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Ambassador Knut Vollebaek, a Norwegian diplomat, was Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia from 1993 and 1995. In 1999 he was Chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). |
Ambassador Knut Vollebaek describes the situation in Kosovo after the OSCE’s Kosovo Verification Mission had withdrawn, and Slobodan Milošević’s point of view on the exodus of Kosovo Albanian refugees that he expressed during a telephone conversation they had on 24 March 1999.
"It [the OSCE] was very concerned with the situation because a number of people came into Macedonia. The same happened in Albania but maybe the problem was even greater on the border with Macedonia. But again, when I confronted Mr. Milošević with that, he said that they were just picnicking, so I shouldn't be concerned. They were just on a trip, having [a] picnic. I think I said that it was strange to have a picnic with all your belongings on a tractor trailer, but that was the answer I got."
Ambassador Knut Vollebaek provided very important evidence that Slobodan Milošević was put on notice of massive crimes occurring in Kosovo in 1999, and that he willfully risked war in order to gratify his personal quest for power. Meeting and speaking with Slobodan Milošević on several occasions in relation to both the Kosovo and Bosnian conflicts, Vollebaek also gave compelling evidence supporting the Prosecution’s stance that Milošević had a callous disregard for the basic human rights of the Bosnian Muslim and Kosovo Albanian communities.
Vollebaek’s first encounter with Milošević’s views on certain non-Serb communities occurred in 1993 during a meeting he had with him in Belgrade. Serving as Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia, Vollebaek went to Milošević to get him to help with a settlement between the Croatian government and the Croatian Serbs who had seized a large chunk of eastern Croatia. At that time, in addition to fighting the Serbs on its territory, Croatian forces were also fighting Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Milošević told Vollebaek that he would assist with a deal between Croatia and the Croatian Serbs in order to make it easier for Croatian forces to fight the Bosnian Muslims. Milošević explained that such agreement was important because “we cannot have a Muslim republic in Europe”. In his testimony, Vollebaek said that he regretted not responding at the time to this statement as it “violated [his] sense of human rights.” The Croatian Serbs duly attended later peace talks, which assured Vollebaek “that Milošević had a strong influence on the government in [the Croatian Serbs' self-proclaimed capital] Knin.”
Vollebaek later met and spoke with Milošević on several occasions in 1999 while he was presiding over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had a mandate to try and find a peaceful settlement to the Kosovo conflict. During these meetings, Vollebaek said that Milošević gave the impression of being the man who was in command: Milošević was the main speaker at any meetings which included other Yugoslav or Serb officials, including military officers. Importantly for the Prosecution’s case, during each of his meetings with Milošević, Vollebaek discussed the OSCE’s reports about atrocities being committed in Kosovo, making it impossible for Milošević to claim ignorance.
Vollebaek’s testimony supported the Prosecution’s case that Milošević was bent on exercising authoritarian control over Kosovo. He stated that Milošević “felt very strongly that the Albanians would have to comply with … Serb rule” because “as he saw it, Kosovo was an integral part of Serbia”. Milošević, said Vollebaek, “did not want to discuss a great deal of autonomy”.
Vollebaek’s most compelling piece of evidence was the telephone conversation that he had with Milošević on 24 March 1999, hours before NATO’s first bombs began falling on Yugoslavia. After seeing a build-up of Yugoslav military troops and an exodus of Kosovo Albanian refugees from the province, he telephoned Milošević to explain how serious the situation was. Vollebaek explained that he wanted “to try one more time [to see] if I could convince Mr. Milošević to go along with some talks and allow a military presence and so that we could see if we could avoid the military conflict that we understood was coming”.
During that conversation, Vollebaek told Milošević that Serb forces were burning villages, intimidating and killing civilians and that as a result, there was a mass exodus of Kosovo Albanian refugees flowing over Kosovo’s borders into Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Milošević answered that the convoys of Kosovo Albanians moving towards the borders, with their property piled onto tractors, were “just on a trip, having [a] picnic”.
Milošević also dismissed Vollebaek’s remonstrations that Serbian forces were burning Kosovo Albanian villages. Vollebaek told that court that Milošević said “it was nonsense that there were any houses burning. They were only straw that KLA [the insurgent Kosovo Liberation Army] or the Kosovo Albanians put on fire in order to pretend that houses were burning”. Vollebaek told Milošević that as President he was responsible for the lack of security of his own people. He was sorry Milošević failed to realise the seriousness of the situation and invited him to call if he were to change his mind.
The call never came, NATO began its bombing campaign a few hours later on 24 March 1999, and the Kosovo Albanian exodus continued. In cross-examination, Miloševič asserted that the flight of refugees was caused by the NATO bombing. Vollebaek insisted that “they did not flee because of the bombs - that was not a problem for them - but because their houses were taken over.” Vollebaek testified that he visited Kosovo twice after the war, where he saw “a whole village where all the roofs were off, and it was obvious that this was not due to bombing”, but appeared to be a result of fire that was ignited from the ground. The evidence Vollebaek received was that Serb military or paramilitary forces caused this destruction.
Knut Vollebaek is a Norwegian diplomat and politician. He was Norwegian Ambassador to Costa Rica from 1991 to 1993, and his diplomatic experience includes assignments in New Delhi, Madrid and Harare. He served as a Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia from 1993 to 1995. From 1997 to 2000, he was Norway’s Foreign Minister, and in 1999 chaired the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He was appointed ambassador to the United States in 2001 and appointed OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in 2007.
Ambassador Knut Vollebaek testified on 8 July 2002. Read his full testimony.