1 Tuesday, 19 February 2002

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 [The witness entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.00 a.m.

6 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, it's now for you to cross-examine the

7 witness if you wish to. Since this is the first witness and since you're

8 representing yourself, you should be told about the purpose and

9 limitations of cross-examination.

10 The purpose of cross-examination is to ask questions, to test the

11 witness's evidence and credibility, that is, whether he or she should be

12 believed or not. According to the Tribunal's Rules, it is limited to the

13 subject matter of the evidence in chief, that is the evidence given in

14 answer to questions from the Prosecution and to questions as to

15 credibility. It is also the opportunity to ask questions relating to your

16 case, that is the case which you wish to put forward in your defence.

17 The Trial Chamber may permit questions on other matters.

18 Cross-examination is subject to the control of the Trial Chamber in order

19 to make it effective for the ascertainment of the truth and avoid the

20 needless consumption of time. It is restricted to matters relevant to the

21 issues in the trial and must not be used as a way of harassing or

22 intimidating witnesses. Any questions which may reveal the identity of

23 protected witnesses must be asked in closed session.

24 This statement will be put into writing and given to the accused.

25 Now, Mr. Milosevic, do you have any questions for the witness?

1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As far as I was able to understand,

2 Mr. Bakalli is a protected witness.

3 JUDGE MAY: Let me see. We've had that translated.

4 He's not a protected witness; he's Mr. Bakalli. So you can ask

5 anything about his identity if you wish.

6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I read in the papers that he was a

7 protected witness. And then they published that it was -- they were

8 referring to Bakalli, speaking of that protected witness, but thank you

9 for the information you've just given me.

10 If you ensure that the witness gives me yes and no answers, then I

11 shall be, of course, brief.

12 WITNESS: MAHMUT BAKALLI [Resumed]

13 [Witness answered through interpreter]

14 Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic:

15 Q. [Interpretation] You said, Mr. Bakalli, that Kosovo private

16 parallel schools were set up because of apartheid. Yes or no? Could you

17 give me a yes or no answer, please?

18 A. Yes, but they weren't private, but they were public schools. They

19 were not state schools of Serbia.

20 Q. And to which state did those schools belong?

21 A. There were elementary schools, secondary schools, university.

22 They were all under the Serbian Ministry of Education, financed from

23 Serbia, with Serb curricula which you organised.

24 Q. I'm speaking about the parallel schools. You said -- you

25 mentioned parallel private schools because of apartheid. You mentioned

1 that you organised parallel schools because of apartheid. Now, I would

2 like your answer, yes or no, please. Did you or didn't you?

3 A. Yes, except we didn't call them private schools, and they were not

4 private schools. They were public schools, where the people collected

5 money, the population, as far as they could.

6 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Bakalli, just keep the answers as short as you

7 can.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. You said you were a professor of sociology at the university in

10 Pristina?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. Do you consider that every student of sociology, each one of your

13 students, should be able to explain what apartheid is?

14 A. Yes.

15 Q. Could you explain to us what apartheid means? What is apartheid?

16 A. Apartheid with yes or no, or do you want the opinion of a

17 professor?

18 JUDGE MAY: A short --

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. I'm asking you to explain to us what apartheid is.

21 JUDGE MAY: A short explanation, Mr. Bakalli, please.

22 A. Okay. If collectivity, a group, a national group or a racial

23 group, is put by the state into a position outside of the government,

24 outside of the economy, thrown out of education and cultural affairs, that

25 is apartheid.

1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

2 Q. The school curriculum for Kosovo, was it different from the school

3 curriculum for children all over Serbia?

4 A. Yes.

5 JUDGE MAY: Just give us an example.

6 A. For example, history of the Albanian people, which was foreseen

7 under the autonomy system, was eliminated under the Serbian curricula

8 later, and there are other examples of this.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. I don't think you understand me. Obviously you haven't. I didn't

11 ask you what the curriculum and programme was in your private schools.

12 What I'm asking you is about the programme, the curriculum, of state

13 schools throughout the territory of Serbia, which was the same for all

14 schools and all children in Serbia. It was a universal curriculum. Now,

15 according to that state Serb curriculum, was the programme different for

16 Albanian children? According to the Serb curriculum for state schools

17 throughout the territory, did Albanian children have a different

18 programme, different from all the other children in Serbia? That's what

19 I'm asking.

20 A. As far as I know, there was no difference, or difference in the

21 curricula for Albanian language education. It was a unified programme for

22 all of Serbia, for the Albanians and for the Serbs in Kosovo.

23 Q. That means that all children in Serbia followed the same school

24 programme, the same curriculum?

25 A. Yes.

1 Q. In state schools for the Albanian children, was tuition in the

2 Albanian language?

3 A. It could have been, but they did not accept such schools, to go to

4 such schools, because you imposed the curricula. You people imposed the

5 leaders, the principals of the schools, and the heads of the faculties.

6 Q. Just a moment, please. A moment ago you agreed with me that the

7 school programme, the curriculum, was the same for all the children of

8 Serbia, in Serbia, and now you -- I'm asking you whether, for the Albanian

9 children, tuition is Albanian, and you said yes, it was, for those who

10 went to state schools, but that they didn't want to go to state schools

11 because we imposed a programme on them. Now, I claim that for all

12 Albanian children, tuition was in the Albanian language. Is that correct

13 or is it not? I'm talking about state schools.

14 A. They were not in Albanian, or there were not Albanian schools in

15 Albanian language in Kosovo, because the education system was radically

16 changed and the Albanian population refused to take part in it.

17 Q. Do you claim that the Albanian children didn't go to state schools

18 at all?

19 A. I would say that almost no one went to them. Perhaps there were a

20 few minor exceptions. I don't know of any students who did go to such

21 schools.

22 Q. How many exceptions were there, Albanians who went to state

23 schools? Give us an example. Roughly how many Albanians going to state

24 schools?

25 A. I don't know. I don't really think there were any exceptions, but

1 it could be that there were. I don't know.

2 Q. Well, you say you don't know how many of them there were. Was

3 tuition in Albanian for them, for those?

4 A. I don't know. I don't really know of any student or pupil who

5 went to the school, into that school system, once it was put under

6 apartheid.

7 Q. So what you're saying is the following: You're saying something

8 that in fact you now say you don't know.

9 A. No. I said that I knew that Albanians had taken part in the

10 Serbian educational system. What I don't know is if there were Albanians

11 taking part in your education system. That I don't know. I don't think

12 so, but I am not sure. There could have been.

13 Q. Why do you say "our" education system? You used the word "our."

14 Did you consider that the Albanians were citizens of Serbia or not?

15 A. From the moment that the parliament of Kosova approved the

16 Constitution of Kosova, they did not feel themselves that they were any

17 longer citizens of Serbia.

18 Q. We'll come to that later, but a moment ago you used the word

19 "apartheid" again. I should suggest that you read the United Nations

20 definition of "apartheid" before you do so again.

21 What about the Hungarian children? Did the Hungarian children

22 follow the same curriculum as all the other children in Serbia?

23 A. That had been regulated earlier with school curricula under the

24 autonomy status in Vojvodina. This was also for the Hungarian students.

25 What happened later, once you came to power, I don't know what

1 happened to the Hungarians in the Vojvodina.

2 Q. You said yourself that you were an intellectual who always wrote

3 since 1981 to the present day, and you say you don't know what was going

4 on in your own country. Yes or no?

5 A. You don't have the right, because I have observed events, but I

6 can't tell you in detail of what happened to school curricula, the school

7 curricula of the Albanian state who -- of the Serb state. I can't tell

8 you if the Hungarians in the Vojvodina accepted them or not.

9 Q. We have taken note of the fact that throughout Serbia all the

10 children had the same school programme, the same curriculum. And then I

11 went on to ask you, because you say you don't know how many Albanian

12 children attended tuition in the Albanian language, I asked you whether

13 you know whether the Hungarian children had tuition in Hungarian, the

14 Bulgarian children in Bulgarian, and so on and so forth. Do you know

15 anything about that either? You don't seem to. You don't know that

16 either. Just say yes or no. You don't have to go into any lengthy

17 explanations. You don't know, I see.

18 A. No, I don't.

19 Q. So you don't know whether in Serbia the members of the Bulgarian

20 minority attended tuition in Bulgarian. You don't know that either?

21 A. No, I don't know.

22 Q. Do you consider that the school programme which was in force for

23 all children in Serbia should not be enforced for Albanian children?

24 A. It's good for school programmes to be universal for everyone but

25 with concrete, specific elements, in particular, for national elements,

1 for national specific elements. And from the year 1974 onwards, we had

2 school curricula which were approved by the parliament of Kosova, and they

3 had no relations -- Serbia had no right of interference under the

4 Constitution in such school curricula.

5 Q. As we are not challenging the fact that national minorities in

6 Serbia and national -- that national minorities in Serbia are able to

7 attend tuition in their own languages, and as the Albanian children were

8 taught and had tuition in Albanian and were taught the Albanian literature

9 and all other subjects were taught in the Albanian language, do you

10 consider that there is a special Albanian mathematics, physics, biology,

11 chemistry, without going into the exact natural sciences. Philosophy, for

12 example. Was there a separate Albanian Plato, Aristotle, John Moore or

13 anybody like that? Giordano Bruno, perhaps? Galileo Galilei, and so on

14 and so forth?

15 In your opinion, apart from the element of language - and the

16 language element was guaranteed to one and all - why would you think that

17 the school curriculum for Albanian children should be different than for

18 all the other children in Yugoslavia?

19 A. Not only for Albanian children but for the children of all the

20 nationalities of Yugoslavia. Which -- with the exception of mathematics.

21 Giordano Bruno, of course, was common to all the nationalities, but each

22 one did have its own curricula. Not for natural sciences but for history

23 and for culture and for language.

24 Q. Well, I don't suppose you're challenging as far as culture and

25 language is concerned and overall tuition that every national minority was

1 able to be taught in their own language in all state schools.

2 Was the Albanian language -- was Albanian the official language in

3 Kosovo up until this war?

4 A. Yes, on the basis of the Constitution of 1974.

5 Q. And you say that it wasn't on the basis of the change in the

6 Constitution, that it wasn't an official language. Is that what you're

7 saying? You are under a solemn declaration here, Mr. Bakalli.

8 A. You needn't remind me of that. The language of the administration

9 under Milosevic was -- you could use Albanian for some documents.

10 Q. For what documents couldn't the Albanian language be used?

11 A. I'm sorry. That is a subject for which I'm not an expert, legal

12 questions. I am not in a position to reply to that, Your Honours.

13 Q. All right. If an Albanian is taken to court, was it considered

14 that he could address the court only in Albanian?

15 A. Yes. Many of the prisoners whom you took under your reign

16 could -- formally were given the right to reply in Albanian, yes.

17 Q. What do you mean when you say "formally"? Does it mean that that

18 right was not accorded to them on a regular basis; yes or no?

19 A. They were not banned from using their language in court. The

20 question is rather: Why were they in court?

21 JUDGE MAY: For the moment, the question is: What language were

22 they allowed to use? And the answer is: They were allowed to use

23 Albanian. Thank you.

24 A. Yes.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. You also said that the Serbian government didn't want to implement

2 the agreement on the education system.

3 A. Yes.

4 Q. The three-plus-three-plus-three group, is that something that is

5 known to you? I'm talking about the group on behalf of the government of

6 Serbia was led by Minister Vlatomir Vico; on behalf of the Albanian side,

7 it was Professor Fehmi Agani; and on behalf of Centar Ucidi, it was Dom

8 Vicenzo Pajla. Do you know about this group? Have you heard about it?

9 Yes or no?

10 A. I know about it because I've worked for it. I brought the

11 documents which you yourself signed. But I did not work in it precisely.

12 Q. You spoke about the subject, and therefore, I assume that if you

13 talk about a subject, you know something about that subject. You said

14 that no results were achieved. You said that nothing had been done,

15 nothing implemented.

16 A. Yes.

17 Q. Do you remember -- do you remember - and give me a yes or no

18 answer, please - that up until September, the month of September that

19 year, the Albanian side took over the technical faculty, 20.000 square

20 metres in all, and the faculty of economics and faculty of law, which

21 amounted to 16.000 square metres? Do you remember that; yes or no?

22 A. Yes. A process began, sort of, but it was sabotaged, and there

23 was no success. It was never realised under the -- according to the

24 document.

25 Q. How do you consider that it was sabotaged if the Albanian side, in

1 material terms, took over the buildings, which amounted to 20.000 square

2 metres, 16.000 square metres? How, then, do you say that this was

3 sabotage? It took possession of those buildings in order to organise its

4 tuition at the faculties, at the university. Do you consider that to be

5 sabotage; yes or no?

6 A. I'm convinced, yes, that from what I heard from Fehmi Agani, and

7 Fehmi Agani told you at that meeting, in May, that they were totally

8 unsatisfied with the reaction of the Serbian side and with the contacts

9 between the Albanian and Serbian sides, under the aegis of San Edjidio.

10 Q. Leave aside May and everything you've just said about that

11 meeting. Let's leave that aside for the moment. We'll go into that later

12 on. What I'm asking you now is the following: In your opinion, is it

13 possible to describe a sabotage, the implementation of a programme, when

14 the material fact is that at the university, they took over buildings

15 which were 20.000 square metres large and 16.000 square metres large; yes

16 or no?

17 A. I don't think that was a realisation or implementation of any

18 kind. I don't think that was the realisation of the agreement.

19 Q. For our listeners, let me add that this was the peak, the top. As

20 for secondary and primary schools, everything had already been solved; yes

21 or no?

22 A. This did not apply to the elementary or the high school all the

23 time. They have worked in the cellars in private homes.

24 Q. You claim, therefore, that the Albanians did not go to primary and

25 secondary schools, state ones?

1 A. Yes.

2 Q. So you said that the only possibility for schooling Albanians was

3 the parallel system of schools?

4 A. Yes, that's right.

5 Q. Were the rights of Albanian children to attend classes in Albanian

6 language denied to them?

7 A. Yes, because they were denied of having their own programme.

8 Q. And what is the body that approves the curriculum in any country?

9 A. In our country, it was the Minister of Education, to all children

10 in Serbia. Thus, in Kosova, we had the Pedagogical Council of Kosova, as

11 a body of the parliament of Kosova, under the Constitution of 1974.

12 Q. We'll get to that Constitution later on. My question referred to

13 whether somebody denied the right to Albanian children to attend classes

14 in Albanian. Please reply with yes or no.

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. So you are claiming that Albanian children were not able to attend

17 classes in Albanian?

18 A. Only under the illegal system, only in the cellars. In the state

19 schools, no.

20 Q. So you are claiming that in state schools, Albanian children did

21 not attend classes in Albanian language. In state schools, Albanian

22 children could not attend classes in Albanian language; is that what

23 you're claiming? Yes or no?

24 THE INTERPRETER: The witness replied: "Excellent."

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. You also said yesterday that my speech in Gazimestan directly led

2 to changes in the Constitution; yes or no?

3 A. It is not exactly so. I said that after that, we had the

4 amendments to the Constitution, but your speech in Gazimestan was a

5 speech, in my view, that was a programme of war.

6 Q. Okay. We'll, let's leave that aside for the time being. So you

7 said, and then you repeated again today, that after my speech in

8 Gazimestan, the Constitution was changed. All right. Do you remember the

9 date of the Kosovo battle? Do you know that that took place on the 28th

10 of June, 1389?

11 A. Yes, I do.

12 Q. Do you know that 600 years was celebrated on the same day in 1989,

13 on the 20th of June?

14 A. Yes, I do.

15 Q. All right. Is it true that the Serbian Assembly proclaimed

16 changes or amendments to the Constitution on the 28th of March, 1989,

17 which means three months prior to the speech to which you ascribe the fact

18 that it led to changes in the Constitution? You just said a moment ago

19 that after my speech, there were changes in the Constitution, and now I'm

20 giving you the dates that were actually formally recorded as being the

21 28th of March, 1989. This is three months before the date after which you

22 claim the Constitution had been changed. So what is going on here,

23 Mr. Bakalli?

24 JUDGE MAY: Let the witness answer.

25 Yes, the point is made that the changes were three months before

1 the speech. Now, Mr. Bakalli, what's your answer to that?

2 A. The initiative was taken earlier, but it does not relate to what

3 I'm saying. Yesterday I did not at all say that his address -- that they

4 immediately led to the constitutional changes. I referred to it before

5 Your Honours because I thought that it was kind of a call for war, a

6 programme for war, and the initiative, the legal initiative to make the

7 constitutional amendment was taken a couple of months ago. But, as I said

8 yesterday, the Constitution was changed in an unlawful way through use of

9 force. I do not relate his speech to the changes of the Constitution, as

10 something that happened right away, as he's claiming.

11 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

12 Q. Mr. Bakalli, just a while ago, two minutes ago, you said that the

13 changes in the Constitution took place after my speech in Gazimestan. Yes

14 or no, please. At any rate, everyone was able to hear that.

15 A. I think that the essence of the constitutional changes is related

16 to your speech in Gazimestan.

17 Q. Even after that?

18 A. After your speech, the changes occurred.

19 Q. Could you please quote what you're saying from my speech?

20 A. What really impressed me, but I don't have the document with me

21 here, what I -- it really impressed me at that time was the -- your way of

22 addressing it more or less, so that we in Yugoslavia today are waging a

23 political struggle, a struggle waged may assume proportions of an armed

24 war. All what I got from your speech in Gazimestan was the impression

25 that you unfurled a programme of military action or crisis in Yugoslavia.

1 This is what I had the impression then. This is what I wrote about, and

2 this is what I'm telling this Honourable Court today.

3 Q. Okay. I didn't say what you just said, but you did say what we

4 heard from the Prosecution, and this is something that I disputed here

5 when I gave my opening speech.

6 Are you able to provide to me what you wrote at the time? I would

7 be able to give you my speech and newspapers from 1989 containing my

8 speech. Are you able to give me the other papers? You indicated here

9 time, struggle, and you indicated here newspapers Vreme and some other of

10 our newspapers. So would you be able to show me these articles of yours

11 that were published in these papers?

12 A. No, because at that moment I did not write in Nasa Borba and

13 Vreme, but I did write in Albanian-language papers, in a letter I sent to

14 Eagleburger which I published in Vjesnik in Zagreb and in Albanian paper

15 in Pristina. But I don't have them with me now so that I can cite them.

16 Q. All right. But you would be able to provide that for us in

17 Albanian, in Serbian, in Croatian, the articles that were published in the

18 Vjesnik paper. So you would be able to do that? Yes or no? And we would

19 be able to see from those papers how you explained that I in fact issued a

20 call for war in Gazimestan. Is this what you're claiming, that this is

21 what it says in your text?

22 A. I've written there that there you made public a militant --

23 unfurled, I'm saying, a militant programme. I didn't say you declared war

24 but that you have unfurled, as I'm saying, a militant, a military

25 programme, militant programme.

1 Q. You said what you've said. Everything's been recorded in the

2 transcript, so we'll be able to compare and see whether what you said here

3 was in fact printed somewhere or you lied under oath. But let's leave

4 that aside for the time being.

5 Is it true -- is it true that the Assembly of the Autonomous

6 Province of Kosovo -- I apologise. Let me ask you something else that has

7 to do with what you mentioned.

8 When I said the 28th of March, you said, "Well, yes, some

9 initiatives were launched." On the 28th of March, initiatives were not

10 launched. On the 28th of March, there was a final act that took place.

11 So on the 28th of March, 1989, there was a final proclamation of

12 the Constitution at the session of the Serbian Assembly. So there were no

13 initiatives. That had started much earlier. A final act took place on

14 the 28th of March.

15 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, we must move on to a question. What's

16 the question?

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. On the 28th of March, which is in fact three months prior to the

19 28th of June, that was the day when the final act of proclamation of the

20 Constitution of Serbia took place. Yes or no?

21 A. I don't know remember the dates exactly. I cannot pronounce my

22 views on that.

23 Q. The reply is very important, because yesterday you said, and then

24 once again repeated here, that the changes took place after the speech in

25 Gazimestan.

1 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, I think we've dealt with this point.

2 You've made your point. The witness says he doesn't remember the date.

3 We've got the evidence, and we'll have to consider it in due course.

4 If you'd like to move on.

5 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

6 Q. Is it true that the Assembly of Kosovo accepted constitutional

7 changes prior to the 28th of March? Yes or no?

8 A. I say no. This is the argument, please, that the parliament of

9 Kosovo was surrounded by police and tanks. I have personal information --

10 JUDGE MAY: Don't let us continue this argument. We've continued

11 long enough on the 28th of March. Let's move on to another topic,

12 Mr. Milosevic.

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This is not the same topic,

14 Judge May, because there are some other issues that are linked to this

15 which are very important. As we're talking about the Constitution --

16 JUDGE MAY: Let's have another question.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. Is it true that the Assembly of Serbia, pursuant to the

19 Constitution then in force, would be unable to implement these changes

20 without a previous approval of the Kosovo Assembly? Thank you. Now, did

21 the Kosovo Assembly approve this decision on adopting the constitutional

22 amendments? Yes or no?

23 A. It is not a matter of saying yes or no. I can say yes, but it was

24 under the pressure of tanks which were outside the parliament building.

25 JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues] ...

1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

2 Q. You were the only one who saw those tanks. What I'm asking you is

3 this: Did the Constitution -- did the Assembly pass this decision on

4 adopting constitutional amendments? Yes or no?

5 A. Yes, with force, use of force.

6 Q. Is it true that at the session of the Kosovo Assembly only 14

7 deputies voted against this proposal?

8 A. Some were braver and said, "Irrespective of violence, I don't

9 agree with the changes."

10 Q. What I asked is whether it is true that only 14 deputies in the

11 Kosovo Assembly voted against this proposal. Yes or no?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. Please try to focus on the answer. Is it true that a member of

14 the Constitutional Commission of Serbia was from Kosovo, and his name was

15 Professor Surija Popovci. He was also an Albanian, which perhaps is not

16 immediately obvious to everybody here. Is it true that a member of the

17 Constitutional Commission of Serbia was an Albanian and was from Kosovo?

18 Is it true that Professor Popovci appeared on television prior to the

19 session of the Assembly and supported the amendments?

20 A. Yes, but, please ask me a question why he appeared on television.

21 Please ask me.

22 THE INTERPRETER: The interpreters are kindly asking the speakers

23 to pause between question and answer. Thank you.

24 JUDGE MAY: The interpreters have a request, first of all, that

25 there should be a pause, both of you, between question and answer, so

1 could you keep that in mind.

2 Yes. Mr. Bakalli, after you've been cross-examined, the

3 Prosecution will have a chance to re-examine you, which means that if

4 there are any matters, relevant matters, which they want to ask about or

5 you want to give explanations about, you can do it then. Meanwhile, just

6 concentrate, if you would, on answering the questions.

7 Yes.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. Do you know who Sinan Hasani is?

10 A. Yes.

11 Q. At the time constitutional changes were implemented, was Sinan

12 Hasani President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia?

13 A. Yes. He was Chairman of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, and he was

14 on our side.

15 Q. Sinan Hasani is an Albanian, and he was President of the

16 Presidency of Yugoslavia. He attended the session of the Serbian Assembly

17 during which the Constitution was promulgated on the 28th of March. Is

18 that true?

19 A. Yes.

20 Q. Is it true that also all other high officials on the federal and

21 republic level of Albanian nationality were present as well? Yes or no?

22 A. That is not true. Sinan, yes.

23 Q. Are you claiming that only Sinan Hasani was present from the

24 Albanian side?

25 A. Probably there has been someone else. I don't remember.

1 Q. At that time, who held the position of the Chairman of the

2 Province Party Board at the time? Was that position held by an Albanian

3 or a Serb?

4 A. An Albanian whom you have appointed. You brought him.

5 Q. My question was: Was that person an Albanian or a Serb?

6 A. An Albanian.

7 Q. Were other Albanians who were present there, did they come because

8 I appointed them?

9 A. Gentlemen, please. When you deprive a society of its

10 constitutional position, don't believe that they are happy to come to a

11 meeting when you have deprived them, stripped them of their constitutional

12 rights. Hasani was there, but you have to ask him why he was there.

13 Q. Who appointed Sinan Hasani to the Presidency of the -- of

14 Yugoslavia, to be the President of the Presidency?

15 A. To say it bluntly, you, because Albania was under the influence

16 and tutelage of Serbia.

17 Q. Sinan Hasani was elected by the Kosovo Assembly as a member of the

18 Yugoslav Presidency much prior to that. Why don't you carefully consider

19 this? Perhaps you made a mistake.

20 A. No, no. I'm not wrong. You are wrong. Sinan Hasani came to the

21 Presidency of Yugoslavia after you were elected Chairman of Serbia.

22 Q. So you claim that I was the one who appointed Sinan Hasani to the

23 Presidency of Yugoslavia. Is that what you're claiming? Yes or no,

24 please?

25 A. Yes.

1 Q. Excellent.

2 THE INTERPRETER: The witness replied: "You're welcome."

3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

4 Q. Did any of the Albanian deputies who had attended the session of

5 the Serbian Assembly which promulgated the Constitution dispute this

6 Constitution? Yes or no?

7 A. I don't -- you mean in the Serb parliament?

8 Q. It was not a Serb Assembly. It was an Assembly of the Republic of

9 Serbia.

10 A. I don't remember.

11 Q. Do you know who Muharrem Ismaili is?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. Is he a friend of yours and also a director of a bank in Kosovo,

14 also an Albanian?

15 A. He's a Kosovar Albanian. He was the director of Kosova Bank. He

16 is no longer there. And he's a friend of mine. I don't know why you're

17 asking me.

18 Q. Because I want to put another question to you. Did you ask him to

19 come and talk to me?

20 A. Never. That's not true. I have never talked with him that I

21 wanted to talk with you. Never. I've never done that.

22 Q. So you are saying that you did not ask, through Muharrem Ismaili,

23 to come and see me?

24 A. I say in my full responsibility, no.

25 Q. Yesterday you told us how the local security chief, Gajic, under

1 inverted commas, told you about the "Scorched Earth Plan," the so-called

2 "Scorched Earth Plan." Wasn't it logical for you to bring up this issue

3 while talking to me; yes or no?

4 A. Yes, I could have done that, but I did not. I didn't want to

5 become -- to convey the views of others. Maybe I should have done that.

6 I should have done that.

7 Q. Thank you. This is enough material for us to give us an idea of

8 how seriously you assessed this matter. You told us yourself that you

9 were involved in scheduling a meeting with -- headed by Mr. Rugova in

10 order to find a political solution; yes or no?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. You also said that the delegation of the Serbian government,

13 headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ratko Markovic, came only once and held

14 only one meeting with your representatives in Kosovo.

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. Is it true that two meetings between the Serbian delegation and

17 the Albanian side produced joint communiques and that there are joint

18 communiques from two meetings, whereas you said that there wasn't a

19 communique from that single meeting? So is it true that there were, in

20 fact, two meetings; yes or no?

21 A. We had only one meeting between the two delegations, and we issued

22 two separate communiques. We didn't have two meetings.

23 Q. Is it true that the delegation of the government of Serbia, headed

24 by the deputy prime minister, Professor Ratko Markovic, came to Pristina

25 11 times to attend previously scheduled meetings which were not attended

1 by the Albanian representatives. We were able to see this on television

2 every time, Mr. Bakalli. You don't need to be specifically informed of

3 this. Is it true that this delegation went to Pristina 11 times and the

4 Albanian side failed to show up? Mr. Bakalli, yesterday --

5 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, let him answer.

6 A. It may be that the delegation headed by Professor Markovic has

7 come. We have often seen delegations from Serbia coming to Pristina. I

8 went to receive the Albanian side, but these meetings were the result of

9 an arrogance dictated by them as being the HOS.

10 JUDGE MAY: Let's try and get to the bottom of it. What's being

11 put is that there was not simply one meeting, but there were occasions at

12 which the Serbian delegation came to Kosovo to meet, but the Albanian

13 representatives, as I understand it, didn't come. Now, is that the case

14 or not?

15 A. Yes, but these meetings were not planned beforehand. Yes, there

16 are some cases.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. There were 11 such cases; yes or no, Mr. Bakalli?

19 A. I have not kept track of them. I don't know.

20 Q. Do you know that they were not scheduled; yes or no?

21 A. Yes.

22 Q. So you know that these cases, of whose existence you are not

23 aware, were not scheduled previously?

24 A. Yes. As I said, they were unscheduled before, as such, to conduct

25 genuine negotiations.

1 Q. When asked by the Prosecutor yesterday, you replied that there was

2 no will to conduct negotiations on the Serbian side. This is the reply

3 you gave. You can check this. You, in fact, said that the Serbian side

4 was not willing to discuss political settlement. And now here, we can see

5 that they, in fact, travelled to Pristina 11 times and, in fact, your side

6 was not willing to negotiate; yes or no?

7 A. It is not true. It is not true that the Serb side was

8 particularly interested in discussing the status and political issues

9 related to Kosovo position. It was the Albanian side that was interested

10 in such issues. Your delegations came more to deliver lectures against

11 terrorism, to calm down the situation, to calm down the citizens so that

12 it would be easier for you to rule over us, but not to resolve the

13 question of the status of Kosova under the expression of the will of the

14 Albanian people.

15 Q. Let's leave aside the expressions you used, such as the expression

16 of "the will of the Albanian people." That's not what I asked you. What

17 I asked you was: Is it true that the delegation, after a meeting between

18 me and Rugova, at which you yourself were present, came to Pristina 11

19 times to continue those negotiations and that communiques were issued from

20 only two meetings, whereas the other attempts were blocked by you and that

21 you now claim that it was the Serbian side which came to Pristina on 11

22 occasions, did not have the goodwill to negotiate? Is that what you're

23 saying; yes or no?

24 A. It is not true. Mr. Milosevic, you have confused, I think -- you

25 are confusing some issues. After the first and last meeting between the

1 two delegations - and I was a member of the Albanian delegation - we did

2 not receive any offer or did not have any other meetings as such.

3 Q. You therefore claim that what I have just asked you, and

4 whether -- I asked you whether that is correct or not. Your answer is

5 that it is not correct. Am I reading you correctly? Is it correct that

6 the federal premier, an American otherwise - his name is Milan Panic -

7 sometime in 1993, together with Vance and Owen, went to Kosovo and that

8 then too nobody wished to talk to them?

9 A. As far as I know, no, because the prime minister of Yugoslavia did

10 meet with Ibrahim Rugova, if you remember. They were taken in a picture

11 with both hands up. But I don't think it has much bearing to this issue

12 we are discussing.

13 JUDGE MAY: It doesn't matter about that. The answer is you don't

14 know; is that right?

15 A. No, I don't remember.

16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

17 Q. Mr. Bakalli, you were an advisor to Demaci; is that correct?

18 A. Yes, for a couple of months before the beginning of the conference

19 of Rambouillet.

20 Q. Thank you. So you were an advisor of Adem Demaci and you have

21 just confirmed that. Now, as far as I remember - and this is my next

22 question - as far as I remember, you said yesterday that you had nothing

23 to do with the KLA. Now, if I'm not remembering this correctly, or

24 perhaps I didn't hear it correctly, I'm asking you now: Did you have any

25 connections with the KLA?

1 A. With the troops of the National Liberation Army of Kosova and with

2 the staff, the General Staff, I had no connections. As I said, I did have

3 contacts as an advisor - orientations, political and diplomatic advice for

4 the KLA, which was coming up publicly and legally - and in Pristina,

5 contacts with Demaci, a few months, two or three months before the

6 Rambouillet conference. And there was a disagreement between me and

7 Mr. Demaci, so I insisted that the KLA take part in the conference at

8 Rambouillet, irrespective of the initial policies and platforms of the

9 Rambouillet conference. They didn't take into consideration all the

10 aspirations of the Albanian people, but Rambouillet was an important

11 international factor for solving the Kosovo issue in a peaceful and

12 political manner, and at the same time, it helped to affirm the

13 international presence of the KLA. So I insisted that the KLA take part

14 in the Rambouillet conference.

15 Q. As you have finished with giving us an explanation which I didn't

16 ask you for, I have to go back to my question. You confirmed a moment ago

17 that you were an advisor to Demaci, and you also confirmed a moment ago

18 that you had nothing to do with the KLA.

19 A. With the troops, no.

20 Q. Yesterday your answer was that you had nothing to do with the KLA,

21 and it is common knowledge that Demaci is the head of the political wing

22 of the KLA. You are now trying to bypass the truth, if I can put it that

23 way, because you say you had no contacts with the troops. I didn't ask

24 you about which soldier or terrorist you contacted with. My question

25 was: Did you have any connection or links with the KLA? Adem Demaci was

1 the head of the political wing of the KLA and you were his advisor; is

2 that correct?

3 A. I'd like to alter my answer slightly. I had contacts with the

4 KLA, in the form of suggestions, advice, political advice. But I don't

5 want to hide anything; in fact, I'm proud of this.

6 Q. I did not ask you whether you shot or placed bombs or anything

7 else. I just asked you whether you had any connections with the KLA.

8 JUDGE MAY: Just a moment. Mr. Milosevic, he's given an

9 explanation of what he says his connection with the KLA was, so we've

10 heard that. Now, can we go on to the next point?

11 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, we can, we can.

12 Q. Mr. Bakalli, you are a deputy in the Assembly of Kosovo, and you

13 are in the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo; yes or no?

14 A. Yes.

15 Q. Yesterday you said that you were an independent intellectual, a

16 deputy, and not that you were a deputy of the Alliance for the Future of

17 Kosovo; yes or no?

18 A. You changed the question and asked me now I should say yes or no.

19 Just give me a moment to explain. I was a deputy on the list of the

20 Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, because the elections took place on a

21 proportional system and the parties have closed lists. I was asked, as an

22 independent intellectual, to put my name on their list, and I still -- but

23 I still remain independent as such. I like the alliance, I like the

24 people who are in it, so I accepted to have my name put on the list. They

25 called me, and so I did it. As such, I am an independent deputy in the

1 parliament of Kosova, from the list of the alliance, and am a member of

2 the parliamentary group of the Alliance for the Future of Kosova. I don't

3 see what is contradictory here. But I am not a member of any party and I

4 have never been a member, and today I am not a member of the Alliance

5 Party.

6 Q. You are a deputy of the alliance. That is what you have confirmed

7 yourself and that is common knowledge. Everybody knows that who knows

8 what parliamentary elections are. You are on their list, a deputy on

9 their list, a deputy of the alliance; yes or no?

10 A. Yes, I'm on the list of the alliance.

11 Q. Is the president of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo Ramus

12 Aradinai?

13 A. Yes.

14 Q. Are you an advisor of Ramus Aradinai now, at present?

15 A. Should he need my advice, I give it to him.

16 Q. Do you know, in connection with your president, the president of

17 the alliance, that as he wrote, as Elefteros Tipos wrote, according to

18 reports of the British service, where he is called the Mafia Ramus, that

19 Aradinai, is head of the Albanian underground and he engages in

20 trafficking and dirty work in the Balkans and the whole of Europe? Do you

21 know that?

22 A. I do not know that, and that is exactly the opposite of my

23 opinion. I have a very high consideration of Ramus Aradinai.

24 Q. All I'm asking you is whether you know what Elefteros wrote about

25 him, and I quoted what he said. It is a newspaper.

1 A. What is Elefteros Tipos anyway?

2 Q. Do you know that there is a Mafia in Djakovica for smuggling

3 tobacco, armaments, and this is Ramus Aradinai who is in charge of that,

4 your President? Are you aware of that?

5 A. No, I don't know that. I know that he was a good -- he's a good

6 person. He was a very good commander. He was a very skilful commander,

7 and is a good, young politician.

8 Q. 1986, he did his military service in the JNA, the Yugoslav

9 People's Army, and after that, for a number of years, he was in the French

10 Foreign Legion. Do you know that?

11 A. The one I know and the other I didn't know. I have never asked

12 him, so he never told me.

13 Q. Do you know that he was the organiser of armed activities by

14 Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and in Southern Serbia in recent months?

15 Do you know about that?

16 A. No. On the contrary. But I know on the contrary, from

17 conversations, that we had to exert our influence in the Presevo Valley

18 and Macedonia to calm the situation and get rid of the violence there.

19 Q. Do you know that Aradinai is accused of having committed the

20 murders of a number of Albanians and Serbs?

21 A. No. And I don't think that there could ever be any possible

22 evidence for such accusations. I haven't heard of any anyway.

23 Q. Is it true that Aradinai was wounded when he threw bombs at a

24 house, the house of a Sadik Musai, a fellow Albanian from the party?

25 A. The information you're bringing here you've got -- you were very

1 badly informed. I would ask you to be more careful with the information

2 you present.

3 JUDGE MAY: Don't spend any more time. Now, Mr. Milosevic, I

4 think we're getting some way from the detail of this witness's evidence.

5 We've had the questions which you've put in relation to his credibility.

6 So if you can move to another topic.

7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. You spoke of the killing of Jashari yesterday in Donja Prekaz. Do

10 you know that the police surrounded the house to arrest them and that they

11 did not want to surrender themselves to the police and that they shot at

12 the policeman?

13 A. That's your -- what you're saying. I don't know any details.

14 Q. You said yesterday that the police gave them two hours to

15 surrender. So you know the details. Did you say yesterday that the

16 police gave them a two-hour time span to surrender when they surrounded

17 them?

18 JUDGE MAY: No. What he said was -- just a moment. Just a

19 moment. What he said was that you, Mr. Milosevic, said that to him. That

20 was his evidence yesterday, that you said it to him.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That I told him that they had two

22 hours to surrender.

23 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

24 Q. Do you know that Jashari -- let me say before that, do you know

25 that for those two hours -- during those two hours it was the women and

1 children that came out of the house mostly?

2 A. I don't know, but I know that women and children were murdered in

3 the house and around the house.

4 Q. The ones that came out of the house certainly weren't killed, but

5 do you know that Jashari killed even his own uncle at the time because his

6 uncle wanted to go out and surrender? I don't know whether it was his

7 mother's or his father's brother, but an uncle any way. The uncle wanted

8 to go out and surrender, but Jashari shot him. This is contained in the

9 court reports pertaining to the investigation of the event that took

10 place.

11 A. I don't know, and I don't believe it.

12 Q. Do you consider that a two-hour time period is insufficient for

13 terrorists to decide whether they're going to give themselves up or not

14 and that once those two hours had expired they once again opened fire at

15 the policemen and that those who thought -- who wanted to leave the house

16 left? Do you consider that any other police force anywhere in the world

17 would have fled when somebody was shooting at it from a barricaded house

18 behind whose walls there were killers? Is that you're opinion?

19 A. I have nothing to do with police operations, so I can't answer

20 your question. But what I know is that you killed civilians, children.

21 Twelve -- twelve thousand civilians, including old people, women,

22 children, pregnant women, saying all the time that you were fighting

23 terrorism. That I know.

24 And in the case of the Jasharis, after them you killed -- around

25 them you killed women and children.

1 Q. Do you know about the experience the police force had in that same

2 place, Donji Prekaz, on the 13th of May, 1981, when in following

3 barricaded criminals four policemen lost their lives, and the fifth

4 policeman died later on, succumbing to his serious wounds? Because

5 ethnicity is essential. There were three Serbs and one Muslim and one

6 Albanian. They were policemen who were killed in the conflict with those

7 criminals. I assume that you think that five policemen should have been

8 killed once again by Jashari whom, as you know, killed Serbs and Albanians

9 in order to loot them and pilfer them. He killed them for money. He

10 wasn't very -- he didn't mind killing an Albanian or slitting his throat

11 if an Albanian happened to have some money on him.

12 JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues] ... question.

13 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please. Could the speaker switch on

14 his microphone, please? Microphone, please.

15 A. No.

16 THE INTERPRETER: The interpreters did not hear the question. The

17 microphone was off.

18 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Bakalli, I think we've dealt fully with this, and

19 you've given your evidence.

20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May I continue?

21 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

22 Q. [No translation]

23 JUDGE MAY: We're not getting any interpretation.

24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

25 Q. You said yesterday that people were put into prison for political

1 reasons in my day, but nobody could have been imprisoned --

2 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Go on.

3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

4 Q. -- for political reasons.

5 Let me repeat the question. You said that yesterday in my day

6 there were people who were put in prison, arrested, for political reasons,

7 and I say that nobody was allowed to be imprisoned for political reasons

8 and arrested.

9 If what you said is true, if what you said is true, that in prison

10 there was an Albanian, for political reasons, an Albanian had been put in

11 prison for political reasons, did you do anything about it, and did you

12 raise the issue in any of the Western embassies where you said you went to

13 attend receptions? Did you raise that question and issue with Amnesty

14 International, perhaps, or Helsinki Watch or the Yugoslav authorities?

15 How come you did nothing about it? You did not raise this issue because

16 you know that if you had to it would have at least become public knowledge

17 that there was a man, some poor sufferer, who had been arrested by the

18 authorities. Did you raise those issues at all?

19 A. I raised them in -- to the organs of civil rights in Serbia and

20 all the states in Europe and America, the organs of the United Nations

21 too. Everywhere we said, we told them that you are imprisoning people for

22 political reasons. And as a total, you were keeping 2.000 Albanians in

23 prisons for -- imprisoned for political reasons. You know how they were

24 taken, how they were imprisoned.

25 In Djakove, for instance, they just took people out of their

1 houses, in the streets, and sole -- and sent them off to prison in

2 Serbia. There was even -- there was some sort of formal sentence that was

3 passed on them without a normal legal procedure being carried out, and

4 they were sentenced to Draconic sentences and were taken off to prison. I

5 know that I'd like to make another accusation here.

6 Q. And what were the sentences? How long were the sentences?

7 JUDGE MAY: Let us wait for the next question. Yes. The next

8 question.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. Apart from that propaganda about the so-called arrest of people,

11 did you ever state the names of the people who had been arrested

12 allegedly? Yes or no? Who did you give the names to of those arrested

13 people, people who were arrested for political reasons?

14 A. Please, Honoured Court, you should be aware that there are many

15 humanitarian societies, even in Serbia, who know the names better than I

16 do. Pressure was exerted against them from the state. They themselves

17 wanted the prisoners to be liberated, the Albanian prisoners who were in

18 Serb prisons. I'm not talking about normal prisoners, normal convicts.

19 I'm talking about political prisoners under the reign of Milosevic.

20 JUDGE MAY: You were asked who you gave the names -- you were

21 asked who you gave the names to.

22 A. There are two or three Serb councils there -- which are

23 maintaining a very positive attitude. Mrs. Biznarko knows. Another

24 distinguished lady - I don't remember the name now - knows about them.

25 Then all -- all the international institutions engaged in human rights

1 protection know them, as well as the Kosova Council for the Protection of

2 Human Rights and Freedoms. They all know the exact names, and they have

3 sent these names to the relevant bodies, whereas the prosecutors, many

4 prosecutors, always go to the Minister of Justice of Serbia and present

5 him the names. So the Serbian authorities know. They know whom am I

6 talking about, who the political prisoners are.

7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

8 Q. I'm asking you for the names of the victims, the alleged victims

9 that you are speaking about and not the name of the lady, as you say, that

10 you contacted. Do you have the names of those victims?

11 A. We have the names of the political prisoners as well as the

12 victims. For the moment, I don't have them with me. I might tell that --

13 I might tell you only that I remember -- I told you the name of Ukshin

14 Hoti, the way he was taken out of prison and disappeared without leaving

15 any trace. Then I -- many other names I may give you at any other moment

16 as pieces of the evidence or through witnesses to The Hague Tribunal.

17 Q. Therefore, to clarify things, you say that there were political

18 prisoners who were condemned for political reasons, for verbal offences.

19 Do you know that we have abolished verbal offence as such from the

20 Criminal Code?

21 THE INTERPRETER: The witness said, "Yes," earlier.

22 A. Yes, but they changed it later. For example, the accusations made

23 against a large number of youths who are sent to prison was that you have

24 invited NATO to come here and that you are the rear front of KLA. They

25 didn't have any arms, any uniforms on them. They were taken to prison

1 right from the street or from the homes.

2 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

3 Q. You're talking about the KLA terrorists who were arrested? Is

4 that who you're talking about?

5 A. No, I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about ordinary

6 citizens who were taken away from their homes in Djakove, for example.

7 They did not have anything to do with KLA. But you accused them in order

8 to fill the Serbian prisons with them. And I think that those 2.000

9 people who are detained in prison, in Serb prison, were not only -- were

10 not political prisoners.

11 Q. Let's leave to one side the time of war. I'm talking about the

12 time prior to the war and throughout the last 12 years. Were there any

13 political prisoners in the prisons themselves before the terrorists?

14 A. Yes.

15 Q. There were? Is that what you're saying? Do you know who they

16 were?

17 A. Ukshin Hoti is one example. He was tried eight years ago.

18 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Mr. Milosevic, it's now half past ten, and we're

19 going to adjourn for 20 minutes.

20 How much longer do you think you're going to be with this

21 witness?

22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It depends on his answers. I have

23 questions and subquestions, Mr. May. I will probably need about one or

24 two hours. Who knows? It all -- my questions have to do with what the

25 witness said yesterday. So many lies. That many lies demands a lot of

1 questions, and that is why the Court is here.

2 JUDGE MAY: We're not -- we're not going to listen to any comments

3 now, but we should aim, if possible, to finish this witness today.

4 Has the amicus got any questions?

5 MR. WLADIMIROFF: No, Your Honour.

6 JUDGE MAY: Thank you.

7 --- Recess taken at 10.30 a.m.

8 --- On resuming at 10.55 a.m.

9 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

10 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

11 Q. You said yesterday that Albanians were dismissed from work en

12 masse, although you know full well that there was a directive issued by

13 Albanian separatist parties to boycott going to work. Do you know this

14 word, "boycott," and the concept that I just described? Is it familiar to

15 you?

16 A. As far as I know, the independent labour union of Kosova did

17 indeed use the word "boycott" in order so that the workers of Kosova would

18 not sign the declaration of loyalty towards the Serb state.

19 Q. That's another issue. But since you've just opened it up, I have

20 to digress myself. What declaration on loyalty to the Serbian state are

21 you talking about? Was there a declaration on loyalty to the Serbian

22 state; yes or no?

23 A. Yes, there was a declaration of loyalty towards the Serb state in

24 Kosova.

25 Q. Who wrote this declaration?

1 A. The responsible organs of the Serb state in Kosova.

2 Q. Since this is the first time that I've heard about some

3 declaration of loyalty, could you please give us the text of this

4 declaration? Could you provide it for us, this declaration of loyalty to

5 the Serbian state that allegedly Albanians were required to sign?

6 A. Yes. I can bring it to Court as soon as I return to Pristina and

7 get it.

8 Q. Are you aware that nobody in Serbia knows or has heard of this

9 declaration, starting from me?

10 A. No, I did not know that.

11 Q. But as I understand it, you are familiar with the word "boycott"

12 when referring to work obligations proclaimed by the so-called Independent

13 Trade Union of Kosovo?

14 A. Yes, because the trade unions were under pressure from the

15 membership as to what to do if people would be asked -- forced to sign

16 such a declaration.

17 Q. So you claim that they were required to sign a declaration in

18 order to be able to work?

19 A. Yes.

20 Q. Can you provide us with one of those signed statements or

21 declarations?

22 A. Yes. I'm sorry, I don't have it with me at the moment.

23 Q. Do you make a distinction between a person who is dismissed and a

24 person who boycotts going to work?

25 A. In this specific case, there is no distinction, because Albanian

1 workers were collectively put in an intolerable position, collectively and

2 personally, each one, to be forced upon their knees. They were forced on

3 their knees, and for this reason, it's the same as being thrown out of

4 your job.

5 Q. And through what means were they thrown to their knees?

6 A. By the fact that they were being forced to show loyalty to the

7 Serb state.

8 Q. Since that is not true, can you perhaps tell us what document

9 issued by the government of Serbia asked for this declaration of loyalty

10 by Albanian residents?

11 A. I'm sorry, I don't have one of these forms with me, but,

12 Honourable Judges, I am sure I can send it from Pristina.

13 Q. All right. Since we're talking about this now, since we are

14 mentioning the power structure in Serbia, which body was responsible for

15 issuing this declaration? Was it the government? Was it the parliament?

16 Was it me, as the president of the Republic? Was it some ministry? So

17 which body within the power structure, according to you, issued this

18 phantom-like declaration that had to be signed?

19 A. I cannot answer the question concretely.

20 Q. Is it possible that something that is being carried out en masse,

21 and publicly, can in fact be issued in secret and then distributed; yes or

22 no?

23 A. I have no comment to your question.

24 Q. I'm asking you, yes or no. You are not giving an interview to the

25 newspapers here. You are under oath.

1 A. I realise that I am before Court. I'm telling you, the accused,

2 that I do not wish to reply.

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Bakalli --

4 THE WITNESS: Yes.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: You have seen this document?

6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: And you know who issued it, where it came from?

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This document came from the

9 directorates of the authorities which were imposed by Belgrade upon the

10 companies in question.

11 JUDGE ROBINSON: [Previous translation continues] ... the document

12 itself?

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. Does that mean --

15 JUDGE MAY: [Previous translation continues] ... question.

16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The document was distributed and was

17 imposed by the authorities forced upon Kosova companies from Serbia, by

18 Serbia.

19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Continue, Mr. Milosevic.

20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

21 Q. So this story about the declaration is becoming a bit more clear

22 to me. So as I understand it, you are claiming that the administrative

23 bodies, or administrative organs of the Kosova enterprises were appointed

24 by the authorities in Belgrade and that these organs of enterprises asked

25 their employees to sign some declarations.

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1 A. Yes.

2 Q. And based on that, you conclude that this task was assigned to

3 them by the government of Serbia?

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. And this is something that you saw happen?

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. And an enterprise. Which enterprise?

8 A. In Trepca, the thermoelectric centre in Obilic. Those two cases I

9 know of.

10 Q. So in two enterprises you know that somebody asked Albanian

11 employees to give this loyalty declaration?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. And what was this supposed to mean, this loyalty declaration?

14 They were citizens of Serbia. What loyalty are we talking about here?

15 A. The meaning was that Albanians in Kosova, they did not feel that

16 they were citizens of Serbia, and they declared in a referendum that they

17 were for the Republic of Kosova.

18 Q. And what is stated in that declaration that they had to sign in

19 the Trepca and Obilic enterprises?

20 A. A free interpretation would be: I am loyal to the Serb state, to

21 the Serb government, and to the leadership of Serbia and the leadership of

22 the enterprise.

23 Q. Do you mean the leadership of the enterprise or the leadership of

24 Serbia?

25 A. Leadership of the enterprise.

1 Q. Does that mean that the employees were supposed to give a

2 confidence vote to the leadership of their enterprises?

3 A. No. They had to give their loyalty -- or to vote on their loyalty

4 about the Constitution, the constitutional change in Serbia, under which

5 the autonomy of Kosova was annulled.

6 Q. You are saying that the constitutional changes, in fact, abolished

7 the autonomy of Kosova; is that what you're saying? We will get to that

8 question later on.

9 A. Yes. It could be called autonomy today, yesterday, or under your

10 reign, but the contents of the autonomy, that's what you destroyed.

11 Q. So to my question concerning whether you made a distinction

12 between a person who was dismissed and a person who boycotts going to work

13 implied that there was no difference between them. Did I understand you

14 well?

15 A. In this case.

16 Q. Yes. And you explained that you supported that with a political

17 view, political position of those who wanted an independent Kosovo.

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. Is the political position concerning the status of some territory

20 from the constitutional, legal point of view have anything to do with the

21 right to employment and work that somebody has at any enterprise? Yes or

22 no?

23 A. Yes, it has a connection.

24 Q. That means that those who want Kosovo to be a republic can boycott

25 going to work to Trepca and Obilic for legitimate reasons? Yes or no?

1 A. Yes, because the enterprises were -- had been transformed into

2 state enterprises of Serbia, and their leadership were appointed from

3 Serbia.

4 Q. The power company was -- in Serbia was always a state-owned

5 company.

6 A. The electric company was always a big Serb company as a state

7 organisation and -- but had no connection with other similar enterprises

8 in Kosova such as ElektroKosova. ElektroKosova was never under --

9 subjected to the Serb electric company. It was only when Milosevic

10 arrived and the changes, the constitutional changes, took place.

11 Q. Since you know yourself that that is not true because the

12 electrical power system is something that is of a comprehensive nature and

13 has to be linked between its various components, so the electrical power

14 of Kosovo could be as independent as the one in Vojvodina and other areas,

15 and you know that the electric power system is one unit.

16 A. Yes, from a technical point of view and from technical questions,

17 of course. But they were completely -- the two enterprises were

18 completely independent of one another. They had no links.

19 Q. Let's leave your opinion aside. You've just explained to us that

20 the workers in Kosovo had every reason to boycott going to work because of

21 political reasons, because they wanted Kosovo to be an independent

22 republic. Yes or no?

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. Which means that they boycotted going to work for political

25 reasons, not because they were dismissed. This is the very reason I asked

1 you whether you made a distinction between somebody who boycotted going to

2 work and somebody who was dismissed. There is no country in this world

3 where somebody can refuse going to work for political reasons and then

4 claim to have been dismissed. Nowhere in the world can you see an example

5 of this. You said so, I think. Everything is clear now. We can go on.

6 A. It is clear.

7 Q. You said that Albanians did not attend the celebrations in

8 Gazimestan, the celebrations of the battle.

9 A. They did not.

10 Q. Are you sure that out of 2 million people in Gazimestan there was

11 not a single Albanian?

12 A. I can be -- if I'm sure that there was any Albanian there, there

13 might be one, but I know that the Albanians did boycott your speech in

14 Gazimestan.

15 Q. Are you aware that the entire Presidency of Yugoslavia, including

16 representatives of all Yugoslav republics, were present at Gazimestan?

17 Yes or no?

18 A. No. Exactly the opposite. None of the members of the

19 leadership -- some of the members of the leadership, under your

20 insistence, were there. The Slovenes arrived but not the others. There

21 were not even diplomatic representatives there, then no Albanians.

22 You tried to raise a mass atmosphere there for your own political

23 purposes.

24 Q. Mr. Bakalli, do you know that there is film footage and TV footage

25 showing that, without exception, representatives of all republics attended

1 the event at Gazimestan, including the Presidency of Yugoslavia? And with

2 the exception of one or two members of the Diplomatic Corps, all members

3 were present. Do you know this?

4 A. I don't know that, and I don't believe it. Well, there may have

5 been, but not the way you say it was.

6 Q. So you are saying that this is not how it was. Excellent.

7 A. Yes.

8 Q. Based on what do you believe that none of the Albanians should

9 have attended the celebrations in Gazimestan?

10 A. I didn't say they ought not to attend. I said that they did not

11 attend, the Albanians, because they felt themselves -- I understood the

12 motives of Milosevic and why he held that big celebration. They were only

13 nationalists. There were nationalist reasons. There were 2 million Serbs

14 from all southern Serbia who arrived in Kosova. They knew what type of

15 speeches would be held there, and when the -- the speeches were heard,

16 they realised it was true.

17 JUDGE MAY: We will get on more quickly if you keep your answers

18 fairly short, please.

19 Mr. Milosevic, we have, I think, exhausted this topic now.

20 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

21 Q. You said that based on the 1974 Constitution everything was fine.

22 This Constitution was amended in 1989; is that so?

23 A. Yes.

24 Q. And you do know, don't you, how many demonstrations there were

25 prior to 1989? So between 1974 until 1989 when, according to you,

1 everything was perfect, do you know how many destructive demonstrations

2 with the same requirement for a Kosovo republic were there? Do you know

3 about these demonstrations?

4 A. Yes, I know about the demonstrations, but didn't say that the

5 Constitution of 1974 was the best possible solution. The Constitution of

6 1974 was a compromise between the will of the Albanian people, which

7 didn't want any -- to have anything in common with the Serb government and

8 with Serb rule and wanted to be an independent republic and the situation,

9 the balance of forces at the time in Yugoslavia in which -- under which

10 it -- full autonomy had been given to them within the federation within --

11 but within the framework of Serbia. There were, even after the

12 Constitution was approved and later, and in 1981 and after 1981, there

13 were many, because the objective of the Albanians was to have that Kosova

14 be a republic, not like -- like Croatia, like Slovenia.

15 Q. These demonstrations in 1981, were they justified?

16 A. The demonstrations of 1981, in fact, expressed precisely this

17 objective of the Albanian people who wanted to bring about such changes to

18 ensure that Kosova became a republic. Since I was chairman of the

19 regional committee, I say then and I say now that they were not

20 reasonable. I did not solidarise with them. I did not solidarise,

21 however, with the assessments made by Serbia and by Yugoslavia, namely

22 that these demonstrations are a counter-revolution. In the communist

23 vocabulary, it means use of violence, unlimited violence against the

24 people. That is why I had a conflict with the party that I belonged up to

25 that moment.

1 Q. With the constitutional changes in 1989, were the Albanians --

2 were any human rights or civil rights or minority rights abolished with

3 those changes of the Constitution?

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. And we knew -- you know what I mean by human rights, civilian

6 rights, minority rights. With the 1989 constitutional changes, were the

7 Albanians stripped of any of these rights, human rights, civil rights, and

8 minority rights?

9 A. Following the changes you made to the Constitution in 1989, some

10 individual rights, civic rights, and national rights of Albanians have

11 been impaired.

12 Q. Which rights were abolished? It is easy to say. You have the

13 1974 Constitution, and you have the amendments in 1989. Now, tell us,

14 please, which were the human, civil, and national rights that the

15 Albanians were stripped of that had existed in the 1974 -- under the 1974

16 Constitution? What did the changes, the amendments abolish? Tell us,

17 please. Enumerate just one of them, just one.

18 A. The right to organise themselves, to have their own

19 self-governance.

20 THE INTERPRETER: "Self [inaudible]", says the witness.

21 A. And to promote, culture, science, all the functions which they had

22 before under the autonomy granted by the Constitution of 1974. All had

23 been taken away.

24 Isn't it a violation of the collective civil and human rights?

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. Mr. Bakalli, I am asking you whether the constitutional changes

2 took away any of the rights of the Albanians, civil rights, civic rights,

3 human rights?

4 A. I say substantially yes.

5 Q. You will have to compare the 1974 Constitution and the 1989

6 amendments and tell us: Which right was abolished by which constitutional

7 amendment? Are you able to do that?

8 A. I'm trying to do that now orally. You have taken away the

9 elementary right of self-governance, which we used to do in an autonomous

10 way. You took away our right to have our own police. You took away our

11 right to make our own political forecasts. You took away our right to

12 have our own education and prepare our own curricula. But excuse me, I

13 can later, if Your Honours are interested, I can bring you further details

14 explaining to you where our elementary rights have been violated as

15 citizens and as a nation, these constitutional amendments that were

16 dictated to us by Milosevic.

17 JUDGE MAY: I have no doubt that in due course, these documents

18 will be put in front of us and we will be able to make our own minds up

19 about them.

20 Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

21 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

22 Q. Mr. Bakalli, do the Albanians have their own national state? Yes

23 or no, please.

24 A. Yes.

25 Q. What is the name of that state?

1 A. Republic of Albania.

2 Q. Republic of Albania, you say. Is Kosovo part of Albania?

3 A. No, it is not. Kosovo is not part of the -- sorry. Yugoslav.

4 You said Serb. Sorry. It's not part of the Albanian state.

5 Q. Is Kosovo an autonomous province within Serbia?

6 A. It used to be, and that was a compromise solution reached at given

7 moments of our history, but --

8 Q. What moment of history are you talking about?

9 A. I'm talking about the Constitution after the Second World War, and

10 we have always had the status of autonomy in the context of Serbia.

11 That's a fact. But the objective, the aspiration of the Albanian people,

12 as of 1912, has always been that this was the wrong solution for them, to

13 have Kosova under the Serb state, and this has been always the case with

14 the Albanian people, thinking that Kosova does not like to be under the

15 rule of Serbia. Therefore, the Albanian people of Kosova have declared

16 their will to set up their own independent Republic of Kosova, outside the

17 jurisdiction and rule of Serbia.

18 Q. Is Kosovo and Metohija -- were they an autonomous province, both

19 according to the constitutional changes of 1989?

20 A. Formally, yes. By name, yes, but not in the content, in essence,

21 because nothing was decided by the Kosova institutions.

22 Q. Do you give those explanations from the aspects of an independent

23 Kosovo?

24 A. I didn't understand the question. Please repeat it.

25 Q. Are you giving us those explanations from the standpoint of an

1 independent Kosovo?

2 A. I am giving this assessment in terms of the autonomy Kosova

3 enjoyed before you came to power and before you amended the constitutional

4 position of Kosova. With respect to the people of Kosova, they are not in

5 favour of your Constitution and not in favour of our Constitution of

6 1974. That is, they are determined to have their own Republic of Kosova,

7 where all citizens are equal - Turks, Bosnians, Romas - to have

8 interethnic tolerance, which at this moment does not exist, but we are

9 going to build it, establish good relations, neighbourly relations with

10 Serbia and its people, as well as Montenegro, Macedonia, and Albania.

11 This is our objective, to have independent Kosova.

12 Q. So you are now striving, in fact, for an independent Kosovo. Do

13 you know that the conditions under which the war was stopped, and in the

14 name of Chernomyrdin and Ahtisaari brought in, are such that they

15 guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, and

16 that it is on the basis of conditions accepted in this way that the 1244

17 resolution of the United Nations Security Council was brought in, in which

18 all this was reiterated, repeated, guaranteeing the sovereignty and

19 territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and that this

20 enabled and guaranteed the protection of all the citizens of Kosovo, the

21 population of Kosovo, and a political solution to the issue? By what you

22 are now saying, are you yourself, therefore, against showing respect for

23 the conditions under which the war was stopped and are against respect of

24 the United Nations Resolution 1244, UN Security Council Resolution 1244,

25 which sets this out and establishes that?

1 A. No. I said that what the objective and aspiration of the Albanian

2 people of Kosovo is, but we all respect and abide by Resolution 1244,

3 endorsed by the Security Council, and we think that there is still a long

4 way to go before we will need the international administration of Kosova

5 for quite some time, before we start the process of starting to build our

6 democratic, political, and state institutions in Kosova, and then, from

7 that, we can start negotiations on determining the final status of

8 Kosova. But even when that time comes, I want to tell you what the

9 orientation, the inclination, and determination of the Albanian people of

10 Kosova is. This does not run counter in any way to Resolution 1244. We

11 have never sought to make changes of the existing borders; that is, we do

12 not want to impair in any way the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia. We

13 want to respect it. Regarding the sovereignty of Yugoslavia and Serbia in

14 Kosova, it is not existent for three years now, and the new reality is

15 such that they do not have any sovereignty there.

16 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Bakalli, I think we're now moving some way from

17 the subject matter of this trial.

18 Mr. Milosevic, can we go on to another topic now?

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, we can, but I just have to

20 indicate the fact that this rhetoric on the alleged respect of the

21 conditions under which the war was stopped and Resolution 1244 is in

22 complete contradiction with the answer given previously, when asked

23 whether he strove for an independent Kosovo. But I will move on.

24 Q. You said that the people of Kosovo, at a referendum, decided for a

25 Kosovo republic, that they opted for that. What about the Serb people in

1 Kosovo? Did they opt for a Kosovo republic as well?

2 A. No, or not yet. I hope that tomorrow, sometime in the future, the

3 Serb people of Kosova, as citizens of Kosova, will share their fate with

4 the bulk of the Kosovars who are Albanians and will reconcile to the fact

5 that they are no longer citizens of Serbia but are citizens of Kosova, who

6 have full rights and are guaranteed -- their life is guaranteed in the

7 Republic of Kosova.

8 Q. Mr. Bakalli, I understand your need to use all this rhetoric and

9 to utter all these things, in view of your newly established political

10 positions, but I should like you to answer my questions with a yes or no,

11 because they have all been put in such a way that a yes-or-no answer is

12 possible. So what I have just asked you is whether the Serb people in

13 Kosovo opted for a Kosovo republic.

14 A. Not yet, I said.

15 Q. Not yet, you say. What about the Turks? Did they come out in

16 favour of a Kosovo republic, the Turks in Kosovo? Or to make it shorter,

17 without asking you one by one, the Goranis, the Muslims, did they too opt

18 for Kosovo republic? And whether your uni-national referendum for a

19 Kosovo republic, a territory which is part of Serbia and where seven

20 ethnic groups live, do you identify the Albanians with the Albanian

21 nation, with the Albanian people, and part of the territory of a sovereign

22 state with the status of a right to secession, whereas a moment ago you

23 said that the Albanians have a national state of their own and that the

24 name of that national state is the Republic of Albania? Do you therefore

25 consider that the Albanians should have two states and the Serbs not have

1 a single state?

2 JUDGE MAY: Just a moment, Mr. Milosevic. Mr. Milosevic, we're

3 getting away from the original question. The original question -- just,

4 Mr. Bakalli, listen. The original question was: Did the Turks - and one

5 or two other nationalities were referred to - did they support the

6 referendum or not? Did they favour a Kosovo republic or not? Perhaps you

7 can answer that shortly.

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Under the will and the election

9 programmes of the political parties of Bosnians, Romas, Turks, they are

10 all -- they have stated they are all for declaring Kosovo an independent

11 republic. The Serbs, no.

12 JUDGE MAY: Very well.

13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Not yet.

14 JUDGE MAY: Very well. That is the answer.

15 Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

17 Q. Do you know of a single state, a single country, in which a

18 national minority proclaimed its own state while killing and evicting all

19 the other inhabitants and citizens? Do you know of a single example in

20 the world? Can you quote a single example? Let me repeat --

21 A. I'm clear. I can't cite here world examples, but please, don't

22 forget that when we are talking about Kosova, we are talking about 90 per

23 cent of its population being Albanian, and their rights can be granted

24 only if they have their independence from Serbia. But by establishing the

25 Republic of Kosova, we are not saying that they are establishing the

1 Albanian Republic of Kosova. We will establish the Republic of Kosova,

2 composed of all the nationalities, all the ethnic groups, who have equal

3 rights. It would be absurd to say that there are two national states.

4 The Republic of Albania is an Albanian state, Kosova is state of Kosovars,

5 where 90 per cent are Albanians.

6 JUDGE MAY: Next question, please.

7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

8 Q. I asked for an answer to my question, and I didn't ask for a

9 speech about Albanian separatism. What I asked was very specific. I

10 asked: Do you know of a single country in which the national minority

11 proclaimed its state and killed and evicted all the other citizens with

12 the state proper agreeing to that and allowing that to happen? Do you

13 know of any such example or not?

14 A. Albanians are not a national minority in Kosovo.

15 JUDGE MAY: We've taken this as far as we can. Mr. Milosevic,

16 move on, please.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. In view of the fact that a moment ago you stated that you did not

19 agree -- you expressed your disagreement from earlier days and you failed

20 to answer my question of why demonstrations existed from 1974 until 1989

21 when everything was fine, I would like to remind you of certain events,

22 and I should like to ask you to answer some of my questions in that

23 regard.

24 Why were there demonstrations in 1981, for example, when the

25 Constitution was changed 18 years later in 1989 or, rather, eight years

1 later in 1989? Why were demonstrations held then in 1981?

2 A. I think I answered this question, but I will, however, say that

3 these demonstrations wanted the acceleration of the process for the

4 building of Kosova outside any state links with Serbia, that is, for the

5 republic of Kosova.

6 Q. Very well. You say that those demonstrations called for a

7 development -- do you remember that you yourself were President of the

8 Committee of National Defence and Social Self-protection at the time the

9 demonstrations were being held in Kosovo?

10 A. Yes.

11 Q. Do you remember that you personally, Mahmut Bakalli, in your

12 capacity as President of the Committee for Total and National Defence, or

13 All People's Defence, on the 2nd of April, at a meeting asked for the

14 Yugoslav People's Army to bring tanks out onto the streets?

15 THE INTERPRETER:

16 A. [Indiscernible], says the witness.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. There are transcripts and reports about that, Mr. Bakalli.

19 A. This is not at all true. When the state Yugoslav leadership -- I

20 don't remember the date.

21 Q. Very well. Your answer is no, then, is it?

22 A. No. Then I said this is not right to use the army.

23 JUDGE MAY: Both of you, one moment.

24 Now, you may make a short explanation, Mr. Bakalli.

25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have always thought that we should

1 not dramatise demonstrations of 1981, should not involve in them the

2 army. The Yugoslav leadership, the state, not the party, the state

3 leadership - they were eight persons - they have decided without my

4 presence - I was in Pristina then - to mobilise the army, the Yugoslav

5 army in Kosova. I expressed my displeasure at that, and I felt really bad

6 when I saw a commander, military commander, telling me that he had orders

7 to bring the army troops in the streets, which I considered an erroneous

8 act.

9 JUDGE MAY: Very well. Very well. You've given -- you have given

10 the explanation. You have given the explanation.

11 Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. It is not contestable that the army is led by the federal peaks of

14 power. Therefore, it is not contested that the Presidency ordered that

15 tanks go out onto the streets. But it is being contested -- what I asked

16 you is being contested, that they ordered that at your request, at your

17 demand. You called upon the JNA to bring out the tanks on that 2nd of

18 April. Yes or no?

19 A. No.

20 Q. The next question. On that same day at 1700 hours, you called for

21 the aeroplanes to be taken out as well. Yes or no?

22 A. No.

23 Q. Do you remember that on the 17th of April, 1981, that is to say

24 several days later when the situation had calmed down, you held a press

25 conference with foreign journalists?

1 A. Yes.

2 Q. Do you remember, furthermore, that you told the foreign

3 journalists, and I quote you, Mr. Bakalli, from the newspapers, you said

4 the following: "The demonstrations, for us, were not a surprise, but the

5 brutality of the enemy was." Do you remember having said that?

6 A. Yes, I have said -- I may have said even worse things.

7 Q. What did you say?

8 A. It is possible. I may have used even harsher terms. I was not in

9 solidarity with those demonstrations, but I was not also for them being

10 called anti-revolutionary, counter-revolutionary.

11 Q. Do you remember having said on the occasion, and I'm going to

12 quote you literally again, I'm not going to recount but to quote: "The

13 Albanian nationalists are the aiders and abettors of the occupiers against

14 the true interests of the Albanian people"?

15 A. I have nothing against that. I agree with you there.

16 Q. But did you say that on that occasion?

17 A. I said that and I say now that I have my reservations against

18 Albanian nationalism. It is possible that I said that.

19 Q. So you confirm that you did.

20 A. Yes.

21 Q. Asked by a foreign journalist that you were not too hardcore

22 toward the demonstrators, that you said, and I quote you again: "We're

23 not dealing with our hardcore qualities. Their requests are not only

24 political but are of a hostile nature in comparison with our

25 Constitution." Correct?

1 A. You have collected all my statements in the press. I personally

2 have forgotten those times. But it is possible, Mr. Milosevic. I was

3 then and I am now, I think, of the opinion that the demonstrations of 1981

4 were not necessary. But they wanted, as I said, to have a republic for

5 Kosova. But Constitutions cannot be amended through demonstrations staged

6 in the streets. I think that they should be changed in the manner through

7 normal democratic procedures which should be provided by the Constitution

8 too.

9 Q. Mr. Bakalli, will you please give me a yes or no answer? I quoted

10 your statement. Was it yours or not?

11 Say -- I didn't collect any information, because I didn't know

12 that you would be a witness. I do not receive any mail. I read in the

13 newspapers that you would be a witness, and I read your denial where you

14 say you wouldn't be a witness. So until yesterday, I didn't know whether

15 you were actually going to be a witness or not, and I'm just taking into

16 account what you said yesterday.

17 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, what's the question?

18 Mr. Bakalli, I think you were being asked about your statements in

19 1981, and your answer appears to be that you don't remember, but it's

20 possible that you did say those things. Is that right?

21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes, it is possible that I

22 said that. But this does have nothing to do with the process of

23 Milosevic, the trial of Milosevic. I don't see the relation.

24 JUDGE MAY: Well, we'll be the judges of that.

25 Yes, Mr. Milosevic, next question.

1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] I agree that this has nothing to

2 do with my trial nor is this a trial, but let me continue.

3 Q. Was your assessment, and I quote again at the time: "Albanian

4 nationalism and irredentism was the basic form of enemy hostile

5 demonstrations. The ultimate goal was clear and that was an attachment of

6 Kosovo to Albania"? End of quotation.

7 I agree with you once again that it was true that that was the

8 goal, but was that your position at the time? Yes or no?

9 A. No. I doubt that I said anywhere about Kosova's annexation to

10 Albania.

11 Q. Yes. You've answered my question. I don't expect anything from

12 you, just to say yes or no to my questions.

13 You said yesterday that according to the 1974 Constitution, Kosovo

14 had the same rights as the other republics. Those were your words which I

15 jotted down. Now, was Kosovo a republic according to that Constitution?

16 A. Yes. In the normative part of the Constitution, it was identical

17 to all the other republics, including the Republic of Serbia.

18 Q. I'm asking you, Mr. Bakalli, in view of the fact that you've said

19 that Kosovo, by virtue of the 1974 Constitution, had the same rights as

20 the other republics, so it is on that quotation of yours that I base my

21 question. Was Kosovo a republic according to the 1974 Constitution? Yes

22 or no?

23 A. No, it was not a republic, but it enjoyed more a substantive

24 autonomy.

25 Q. Thank you. And you claim that a -- the Autonomous Province of

1 Kosovo was abolished in 1989 and that since 1989, the Autonomous Province

2 of Kosovo and Metohija does not exist, no longer exists?

3 A. Not according to the Constitution of 1974, perhaps with some

4 formal name.

5 Q. Thank you very much. Who exerted pressure for the exodus of the

6 population, the Serbs or the Albanian extremists from 1981 onwards? Do

7 you know that under pressure, up until 1988, another 40.000 Serbs left

8 Kosovo, moved out of the Kosovo? Yes or no?

9 A. I have heard about this figure also in another occasion. Allow

10 me, since this is a sensitive issue, to say that of 40.000 Serbs were

11 given out of Kosova during 1981 -- left Kosova during 1981, 1989, you

12 should know that they were not forced to leave out of the pressure of the

13 Albanians, because in fact the power was being taken over gradually by the

14 Serbs and the Serbian army forces.

15 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Bakalli, what was the total number of the

16 Serb population in Kosovo at that time?

17 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] At that time, let's say 8 per cent.

18 About 8 per cent. About 150.000 to 200.000. But it is interesting to

19 note while they have left Kosova when Serbia started to rule Kosova --

20 JUDGE ROBINSON: Never mind. Never mind that. I just wanted to

21 get the total number of the Serb population at that time, and you said it

22 was between a 150.000 to 200.000.

23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, about 200.000.

24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. Mr. Milosevic, continue.

25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That figure is incorrect but there

1 will be plenty of time to provide the right figures.

2 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

3 Q. You said yesterday that you wrote articles from 1981 and that you

4 have gone on doing so to the present day.

5 A. Not since 1981, no.

6 Q. All this time, then -- and you were critical in those articles you

7 wrote. You were critical towards the political leadership, you say. You

8 were critical towards me and so on and so forth. That's what you said.

9 Now I'm asking you whether you had any repercussions or

10 unpleasantness due to this.

11 A. Personally, no, but my friends, yes.

12 JUDGE MAY: You were asked about yourself.

13 A. No.

14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

15 Q. In my day, the times you're talking about, and you refer to them

16 as "in my day," were you in any kind -- ever under any kind of house

17 arrest? Because you mentioned --

18 A. Previously.

19 Q. I see. Previously. So you weren't, were you?

20 A. No. No.

21 Q. You said yesterday, in the midst of giving some explanations, and

22 then you happened to remember just a little while later that allegedly in

23 a talk with me you told me, when the two of us had a meeting, that the

24 police was committing crimes and that I should take care, that the balance

25 of forces would not always be what it was then. And is it true that you

1 threatened me on that occasion and that you used the term "crimes"? Yes

2 or no?

3 A. And I also used the phrase that there is a clergy man above every

4 clergy man.

5 Q. Yes. I heard you say that.

6 Now, as you were speaking about apartheid, why didn't you mention

7 apartheid to me at all when you met with me ten years ago and when you

8 wrote about it, as you say, ten years ago?

9 JUDGE MAY: You have asked all that, and he has answered. He

10 said -- he said earlier, in answer to a question, that he should have

11 done.

12 There's no need to answer, Mr. Bakalli.

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. Were you in active service while I was President of Serbia and

15 Yugoslavia? Were you in any kind of active service? What do you mean

16 "active service"?

17 A. No. I didn't have any active service after 1981.

18 Q. Within the frameworks of rights and the law and all standards

19 above all European and world standards, was there an Albanian Academy of

20 Sciences until the boycott began? Is that true? Was there an academy of

21 sciences of Kosovo? Did it exist? An Albanian one, of course. Yes or

22 no, please.

23 A. The academy of science of Kosovo has existed and it exists, but it

24 is not called the Albanian Academy of Sciences.

25 Q. Yes. It's called -- it was called the Kosovo one.

1 Now, do you know the example -- can you quote the example of any

2 other country in the world where national minorities had the same rights

3 that the Albanians had? Can you quote another example in the world, of

4 any country in the world where this existed?

5 A. I don't know about what kind of Yugoslavia you are talking about.

6 If you are talking about your own Yugoslavia, I think that the example is

7 quite obvious for everyone, that there couldn't be any worse position than

8 that of the Albanians anywhere else in the world, I think. You should not

9 forget that you have committed not only crimes against Albanians, but you

10 wanted to evict them. How can you ask me now if there is any other

11 country --

12 JUDGE MAY: You're being asked about the academy, yes.

13 Yes, Mr. Milosevic. Next question.

14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

15 Q. Do you know the violence exerted by Albanian extremists over Serbs

16 during the time that you were in power in Kosovo?

17 A. Violence in Kosova, even when I was in power, existed, of course,

18 but there was no pressure against the Serbs. If there has been some

19 conflicts between Albanians and Serbs, under our severe laws, we have

20 condemned them. I just want to remind you of the case of murder of an

21 Albanian -- a case of a Serb, committed by an Albanian from Pec/Peja. He

22 was sentenced to death and he was executed.

23 So I mean to say that both politically and juridically, we have

24 been very severe against any kind of pressure or any interethnic

25 conflict. You should not forget that we used to follow a positive policy

1 towards the Serbs of Kosova. They have had their jobs, they have been

2 always in a higher position than the local inhabitants. Some of the Serbs

3 have left Kosova for socioeconomic reasons. In my time, for example,

4 375.000 Albanians left Kosovo and went to Western Europe, to America, New

5 Zealand, Australia, because --

6 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Bakalli, that is enough in answer to the

7 question.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. Therefore, as I see your reply to my question whether you knew

10 about the violence of Albanian extremists against Serbs during the time

11 you held power in Kosovo, the answer was yes.

12 A. No. There was no violence, at least not in the sense that you are

13 trying to imply.

14 Q. Do you know that after 1980 --

15 A. After 1981 -- in the army, for instance, someone had killed a Serb

16 in the army, and our judges, according to the laws, in accordance with the

17 laws, sentenced him to execution, to death, and he was executed, according

18 to law. I can't swear that the Albanians are angels and they don't know

19 how to commit crimes. I'm not saying that. But in the essence, the

20 Albanians were the subjects, and our organs were mobilised so that there

21 would be no conflict between the Serbs and other nationalities.

22 Q. Among Serbs and other nationalities, there were no conflicts at

23 all, Mr. Bakalli.

24 A. The translation was incorrect. I meant between Albanians and

25 Serbs.

1 Q. Mr. Bakalli, since you're mentioning Serbs and other

2 nationalities, you should probably know that there are 27 ethnic groups

3 living in Serbia. The legal, social, and civic status of the Albanian

4 ethnic group, as far as the state is concerned, the legal system, and

5 everything else that constitutes the status of an ethnic

6 group -- therefore, is the status of Albanians in any way different from

7 the status of Hungarians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, and so on? I don't want to

8 enumerate all of the ethnic groups. Is there anything that creates a

9 distinction as far as the legal and constitutional framework, as far as

10 the human and civic framework is concerned, within the whole system? Is

11 there any difference in the status of these ethnic groups; yes or no?

12 A. For instance -- yes. Serb nationalism, for the Serb nationalists,

13 the Albanians were simply in the way. There are 2 million Albanians at

14 the moment. You can't compare that to an occupation of, say, 20.000

15 Bulgarians, 30.000 Romanians, and others. There are 2 million Albanians

16 living on their own land.

17 Q. Mr. Bakalli, do you know that 70.000 Albanians live in Belgrade?

18 Do you know of any case of discrimination against an Albanian?

19 Furthermore, along the Boulevard of Revolution, which you walked many

20 times probably, one can see numerous shops with the names of their

21 Albanian owners. Was a window of any shop ever broken? Do you know of

22 any case of violence against the 70.000 Albanians living in Belgrade; yes

23 or no?

24 A. Yes, there were cases, both in Belgrade and in Serbia. The

25 attitude with respect to Albanians living there is something that you

1 simply do not wish to remember.

2 Q. Yes. I'd like to see some examples of that. Are you aware of

3 murders and rapes and destruction of homes and arson of homes, fields, and

4 so on? So all of these means were used by Albanian nationalists to expel

5 Serbs, and under their pressure, that I've mentioned, 40.000 Serbs had to

6 leave Kosovo. Do you know anything of this?

7 A. I think that that's exaggerated for Serb propaganda, and I don't

8 accept it.

9 Q. So dead people constitute Serb propaganda as well?

10 A. For the dead --

11 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Bakalli, there is no need to answer. We'll hear

12 further evidence in due course.

13 Anything else, Mr. Milosevic?

14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] Certainly.

15 Q. Mr. Bakalli, how many newspapers in Albanian were published in the

16 province up until the war, the 24th of March, 1999?

17 A. It depends on the period. Sometimes Rilindja was issued, and then

18 it was forbidden by the Serb government. And then Bujku was issued, and

19 then the Serb authorities had illegalised Bujku. And then another

20 newspaper which was issued and then banned. And then Koha Ditore, which

21 was subject to various types of pressure. And then Zeri was issued, and

22 then Zeri Javore, Zeri Ditore. So what I mean is the medias did exist in

23 Kosova. At this moment, there are a lot of media, but under Milosevic at

24 the time, they were born and then they were killed. They were born and

25 then banned, born and banned. Various types of pressures. That you know

1 very well.

2 Q. It is my assertion, Mr. Bakalli, that none of the Albanian

3 newspapers in Kosovo were banned. Is that true or no?

4 A. It's not true.

5 Q. Even foreign diplomats, including Americans, used to tell me,

6 Mr. Bakalli, that they were able to buy all Albanian press, all Albanian

7 Kosovo press, at every corner, and now you're claiming that there was no

8 freedom of press for Albanians in Kosovo.

9 A. You were talking about freedom of the press. You asked: Were

10 they issued? I said: Yes, they were issued and then banned, issued and

11 banned, issued and banned. And the Americans, or the American you're

12 talking about certainly did see newspapers. But the history of journalism

13 in Kosova in the past would be quite a surprising history of births and of

14 banning of various newspapers. That's a question of the government. It's

15 not a financial problem.

16 Q. Mr. Bakalli, I'm not discussing internal problems of a newspaper.

17 What I'm referring to is that none of the newspapers were banned. You are

18 claiming that that's not true.

19 A. It's not true.

20 Q. You've mentioned Koha Ditore just a while ago. Have you read the

21 Rambouillet agreement which was published by Koha Ditore in its entirety

22 in the Albanian language? Yes or no, please.

23 A. I know that I read all the documents -- I heard about all the

24 documents in Rambouillet. But remember, at the time I was in Switzerland

25 and was working on a project, a Swiss/Kosova project at the time, and I

1 don't remember the exact text of Koha Ditore, but I do know the essence of

2 the proposals of the Rambouillet documents, which you did not sign because

3 that was not to your advantage to enter into negotiations. You didn't

4 want to lose the opportunity to rule over Kosova.

5 JUDGE MAY: Just try and stick to the point, Mr. Bakalli, and

6 we'll all get on more quickly.

7 Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. Since you are saying that you worked on this Swiss project, as a

10 result of which you were not in Pristina, do you know that the entire

11 Rambouillet document was published in two parts by the Koha Ditore

12 newspaper?

13 A. I don't know it, but I believe you that it was published, yes.

14 Q. You don't know about this?

15 A. I don't know it, but I do believe you that it was published, yes.

16 Q. Do you know that it was published even before the meeting in

17 Rambouillet started?

18 A. I'm sorry, I don't really know. I wasn't in Kosova at the time.

19 Q. So you don't know about it. Do you know how many Albanians were

20 killed by Albanian terrorists in 1998 and beginning of 1999? Do you know

21 how many Albanians were killed by Albanian terrorists?

22 A. No, I do not know. When you use the word "terrorism," if you're

23 talking about the KLA, I could tell you that they did not commit any

24 criminal murders. If they did commit any criminal murders, they should be

25 taken to court and tried, like every citizen of Kosova. No one is above

1 the law or outside the law, the competence of the law. But I don't know

2 of any number. If you have arguments, okay, bring them to trial, in

3 national trials, in the national courts of Kosova.

4 Q. Do you think that when somebody plants a bomb at the market, as a

5 result of which a lot of people are killed, do you believe that to be an

6 act of terrorism? Or do you believe when somebody opens fire at the cafe

7 full of young people, that constitutes an act of terrorism?

8 A. Yes.

9 Q. Do you think that it's an act of terrorism when somebody

10 intercepts a forest keeper who is an Albanian and kills him? Do you

11 believe that to be an act of terrorism?

12 A. It's a crime. Murder is a crime and you have to be taken to

13 court.

14 Q. But you don't believe this to be an act of terrorism. Is it an

15 act of terrorism when --

16 A. Throwing a bomb is --

17 Q. Is it an act of terrorism when somebody comes to the door of a

18 house of an Albanian physician, who is a good doctor and is employed at a

19 state hospital as a decent man, and somebody comes and kills him at the

20 doorstep of his own house? Isn't that an act of terrorism?

21 A. Yes. The KLA did not do that. I know that. And if someone did

22 commit such crimes, it was an individual initiative. Excuse me, Your

23 Honours. I did express my reserves about the declarations of the Ministry

24 of Justice of Serbia, who, in the last -- over the last few months

25 declared again and again that we should be sending people to The Hague.

1 If you want people, then you have to look among the members of the KLA and

2 see.

3 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Bakalli, we will not get on if we have these very

4 long answers. It would be much better if you would just restrict yourself

5 to the questions.

6 We'll adjourn now for 20 minutes.

7 --- Recess taken at 12.16 p.m.

8 --- On resuming at 12.35 p.m.

9 JUDGE MAY: We'll go on with the evidence until half past one. At

10 half past one we've got to stop to deal with some procedural matters.

11 Mr. Milosevic, if you can -- if you would get through your

12 cross-examination by then, we'd be grateful.

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I shall try to do so.

14 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for Mr. Milosevic, please.

15 JUDGE MAY: Microphone. Your microphone.

16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It turned off by itself.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. Therefore, when I asked you whether you knew how many Albanians

19 were killed by Albanian terrorists in 1998 and 1999, and they killed and

20 kidnapped hundreds of them, the way I understand your answer is that you

21 didn't know about this. Did I understand you well?

22 A. No. I didn't know about that well. I know about a crime that was

23 committed in 1988 to 1989 about a -- against a Serb in Kosova by someone

24 of the Albanian side, by one of the KLA, of the UCK.

25 Q. You used the phrase "if somebody had committed a crime" then this

1 is how it was. Since you are saying "if somebody had committed a crime,"

2 I take it that you don't know whether somebody in fact did. My question

3 pertained to Albanian policemen, forest keepers, physicians, mailmen, and

4 so on. But let me get on with another question.

5 Do you know how many Albanians served in the police force of the

6 Ministry of the Interior of Kosovo and Metohija during those same years,

7 1998 and 1999?

8 A. Could you please repeat the question about the police force?

9 Q. Do you know how many Albanians served in the police force in

10 Kosovo and Metohija?

11 A. In my time or do you mean