BOGOLJUB JANICEVIC’S TESTIMONY CONTINUES: KLA ACTIVITIES ELUCIDATED THROUGH POLICE DOCUMENTS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 22, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Bogoljub Janicevic, the former chief of the Urosevac SUP, continued his testimony at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday.

He began the day testifying about the situation in Kosovo during the 1980s. He said that Kosovo-Albanian nationalists violently repressed Kosovo’s non-Albanian population throughout the ‘80s. He showed the court statistics on ethnically motivated rapes, assaults, and property crimes.

He briefly testified about the 1981 Kosovo riots in which several people were killed. He said that the rioters violently attacked the non-Albanian population, and that some of the rioters even had firearms.

The prosecution has claimed that this riot was a spontaneous reaction to a cockroach found floating in a bowl of soup in the Pristina University cafeteria.

Most Serbs, on the other hand, believe that the riot was organized by Albanian nationalists in a bid to violently remove the non-Albanian population from Kosovo.

Most of Janicevic’s testimony dealt with the information that the Urosevac SUP had about the KLA. He presented the court with several written reports, transcripts of witness interviews, and other assorted documents.

The information that Janicevic presented showed that the 161st KLA Brigade was very strong in the areas of Urosevac and Stimlje. He said that Racak, in particular, had its own KLA sub-staff and a village brigade commanded by Afet Bilali, nicknamed Copa.

Several of the witness statements that Janicevic presented showed that the KLA was threatening Kosovo’s Albanian population and forcing them to flee their homes in order to create a humanitarian catastrophe that they could blame on the Serbs.

One witness statement said that an Albanian interpreter working for the OSCE/KVM was telling Kosovo-Albanians to cry in front of the KVM observers in order to create the illusion of a humanitarian disaster in their village.

The vast majority of Janicevic’s testimony dealt with the composition of the KLA, its members, its organizational structure, its bases, the territory it held and so on.

As the chief of the Urosevac SUP, Janicevic was the most competent police official in the area. He spent a substantial portion of the day confirming the authenticity of several police documents that Milosevic put to him.

Janicevic’s testimony complements the testimony of Dragan Jasovic. Janicevic was the chief of the police Urosevac SUP, which is where Jasovic worked as a detective.

Jasovic testified that 30 out of the 40 people found dead in Racak in January 1999 were known members of the KLA. He based his testimony on witness statements that he had taken from Albanian interviewees. The prosecution sought to undermine Jasovic by alleging (6 years after the fact) that he had beaten Albanian detainees in order to compel them to give false statements.

Janicevic will continue his testimony next Wednesday after Mr. Nice re-cross-examines Gen. Delic in relation to Paddy Ashdown’s latest recollection of where he was and what he saw in southern Kosovo in 1998. Janicevic will be able to vouch for Jasovic’s conduct and credibility, and he will likely provide new information about Racak.

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