COL. VLATKO VUKOVIC REFUTES SEVERAL COUNTS OF THE KOSOVO INDICTMENT
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - October 26, 2005

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

Gen. Milos Djosan completed his testimony at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday. As the man in charge of implementing the Kumanovo agreement, Gen. Djosan was privy to certain information during the first days of KFORs deployment. It was on this basis that he learned of the way in which KFOR deals with mass graves in Kosovo.

In June 1999 KFOR troops unearthed a mass grave in Suva Reka. Upon opening the grave KFOR discovered that the corpses inside belonged to Serbs. Rather than opening an investigation to learn the cause of death and the identity of all the victims, KFOR simply closed the grave.

When Gen. Djosan asked KFOR how come they didn’t open an investigation into who had killed those people, he got the lame reply that KFOR considers a mass grave to be the same thing as a cemetery.

During the re-examination Milosevic asked the witness about several questions Mr. Nice had asked regarding a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council where a decision was taken to station the Yugoslav Army in the barracks at Djackovica.

According to the transcript of that meeting, Milosevic commented on the fact that Djackovica was a stronghold of the Albanian terrorists. He said that stationing the army in Djackovica was vital because "it is a well-known fact that fear keeps the house safe."

During the cross-examination Mr. Nice claimed that Milosevic wanted to intimidate the civilian population by stationing the army in the Djackovica barracks, which the witness denied.

During today’s re-examination Gen. Djosan explained that Milosevic wanted the terrorists to be afraid, not the civilian population. He explained that the population had no reason to fear, because the army had been in Djackovica before. The barracks that they were using had been built in 1932.

Following the conclusion of Gen. Djosan’s testimony Milosevic again raised the question of time allotted for the defense case. He had received information from the registry to the effect that the prosecution had taken 279 days to present its case in chief.

Milosevic noted that the registry did not keep a tally of how many hours had been used by the parties for more than 70 days. This raises the following question; how can the judges limit Milosevic’s time on the basis of how many hours the prosecution took, when those statistics are not available to them?

Judge Robinson was irritated that the matter had been brought up and refused to explain what information he was relying on when he made his decision to limit Milosevic’s time.

The next witness to take the stand was Col. Vlatko Vukovic, the commander of the 2nd Motorized Battalion of the 549th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army.

Col. Vukovic was stationed in the area to the south of Djackovica, which includes the Orohovac municipality, during the Kosovo war. He was in a part of Kosovo where NATO regularly used depleted uranium (DU) weapons.

As a result of his exposure to DU, Col. Vukovic developed severe health problems. By the time he left Kosovo he was practically an invalid. He had difficulty swallowing, and it was difficult for him to keep his balance or walk properly.

His health has improved since he left Kosovo, but he still has some problems. Before his exposure to DU, Col. Vukovic described himself as athletic. He was a man in the prime of his life, he was 39 years old and in perfect health.

The majority of Col. Vukovic’s testimony dealt with specific incidents alleged by the indictment. Gen. Delic already testified about most of this information, but Col. Vukovic was able to provide corroboration on many points that his commanding officer had testified about previously.

The indictment claims that more than 60 Albanians from the village of Bela Crkva were massacred by Serbian troops on March 25, 1999.

Col. Vukovic, who was in that village with his unit on that day, denied that any massacre had taken place. He said that his unit passed through the village, but there was no fighting, the soldiers stayed in their vehicles and drove through the village without incident.

The indictment also alleges that a group of 8,000 Albanians were mistreated by the Yugoslav Army while they seeking shelter on an unidentified mountain near the village of Nogavac. Col. Vukovic was surprised by the indictment’s assertion because there is no mountain near Nogavac.

The indictment alleges that the Yugoslav Army shelled Nogavac and the surrounding villages on April 2, 1999. Col. Vukovic denied shelling the villages; he said that NATO had bombed the area on April 2nd.

Col. Vukovic testified about the ethnic composition of his unit’s command corps. He explained that his unit’s commanding officers were multi-ethnic; the officers were Goranis, Muslims, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Albanians, Gypsies, and Serbs.

The indictment claims that Serbian forces massacred 105 Albanians in the village of Mala Krusa on March 25, 1999. Col. Vukovic denied that there had been a massacre; he explained that an anti-terrorist operation had been carried out and that the Albanians who got killed had died in combat. Indeed, when one looks at the indictment one immediately notices that the people listed as victims of this so-called “massacre” are exclusively men of fighting age.

According to the indictment: “on March 25, 1999, forces of the FRY and Serbia surrounded the village of Celina with tanks and armored vehicles. After shelling the village, forces of the FRY and Serbia entered the village and systematically looted and pillaged everything of value from the houses, set houses and shops on fire and destroyed the old mosque. Most of the Kosovo Albanian villagers had fled to a nearby forest before the army and police arrived. On 28 March 1999, forces of the FRY and Serbia forced the thousands of people hiding in the forest to come out. After marching the civilians to a nearby village, the men were separated from the women and were beaten, robbed, and all of their identity documents were taken from them. The men were then marched to Prizren and eventually forced to go to Albania.”

Col. Vukovic said that the information contained in the indictment was deeply flawed. First of all, there is no forest near Celina. Secondly, the army did not surround the village. The witness explained that the army only returned fire when it was attacked. The army only attacked houses from which fire was being opened at them; nothing was “systematically destroyed.” He noted that several of the houses used by the terrorists had been fortified with sandbags, and were specifically prepared for combat operations.

He also denied that there was any systematic or widespread looting, he said that large-scale looting would have been impossible under the circumstances, because the soldiers didn’t have any place to put the goods even if they had been looting.

Col. Vukovic will continue his testimony when the trial resumes tomorrow.

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