was the date when we actually submitted it to the Supreme Command Staff,
25 and the information was updated before it was sent. There were certain
Page 37498
1 corrections to these conclusions and assessments. So these numbers - for
2 instance the number of cases - coincides with the numbers given in tabular
3 form in the tables we saw earlier in attachments annexes 1 to 3.
4 Q. The basic problems are also covered here. In paragraph 4, it
5 says: "A large number of criminal reports were submitted in a very short
6 interval, and many of them were not supported by the necessary legal
7 evidence, which causes difficulties in the work of the prosecutor. Such a
8 large number of criminal cases are becoming a burden to the courts.
9 "There is a slight increase in more -- in graver, serious crimes,
10 with an increasing number of perpetrators committing serious crimes, which
11 represents a threat to society and requires greater engagement of the
12 competent organs in order to detect and prevent crimes."
13 A. Correct.
14 Q. In paragraph 5, we see what kind of measures were applied. It
15 says: "Provide adequate documentation for establishment of military
16 prisons," et cetera.
17 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreters request for the accused to provide
18 adequate references before starting to quote.
19 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, you are being requested by the
20 interpreters to indicate the appropriate references before starting to
21 quote.
22 THE INTERPRETER: And to slow down, please.
23 JUDGE KWON: And to slow down.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 6.3.
25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
Page 37499
1 Q. "All commanders of units should report immediately to the
2 military prosecutor any crimes and perpetrators so that they can be
3 prosecuted. Any officers who do not comply shall be accountable and the
4 strictest measures shall be applied against them."
5 That's the kind of information that was supplied to the Supreme
6 Command Staff. This is dated 12 September 1992. Do you have any
7 comments, Mr. Gojovic?
8 A. There is especially this paragraph concerning the work of the
9 courts where they are urged to do their utmost so that all these cases can
10 be processed in the most efficient manner. The date of this document is
11 12 May 1999.
12 MR. NICE: Your Honours, I think we might have a little bit more
13 information about this document. The witness has been asked whether it's
14 like material he received. I don't know if he's saying he received it or
15 where he got it from or how he produced it, but given that it's anonymous
16 on its face, perhaps a little more detail will help us.
17 JUDGE KWON: I think Mr. Nice can deal with it in
18 cross-examination, but if you can help us with this question,
19 Mr. Milosevic.
20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can deal with it. I personally
21 drafted this paper. All the reports that went to the Supreme Command
22 Staff regarding the work of the military judiciary bodies were personally
23 drafted by me. Some corrections and adjustments were introduced here by
24 my superior, General Matovic, concerning the work of the Supreme Command
25 Staff. Otherwise, I compiled all this data.
Page 37500
1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
2 Q. It is indicated here that it was the administration for
3 reinforcement, organisation, mobilisation, and system issues of the
4 Supreme Command Staff drafted this.
5 A. Yes, that is true. The legal department of the Supreme Command
6 Staff was part of this administration, and I drafted this with the
7 approval of the head of this administration, General Matovic.
8 Q. It says "attachments as indicated in the text." Those are the
9 attachments we reviewed yesterday.
10 A. That is correct, and those attachments contain exact data on cases
11 processed. So this is a package of documents.
12 Q. Tell me in the most general terms what issues from the domain of
13 the work of military judiciary were reported to the Supreme Command Staff.
14 A. They were reported about the number of perpetrators, the number of
15 criminal reports received, the number of requests for starting
16 investigations, and the number of indictments. As for military courts,
17 how many on-site investigations were carried out, how many requests for
18 investigations were received, how many investigations were actually
19 started, how many indictments were brought.
20 Also, the Supreme Command Staff was given a breakdown by the type
21 of crimes. There were three types of crimes concerning military courts;
22 failure to respond to call-up, desertion, and failure to carry out orders.
23 All other crimes were put in one group. There is crime against life and
24 limb, that is murder; heavy bodily injuries; and the third category is
25 crimes against property. Crimes against property, as I said, they
Page 37501
1 encompass all crimes concerning property. Additional information would be
2 later submitted concerning the status of persons who committed the crimes;
3 officers, non-commissioned officers, conscripts, et cetera.
4 That is the kind of issues that were contained in the reports
5 given to the Supreme Command Staff, including tables where all this data
6 is contained.
7 JUDGE BONOMY: General, can I take it that crime against life and
8 limb includes more than murder?
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. All crimes against life and
10 limb are crimes against life and body, in other words. There is nothing
11 else in this category.
12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. General Gojovic, did the Supreme Command Staff, after the state of
14 war ended, receive a final report of all criminal cases started before
15 military judiciary organs?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Is that the document contained in tab 16, "Report on the work of
18 military judicial organs during the state of war"?
19 A. Correct.
20 JUDGE BONOMY: Again can I be clear about one thing: The last
21 document we've looked at, which is tab 15, is dated at the end a date in
22 May, 12th of May, but at the beginning a date in September. Now, what
23 period does it actually relate to?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no, no, no. It was not
25 September. I'm sorry. The previous report provides information as of the
Page 37502
1 12th of May, but it is accompanied by annexes added as of the 15th of May,
2 and the information is added, as I explained earlier, speaking of para 3,
3 that the information was updated before the report was finally submitted.
4 The report took two or three days to compile, and we updated it before
5 submitting it on the 15th, because this report was submitted together with
6 the tables we discussed previously, and we updated the information so that
7 all the data would coincide between the tables and the report.
8 JUDGE KWON: Do you have that tab 15 with you, General Gojovic?
9 What Judge Bonomy has referred to is a handwritten date on the right top
10 of the document.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. That's the 12th of May. 12th
12 of May. I wrote that in longhand so I wouldn't have to turn to the last
13 page and look at the date, the last page in the left-hand corner. This is
14 written in pencil.
15 JUDGE KWON: I'm sorry, the first page, at the top of the right
16 part of the page, it says 12th of September, 1999. What does it mean?
17 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no. It's the 12th of May. 12/9
18 -- 12/5. I'm sorry.
19 JUDGE KWON: Yes, it's a misinterpretation. Yes, I follow.
20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Must be.
21 JUDGE BONOMY: One problem about that is a number of your answers
22 have actually referred to September, but we can take it that they're
23 wrong, can we, and they should be May?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It's the month of May. Maybe it was
25 a slip of the tongue. Maybe President Milosevic can help us, but I kept
Page 37503
1 speaking of the 12th of May. I kept speaking of the month of May, not
2 September. It must be a misunderstanding or misinterpretation. In any
3 case, it's the month of May 1999.
4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. General, do you have the original of that document?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And what can you see on that document, the original? Can you see
8 -- can we see what you wrote down in handwriting?
9 A. Yes. Take a look, please.
10 Q. Because the copy isn't clear enough.
11 JUDGE KWON: That's clear, yes. Go on, Mr. Milosevic.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, I'd like to tender tab 15
13 into evidence, please.
14 JUDGE KWON: We will admit from tab 13 and 14 and 15 as well.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. You've already answered my question, that is to say whether the
18 staff of the Supreme Command received a final report at the end of the
19 state of war, which means also at the end of the existence of wartime
20 courts; right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. We're just going to dwell on this very briefly. On page 1,
23 paragraph 3, we see the total figure that: "Military prosecutors have so
24 far received a total of 18.541 criminal reports, filed requests for the
25 investigation of 5.370 persons, and indicted 6.708 persons."
Page 37504
1 Can you explain to us how an investigation was conducted against
2 5.370 whereas 6.708 were indicted?
3 A. This was the situation when you have a cross-section like this.
4 Part of the persons were accused after the investigation, and the second
5 portion were individuals which were not investigated if the evidence and
6 proof was sufficient, together with the criminal file -- criminal report
7 that was filed, for the prosecutor to be able to go ahead in the
8 proceedings, and this was something we could do during a situation of war,
9 which means that without the acquiescence of the investigating judge, an
10 indictment could be raised whereas regularly you would need agreement from
11 the investigating judge to raise an indictment for serious crimes meriting
12 sentences above five years. So that is the difference. It was a state of
13 war and that's why that difference occurs.
14 Q. Very well. Thank you. I've understood your explanation.
15 The third paragraph from the bottom on that same first page says
16 the following, that sentences ranged "from one to seven years in prison,
17 with the majority being around 2.5 to six years, while for other serious
18 crimes, far more severe sentences were pronounced."
19 A. Yes. That was for the cases where a judgement was made, and there
20 were fewer people where the high sentences existed, there were -- the
21 cases were referred on appeal.
22 Towards the end of this piece of information, it says crimes which
23 -- criminal cases that will objectively not be able to be completed will
24 be sent to the responsible peacetime military courts for further procedure
25 as envisaged by the rules of operation of military courts during a state
Page 37505
1 of war."
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. So is this absolutely in keeping with the rules of service and
4 rules of procedure, that wartime military courts are abolished and regular
5 courts of law carry on with the proceedings?
6 A. Yes. Once the state of war ceases, the military judiciary ceases
7 to work, which means that we don't need extra regulations for this. Once
8 a state of war has come to an end, so do the military courts, and it is
9 the peacetime military courts that take over these affairs. In Nis, in
10 Belgrade or Podgorica. So there were three military courts during
11 peacetime covering the entire area and the area of Kosovo and Metohija for
12 the 3rd Army. All the cases are ceded to the military court in Nis. The
13 1st Army has its military court in Belgrade, and the 2nd Army has its
14 military court in Podgorica and they continue to work regularly in
15 peacetime.
16 Q. Can we, General, now comment briefly on the attachments to this
17 piece of information, the state of criminal cases in military judicial
18 organs, the table we have, and criminal reports received against officers
19 172, 107 against non-commissioned officers, 3.843 against privates,
20 private soldiers, 14.252 against military conscripts, 31 against civilians
21 in the Yugoslav army, and 136 criminal reports received against civilians
22 not in the Yugoslav army, which makes a total of 18.541.
23 A. Yes. This gives us the total number of criminal reports broken up
24 according to the categories of persons committing the crimes, and this is
25 important for the supreme military staff to see who the perpetrators were
Page 37506
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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 37507
1 according to the criminal reports filed and received.
2 Q. And next -- in the last column we see investigation requests, how
3 many indictees, what the judgements were. The total number is 2.185, 360
4 were freed, which makes a total of 2.811 judgements during the state of
5 war; is that right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. So that was while the bombing was going on, to all intents --
8 A. Yes. From the time a state of war was declared until it was -- it
9 came to an end.
10 Q. We have on the next page convictions by category of persons.
11 Could you just tell us briefly about the column referring to crimes
12 against life and limb.
13 A. The convicted persons for crimes against life and limb that the
14 president has just referred to shows the following: The total number of
15 convicted persons is 2.811, and they are divided up in categories,
16 categories of crimes and the sentences passed, from the smallest sentence
17 to the longest prison sentence. But as I said, 32 is the total number for
18 that category, up to 2 years, 28; up to five years, 4 persons. Four
19 persons received sentences of up to 5. So those are the judgements.
20 Q. And the others are the ones where proceedings continue.
21 A. Yes. And the last column shows the total number of convicted
22 persons. 2.185 convicted, 360 acquitted, and dismissed 266. This
23 dismissal - let me just explain this to you. The difference between
24 acquitted and dismissed is that when the prosecutor gives up during the
25 main investigations, gives up the case where he feels there's no case to
Page 37508
1 answer. Where there is not sufficient proof and evidence to raise an
2 indictment, then the case is dismissed. And this is distinguished from
3 the acquittals column.
4 Q. Well, let's just take note of that. All the convicted persons,
5 including the most serious crimes, were convicted during the state of war
6 or, rather, during the bombing; is that right?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. You said that the courts dislocated, that they moved, that they
9 would have to go into safer areas because they were the target of the
10 bombing. Now, you yourself, based on your personal experience, did you
11 encounter a situation where you had to move?
12 A. Well, I took up my duties on the 16th of April. From the 16th of
13 April to the 10th of June, we had to dislocate three times, move three
14 times, and before that they had to move twice, which means a total of five
15 dislocations.
16 JUDGE BONOMY: Mr. Milosevic, can I have some clarification from
17 you on what the issue is that this evidence relates to, this evidence of
18 the general judicial system that was in operation at the time.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Bonomy, this relates to the main
20 charges in the indictment according to which it is said that the forces of
21 Yugoslavia or Yugoslav army perpetrated crimes in Kosovo and Metohija,
22 whereas on the basis of all this, we can see - of course nobody questions
23 or challenges the fact that there were crimes that had been committed -
24 but we can see from this material the whole chain of command and the
25 judiciary, the court organs that were working to punish the crimes that
Page 37509
1 were committed, to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to bring them to
2 court, to take them into custody and to try them. And the executive
3 powers say that perpetrators of crimes must be brought before the court.
4 Once they are in court, it goes -- they come under the domain of court
5 authorities, the judiciary, and not executive power and authority.
6 JUDGE BONOMY: But would the perpetrators that really matter in
7 this case not all be dealt with by the military court and, therefore,
8 should we not be looking at the cases that the military court dealt with
9 and perhaps the detail of these cases rather than the general cases of
10 ordinary criminal activity in the country?
11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As far as I understand it, these are
12 just cases that were dealt with by the military court and military
13 prosecutor's office. The cases that went to civilian courts and the
14 civilian prosecutor's office are not incorporated into these documents,
15 nor does General Gojovic, in view of his military functions, is able to
16 testify about what civilian courts did. So these are cases before the
17 military courts.
18 JUDGE BONOMY: You're quite right, but what I'm really getting at
19 is that the only category presumably that really matters here is the
20 crimes against life and limb. The desertion or the failure to answer your
21 conscription call-up and so on is neither here nor there. What we really
22 must be interested in is damage to life and limb and possibly damage to
23 property.
24 JUDGE KWON: And whether it is a crime against humanity or a war
25 crime.
Page 37510
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As to crimes against life and limb,
2 without a doubt in most cases that's what we did deal with. That's what
3 these cases are. I can't -- the majority. And I can't say that all of
4 them were, but General Gojovic is here to explain that. Whereas the
5 tables were provided as they exist in the documents and as the documents
6 sent up to the higher authorities, that is to say to General Gojovic
7 himself and how he informed the Supreme Command. We didn't make extracts
8 and excerpts from those documents, but as you can see, I'm asking General
9 Gojovic about crimes against life and limb. And I should like to mention
10 in this regard that General Gojovic yesterday indicated that the military
11 prosecutors were guided in their work by the practice of giving more
12 serious sentences --
13 THE INTERPRETER: Bringing in graver charges, interpreter's
14 correction.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- for these crimes. And some of
16 these crimes even merited the death sentence whereas the Criminal Code in
17 Yugoslavia had no death sentence provisions or, rather, didn't have at
18 that time, and now it doesn't exist in the Criminal Code of Serbia either.
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Might I be allowed to give an
20 explanation, please?
21 JUDGE BONOMY: Not at the moment, please.
22 I just want to make it clear, Mr. Milosevic, that for my part this
23 evidence would be more significant if we were looking at examples to see
24 what is the nature of the case that's being taken up by the military court
25 that might be a case that was an example of criminal activity that would
Page 37511
1 fall under the terms of the indictment, and I don't really at the moment
2 have any idea of what these cases were.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Bonomy, I hope that by the end
4 of my examination-in-chief of General Gojovic you will get an idea of what
5 this is about, because the descriptions of the cases that we're dealing
6 with will be found in the tabs to come. We haven't come to that yet.
7 JUDGE KWON: We are looking forward to it. Please proceed.
8 THE INTERPRETER: Could the speakers please pause between question
9 and answer. Thank you.
10 JUDGE KWON: General Gojovic, please put a pause between the
11 question and answer, for the sake of the interpreters.
12 Yes, please go on.
13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. General Gojovic, I think you wanted to give an additional
15 explanation in this regard.
16 A. Yes, I did. I wanted to indicate this - not to waste time - what
17 I wanted to say was that we are going to see the individual cases next
18 individually and the way and what crimes were committed and which crimes
19 come under war crimes or crimes against international humanitarian law.
20 So you will have the names and surnames, the events, and the judgement of
21 the court in question.
22 JUDGE BONOMY: General, I know that because I've read through the
23 documents. I'm just anxious to try to make some progress.
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes, I see.
25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
Page 37512
1 Q. General Gojovic --
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm going to try and move ahead as
3 quickly as possible, Mr. Bonomy.
4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. General Gojovic, are the military -- is the military judiciously
6 independent in its work?
7 A. Yes, of course certainly. Without a doubt.
8 Q. And the Supreme Command or any other level of command in the army
9 of Yugoslavia, did it have the right to influence the work of the military
10 judiciary in any way?
11 A. The Supreme Command was not able to exert influence on the work of
12 the courts on the individual cases except to provide necessary working
13 conditions and to insist upon speeding up the whole process. So if you
14 can consider that to be an influence, then in that way, but as -- as to
15 the method of decision-making, that came under the jurisdiction of the
16 prosecutor in the first place and the military courts and nobody was
17 allowed to meddle or interfere in their work.
18 Q. Very well. Now, when we come to the chain of command, could you
19 explain to us, if an officer learns or suspects that a crime has been
20 committed, what must he do? What is his duty?
21 A. Every officer is duty-bound to act in one of the following ways,
22 or in the following ways: First of all, if it is in his -- if his -- the
23 crime is committed on the territory of his unit, he must secure the area,
24 safeguard the evidence, take measures to uncover the perpetrators, to
25 prevent them from absconding. So those are the first steps.
Page 37513
1 Then he is duty-bound to inform the military prosecutor or,
2 rather, the organs of the military police for them to take further steps
3 to apprehend the perpetrator.
4 And if he does all this, then he is duty-bound to file a criminal
5 report to the military courts.
6 Q. Very well, thank you. Now, where does the -- where do the duties
7 of the officer end?
8 A. Once the officer has filed a criminal report, gathered all the
9 evidence, then it is the prosecutor who takes over. Where an
10 investigation is necessary and where the search for the perpetrator has to
11 be undertaken, then that is left to the military police and then the
12 duties of the officer cease. It is the professional organs that come into
13 play at that second stage to uncover the perpetrator and to gather
14 evidence. So those are the first steps that the officer takes.
15 Q. [No interpretation]
16 THE INTERPRETER: Can you hear the English interpretation now?
17 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, the French booth and Albanian booth do
18 not have the document, so could you slow down. And the last part was not
19 interpreted. Could you repeat the last question again.
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I said to the witness that I wished
21 to move on to tabs 17 and 18, and the question is:
22 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
23 Q. What were the crimes committed that could be considered grave
24 violations of international humanitarian law whose perpetrators were
25 discovered and for whom proceedings were initiated before courts of law
Page 37514
1 during the state of war?
2 I'm referring to tab 17. This is a letter sent to the supreme
3 military court in Belgrade. It deals with the period from the 24th of
4 March, 1999, to the 10th of June, 1999, that is to say when the NATO
5 aggression started. Could we please go through tab 17 now.
6 I would just like you to indicate -- or, rather, we have all the
7 tables here of all the crimes involved in the period from the 24th of
8 March until the 10th of June, so this involves a great deal of statistics.
9 That's why I asked for tab 17, where we have a summary review of criminal
10 proceedings instituted against persons who committed crimes in the area of
11 Kosovo and Metohija during the NATO aggression, that is to say from the
12 24th of March until the 10th of June, 1999.
13 General Gojovic, if we look at the contents, we can see -- well,
14 actually, I'm going to skip over the summary review. Item 2 is war crimes
15 against the civilian population. This is on pages 2 and 3.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Three are multiple murders and you mentioned the Criminal Code of
18 the Republic of Serbia from pages 4 to 5.
19 JUDGE KWON: Would you indicate the page number in the English
20 version.
21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I haven't got the English version
22 now, but it's always just a couple of pages. I mean in the English
23 version too item 2 has to start on page 2, because the first page is the
24 summary review.
25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
Page 37515
1 Q. You have here war crimes against the civilian population. That's
2 what it says.
3 JUDGE KWON: I couldn't find the passage.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could I please get this tab in
5 English, and then I'll be able to find the reference for you.
6 JUDGE KWON: Is it tab 18, then?
7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, yes, tab 18. As soon as you go
8 through the contents, I assume there would have to be something that says
9 "Summary," and then there's this summary review of one page only.
10 JUDGE BONOMY: I think the problem is we were referred to tab 17.
11 But is it 18?
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] No. Tab 17 are simply all the
13 statistical surveys, but then tab 18 is concrete. That is what you
14 insisted on, Mr. Bonomy.
15 In the English text, it starts from page 4, Mr. Kwon. Page 4, war
16 crimes against the civilian population. In the English text it is page 4,
17 in the Serbian text it is page 2.
18 JUDGE KWON: Yes, I think we are following you.
19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
20 Q. So it says here Article 142 of the Criminal Code of the Federal
21 Republic of Yugoslavia, and then the name and surname of the accused
22 person, the time of commission of crime, the place of commission. It's
23 the Istok municipality, you can see it here.
24 As you can see on this first page -- or, rather, the page that is
25 page number 4 in the English language, five persons were indicted, and
Page 37516
1 then there is a brief description of crime. That's what it says in
2 English, too, "Brief description of crime." And then the persons are
3 mentioned, and it says they "killed with premeditation five unidentified
4 Albanians whom they had previously taken prisoner and detained during an
5 operation by their unit. Having taken them out of custody, they put them
6 against the wall of a house, opened fire on them with automatic rifles and
7 killed them all. They threw them into a well into which they poured
8 petrol and then set it on fire."
9 Those proceedings or, rather, that case was later referred to the
10 court in Kraljevo. It has to do with five individuals. All five are
11 reserve soldiers.
12 And then A is Istok municipality and B is Donja Klina
13 municipality. These same persons removed two Albanians from a refugee
14 convoy in Donja Klina, they opened fire on them with automatic rifles in
15 the yard of an abandoned house, killed them, and then threw them into a
16 well. In the English text this is page number 5.
17 On that same page, page number 5, there is an indicted captain
18 first class reserve, and the description of the crime reads as follows:
19 "As platoon commander, he order his subordinate soldiers to fire at a
20 Siptar in a meadow in order to check the adjustments on their weapon
21 sights. In so doing, they killed him. He also ordered them to take
22 money, gold jewellery, and other valuables from the Siptar population."
23 Later on, the case was referred to the district court in Valjevo.
24 On page 6 in the English version - and in the Serbian language
25 it's on page 4 - there are three persons. There is a major, there is a
Page 37517
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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 37518
1 reserve private, and yet another reserve private. It says here that this
2 officer, in the Susica village sector where his unit was, he ordered the
3 two privates to liquidate Feriz Krasniqi and Rukija, an elderly man and
4 woman who had not left the village. They did not -- they did this,
5 shooting at them with their automatic rifles.
6 Further on on the same page, there are three persons and there is
7 a description of the crime concerned. On the same page, there is a crime
8 committed by a reserve private. This is number 4. It says: "In the
9 Penduh village sector where a convoy of military vehicles had stopped,
10 when he saw two people, Flazmin Emini and Bahri Emini, running away, he
11 discharged a burst of gunfire after them from an automatic rifle and
12 killed both of them." However, I think it would be better if the general
13 could make comments with regard to all of this rather than have me read it
14 out.
15 The next page is page 7 in the English version, numbers 5, 6, 7
16 respectively. He killed Kaljif Berisa and Saljiju Pucoli, two Roma from
17 Kosovo Polje using an automatic rifle. Then the next person under number
18 6 is reserve captain first class, a particular captain. "Having taken
19 five people from the village of Zagradska Hoca into custody, he lined them
20 up against a wall and then killed one of them with one round from his
21 rifle and the others with a burst of fire.
22 And then soldier Igor Radojica, who killed several people, and so
23 on and so forth.
24 All of that is on page 7.
25 JUDGE BONOMY: Can I ask something, Mr. Milosevic? I would like
Page 37519
1 to ask two things, actually. One is in this catalogue, this list of cases
2 where people were prosecuted or proceedings were taken up in relation to
3 what might be described as war crimes, are any of these cases referred to
4 in the indictment? In other words, are any of them cases that the
5 Prosecution have taken up with the allegation that they are a war crime or
6 are these all quite separate cases that were individually prosecuted in
7 Serbia?
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I think, Mr. Bonomy, that this is
9 perfectly clear evidence that the organs of the army of Yugoslavia, the
10 judiciary of the military of Yugoslavia, arrested people, brought them to
11 courts of law, and submitted criminal reports.
12 JUDGE BONOMY: I understand that. That's not my question. My
13 question is whether any of them, any of them appear in the indictment.
14 It's just to try and relate these events to see if they're entirely
15 separate events from the ones that the Prosecution are dealing with or if
16 there's any coincidence between the cases here and the particular crimes
17 that are alleged in the indictments.
18 I'm only looking for some assistance to make the job easier.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I understand, Mr. Bonomy, but it is
20 my understanding that Mr. Nice is dealing with all victims for whom he
21 believes were killed by Serb soldiers and officers, by the forces of
22 Serbia and Yugoslavia. So this refers to such victims, with the names and
23 surnames of the perpetrators who were discovered.
24 JUDGE BONOMY: Many victims are named in the indictment, and I
25 just wondered if any of those named in the indictment against you appear
Page 37520
1 in this catalogue of cases which were taken up by the Serbian authorities.
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have to tell you that I did not
3 compare the lists that appear.
4 JUDGE BONOMY: That's the first question.
5 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice has the answer.
6 MR. NICE: Your Honour may be assisted on page 76.
7 JUDGE BONOMY: Can you be more specific, Mr. Nice?
8 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for Mr. Nice, please.
9 MR. NICE: Page 76, Izbica. Izbica is charged. Although, of
10 course, I'm waiting to hear what the witness has to say about this as
11 about other entries.
12 JUDGE BONOMY: You mean 76 of the indictment.
13 MR. NICE: No, sorry, page 76 of this exhibit. Page 76 of this
14 exhibit, as I have it, in English is unknown persons, Izbica village, near
15 Srbica. Now that, I think, may relate to something that's charged.
16 JUDGE BONOMY: You mean charged in the indictment.
17 MR. NICE: In the indictment, yes.
18 JUDGE BONOMY: And is that the only one?
19 MR. NICE: As far as we've seen so far. We've only had the
20 translations since yesterday. That's the best we can do.
21 JUDGE BONOMY: That's helpful.
22 The second matter I wanted to raise was directly with the general.
23 Can you explain to me how this document was compiled?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can. The survey we are looking at
25 now is one that I personally compiled on the basis of the original
Page 37521
1 documents from the Nis military court. This is a report that was sent to
2 the supreme military court in Belgrade. This comes from the documents of
3 the Nis military court. They dealt with things in order, in chronological
4 order as they were entered in their register.
5 I made this survey, and I tried to group the crimes so they could
6 be followed more easily. You will see the page number reference and the
7 type of crime committed in order to be able to follow things more easily.
8 JUDGE BONOMY: General, when did you do that?
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This was done in 2001.
10 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Oh, I'm sorry. But the information
12 contained therein goes up to the 10th of May, 1999.
13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. I don't want to go back to the very beginning now, but it's page
15 8. I want to draw your attention to the fact that all the columns are the
16 same, and there is also ruling to initiate proceedings. And if you look
17 at your page 8, and you will see that for the person under number 1, the
18 rule to initiate proceedings was -- ruling to initiate proceedings bears
19 the date of the 25th of April, 1999, and for the other person the date is
20 May 1999. So could you please just explain, General, criminal reports
21 have to be filed, I assume, before this ruling or decision is made to
22 initiate proceedings.
23 A. Yes. This is done by the investigating judge. Once he receives
24 this request and once he interrogates the suspect, he decides whether he
25 is going to initiate proceedings or not. According to the law on criminal
Page 37522
1 procedure, it is only then that proceedings actually start before a court
2 of law. Before that, it is in the hands of the prosecutor's office, and
3 that is not part of court proceedings.
4 Q. All right.
5 A. It is very important to state that all these preliminary dates
6 have to precede the date when the decision is made to initiate
7 proceedings.
8 Q. All right. We can move on further. On page 7, or, rather, in the
9 English translation it is page 9. There are four numbers yet again.
10 Under number 1 we see again murder. A soldier fired a burst of
11 fire from his automatic rifle at Rusiti Rusiti, inflicting injuries on him
12 and his wife. We see the decision to start criminal proceedings 26 of May
13 1999.
14 Number 2 and number 3. At the time when their unit was in the
15 general sector of Pec, they opened fire on an Albanian for no reason,
16 without provocation, and killed him.
17 Under number 4, another private reserve discharged a burst of fire
18 from his automatic rifle at a Siptar, hit him, and inflicted fatal
19 injuries. Proceedings -- ruling to initiate proceedings is dated 4th of
20 May, 1999. And --
21 JUDGE KWON: I think you established sufficient foundation to
22 exhibit this document. I don't think you have to read out all the items.
23 But I'm interested in knowing about the future conviction. How were they
24 dealt with by the courts referred to? Are you going to introduce that
25 evidence in the future?
Page 37523
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Certainly. But these proceedings,
2 especially those that involve murder, take a long time. For instance, in
3 the examples we just reviewed, an event happened -- for instance, let us
4 look at page -- just a moment. Let me take one of the recent examples,
5 not to waste time. Page 9, the cases we just reviewed. If the time of
6 commission is the 24th of April and the ruling to initiate proceedings was
7 made on the 26th of May, that is a month after the crime was committed.
8 In the other two cases the commission -- the perpetration was in May, and
9 already in May the ruling to initiate proceedings was made. The interval
10 between the perpetration and the decision to initiate proceedings is
11 short, about a month.
12 I should ask the witness.
13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. Is this the usual time, one month, approximately, it took to bring
15 the ruling to initiate proceedings after completing all the preliminary
16 actions such as detection, apprehension, investigation, et cetera?
17 A. In those specific conditions, it was really efficient work. Those
18 are murders. But in the cases of theft and less grave crimes, the
19 perpetrator would be apprehended on the same day in cases of crimes
20 involving property. A good part of the crimes would already be under way
21 before the courts, or even adjudicated, in the space of a month.
22 Q. We see from this paper --
23 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, my question was whether these suspects
24 or accused were convicted at all.
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Some were. Some still have not
Page 37524
1 received the judgement, I guess. This is the information that I can
2 elicit from the general, perhaps.
3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
4 Q. How many of these were convicted? I don't know if he knows that,
5 but the description of the crime is clear. Some of these cases must have
6 been referred to regular military courts after the termination of the
7 state of war.
8 A. I have -- I have data ending with the 2001 as to how many were
9 convicted. Some cases were decided, and some cases are still under way,
10 ongoing. After 2001, I didn't monitor any longer. But for instance, if
11 you look at murders, this is the type of case that would be complex and
12 would take a longer time. But in those -- in simpler cases involving less
13 serious crimes, I believe most of them have already been adjudicated.
14 JUDGE KWON: General, do you have your data with you now as of
15 2001?
16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
17 JUDGE KWON: Could you tell me that, please. Briefly. I think --
18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have a similar review, a similar
19 overview as to what cases were completed, what cases were referred to
20 civilian courts, and in the final column you see the outcome of the
21 proceedings for those cases that were finished.
22 I have another survey yet concerning referrals to civilian courts,
23 and the data I received from the latter. I can provide this to you to be
24 translated and photocopied. You don't have it.
25 JUDGE KWON: For the sake of time, I would like the accused to
Page 37525
1 proceed, and we'll deal with it after the recess.
2 JUDGE BONOMY: Can I, just before we do proceed, be clear about
3 something, General. Can I take it that if there had been a judgement by
4 2001 in the cases we have been looking at, you would have reflected it in
5 the document we're looking at?
6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In this paper, in this paper I'm
7 holding right now, it would be --
8 JUDGE BONOMY: In tab --
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] And in the other document that has
10 not been translated, there would certainly be.
11 JUDGE BONOMY: Yes. But the one that you're looking at as part of
12 the examination by Mr. Milosevic, that's tab 18 of the bundle, can I take
13 it that if there had -- if there had been a conviction by 2001, you would
14 have noted it in this document; is that right?
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes.
16 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you. Now some of the cases have been
17 referred to what is described as the district court, for example, the
18 district court in Belgrade. That's a civilian court; is that correct?
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. District and municipal courts
20 are civilian courts.
21 JUDGE BONOMY: And can I take it that you regarded it as
22 appropriate to refer cases which might be described as war crimes to the
23 civilian courts after the conflict was over?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I should like to clarify this
25 immediately. Military courts do not have competence to go on processing a
Page 37526
1 case after a person is demobilised, because most of these people were
2 engaged from the reserve force. After the termination of the state of
3 war, they ceased to be military personnel. If by that time an indictment
4 has not been confirmed by the court, the case would be normally referred
5 to the municipal or to the district court, depending on the gravity of the
6 crime.
7 Military courts would continue to process a case only if the
8 person involved, the perpetrator or the accused, continues to be a
9 military man. This concerns only the cases where a decision has been made
10 by a military court.
11 As for referrals, I have some additional data.
12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. General Gojovic, I don't know if you paid attention to -- to this
14 last question by Judge Bonomy and what exactly he meant. He asked you if
15 a judgement was made in all the cases indicated in this document.
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. So all these cases were adjudicated?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. We won't go any more through this document, in keeping with your
20 suggestion.
21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, we have other cases
22 dealing with voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
23 JUDGE BONOMY: Just before we move on, that's a completely
24 different answer from the one you gave to me, General. My understanding
25 -- and let's be clear we're looking at the same document. Have before you
Page 37527
1 tab 18. Be absolutely sure the --
2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
3 JUDGE BONOMY: And look at page -- look at page 6. My English
4 version is page 6. It's headed, "Murder multiple." The first accused's
5 name is Dragisa Petrovic.
6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
7 JUDGE BONOMY: Now, if by the year 2001 there had been a judgement
8 in this case, would you have noted that in this document when you were
9 compiling it?
10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There is a column here where it says
11 "referred to the district court in Pristina." That was done after an
12 indictment was brought. So he was already indicted when his case was
13 referred to the district court in Pristina, and then later on it was
14 transferred to Nis.
15 I have information that a hearing was scheduled -- the trial was
16 scheduled, and I believe a judgement was brought here. I believe also --
17 I seem to remember that it was reversed on appeal, but I'm not sure about
18 that.
19 What it says here specifically is that the case was referred after
20 an indictment was brought against this accused to the district court in
21 Pristina, later moved to Nis.
22 JUDGE BONOMY: So why did you not complete the column that says
23 "Judgement"?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] For the simple reason that I was no
25 longer working on this subject matter.
Page 37528
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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 37529
1 JUDGE BONOMY: But that's my question. You see, my question
2 relates to the position as at 2001. Can you just concentrate on the
3 question I'm asking you.
4 Now, if there had been a result in that case by 2001, would you
5 have reflected that result in this document when you were compiling it in
6 2001?
7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
8 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you. I thought that was the answer, and then
9 Mr. Milosevic got a completely different answer from you, so I just wanted
10 to be clear about the position.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, I answered the same. Maybe it
12 was interpreted differently.
13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And I, too, understood him as giving
14 the same answer, namely that all those cases in which judgements were
15 made, judgements were brought, were reflected here.
16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Perhaps just another clarification
17 would be of assistance, if you allow me, please.
18 We should look at the column dealing with grave robbery or felony
19 theft. I don't know what page it is in English.
20 JUDGE KWON: Shall we take a look at page 20 in the English
21 version. That's grave incidents of robbery. There is noted down about
22 the judgement, sentenced to three years and six months each. That
23 judgement was entered into by the military court; is that right? So you
24 noted down all the dispositions by the military court.
25 MR. NICE: Page 18 in the B/C/S.
Page 37530
1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Correct.
2 JUDGE KWON: Judge Bonomy's question, as I understand it, is
3 whether you noted down the judgement made by the civilian court referred
4 to later if the judgement was made at the time of 2001 when you compiled
5 this document.
6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] If I had received a report, yes.
7 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
9 Q. Very well. That was precisely my question. You reflected those
10 cases about which you received reports, which doesn't necessarily mean
11 that you included all of them.
12 A. Yes, because in some cases I did not receive reports. There are
13 both kinds in this overview. If I had received a report, then I would
14 indicate what kind of judgement, if any, had been made.
15 Q. Judge Bonomy also referred to this page about murders. Dragisa
16 Petrovic is the first name, and there is something handwritten in the --
17 on this page.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. In my copy, there is a handwritten note in the column Judgement,
20 Nine years, seven years, nine years, and it's also added "war crime" down
21 below. Is it only in my copy or do you have it in your copy as well?
22 A. You mean in the case of Dragisa Petrovic?
23 Q. Yes.
24 A. That's why I said a moment ago I followed that in the newspapers,
25 and I indicated from my memory what the sentences were.
Page 37531
1 JUDGE KWON: Is it page 4 in B/C/S?
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, page 4 in the Serbian version.
3 I'll find it in just a moment. Here it is.
4 In the English translation the Judgement column is empty.
5 However, in the Serbian copy --
6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Do you have that, General, too?
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And I hope you do, Mr. Kwon, as
9 well. It says nine years, then seven years, and then another term of
10 seven years, and then at the end it says "war crime." That was not
11 translated. It doesn't exist in the English version but it does in the
12 Serbian photocopy, the judgements.
13 JUDGE KWON: We've found it. Proceed, Mr. Milosevic.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May I continue? Thank you.
15 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. I'm not going to dwell on this table. I will skip over the
17 voluntary and non-voluntary. And then we come to rapes. It is on page 16
18 of the English version; and for you, General, it is on page 14 of the
19 Serbian text.
20 Here we have a soldier who used force, together with some other
21 soldiers, from a room in a house accommodating refugees. They --
22 JUDGE KWON: Do not put it on the ELMO.
23 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
24 Q. They forcibly removed an underaged person. All right. I don't
25 want to read the names either, but judging by the names, I would say they
Page 37532
1 were Albanian women, perhaps Roma women, I can't differentiate between the
2 kinds of names. But Trivunovic, as printed, committed rapes, and the
3 other person, Marinkovic, was unable to do so, et cetera, et cetera. But
4 anyway, it's the 16th of April, crimes on the 16th of April, and then on
5 the 24th of April -- rather, the time of crime was the 16th of April and
6 ruling to initiate proceedings came on the 24th of April 1999 when an
7 investigation was conducted. All the evidence was collected, all the
8 necessary data, and legal proceedings were taken, and the general says
9 that the indictment was raised as well, filed.
10 Then once again out of a convoy of refugees so-and-so took aside
11 an individual - I'm going to skip the name, but we can deduce on the basis
12 of the name that it was an Albanian lady - took her to the sector where
13 his union was -- unit was encamped. Another case of rape. The time of
14 the crime was the 29th of May, the ruling to initiate proceedings came on
15 the 24th of June, 1999.
16 Then we have attempts at rape, attempted rape. And then several
17 pages after that --
18 MR. NICE: Your Honours, before we move on to that, this is
19 another page where the Serbian original at page 14 of the original has a
20 handwritten passage that's not been translated. And if the Chamber thinks
21 it would be helpful to get this sorted out as we go along, so does page 15
22 of the Serbian version, which I think --
23 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Thank you very much. If the witness could help
24 the Chamber. Could you read those handwritten parts on page 14.
25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Under number 1, in the
Page 37533
1 judgement, we heard that a request was sent to the UNMIK courts at Kosovo
2 for legal assistance to listen to the injured party, hear the injured
3 party. So by the time that this report was compiled, the judgement came,
4 I learnt that the court had asked for information and data and that UNMIK
5 -- they asked UNMIK for assistance, legal assistance. They didn't get it.
6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Well, we have the 24th of April, 1999, as the time of crime.
8 A. Yes. And the proceedings are still carrying on or were carried on
9 in the district court in Nis.
10 Q. Mr. Nice also drew our attention to page 15. There was something
11 written in hand there.
12 A. The situation here is the same as in the previous case. The
13 proceedings are ongoing. They contacted the UNMIK courts in Kosovo,
14 didn't receive any -- the assistance they required.
15 Q. Well, I'm not going to give any legal qualifications, but if we
16 look at severe crimes of burglary with killings, these serious crimes,
17 grave incidents of robbery and violence, to retain stolen goods, with
18 murder involved. That's that page.
19 And we see that the time of the crime was the 29th of March, 1999.
20 It is page 19 of the English text, gentlemen. The ruling to initiate
21 proceedings came on the 13th of April, that is to say two weeks later, and
22 evidence was collected in that space of time, within a fortnight. And
23 we're dealing here with seven perpetrators or accused, and they were all
24 reserve soldiers, reservists. And it says that based on a prior mutual
25 agreement they all went to the house of Uksin Uksini and this man fired at
Page 37534
1 him with an automatic rifle and stabbed his wife Djevahira in the neck,
2 killing both of them. They then took and kept gold jewellery, money and
3 other valuables from the house.
4 Then we come to B, brief description of crime. They took a
5 vehicle, a car, and then I assumed killed the owner.
6 And we come to C. Once again three individuals who killed or,
7 rather, three people were killed during a burglary, which makes it seven
8 accused in all, people accused of grave incidents of robbery and violence
9 to retain stolen goods with murder.
10 I assume that is how the qualification reads in the Criminal Code;
11 is that right?
12 A. Yes. Might I be allowed to make an additional explanation at this
13 point, please?
14 We see here six individuals listed or, rather, they -- it says
15 that six people were killed but are not shown in the summary
16 representation of the crimes. So this should be recorded as well, where
17 it says a summary report in the same tab when it comes to grave incidents
18 of robbery. There is an empty column, and there we need to add these six
19 persons killed. So that the number of victims in the victims column
20 should be six more. In the summary review at the beginning of the tab.
21 Q. Well, the statistics looked at the killings and represented them
22 with a figure, whereas the robbery was accompanied with the killing of
23 people. There was an omission there anyway.
24 I should now like to ask you -- well, I don't want to deal with
25 this further unless you have an additional statement to make, but I'd like
Page 37535
1 to move on now to tab 17 on page 67 or, rather, chapter 17, page 67, and
2 I'll try to find it in the English version. Chapter 17 starts on page 67.
3 And as we can see from the contents, it gives a review of unknown
4 persons who killed a number of individuals in Kosovo. So they are denoted
5 as NN, persons unknown. The perpetrators are not known. The crimes are
6 recorded. So that is on page 67. In Serbian. Page 67 in the Serbian
7 version.
8 MR. NICE: 75 in the English.
9 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
10 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
11 Q. So this is a summary review, as it says. Page 67 Serbian, 75
12 English. We know that thanks to Mr. Nice.
13 JUDGE KWON: No. It's page 75 of tab 18, not of tab 17.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, that's right, tab 18. That's
15 how I understood it; we're dealing with tab 18.
16 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Go on.
17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. Could you explain this table to us, please? It says "Person who
19 committed crime," unknown. "Military prosecutor dismissed one charge,
20 military prosecutor gathering intelligence from reports, court proceedings
21 upon motion of the military prosecutor for conducting certain
22 investigative measures, case deferred to competent public prosecutor."
23 The total number is 598, number of persons killed. That's the summary
24 report and that's the total number. I assume that this doesn't need any
25 special explanation on your part, or would you like to give some?
Page 37536
1 A. Well, I think I could.
2 Q. Well, go ahead, then.
3 A. We're talking about unknown persons, perpetrators of crimes, where
4 the crime was uncovered but not the perpetrator, and the prosecutor takes
5 certain steps in cases of that kind and so do the investigating organs.
6 And in one case the prosecutor rejected the request because they were
7 members of the KLA. And in the next column, with five cases, the military
8 prosecutor collects information from the organs investigating the case and
9 takes further steps. One case was referred to the court and the other to
10 the public prosecutor. That is to say in cases where the prosecutor felt
11 that the possible perpetrators of those crimes were not members of the
12 army or were not military personnel and, therefore, those cases were
13 referred to the competent district prosecutor. There were 11 such cases.
14 We have a total figure of 598 persons, and three persons should be
15 added there. They were left out by mistake, because three more persons
16 were mentioned. So it is 395 -- 98 plus 3, which means 600-odd.
17 Q. Let's just clarify what you've just said. It was under number 2
18 on the following page. Now, did he reject the case because he learnt that
19 there was no military unit in the region? Was that the reason or was
20 there some other reason?
21 A. No. This criminal report was rejected because the military
22 prosecutor found that they were not civilians but --
23 Q. No. I'm referring to something else. On the next page, under
24 number 2. What you've just explained to us, you said that the military
25 judiciary did not prosecute because it wasn't under their competence to do
Page 37537
1 so. Is that because he concluded that there was no military unit in the
2 territory, in the area? Is that right?
3 A. Yes. And the district prosecutor is where the case was referred.
4 Q. Now, let's go back to page 68 for a moment where we have the names
5 and surnames and persons are listed as unknown, the time of perpetration
6 is unknown, and then we have the place listed as Izbica where 144 fresh
7 graves of unknown persons were uncovered. And the military prosecutor was
8 informed thereof. The time when the proceedings were initiated was the
9 29th of May, 1999, which means that there was detection first, information
10 gathered, and proceedings initiated on the 29th of May, 1999. And after
11 that there's nothing else except current affairs.
12 A. May I be allowed to give an explanation? Exhumation was
13 conducted, and the bodies were examined by a team, a forensic team from
14 the Military Medical Academy, and they carried out a post-mortem on 101
15 bodies. They were able to identify a small number of those bodies but not
16 the most part. And there were 144 fresh graves in all, and exhumation,
17 investigations were conducted with 101 bodies.
18 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, we passed the time to break. If it's
19 a convenient time to break, we will break for 20 minutes.
20 --- Recess taken at 10.36 a.m.
21 --- On resuming at 10.58 a.m.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Continue, Mr. Milosevic.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
25 Q. General, we were dealing with page 68 of the Serbian version. You
Page 37538
1 have here, as we were saying, "Murders committed by persons unknown for
2 which the military prosecutor is gathering intelligence from reports."
3 That's the title. Will you please take a look at the table on that page.
4 You started with number 1 and explain that to us, the Izbica place of
5 crime, when the proceedings were initiated.
6 A. Do you want me to answer?
7 Q. Yes.
8 A. In this particular case, it was on the 29th of May, 1999, when the
9 case was uncovered. That is to say it was reported by the command of the
10 unit who happened to be there during that period of time, and straight
11 after that the prosecutor requested exhumation, which was conducted by a
12 team of forensic experts from the Medical Military Academy in Belgrade,
13 and they conducted the post-mortem and examination of 101 bodies. So
14 during that same time, and that was sometime at the beginning of June,
15 that is what happened. The prosecutor is still gathering information.
16 But as the locality itself does not come under the legal jurisdiction of
17 the federal state, Serbia and Montenegro as it is today, we have no access
18 to the crime scene for us to investigate the case more fully.
19 Q. All right. You said the exhumation was performed by the competent
20 authorities and that they -- it was a team of forensic experts from
21 Medical Military Academy who conducted examinations.
22 A. Yes. The order was issued by the court in Kosovska Mitrovica for
23 that to take place. It was not something that the military court of the
24 Pristina Corps was able to, and then the investigating judge from Kosovska
25 Mitrovica issued an order because without a court order you cannot
Page 37539
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13 English transcripts.
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Page 37540
1 exhumate bodies or conduct post-mortems.
2 Q. We see that the time of the proceedings initiated was the 29th of
3 May, 1999.
4 Now, tell me about number 2. That relates to the municipality of
5 Gnjilane, place of crime. There's no date as to when the proceedings were
6 initiated.
7 A. No, there isn't.
8 Q. Have you got an explanation for that?
9 A. Well, a number of bodies were found in the area, it was not
10 recorded for March to June 1999, 33 bodies in all, and the time the
11 proceedings were initiated I have information that it was the 24th of May,
12 1999, and the SUP of Gnjilane informed the military prosecutor and the
13 necessary steps were taken. So that was on the 24th of May, which means
14 that this does go up to the 24th of May although that column and square is
15 left empty, but according to when the military prosecutor was informed,
16 that was on the 24th of May, 1999. And a request was made for gathering
17 intelligence by the organs of investigation, and the case is ongoing.
18 Q. Next you come to the place of crime which is Pirane, a village
19 near Prizren. The bodies of five unidentified people were discovered, and
20 we see that the proceedings were initiated on the 5th of May, 1999.
21 A. Yes, that's right. So this could have been before, and that's
22 when the proceedings were initiated and a request made for intelligence to
23 be gathered, the request coming from the military prosecutor. And it is
24 the investigating organs that had to gather information.
25 Q. The next case was 14 graves of unidentified people discovered in
Page 37541
1 the Muslim cemetery in the village of Bijelo Polje. Time of crime, no
2 date recorded there.
3 A. Yes, that's right. And this is interesting because it's not only
4 when you come across the bodies of persons killed in the field but also
5 when they come across graves which are not marked and freshly dug-out
6 graves. So in those cases, too, the organs in question can suspect that a
7 crime has taken place, and then they take all the necessary steps to
8 investigate.
9 In this case it was a Muslim cemetery. Probably they were members
10 of the Muslim religion, Islam, so that could make it Albanians and others,
11 because other people -- other Muslims live in Bijelo Polje too. So we
12 can't see who reported the crime. Probably someone from the locality.
13 But anyway, the authorities took the necessary steps in these cases, too,
14 to determine the circumstances under which these persons were killed. And
15 we're talking about May 1999.
16 Q. And then under number 5 you have a case of 16 -- bodies of 16
17 unidentified people found in the village of Slovinje. The date the
18 proceedings were initiated is the 16th of April, 1999, and it says "report
19 submitted - deferred to district public prosecutor in Pristina." But that
20 was later on, wasn't it?
21 A. Yes, that was deferred or referred on the 18th of January 2001.
22 Q. Could you tell us anything more about that case?
23 A. I have here that an exhumation was conducted and the individuals
24 identified, and -- so their identity was determined on the basis of
25 exhumation, and then the case was deferred to the district public
Page 37542
1 prosecutor in Pristina, as it says.
2 Q. Could you please tell me what Yugoslav law envisages in such
3 situations when a crime was committed. This has to do with a number of
4 killed persons who were found and when the perpetrator is unknown. What
5 happens then when the suspect is unknown?
6 A. The law is quite clear on that. Especially the prosecutor has a
7 clear-cut task. There is a special file that the prosecutor opens for NN
8 persons, persons unknown. The military prosecutor acts through military
9 organs, and also it is the organs of the interior that have to take
10 action. That is say, all law enforcement agencies, regardless of whether
11 they are within the military or not, are supposed to work on such a case
12 and to collect information because the perpetrator is unknown. Such a
13 case remains open. The prosecutor keeps taking action, and therefore
14 there is no statute of limitation that applies. At any rate, if this is a
15 war crime, there is no statute of limitation. There can only be an
16 absolute statute of limitation. So in the case of crimes when the death
17 sentence is prescribed, then there is a period of 20 or even 40 years
18 during which the prosecutor can institute proceedings.
19 JUDGE KWON: General, can I ask a question while we are with this
20 document. It's the same document, murders committed by persons unknown.
21 You said that in relation to category 5, you received the information that
22 the victims were identified later. Have you received any similar
23 information in relation to number 1, the victims -- 144 victims in Izbica?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. I did look at the exhumation
25 documents, but I didn't really see all of them, and I did not find any
Page 37543
1 identification. I only saw descriptions of all the ways in which this was
2 done. But the doctor who carried out the post-mortem told me that there
3 were some persons who were identified, but I did not receive any such
4 information. So I do not have any accurate information about number 1,
5 only what I heard, that some persons were identified. But I was not in a
6 position to investigate that -- or, rather, not investigate. That's not
7 the right word. I was not in the position to receive the right kind of
8 information.
9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. General, could you please now look at the investigations carried
11 out in the case of perpetrators unknown. Just tell me whether this is
12 clear enough or whether I understood it properly.
13 This has to do with victims who had been identified. That is to
14 say investigations had been completed and the victims had been identified,
15 or is there some other difference also in view of the previous table?
16 So number 1, 25 bodies were found, exhumed, and identified,
17 namely, and then a list of names follows.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Mid-April 1999, the village of Malo Ribare, Lipljan municipality.
20 And the 24th of April, 1999, is the time when proceedings were initiated.
21 A. Certain investigative measures is the word used, and that means
22 that it is the investigating judge who acts upon the request submitted by
23 the prosecutor, and he takes certain measures, hence the wording.
24 Also, you can see the court register number, "Ki," that is
25 Krivicna Istraga, criminal investigation. "Kr" is a different situation.
Page 37544
1 Prosecutor's register. So hence the two different words. So it is a
2 question of whether the court or -- is going to take certain measures or
3 whether it is going to be the law enforcement agencies, namely the police,
4 that is going to take measures. The judge has the liberty to take
5 measures that were not even required by the prosecutor. That's the
6 difference involved.
7 Q. Let's move on to item 2. And you have said that the military
8 judiciary did not institute criminal proceedings because they did not have
9 jurisdiction. They considered themselves not to have jurisdiction because
10 there was no military unit there.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. In the case of one person who was identified, it says that he was
13 killed by a policeman.
14 A. Yes, yes. It was the Prokuplje district court that carried out
15 the on-site investigation, and proceedings are taking place there in the
16 case of two policemen. These proceedings are still under way.
17 Q. Finally, you have number 3. The time is the 31st of May, 1999,
18 and it says: "Following notification, nine bodies were found in the
19 houses of Seljarin Grdjaliju."
20 A. It is a small typo. It is Grdjalija Seljarin.
21 Q. On the 31st of May, 1999, the investigating judge of the Pristina
22 Corps military court went to the scene on the 5th of June 1999 and
23 compiled a note on the incident. He found 13 7.62-millimetre cartridges.
24 He learned that Florije Borsoti was the victim.
25 A. It's a woman. A few minutes ago -- and she witnessed the killing.
Page 37545
1 We said a few moments ago that there were some other persons in an
2 adjacent yard. So in addition to these nine bodies that were found in
3 Grdjalija's yard, there were three other victims that were found in the
4 neighbourhood, so total is 12.
5 In tab 17 we have the report of the investigating judge. We see
6 that there is a report and we see that he could not continue his
7 investigation because fire was opened at him from the neighbouring houses.
8 Hence he had to leave the crime scene, and he instructed the police to
9 take appropriate measures in order to carry out an appropriate
10 investigation once the situation is right for that. Even his vehicle had
11 been hit by a bullet.
12 This was a great difficulty for the investigation agencies. It
13 was hard for them to get to the crime scenes because fire was opened at
14 them although it was very obvious that they were going out to conduct an
15 on-site investigation in police vehicles and the like. It was very
16 obvious.
17 Q. Could you just say a few more words about the next page, page 4,
18 persons unknown, mid-April 1999. This is number 4. And it is the 7th of
19 May, 1999, when investigating -- when proceedings were initiated. Could
20 you please be so kind as to explain. You have a very detailed explanation
21 here.
22 A. Yes. There are a few points that are not quite clear. I managed
23 to decipher it, if I can use that word. The military police organs
24 informed the military court of the Pristina Corps investigating judge that
25 there was a large number of bodies in the villages Dosevac. Dobrosevac is
Page 37546
1 what is written here but that is a typo. It's Dosevac. Anyway, the date
2 was the 7th of May, 1999, and the investigating judge was informed by the
3 commander of the Glogovac police station that on the 3rd of May, 1999, he
4 had been told on the 3rd of May, 1999, by Captain Rade Krsmanovic of the
5 military post 1365 Raska that there were about 150 bodies in the village
6 of Dosevac and 58 bodies in Gladno Selo. On the 23rd of April, 1999, the
7 military police organs -- in the village of Gladno Selo. Before the
8 police station commander had provided this information the military police
9 organs had already been in the area and on the scene. The military police
10 organs found a total of 20 bodies in the three yards, not as the
11 preliminary information had said.
12 Later on, further down, we see what they found. On the 30th of
13 April, 1999, the bodies were found as described, by a VJ unit. Since
14 member of the VJ did not commit these murders, the investigating judge did
15 not order an exhumation. Colonel Orovic informed the investigating judge
16 - that is the commander of a unit, Colonel Orovic - that -- I mean,
17 whatever he says Dobrosevac it's supposed to be Dosevac. He says that the
18 VJ units did not find any bodies in Dosevac or any traces that indicated
19 that there had been any, but in the village of Dosevac, which is another
20 village, he found about 140 bodies. VJ units were not stationed in the
21 village before this.
22 And he informs the investigating judge that it was impossible to
23 carry out an on-site investigation there, and this is what the
24 investigating judge says in his own report, which is included in the file,
25 because units of the KLA entered the area with weapons and they did not
Page 37547
1 allow any access.
2 Colonel Pavlovic was head of the MUP team there, and they were
3 given orders, and they were told to go to Gladno Selo and carry out an
4 on-site investigation.
5 So there is 140 bodies in Dobrosevac -- sorry, not Dobrosevac,
6 Dosevac. Again I'm saying that there's a typo here. It's the village of
7 Dosevac, the village of Srbica. And the total number of bodies is 160 in
8 these two localities. And certain action was taken, of course. The
9 investigating organs cannot act if there is fighting in the area. Then
10 they are not in a position to carry out an investigation.
11 Q. All right. I don't think there is any need to go into further
12 detail in this regard.
13 Tell me, General, what was the situation in view of all these
14 proceedings that were initiated, that is to say investigations carried
15 out, information collected, et cetera? What was the situation at the
16 beginning of October 2000, namely at the time when I and some other
17 persons who are included in this Kosovo indictment ceased to hold office?
18 A. All these cases were discovered during the state of war, all of
19 them. All were dealt with in a certain form and to a certain level as
20 much as possible. Apart from that, there is no information stating that
21 anything new was discovered, any new incident regarding which action could
22 be taken in this form. So this is the situation as it was when the state
23 of war ceased to exist.
24 Q. All right. While the state of war was still in force, to the best
25 of your knowledge, because you toured courts of law and other agencies,
Page 37548
1 what about our law enforcement agencies? Were they in a position to
2 discover all violations of humanitarian law that were carried out in
3 Kosovo and Metohija?
4 A. Well, in view of the fact that there was a war going on and that
5 there was fighting in this relatively small area and where there was a
6 great concentration of armed personnel, it was not possible to discover
7 all the perpetrators or to see all the crimes that had been committed. It
8 would be an illusion to expect to be able to do that within such a short
9 period of time. It would also be an illusion to believe that a
10 perpetrator would speak up and say that he had committed a crime. There
11 must have been many of them who have a mutual solidarity, and they know
12 that what they did is punishable by very severe sentences.
13 Not all officers were in a position to do something, especially in
14 view of the dispersion of units involved. Units could not concentrate
15 because they were targeted by NATO Air Force. The alax [as interpreted]
16 would discover them if they would be in concentrations of more than ten
17 persons. That's why they had to be dispersed, and the situation was such
18 that therefore, objectively speaking, the military officers in the area
19 could not establish complete control over their subordinates, especially
20 not the law enforcement organs that are at the level of the bigger units.
21 They went to where corpses were found. They also went to graveyards where
22 they found freshly dug graves. They went wherever it was possible to find
23 the traces of a crime that had been recently committed. They went
24 wherever they were aware of something like that, but they could not go to
25 places that they did not know about.
Page 37549
1 Also, when our forces withdrew, jurisdiction ceased to exist as
2 far as our agencies were concerned. If this had remained within our
3 jurisdiction, it is certain that there would have been visible results far
4 exceeding those that were achieved so far.
5 Q. General, I'm going to put a very clear question to you. Do you
6 know of any single crime that constitutes a violation of international
7 humanitarian law that Yugoslav organs found out about and did not initiate
8 appropriate proceedings?
9 A. There is no such case because that would have been sheer nonsense
10 as far as the judiciary is concerned.
11 Q. General, bearing in mind all your previous answers as well as the
12 fact that you were a lawyer, a judge, a prosecutor, did you have an
13 opportunity of familiarising yourself with the content of the Kosovo
14 indictment?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Did you compare the allegations contained in the indictment with
17 the information that our military judiciary had?
18 A. I did make some comparisons and some comparative reviews.
19 Q. And what were your conclusions?
20 A. There are several localities --
21 MR. NICE: I'm sorry. Just where are we going? Is the witness
22 going to give us an opinion on that very series of decisions that it's for
23 this Trial Chamber to make? Is that what the accused wants?
24 JUDGE KWON: We can decide after we hear some comparison he's
25 going to say. I will consult.
Page 37550
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13 English transcripts.
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Page 37551
1 [Trial Chamber confers]
2 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, could you reformulate your question in
3 a more specific way.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. Certainly, Mr. Kwon, I
5 will phrase it very specifically.
6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. So, General, since you compared the two, tell me, to what degree
8 is there a certain coincidence between what was established by our
9 competent authority - when I say "competent" I mean the courts and all the
10 other judiciary, including all the cases that were reviewed in our country
11 - and allegations in the indictment?
12 A. If we take the case of Racak, which is not under review here, we
13 have an 80 to 90 degree coincidence in the case of Izbica village, because
14 there were 144 fresh graves, 101 bodies were autopsied, but we have to
15 bear in mind that the indictment was revised several times - three times,
16 more exactly - and in the summary review that we saw before, the total
17 number is 120. So it is almost complete coincidence between the two.
18 There are another two localities where the information coincides.
19 For instance, the indictment mentions Sudimlje and Gornje Sudimlje
20 whereas in our information we have Donje Sudimlje. Those are places in
21 the same area, same municipality, and there is also a coincidence between
22 the two documents in Grdjalija where our investigative organs were not
23 able to finish their work because of the circumstances, but the
24 information coincides in cases involving death.
25 As for robberies and other crimes since -- crimes against
Page 37552
1 property, since it involves a broad spectre of crimes. In cases of
2 aggravated robbery, for instance, we have clear descriptions of what
3 exactly was taken without inventories, but the property in question was
4 found in the possession of perpetrators. Large numbers of peanuts, et
5 cetera, 200 kilos, et cetera, something that the perpetrator must have
6 stolen.
7 JUDGE KWON: General, I couldn't follow when you mentioned Racak
8 and Izbica village. Did you mean that Racak is in Izbica village?
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no. Racak is a completely
10 separate incident of the 15th of January where the competent judiciary
11 organs of the civilian courts in Pristina processed. That was not taken
12 into account in the indictment -- in the summary review, sorry, but it is
13 mentioned in the indictment. I am setting that case aside.
14 Izbica is a completely separate locality where the number of
15 victims is approximately the same. However, the locality is the same.
16 JUDGE KWON: Now I follow. There should be a period between the
17 sentences. Yes. Please go on.
18 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
19 Q. General, is it the case that the military -- that in the case of
20 Izbica, military judiciary organs had specific information whether the
21 victims were civilians or KLA members.
22 A. We had no such information.
23 MR. NICE: Extraordinarily leading observation for which there is
24 absolutely no material foundation, unless I've missed it. I'm
25 particularly interested to know what this witness is going to provide by
Page 37553
1 way of his foundation material in relation to Izbica, and so that last
2 question rather spoils the purpose of examination and cross-examination.
3 JUDGE KWON: Reformulate your question, Mr. Milosevic.
4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. General, do you know --
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm asking a perfectly neutral
7 question. I asked about a case that the general has mentioned before.
8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
9 Q. Did -- were, rather, the military judiciary in a position to
10 establish in all these various cases whether the victims were civilians or
11 KLA members?
12 A. I'm aware of only one case where it was established that victims
13 were members of the KLA, and the military prosecutor dismissed the
14 criminal report. In all the other cases, it was not possible to establish
15 from the initially available evidence whether any of the victims were
16 civilians or KLA members, except, of course, in the cases where the
17 victims were women and children, because in most of the cases it was not
18 possible to identify or decide whether somebody was a civilian or not,
19 only on the basis of whether they wore a uniform or not. A uniform is no
20 indicator, just as the -- just as civilian clothing is not enough to
21 establish that somebody was not a member of armed forces.
22 Q. Tell me, why was it that the judiciary did not complete its
23 investigation in the case of Izbica, for instance?
24 A. For the very simple reason that the military prosecutors withdrew
25 from Kosovo on the date envisaged by the -- by the Military Technical
Page 37554
1 Agreement. It was only up to that date that they could work. And they
2 could only gather evidence up to that date.
3 Q. In those cases where investigations were carried out to establish
4 the circumstances and identify perpetrators, were there such cases that
5 were not covered by the indictment?
6 A. Well, yes. All the cases that you can find in my documentation,
7 in this summary review. In all those localities, appropriate
8 investigations were carried out whenever it was objectively possible.
9 Q. Now, according to the data that is available to you, based on
10 those investigations and investigative measures carried out, and they were
11 carried out in all the localities, what numbers are involved, and what is
12 the correlation between that number and the numbers cited in the
13 indictment?
14 A. Well, as for cases where the perpetrator is unidentified, there is
15 a total of 601. This is incomplete data. So 601 unidentified
16 perpetrators. And as for known perpetrators, we have 42 or 43 victims.
17 So the total is 645 victims involved in both types of cases. That is a
18 precise number.
19 In the indictment, the last revised, amended indictment, the
20 number is 608. So it's approximately the same or very similar.
21 As for description of crimes, it is vague in the indictment. It
22 says "around," "approximately," et cetera. So in the last amended
23 indictment the number is 701. In the previous second amended indictment
24 the number was lower, around 400 for the indictment of the 22nd of May.
25 These are approximate numbers, although every death, every victim
Page 37555
1 is important. But if you ask me about correlation, there is a relatively
2 high degree of coincidence. Our investigative organs detected, uncovered
3 a great number of crimes and perpetrators, and now that this Tribunal has
4 access to the documentation and our investigative organs no longer have
5 access to the area, that is the number we have to work with.
6 Q. Is all this information public?
7 A. Well, relatively speaking, because investigative organs do not
8 make their information public to prevent panic while investigation is
9 going on, but anybody who is interested can gain access to this data,
10 because all the -- all the actions, all the proceedings are public.
11 They're not closed to the public by any means. It's just that the
12 information is not published, publicly announced, but it is accessible.
13 Q. Bearing in mind your entire experience, General, from the period
14 we are discussing now, what according to your knowledge was the principal
15 position of the highest military and civilian authorities regarding crimes
16 and their perpetrators?
17 A. Well, from all these actions that were taken at the level of the
18 Supreme Command Staff and the judiciary bodies in keeping with the
19 legislation, and if we look at the measures accompanied by the enforcement
20 of those laws -- that accompanied the enforcement of those laws, we cannot
21 see that there was no action, no measures taken that disregarded the
22 requirement to comply with international humanitarian law. All the
23 measures were taken to prosecute perpetrators in every case where a
24 violation of international humanitarian law was uncovered in the entire
25 territory, including Kosovo and Metohija. We can see this from our
Page 37556
1 surveys and overviews. As for the police, the military prosecutors, the
2 military courts and everybody who was in charge of reporting crimes,
3 everybody made a maximum effort. No case was neglected or forgotten.
4 Q. But I asked you specifically: What according to your knowledge
5 was the principal position of the highest authorities?
6 A. To prevent crimes, of course. And if crimes take place, that they
7 should be prosecuted and punished. This is the fundamental guideline, the
8 fundamental principle.
9 Q. To the best of your knowledge based on all the information you
10 received from all organs, everybody you came in contact with, was there
11 ever an idea in circulation that they should be killed and persecuted in
12 order to expel them from the territory of Serbia?
13 A. No way. There can be no question of that. Not even clandestinely
14 could there have been such an idea, because our competent authorities did
15 everything to prevent any murder. It would be an illusion to believe that
16 for a moment.
17 If we compare the number of victims which is currently recorded as
18 a thousand to 1.200, although it's very difficult to operate with
19 approximate numbers, that is -- that would be impossible with such a large
20 number of police in the military in Kosovo at the time.
21 If you just allow me. In the area of Djakovica, there is
22 reference here to some refugees who were moving out because of the
23 fighting between Yugoslav armed forces and the KLA. It was considered a
24 liberation army of Kosovo.
25 Q. Just another question. There is a paragraph in the indictment
Page 37557
1 dealing with the highest political and military leadership.
2 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreters beg the accused to repeat the
3 paragraph.
4 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, could you repeat the question, or
5 could you repeat the paragraph from the beginning.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 19, Mr. Kwon.
7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
8 Q. So it says: "... while holding positions of superior authority,
9 Slobodan Milosevic and the others are also individually criminally
10 responsible for the acts or omissions of their subordinates, pursuant to
11 Article 7(3) of the Statute of the Tribunal. A superior is responsible
12 for the acts of his subordinates if he knew or had reason to know that his
13 subordinates were about to commit such acts or had done so, and the
14 superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent
15 such acts or to punish their perpetrators."
16 So from all you know, from all you were able to follow and
17 document, is there any coincidence between this allegation that he is
18 responsible if he is responsible, if he knew or had reason to know that
19 his subordinates were about to commit such acts or had done so and the
20 superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent
21 or punish?
22 A. This doesn't hold water, because all the competent authorities,
23 all the professional services established at the level of the Supreme
24 Command Staff were tasked, were legally bound and received orders to do
25 their utmost to prevent crimes, and if crimes were detected, to find and
Page 37558
1 punish the perpetrator.
2 So if you want to find a cause and effect connection between
3 omissions or failures of our organs, there is no such connection. That is
4 something basic in criminal law. I know that from my own work, because I
5 had direct access to all the information about what is being done on the
6 -- on the ground.
7 The chain of responsibility does not -- is uninterrupted there.
8 You cannot establish responsibility in this case. If you speak about
9 reasonable measures, all the reasonable measures were taken in view of the
10 time and the circumstances.
11 Q. As an experienced soldier and lawyer, can you tell me, was there a
12 measure that could have been taken and was not taken?
13 A. Absolutely not, because some measures were impossible to take.
14 You cannot have a policeman and a prosecutor following every soldier on
15 the ground.
16 Q. Thank you very much. We are coming close to the end of this
17 examination. But apart from the question of Kosovo, I just have a few
18 more short questions for you in view of your own activities in the
19 military judiciary, and I will be able to complete my examination in chief
20 within one or two minutes to get through it all.
21 But let's go back to the beginning of the 1990s. What was your
22 role in the case with respect to the well-known killing of the soldier
23 from a firearm and an attempt at killing another soldier by strangling him
24 in Split at the beginning of May 1991?
25 A. Ah, yes. That was on the 6th of May, 1991. It was in front of
Page 37559
1 the headquarters of the military naval district where some large-scale
2 demonstrations were held with the aim of provoking the command, and this
3 particular case I was the prosecutor in the case. It went to the Split
4 military -- from the Split military court and referred to the military
5 court in Sarajevo in order to create the necessary conditions for
6 unimpeded legal proceedings, and I was the prosecutor in that case. It
7 was about the killing of a soldier. His name was Bjesovski. Bjesovski
8 was the name of the soldier. He was a Macedonian soldier. Another one,
9 Svetlance, and the driver of that combat vehicle was also a Macedonian.
10 He was -- they were all members of the duty guard.
11 Q. I asked you what your role was, and you said you represented the
12 prosecutor.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Did you take part in any other case with respect to the Vukovar
15 case in 1991?
16 JUDGE BONOMY: Just before moving on, was there an accused person
17 in this case?
18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In what case?
19 JUDGE BONOMY: Who was the -- in the case you've just referred to,
20 the one involving the Macedonian soldier, the case --
21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, yes. There were four accused;
22 Ivan Begonja. He's the one that tried to strangle the soldier. Then
23 there was Zvonaric, another -- four of them, four accused, and they were
24 civilians from Split, the town of Split.
25 JUDGE BONOMY: How did the military prosecutor have jurisdiction?
Page 37560
1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Because the attack was an attack on
2 military personnel in the course of doing their duty. They were on guard
3 duty for the command, and therefore it came under the military court.
4 JUDGE BONOMY: Does that mean that -- does that mean that in
5 Kosovo the military prosecutor investigated attacks on Yugoslav army
6 soldiers by Albanians?
7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
8 JUDGE BONOMY: But you don't have the particulars of that with
9 you?
10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, I don't have the particulars of
11 that, no. But the total number of persons killed --
12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Very well. I'll just follow on from what Mr. Bonomy said, and I'd
14 like to draw your attention to tab 19 now, General. Tab 19 is a review of
15 the losses in the Yugoslav army, officers, non-commissioned officers,
16 soldiers, contractual soldiers, reserve officers, reserve soldiers, and so
17 on and so forth. And it says the causes of death during the aggression in
18 combat operations, 546 persons; from NATO planes 248 or 45.4 per cent,
19 under the effects of --
20 JUDGE KWON: If we could pause there. We have a note that it
21 hasn't been translated. Could you -- could the B/C/S version be put on
22 the ELMO so that we can follow.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes. Since it is a table, you're
24 able to follow the figures quite easily, I think.
25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
Page 37561
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 37562
1 Q. But it says in the note at the bottom, and I hope it's on the ELMO
2 now, the note at the bottom of the page says the cause of death during the
3 aggression in combat operations, and then in brackets 546 persons; under
4 the effects of NATO aviation, 248 persons or 45.4 per cent people were
5 killed. The victims of Siptar terrorist forces, the number there is 246
6 individuals or 45.1 per cent; from the effects of mines, once again the
7 KLA, 33 persons lost their lives, or 6.0 per cent; and other reasons,
8 miscellaneous, brackets, NATO and the Siptar terrorist forces later
9 identified as having been killed, 19 of those or 3.5 per cent.
10 So Mr. Bonomy asked you whether you were -- had the authority of
11 establishing these deaths, and here we can see -- or, rather, take a look
12 at the total number now, please.
13 A. These are the losses during NATO aggression in the combat
14 operations during the armed conflicts. I understood the question to be
15 that he was asking about crimes which were outside combat operations
16 because it was linked to the events in Split where there were no armed
17 conflicts at that moment. So that was the answer I gave along those
18 lines. I said I didn't have information of that kind.
19 But there were cases of that kind in Kosovo and Metohija where, in
20 peacetime, crimes were committed against soldiers. And these cases were
21 dealt with by the military court in Nis, but I didn't present that kind of
22 information and data here.
23 Q. Very well, General. Now, these are serious losses, large numbers,
24 several hundred people killed in the operations. I quoted the causes a
25 moment ago. I don't want to repeat it. But is it possible that they
Page 37563
1 could have been killed by unarmed civilians, because quite obviously they
2 were -- or is it quite obviously the case that people died or were killed
3 in struggles over a very violent enemy?
4 A. These are all -- this is all information from combat reports where
5 the commanders of each unit ascertained and established the deaths
6 resulting from terrorist armed formations of Albanians in Kosovo and these
7 are differentiated from the NATO aviation victims. So these are the
8 losses of the Yugoslav army members and not the losses of the MUP.
9 We have a column of people killed before the aggression.
10 Forty-five soldiers and officers died before the aggression from the
11 effects of KLA armed formations.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, I omitted to tender these
13 remaining tabs that we dealt with in detail into evidence. I think the
14 last one was tab 15 that was admitted into evidence, and I'd like to
15 tender 16, 17, 18 and 19, the remaining tabs.
16 JUDGE KWON: We will admit them. However, those parts which
17 contain the names of the rape victims will be under seal.
18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Kwon.
19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]
20 Q. Let me just ask you this in closing, two short questions linked to
21 your professional service. Did you take part in any court cases linked to
22 the Vukovar cases in the autumn of 1991, Vukovar and its environs?
23 A. With respect to that event, I acted as the investigating judge
24 although I was present at the military court in Belgrade but this was
25 pursuant to a request for the military prosecutor to take steps linked to
Page 37564
1 the event that happened in Vukovar, in Ovcara, and I spent -- I undertook
2 certain investigative steps and then the documents were sent to the
3 prosecutor who then referred the case to the district prosecutor in
4 Belgrade because he found that he -- this did not come under his authority
5 and competence to try the perpetrators.
6 And also I was the presiding officer of a court chamber which at
7 the request of this Tribunal asked that the three persons be taken into
8 custody. The request was refused because there was domestic criminal law
9 on the constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which did not
10 provide for the possibility of extraditing nationals, Yugoslav nationals
11 to a foreign country and foreign institution. Those provisions have now
12 been amended in the constitutional law.
13 Q. Thank you, General.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, that completes my
15 examination-in-chief of this witness.
16 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice.
17 Cross-examined by Mr. Nice:
18 Q. You said earlier that independence of the judiciary is important
19 in your system. Are you a fully independent person coming to give
20 evidence here yesterday and today?
21 A. Yes, I am.
22 Q. No connections with any vested interest or political interests
23 that underlie the cases we're dealing with?
24 A. No, none.
25 Q. No particular loyalty to this accused?
Page 37565
1 A. None except my professional approach to the matter in hand.
2 Q. Out of interest, when did you last visit Russia?
3 A. This is the first time that I've been abroad, outside the
4 boundaries of the SFRY. I've never been to Russia.
5 Q. Very well. Let's look at tabs 17 and 18 initially, because I want
6 you to tell us this: Can we find in either tab 17 or 18 any recorded
7 conviction of an individual for a war crime?
8 A. In tab 17, it is the report by the military court in Nis, they
9 took it in chronological order, and in the columns we see the judgements,
10 where the judgement was made. And in tab 18, I'd like to draw attention
11 to --
12 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... tab 17 because I'm afraid
13 I've only had a translated version of this document for a day, and I had
14 lots of other things to do. We've had a version of the B/C/S document for
15 about a week.
16 In tab 17, is there anything there that constitutes a war crime?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Can you just point us to one so that we can all understand what is
19 a war crime and how it was dealt with.
20 A. Here it is. In tab 18 you can see that. Just so that I can
21 connect the two. If you find the page in tab 17. Find page 43 in tab 17.
22 Under number 7. I don't know what the page is in English. 43, number 7.
23 Then you'll find the individuals listed. War crimes, Article 142 of the
24 Criminal Code linked to Article 22. So you have that on page 43.
25 Q. Give us a second. We've got to page 43 in the B/C/S, and we're
Page 37566
1 going to find it in the English if we can. This is the page -- this is
2 the page --
3 A. Under number 7.
4 Q. That's Slobodan Stosic. The page heads with --
5 A. Yes, and the others too.
6 Q. Ivan Nikolic, and we'll just see if we can find that.
7 A. It says Stosic --
8 Q. Just wait a minute. There's no point in our following it or
9 trying to follow it unless we can find the English, you see.
10 JUDGE KWON: What's the report number? There are several reports.
11 Tab 17.
12 MR. NICE: In tab 17, it's number 9.
13 JUDGE BONOMY: Trial page 56, Mr. Nice.
14 MR. NICE: Thank you very much, Your Honour. Yes, absolutely
15 right. We're now on the same -- on different page but effectively the
16 same pages.
17 Q. And you want to tell us little bit about Slobodan Stosic, and you
18 say this is recorded as a war crime. Just explain further, please.
19 A. Number 7 and number 10, another war crime. And the prosecutor
20 here qualified the crime as such wherever there was an order from a
21 superior officer that a crime was committed if the perpetrators committed
22 the crime. So here we have the suggestions that the crime be committed
23 and they perpetrated the crime. And this is a classical example. He
24 cannot bypass the superior officer. Wherever there was a superior officer
25 ordering somebody to do something and the subordinate soldier committed
Page 37567
1 the crime, that was considered a war crime. Where there was no superior
2 officer having ordered or kept quiet about, turned a bind eye to, et
3 cetera, then it wasn't considered a crime of that nature.
4 So you have this case in point, the one you were interested in,
5 number 7.
6 Q. Yes, I am interested in it, and I just want to see how we see
7 that it's reported as a war crime. What's different about it than
8 anything else. Is it that it's under Article 142 that shows its a war
9 came?
10 A. Yes, that's right. Article 142 is a crime, a war crime against
11 the civilian population pursuant to the Criminal Code of Serbia and
12 Montenegro. At the time it was the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of
13 course.
14 Q. And the facts of the Slobodan Stosic case is probably well known
15 to you because this was a man who took some prisoners out of the gaol,
16 didn't he, and he took them down to Kosovo and -- did he take them down to
17 Kosovo to kill people? What was the nature of the crime? Was that what
18 he did?
19 A. Here it is. I'll read it out. So the people who were there, he
20 ordered them, the subordinates --
21 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... can we find what you're
22 reading from?
23 A. A description of the event.
24 Q. I'm sorry, you see --
25 A. In tab 18 you'll find a description of the event.
Page 37568
1 Q. Right. You're now in tab 18, and what page in tab 18?
2 A. Right, yes. It is page 2 in the Serbian version.
3 JUDGE KWON: Page 4 in English.
4 MR. NICE: Thank you.
5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] That's right, yes.
6 MR. NICE:
7 Q. So this was the only one in tab 17 and thus far the only one in
8 tab 18 that's a war crime; is that right?
9 A. There's one other one on the following page.
10 Q. But before we move on from Stosic, who complained about Stosic's
11 crime?
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon.
13 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] On the table here we see Article
15 142, which relates to all of them, not -- it's 142. Several Articles 142
16 are referred to. Wherever it says Article 142, I assume, and I assume
17 General Gojovic knows this, in the Criminal Code of Yugoslavia is a war
18 crime. Article 142 is a war crime. Was that clear from his answer? So
19 it's not only -- doesn't only apply to Stosic.
20 JUDGE KWON: Yes, we heard that.
21 MR. NICE:
22 Q. Yes. Who complained about Stosic's and Palinkos' and Mijatovic's
23 and Miskovic's behaviour?
24 A. This was uncovered in mid-April, and a report was sent to the
25 prosecutor and the prosecutor undertook proceedings. I don't know who
Page 37569
1 informed the prosecutor about the event. I don't have that here.
2 Q. Now, somewhere the underlying papers will exist that show how it
3 was that this war crime charge was initiated, but you can't help us; is
4 that right?
5 A. Well, it's in the documents of the criminal case, and I didn't
6 have access to the papers because it was sent to the district court in
7 Kraljevo. I wasn't an investigator and therefore didn't look at the
8 documents. But everything is recorded there, who took what steps and when
9 in the files, the binder for that particular case, whereas these are brief
10 entries about what the case -- of what the case was about, a brief
11 description of the crime.
12 Q. The case against these men, has it been discontinued?
13 A. No. It was continued.
14 Q. With what result?
15 A. The trial continued.
16 Q. With what result?
17 A. I don't know the result.
18 Q. Pretty serious case, isn't it? Throwing people into a well and
19 setting light to the bodies? Throwing bodies into a well and setting
20 light to them. Pretty serious case. You can't help as to what happened?
21 A. It is a serious case, yes, but as soon as it was referred to the
22 district court, it was no longer under my sphere of competence. I did ask
23 -- I did ask to see the papers, and the first instance judgement was
24 revoked, but I didn't record this because I learnt about the case later
25 on. So when I drew up this column --
Page 37570
1 Q. Go to number 10. This is the next in tab 17.
2 JUDGE KWON: Let me be a bit clear on this matter. Could page 56
3 of tab 17 be put on the ELMO.
4 General Gojovic, in item number 7 you see Mr. Stosic here, and at
5 the second last column it says proceedings against Mr. Stosic
6 discontinued. So that's why he does not appear in page 4 of tab 18, and
7 he is the highest -- he has the highest rank amongst them. He was the
8 lieutenant colonel while the others were reserve privates.
9 Do you happen to remember why proceedings against this Slobodan
10 Stosic discontinued?
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] As far as the information I received
12 from the prosecutor orally, it was ascertained that he didn't order them
13 to do that but when they were uncovered, in order to justify their acts,
14 they said that they had received orders and that's why the case came --
15 the proceedings were launched against Stosic. But once this was
16 ascertained, the proceedings were discontinued and continued against the
17 other individuals. But we can see the records of this in the military
18 court in Nis.
19 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
20 MR. NICE:
21 Q. And before we move on from that, there being some potential
22 ambiguity in the way things are recorded, the five reserve privates -- the
23 three reserve privates, the one private and the perpetrator unknown, at
24 least in this record, had they themselves, the perpetrators, been in
25 prison and taken out from prison for the purposes of the fighting?
Page 37571
1 A. I'm not aware of such information that they were there previously.
2 I don't know about that. I don't know where you get this information that
3 they were in prison beforehand. They could have been sent to prison only
4 because they committed this crime.
5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, I cannot find it, the
6 English translation now in this big bundle, but in the Serbian language
7 it's quite clear what it says, and this is probably what confused Mr. Nice
8 and that's why he put the question. In Serbian it says since they were
9 taken out of detention - I mean this is in reference to the victims - they
10 were brought to the wall of a house and fire was opened at them. These
11 soldiers took people out of detention.
12 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice is well aware of that.
13 MR. NICE: [Previous translation continues] ... the accused's
14 intervention. I may come back to this topic next week.
15 Q. Can we now go to number 10 on tab 17, which is the only other one
16 I think you're going to tell us referred to as an Article 142 matter,
17 therefore a war crime.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Despite being a war crime, it was simply handed over to the
20 district court in Valjevo, and do we know anything about what happened
21 after that?
22 A. I just know that this case was deferred during the investigation
23 because this was a reserve officer. He was demobilised, and then it was
24 the district court in Valjevo that the case was deferred to, and I just
25 knew that the investigation was under way. I did not have any other
Page 37572
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 37573
1 information.
2 Q. So that takes care of tab 17. But before we pass from tab 17,
3 it's worth observing, isn't it, that a great number of cases were
4 convicted for matters like stealing cars, sets of tools, money, things
5 like that, with prison sentences recorded. Is that right?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. So there appear to have been the resources available in the
8 judicial systems to bring to conclusion comparatively trivial cases in the
9 time with which we're concerned. Comparatively trivial. I'm not
10 suggesting that stealing someone's car is not of gravity to the person.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Let's go to tab --
13 A. May I just explain. It's because these are simple cases where
14 it's easy to rule and the evidence is quite clear. But in case of complex
15 proceedings, it requires a great deal of expertise and forensic expertise.
16 If a particular object is stolen, it is easy to see the evidence, and it's
17 easy for the courts to deal with that, and no expertise is required.
18 Q. Of course. And before we move to tab 18 and since you raise it,
19 to investigate the more serious crimes also requires access to sources of
20 information, doesn't it?
21 A. Correct.
22 Q. And you as the military judicial system presumably had ready
23 access to relevant sources of information if you wanted them; correct?
24 A. The information that we had. The sources of information that we
25 did not have access to, we did not. It is on site that one acquires first
Page 37574
1 information.
2 Q. You as the military investigator -- just assume for the time being
3 that on a particular day at a particular time a VJ tank or tanks was or
4 were seen to be deployed. Two things: First, in a well-regulated army,
5 the location and deployment of tanks would be recorded, wouldn't it?
6 A. It depends on the conditions in which the tank is deployed. You
7 see, this is not front-line fighting. The area where this was taking
8 place is rugged terrain, so patterns cannot be applied of that kind.
9 Q. All right. Let me -- let me tie you down a little bit more. If a
10 tank was deployed on a particular date in a town, it doesn't matter what
11 town, near to Pristina, it would be possible to work out from which unit
12 that tank came, and you as the military judiciary and prosecutors one way
13 or another would be able to get access to the records showing what the
14 tank commanders were doing on the given day, wouldn't you?
15 A. There is some possibility on the condition that this commander
16 knows at every moment where his tank is. A tank would not be in the same
17 place for the entire day. Such a tank would not survive or, rather, its a
18 crew would not survive until nightfall.
19 Q. Thank you for your general answer. What I want you to help me
20 with is this: There's a lot of evidence that tanks were deployed around
21 Racak on the day that it was attacked and that they were firing into Racak
22 in a way that people have said is criminal because it was inevitably
23 disproportionate. I'd like you to tell us, please, what steps the
24 Serbian-Montenegrin military judiciary took to investigate the tanks that
25 attacked Racak.
Page 37575
1 A. There was no tank attack against Racak. I don't know where you
2 get this information that you refer to just now.
3 Secondly, it was the district court in Pristina that was in charge
4 of the proceedings regarding Racak. Units were deployed in their
5 positions far away from Racak. It is only after the fighting that they
6 took some kind of combat order for the sake of their own protection. If
7 somebody opened fire, it was mostly out of fear, probably, but the army
8 did not take part in this.
9 Q. First of all it was the district court in Pristina who was
10 responsible so your unit wouldn't be. Then the second answer is that the
11 units were deployed in positions far away from Racak but I don't know what
12 your source of information for that. Your third answer is that it's only
13 after the fighting that they took some kind of combat. Are you giving
14 answers or are you trying to protect a position, General Gojovic?
15 A. No. I did not say that the units, after fighting, took part in
16 combat. I do not have information that the units of the army of
17 Yugoslavia took part in an armed conflict in Racak. I do not have such
18 information. They were in the broader area. I cannot say that they were
19 not in the broader area.
20 I had the opportunity of talking to one officer, that is to say
21 the commander who was there in -- at his command post, was it Djakovica or
22 Glogovac, and he came to the position only subsequently, to the position
23 where his unit was. So what happened in Racak has no influence over all
24 of this. I mean, except for the fact that the units were in the broader
25 area. But they did not take part in this. I do not have the kind of
Page 37576
1 information that you have and no such information was available.
2 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice, that might be a convenient time?
3 MR. NICE: Yes, certainly.
4 JUDGE KWON: We will break for 20 minutes.
5 --- Recess taken at 12.20 p.m.
6 --- On resuming at 12.45 p.m.
7 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Mr. Nice.
8 MR. NICE:
9 Q. Just before I turn from Racak, I overlooked at your very first
10 answer about Racak, was that the event hadn't happened at all. How if you
11 conducted no investigation were you able to offer that opinion to the
12 Chamber that the attack by the VJ didn't happen at all?
13 A. Let me tell you. At that time on the 15th of January I was
14 president of the military court in Belgrade, so it was not under the
15 jurisdiction of that court. I have this unofficial information that the
16 units of the army of Yugoslavia did not take part in this. I did not have
17 occasion to act in any official capacity with regard to that event.
18 Q. You see, you're a judge, or you've been a judge, and is the
19 position you're now a lawyer? Is that right?
20 A. No. Now I'm a pensioner.
21 Q. But you've been a lawyer, haven't you?
22 A. Briefly.
23 Q. And you know how important it is to leave for judges the
24 determination of factual issues on the basis of evidence and yet your
25 immediate response to my question to you about Racak was there was no tank
Page 37577
1 attack against Racak. Is that a sentence you'd now like to withdraw,
2 bearing in mind it's the Judges who have to deal with the facts of this
3 case?
4 A. I accept that it is the Judges who decide about that. It's not
5 that I decide whether a statement will be considered in this way or that
6 way. I just said that as far as I know, the members of the army of
7 Yugoslavia did not attack Racak, did not take part in any such thing, as
8 far as I know. I said that as a private individual, not in any official
9 capacity.
10 Q. I see. Do we have to distinguish in your evidence, then, and
11 perhaps you would be helpful enough to tell us when we do, between answers
12 you give in an official capacity and answers that you give as a private
13 individual? Is that what we're going to have to do as we assess you?
14 A. This is the first time that I said something as a private
15 individual. Until now, I did not say anything like that. I just said,
16 when asked about my knowledge, that I learned of these things in passing.
17 I was never in a position to act in an official capacity in dealing with
18 that. This is the only statement I've made here as a private individual.
19 MR. NICE: As I turn from tab 17, can I draw to the Court's
20 attention that immediately after page 13 in the B/C/S version and
21 immediately before page 14 there are some documents in Cyrillic that I
22 wish to ask questions about but they haven't yet been translated. For
23 some reason, they've been omitted. I understand from Ms. Anoya that the
24 matter is being investigated and we will come back to it next Tuesday. I
25 imagine the Court's papers will be similarly composed to mine, but it's
Page 37578
1 between pages 13 and 14.
2 Q. Shall we turn, then, General, to tab 18. I'm still with the
3 question of the issue of what's shown and revealed war crimes. So if we
4 go in the English page 4, we've already looked at that, just to start our
5 journey through the document. Go to page 2 in your version, page 4 in
6 ours, we see the one we've already looked at and we know what happened
7 there.
8 Then we go to number 6 on page 5 in the English and page 3 in the
9 Serbian. Stevan Jekic. Do we know anything about what happened to him?
10 A. I've already answered that a few moments ago. This case was
11 referred, in the investigation stage, to the Valjevo district court and
12 they continued the investigation. I'm not aware of the outcome.
13 Q. Do you know whether he was convicted or acquitted?
14 A. I have no such information.
15 Q. More important, can you help me, please, with how it was that this
16 matter was brought to the attention of authorities so that they
17 investigated it to the degree that they did?
18 A. There is a brief description here about what this was all about,
19 who reported about this, and then the investigation started and he was no
20 longer a military person at that stage.
21 Q. Just stop. I want to know who reported it. Do you follow me?
22 Simple question. Because I want to know why, according to this table,
23 some action was taken. Now, can you help me, please?
24 A. Somebody reported it. I do not have information who it was who
25 reported it. However, in the record, in the file of the case, there is
Page 37579
1 such information, but I did not have the file in my hands. I did not have
2 insight into it. This is information from the register where there is
3 just brief contents of the cases that are being dealt with. But the files
4 are with the court --
5 Q. And does this --
6 A. -- and a request can be made to obtain them. I'm sorry -- I'm
7 sorry for interrupting.
8 Q. General Gojovic, we're going to come to what happens to requests
9 made to you and your government for material of this kind in due course,
10 trust me, but I want to know now, is the register the underlying material
11 that you relied on for all these cases that you tabulated?
12 A. Yes, yes. The register and the report of the military court.
13 That is reliable information. And also when I required additional
14 information, I would ask verbally the prosecutor or the president of the
15 court to check some information out.
16 Q. And bearing in mind the answers you gave to the accused this
17 morning, can you at the moment remember any other examples where you had
18 to ask for supplementary information before either composing this table of
19 investigations or where you had to seek additional information from an
20 investigator in order to be able to give the answers to this Court today?
21 A. I did not prepare myself especially for this here. I sought the
22 information earlier. I sought this information from the courts to which
23 the cases were referred. From some I did receive information, from others
24 I didn't. From those I did, I used this information for compiling these
25 documents.
Page 37580
1 Q. Very well.
2 A. And this additional information can be seen. If you wish, I can
3 write about it more.
4 Q. Very well. Let's go to the next table. We looked at this entry,
5 page 6 of the English and page 4 of the Serbian, already, because this is
6 the one that had a little bit of additional writing about the sentences of
7 seven, nine, and seven years that were imposed. We will come back to the
8 rest of the writing in due course because there are a couple of words and
9 we'll have to see what you can tell us about those, but just tell us as to
10 this one, numbers 1, 2 and 3 on English page 6, on Serbian page 4, what
11 was your source of information? What was the source of information that
12 led to this inquiry? Can you tell us?
13 A. In every column, it says whether the report was submitted or not,
14 whether such information was known or not. There is no entry here, and
15 this was done on the basis of the register, and that is not recorded in
16 the register who this information was obtained from.
17 Q. If you can't help us, the answer no will do.
18 There was dealt with under Article 47, as we see at the head of
19 the page, so it wasn't dealt with as a war crime. However, this is the
20 only occasion it may be when the words "war crime" appear, because they
21 appear in the handwritten annotation on page 4 of the Serbian, underneath
22 the recording of the number of years. Is that correct?
23 A. I do not have this information, but I do know that the prosecutor
24 changed the charges, and it is certain that the charges were changed
25 during the proceedings. But I did not follow the trial later. During the
Page 37581
1 trial, the prosecutor --
2 Q. It may be my mistake entirely, and I do apologise if it is, but I
3 hope my questions are comparatively straightforward.
4 There appears on page 4 the handwritten notation recording a
5 finding of war crime; correct? Am I correct?
6 A. I don't know where you got this note. I do not have this note in
7 this survey of mine.
8 Q. The handwritten -- page 4 of the Serbian, the handwritten entry,
9 nine years, seven years, and seven years, and then there are two words
10 underneath it. What do you say those words say?
11 JUDGE KWON: I notice the general is looking at the ELMO. Yes,
12 there it is.
13 MR. NICE:
14 Q. The two words underneath the sentences of seven years. What are
15 those words?
16 A. "War crime."
17 Q. Thank you. Who wrote those words?
18 A. I don't know who wrote those words.
19 Q. It's your table, General. You produced, you've prepared it, and
20 you've brought it to court. Who wrote those words?
21 A. Please, lest there be any misunderstanding, I have brought my
22 surveys. I have them here. But this is not my handwriting. This is not
23 my handwriting. This is an entry that somebody made subsequently. I
24 don't have any such thing on my documents. It's somebody -- yes. Well,
25 never mind. But I know unofficially and from the newspapers that the
Page 37582
1 charges were changed in this case, that it was -- that he was charged with
2 a war crime, and that the first instance judgement was revoked and that
3 the trial has been reinstituted.
4 So I don't know if this is some -- I mean, I don't know about this
5 myself. I don't have firsthand knowledge, but I have read in the
6 newspapers that --
7 Q. Does this reflect, then, that the policy of the military courts
8 was to charge matters as crimes other than war crimes but that on this
9 particular occasion another lawyer getting seized of the matter gave it
10 its correct title?
11 A. Not necessarily. Not necessarily.
12 Q. Can you explain it to me any other way?
13 A. On the contrary.
14 Q. I see. Go on, then.
15 A. I will explain. The military prosecutor was committed to go with
16 the highest, the most severe charge. If he does that, he always has the
17 possibility to change the charge to a less severe one. However, if he
18 starts with a less serious charge, he cannot commute it to a more serious
19 one even if it turns out that the crime in question is a more serious one.
20 That is why this was done that way. I don't know if I was clear enough.
21 Q. We'll move on because -- in order to save time. This is the
22 position, isn't it: There's no other crime in your tab 18 that is
23 identified as a war crime at all. They're all categorised as domestic
24 crimes.
25 A. Well, ending with this last number, you have this information, and
Page 37583
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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13 English transcripts.
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Page 37584
1 I found out later that another four persons were charged with war crimes.
2 We have that in the survey, the summary overview. A total of four persons
3 were charged with war crimes, as we see from the overview, at the time.
4 Another four were charged with war crimes later. They are not
5 covered by this table. And a more serious crime was commuted or, rather,
6 more serious charges were commuted to less serious charges on the decision
7 of the district prosecutor.
8 Q. Would you be so good as to return, then, to page 68 of the Serb
9 version and page 76 of the English which we can lay on the overhead
10 projector. Again, just to -- I underline the point that I've been getting
11 you to confirm, this page of the table is headed Article 47. It's not a
12 war crime, despite the fact that 144 fresh graves of unidentified persons
13 were found at Izbica and, as your table asserts, proceedings were
14 initiated on the 29th of May, 1999, well before the conflict ended and
15 while your courts were still in operation. So the general question is,
16 please, why on earth wasn't this incident manifestly likely to be a war
17 crime investigated as a war crime if you were doing your jobs properly?
18 A. Again, you don't seem to want to accept the explanation that the
19 prosecutor had in mind. The prosecutor is the one who decides which
20 charges to press, and he decides on this one because it entails the death
21 sentence or the minimum prison sentence of ten years. If he qualifies it
22 as a war crime, the minimum sentence is five years, and that why the
23 prosecutor seems to have made this decision. It is easy to amend the
24 indictment and commute the charges and requalify it as a war crime. War
25 crime sounds better for the press, but under our national legislation,
Page 37585
1 this particular charge entails a much harsher sentence than a war crime.
2 That's why the prosecutor decided on these charges, because he's able
3 later to change it if he wants to.
4 You want to say that the prosecutor should have qualified this as
5 a war crime from the start to satisfy justice. That would have had the
6 contrary effect.
7 Q. I hadn't put it in those terms, General Gojovic, but in a sense
8 you're quite right. But let's move on. Yes, I would suggest that to you;
9 categorising war crimes in another way is a way of hiding collectively
10 from the truth, isn't it?
11 A. No, that is not the reason.
12 Q. Let's look just for the last time at this page, although I'll have
13 to return to it next week, because what you told us about the other place
14 that may be covered in our indictment was something I haven't yet been
15 able to prepare, but let's look at Izbica. I haven't been able to
16 prepare, not knowing you were going to say at all.
17 Izbica, initiated on the 29th of May, 1999, according to this
18 table, and I ask you as I have with all the other -- I'm sorry. First of
19 all, apart from the other village to which you've referred, this is the
20 only matter in the Kosovo indictment covered in your table, isn't it?
21 A. Yes. And there are another two that could have qualified, but
22 this is the only one that actually appears in the indictment.
23 Q. I want your help, please, with why it was that this one got
24 pursued and, as we can see on the basis of your table, comparatively
25 early. Why was it that it got pursued?
Page 37586
1 A. Compared to this case, this location with fresh graves were found,
2 the unit commander -- the commander of the unit which arrived there at the
3 time reported that there are fresh graves.
4 Q. Yes. Remember you told me not so very many minutes ago that your
5 source of information for preparation of this table was - I can't remember
6 what the name of the document is, but was another document - a register.
7 Do you remember that you told me that?
8 A. I do.
9 Q. Remember I asked you questions about when you needed to go to seek
10 further information in order to give evidence to this Court? Do you
11 remember that?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. If we look at the face of page 76 or whatever it is. I'm sorry,
14 I've lost it again now -- 68, I think. When we look at that, unless I've
15 missed it, and you must help me with this, there is absolutely no
16 reference to a unit finding an unmarked grave, let alone to a commander of
17 a unit, is there?
18 A. In this original register, this piece of information does appear.
19 It was a unit from Krusevac.
20 Q. Have you got it there so I can have a look at it? Because it
21 doesn't appear on the document that we've got here.
22 A. Yes, yes.
23 Q. Well --
24 A. I'll look for it.
25 Q. Though I'm pressed for time, I'm going to give you, with the
Page 37587
1 Court's leave, enough time to --
2 A. Right. We can look at it later.
3 Q. I'd like to see it today, if I can.
4 A. It's somewhere in this material. I can't find it right now. I
5 can't even open up all these pages to --
6 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... and review over the days
7 between now and when this court will sit again on Tuesday?
8 A. It has been copied here in your services, and this material can be
9 found under tab 17.
10 Q. I see. You're looking at tab 17. In which case it may be there?
11 A. That piece of information is there.
12 Q. Let's just see if we can find it, because if it's there we can
13 move on, to a degree.
14 A. Fine. Here under this tab. Under item 3 in tab 17. Fresh
15 graves, 144 graves in village Izbica discovered by unit --
16 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...
17 A. It's under tab 17, at the end. There is an annex, a text there,
18 report by the military prosecutor. The last report by the military
19 prosecutor in that tab. The heading is "To the supreme military
20 prosecutor in Belgrade from the military prosecutor in Nis."
21 JUDGE KWON: What is the page number?
22 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] At the end, there is no page number.
23 It's prosecutor's report annexed to this tab.
24 MR. NICE:
25 Q. I don't think we've seen this before. I'll just check, if I may.
Page 37588
1 And it's not one of the untranslated --
2 A. It must be in your binder as well.
3 Q. Sometimes photocopying errors occur.
4 MR. NICE: The short answer, Your Honour, is it hadn't been
5 included.
6 Would Your Honour just give me a minute.
7 [Prosecution counsel confer]
8 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for Mr. Nice, please.
9 MR. NICE: There are a number of documents here that haven't been
10 translated, and I see the documents that I have identified as not having
11 been translated I think are included in the middle of this document. It
12 may be that the better course would be for this document to be photocopied
13 in full and provided to the parties today if that's something that the
14 Chamber could organise.
15 JUDGE KWON: General Gojovic, do you mind that document being
16 photocopied?
17 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I certainly don't mind. On the
18 contrary, I would be glad. But I think it has been photocopied and
19 submitted to you.
20 JUDGE KWON: That will be done.
21 MR. NICE: Thank you very much. And if -- if it can be made
22 available by the witness to whoever is doing the photocopying. You see --
23 immediately at the close of the hearing today.
24 Q. You see, if we can go back to where we were on pages 76 and -- 80
25 -- 68, 68 for you, there's an important fact about Izbica, isn't there,
Page 37589
1 General Gojovic, that we should have in mind; namely that this was the
2 mass burial site that was subject of a video produced by the United States
3 at a very early date in 1999.
4 MR. NICE: It's Exhibit 162 tab 7, for reference of the Court,
5 and tab 6.
6 Q. This particular killing site was publicised internationally,
7 wasn't it?
8 A. I don't know whether it was publicised internationally. I didn't
9 follow that. But I do know that the international public opinion was
10 informed and focused on that quite a lot. But this is not a case of a
11 mass grave. It is a series of individual graves in a small area.
12 Q. You see -- well, whatever. We've got evidence that the United
13 States briefed in respect of Izbica at an early date in, it appears, March
14 of 1999, that there was an aerial photograph taken of a gravesite outside
15 Izbica in May of 1999, and my inquiry of you is this: Is the reason that
16 Izbica is the only serious crime charged in this indictment that finds a
17 reflection in your schedule, that with the international attention focused
18 on it there was no way you could ignore it?
19 A. Let me tell you one thing: In our overview, we have another case
20 of this kind involving 140 graves of victims. In another case yet, 175,
21 that those cases were developed and processed. So there can be no
22 question of what you are saying. What the American services made aerial
23 photographs of cannot be the decisive factor in taking on a case or not.
24 Look at this case of Dosevac. 140 bodies. Ninety-five in
25 Senovac. What's the difference between 95 or 140 compared to 120 that you
Page 37590
1 quoted in the indictment? You cannot take the fact that the American
2 services made a photograph of something as a very important factor. An
3 incident that is not accompanied by a record of investigative organs
4 cannot go anywhere. It doesn't matter what American services recorded.
5 It's what the judiciary and the police discover that matters to us in
6 deciding whether we are going to go ahead with a case or not. The public
7 opinion, international public opinion included does not matter, has no
8 importance, is not relevant.
9 Q. The evidence we have, which is Exhibit 162, tab 7, from the United
10 States has the matter recorded as there being no graves on the 15th of
11 March and new graves by the 15th of April.
12 From your answers, General Gojovic, are you saying that public --
13 international public opinion or international public broadcasting of
14 allegations about what had happened did play a part in the decision
15 whether to investigate?
16 A. What was publicised internationally or not is something that the
17 judiciary organs were not aware of. They were not even a position to
18 follow the international press or television. The prosecutor had the
19 obligation to report it and start a case. What American TV stations
20 reported on doesn't matter. They reported on things that never happened,
21 in some cases.
22 As for when these bodies were buried, it doesn't mean anything.
23 They could have been buried before.
24 Q. Military prosecutors and military court judges have a freestanding
25 duty to investigate -- to inquire into and to investigate matters that may
Page 37591
1 concern the military, don't they?
2 A. Certainly.
3 Q. As you've told us, you're independent of politics.
4 A. Correct.
5 Q. Why didn't you investigate Racak, given the broad public
6 allegations about the involvement of forces included the army? Why didn't
7 you investigate it?
8 A. The military prosecutor did not have the evidence to start the
9 case. What the public says are only stories.
10 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... only stories. Tell me, how
11 do investigations start if they don't start with stories? This is a very
12 serious event at Racak. Why did the military judicial system of the
13 country in which it happened - and Serbia's been very proud of its
14 integration at the time with Kosovo or the other way around - why didn't
15 it investigate Racak?
16 A. They couldn't investigate Racak if they had no evidence that a
17 single soldier killed anyone there or that a military unit attacked Racak
18 population centre. Why would then the military prosecutor investigate
19 that incident if the investigative judge of the district court in Pristina
20 went to the sight to investigate accompanied by the police and the
21 relatives of the victims? I don't know what piece of evidence constitutes
22 grounds for you to link the military prosecutor to this event. There is
23 no such piece of evidence.
24 What Walker said on the scene, the statements he made and the
25 stories that circulated in the public, that doesn't matter at all.
Page 37592
1 Q. And you haven't attended to the evidence of people like
2 Maisonneuve who were quite specific in seeing tanks firing into Racak.
3 You've never focused on that yourself.
4 A. No. There is no such information.
5 Q. Just a few other things. I'll have to come back to tabs 17 and 18
6 after the weekend.
7 MR. NICE: And, Your Honours, this was a document that wasn't
8 listed under the 65 ter, nor was it supplies.
9 Q. I want to deal with this quite shortly, the next point, although
10 it might be necessary to look at some documents.
11 A. Excuse me for a moment, Mr. President. With regard to tab 18, if
12 you allow me one explanation after this remark made by Mr. Nice.
13 JUDGE KWON: Yes, briefly.
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Tab 18 was submitted to the Office
15 of the Prosecutor in January 2004 at their own request. That is the
16 overview about which I said that I drafted it myself. It was submitted to
17 the OTP in January last year.
18 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
19 MR. NICE: Your Honour, I'll investigate that. It doesn't accord
20 with my records and recollection, and I'm come back to that next week as
21 well.
22 I'll move on to something else.
23 Q. Your independence as a lawyer and member of the judiciary, can we
24 start with the Trifunovic trial, please. Trifunovic was the general, was
25 he not?
Page 37593
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. At the time he was a general, you were a colonel; correct?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. You were prosecuting colonel?
5 A. No. I was president of the military court in Belgrade.
6 Q. At the time of his first trial, his second trial, or his third
7 trial?
8 A. The third trial. At the time of the first and second trial, I was
9 deputy of the supreme military prosecutor.
10 Q. There you are. You were a prosecutor, and you were a colonel.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Just to remind the Court, Trifunovic was the officer in charge of
13 one of the blockaded barracks in Croatia; correct?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Just as a matter of flavour or detail, the barracks of which he
16 was in charge lay north of the famous Virovitica-Karlobag-Karlovac line,
17 whereas many of the other blockaded barracks, like Vukovar and Split and
18 Zadar, lay south of the line, correct?
19 A. Varazdin is in the northern part of Slavonia, upward of Zagorje
20 [phoen], closer to the border of Slovenia or the triple border Slovenia,
21 Hungary, Croatia.
22 Q. And we know there was fighting to different levels at the
23 conclusion of the blockaded barracks in Vukovar Split, Sibenik and Zadar.
24 The problem in Varazdin, if it was a problem, was that following massive
25 desertions by the troops and some killings of the troops, Trifunovic
Page 37594
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4
5
6
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8
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12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and
13 English transcripts.
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15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 37595
1 arranged, negotiated the way whereby his remaining mostly young recruits
2 and he were given safe passage to Serbia; correct?
3 A. He did not have authority to negotiate. He had among his
4 personnel 1.500 troops.
5 Q. But other than that comment, my summary for the purposes of this
6 trial is accurate, isn't it? He negotiated a conclusion for the blockade
7 of his troops and got everybody who was left, including himself, safe to
8 Belgrade or to Serbia.
9 A. On the condition that he hand over all his weapons and equipment,
10 and the value of that equipment would amount to $700 million, and weapons.
11 That was the value of it. Which the Croatian army later used in fighting
12 on different battlefields.
13 Q. The first two trials presided over by judges then, I suppose, your
14 equals or superiors -- no. One was a captain. You were a colonel. The
15 first two trials resulted in his being acquitted; correct?
16 A. Yes, that's right.
17 Q. But this didn't accord with the general disposition of the army
18 which ran a massive campaign against Trifunovic; correct? Wishing him to
19 be held as a traitor?
20 A. Quite the contrary. Quite the contrary. The Chief of the General
21 Staff, General Adzic, as a witness, testified to everything that could
22 help. He never said anything to the disadvantage of Trifunovic. So this
23 is a regular example of the courts working completely independently and
24 autonomously. And the military courts rescinded the acquittals, and
25 according to their authority, they said which proof and evidence should be
Page 37596
1 presented by the first instance court to arrive by the right conclusion,
2 which was not the case in the first two trials.
3 Q. So you, then Colonel Gojovic, were one of the prosecutors who
4 pressed for the second appeal, despite the fact that the judge in the
5 second trial said that the superior officers of Trifunovic had a lot to
6 answer for; is that correct?
7 A. I didn't understand your question.
8 Q. You were one of the prosecutors pressing for appeal of the second
9 trial.
10 A. No. No. I didn't act as prosecutor in that trial at all. The
11 prosecutor that acted was in another organisational unit. It was a
12 separate prosecutor working for the SSNO, and he conducted both the trials
13 in the first and second case. So I myself as prosecutor did not take part
14 in that trial, and I came across the case for the first time when I was a
15 judge, as a judge.
16 Q. You were appointed under a system that had appointments of judges
17 made by the President of Serbia on the advice of the Ministry of Defence.
18 You were appointed as a general and judge to try the Trifunovic case at
19 its third hearing, weren't you?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Well, you were appointed as the presiding judge. Yes or no.
22 A. Please. The question has been distorted. I was appointed judge,
23 the president of the court on the 6th of January, 1994. The 6th of
24 January, 1994. And the judgement by the supreme court, which rescinded
25 the judgement of the first instance, was brought in quite a long time
Page 37597
1 afterwards, later. And when the hearing came to court, I was already
2 president of the court, and that's where I encountered the case for the
3 first time and started to work on it as judge, because the first judge had
4 moved to another post, and the second judge was getting ready to take up
5 the profession of lawyer. So all that remained was for me to take over
6 the case because all the other judges had just come to work in the court.
7 So I don't see where the problem is there.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon.
9 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Nice asked an incorrect
11 question, because he said, and I'm reading from the transcript, "[In
12 English] You were appointed under a system that had appointments of judges
13 made by the president of Serbia."
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. At the time, the president of
15 Serbia did not appoint judges. It was the president of Yugoslavia at that
16 time and it was always the president of the federal state who would
17 appoint judges. It is a federal institution not a republican one.
18 MR. NICE: Fine. I'm in error.
19 Q. You see, the trial you presided over has been widely --
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, this is a completely
21 inappropriate comment. How can the accused be the person who appoints the
22 president of the court in 1994? What does "the accused" mean when he says
23 the accused was the person who --
24 JUDGE KWON: It was an error. Yes.
25 MR. NICE:
Page 37598
1 Q. Can we move on. This trial has been widely condemned by your
2 colleagues really as a travesty of justice, hasn't it?
3 A. Who condemned what? I wasn't following you.
4 Q. Yes. This trial has been widely condemned really as effectively a
5 travesty of justice that you presided over. Trifunovic.
6 A. Which colleagues? Which colleagues are you referring to? You're
7 talking about lawyers, defence counsel, what?
8 Q. Your legal colleagues.
9 A. Please. Oh, no, please. Come on.
10 Q. Are you a licensed advocate at the moment?
11 A. Let me answer the first question first. The judgement that I
12 brought in as president of the council was confirmed by the supreme court
13 in Belgrade and that judgement went on appeal to reinvestigate the case
14 with the federal court of Yugoslavia. It is confirmed there too. Then
15 the judgement on two occasions went before a commission to establish the
16 constitutionality and the requests were all rejected, after I had left the
17 court. So that piece of information and that argumentation that the
18 Prosecutor is pointing forward at this point and he wants to gain
19 satisfaction of some kind doesn't hold water. So it went through several
20 court instances and was confirmed on several levels. It was confirmed, as
21 I say. Once I had left the service in general, requests were made for the
22 protection of legality and constitutionality where all the judges were
23 replaced and the request rejected. So this was a judgement that was in
24 conformity with the law.
25 Now, the fact that the Defence counsels were not satisfied with
Page 37599
1 that, that's their problem. There are very few lawyers who are satisfied
2 with court decisions if it goes contrary to the interests of their client
3 and themselves.
4 Q. The simple question to which a simple answer: Trifunovic was
5 subsequently pardoned by Lilic, wasn't he? Just yes or no.
6 A. From serving his sentence. Not from the sentence itself but from
7 serving the sentence due to reasons of health.
8 Q. And you were either denied the opportunity to practice as a lawyer
9 or you had your licence or registration as a lawyer taken away from you on
10 the basis of complaint made of you by your fellow lawyers. Can we look,
11 please -- that's correct, isn't it? And we'll look at a report of this
12 from Danas and see your comments on this.
13 A. That's no problem. The lawyers who were defence lawyers in that
14 case, when I asked to be entered into the register of the bar, they
15 answered and the bar, contrary to the law, revoked my registration and it
16 was rescinded by the supreme court of Serbia. The decision made by the
17 Belgrade bar was revoked, annulled by the supreme court of Serbia because
18 it was unlawful. The proceedings are still under way because they
19 repeated their demands. They did not have the right to revoke my
20 registration to the bar, which was done in keeping with the law on the
21 basis of subsequent filings by the lawyers who weren't satisfied with the
22 judgement. They weren't satisfied. I don't deny that, but they couldn't
23 revoke it. They could do nothing about it so quite normally they were
24 dissatisfied.
25 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... in front of you and it will
Page 37600
1 go on the overhead projector in English and will probably bring me to the
2 end of --
3 A. I don't need it, I don't need it, I know it all.
4 Q. What it says is this, that in an open letter to the Belgrade
5 lawyer association, Belgrade lawyers, and there are three of them,
6 Boturovic, Stanic, and Milan Stanic, disputed your registration, saying
7 that you weren't worthy to be a lawyer because you "left black, not to say
8 bloody trails in the military judicature; as chief justice of the Military
9 Court of Belgrade and Judge of that court assigned the cases, in which
10 evidence and guiltiness of the accused were staged," you "devotedly
11 participated in fixing and sentencing innocent people." You "lead the
12 legal proceedings against Major General Vlado Trifunovic and his
13 collaborators Raduski and Popov." The open letter went on to say that
14 pursuant to Article 121 of the FRY Criminal Code, they were released on
15 charges of subversion of military and defensive powers. "The Judge Milos
16 Sajic was deciding the penal in the first criminal proceedings and Judge
17 Djorde Dozel presided in the second." "... released of charges in the
18 second proceeding." The military leadership wanted to find culprits for
19 all the failures and defeats of the JNA and they found them in Trifunovic
20 and his collaborators so they had to sentence them.
21 The newspaper article goes on to say, or the letter, that it's
22 interesting that during the first and second proceedings you were the
23 deputy of the military prosecutor of the Yugoslav army. "During the
24 proceeding on the appeals against the decisions (he filed an appeal
25 against the find for the defendant) as Chief Justice, he appointed himself
Page 37601
1 as the judge in that case". He presided the main procedure in scandalous,
2 tendentious and a biased manner.
3 Now, is that not the allegation of your legal colleagues about
4 you?
5 A. Those allegations are unfounded and these colleagues took part as
6 Defence counsel. Trifunovic was Branko Stanic's defence counsel. Raduski
7 was defended by Stanic Milan and his son, and Popov was defended by Jovan
8 Boturovic, who was a judge of the military court before. And they were
9 dissatisfied with the decision and ruling of the court which was later
10 confirmed by the supreme military court and the federal court as well. So
11 that is the verification of it, whereas these kinds of complaints were
12 tabled to the Belgrade bar, and they exerted pressure on public opinion to
13 have the decision revoked, but it wasn't, because no -- none of the judges
14 succumbed to this kind of pressure. So these are completely irresponsible
15 stories, not backed up by arguments.
16 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... remaining sentence, and on
17 the second page of the English and at the end of this article turn briefly
18 to another point. Natasa Kandic is a Serb who has brought many events
19 that are uncomfortable to Serbia to light, and she has not pursued the
20 Serb cause in endeavouring to uncover the truth. She works for a
21 non-governmental organisation.
22 We see that the following in the second paragraph on the English
23 on the second page reported against you: "As a suitable and selected
24 member of staff, Gajovic was appointed Chief of the Legal Administration
25 of the Federal Ministry of Defence, although he did not satisfy the
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1 requirements," because you don't have a doctorate in science of law. You
2 were promoted to major general. And as chief of the legal administration
3 you ordered Lakic Djordjevic to write a criminal charge against Natasa
4 Kandic, director of the Humanitarian Law Fund because of the article she'd
5 written "Authority hides responsibility with repression." Lakic had the
6 courage, didn't he, to refuse to do that, and he has instituted an inquiry
7 against you; correct?
8 A. No, not correct. At the time, I was on holiday and what Natasa
9 Kandic has written is incorrect. I didn't order him to write a criminal
10 charge against her, because I was on holiday at the time. I wasn't doing
11 -- I wasn't at work. And whenever Natasa Kandic comes in from the streets
12 to tell a story, she writes whatever she likes. So I would like to
13 suggest that you don't base your questions on what Natasa Kandic said.
14 Q. And lastly, if I may, because we have to --
15 JUDGE KWON: This should be the last question.
16 MR. NICE: Yes, this will be the last, and I hope the last I will
17 have to deal with on these topics on Tuesday, probably.
18 Q. One other allegation that Djordjevic has made about you, a
19 subordinate placing himself at risk for making complaints because he made
20 a complaint about the way that you tried to get your entire legal office,
21 you instructed them to vote for this accused in the elections of 2000, and
22 he complained about your doing that, didn't he?
23 A. Not true. It's funny. Ludicrous.
24 Q. Very well.
25 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. We will adjourn for today. We will
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1 resume at 9.00 on Tuesday morning.
2 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.46 p.m.,
3 to be reconvened on Tuesday, the 22nd day of
4 March, 2005, at 9.00 a.m.
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