1 Tuesday, 14 September 2004

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 --- Upon commencing at 9.08 a.m.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Kay.

6 MR. KAY: Thank you. Your Honour, before I call the first

7 witness, who is Mr. Roland Keith, there is another matter that I would

8 like to raise at the end of his testimony - the witness is here and

9 available and should be heard first - and that deals with the matter of

10 the accused's appeal on the issue of his right to represent himself.

11 As the Trial Chamber knows, we lodged before the Trial Chamber an

12 application for a certificate for leave to appeal that decision. Leave

13 was given last Friday, and we would be making an application after this

14 witness is finished testimony on the issue of the suspension of the

15 proceedings until the appeal is heard by the Appeals Chamber.

16 I gave notice to the Prosecution of this matter slightly earlier

17 this morning, and I --

18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you, Mr. Kay. Let us hear the witness

19 first and then we'll deal with that matter afterwards.

20 MR. KAY: I was raising it to put the Trial Chamber on notice as

21 well.

22 If we could have Mr. Keith, please.

23 JUDGE ROBINSON: He's not coming from Canada, is he?

24 MR. KAY: He had arrived. I don't know whether he -- ah, here he

25 is.

1 [The witness entered court]

2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Let the witness make the declaration.

3 THE WITNESS: I solemnly declare that I will speak the truth, the

4 whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: You may sit.

6 WITNESS: ROLAND KEITH

7 Examined by Mr. Kay:

8 Q. Your name is Roland Keith; is that right?

9 A. That is correct.

10 Q. And you're a citizen of Canada?

11 A. That is correct.

12 Q. If we could just have a brief resume of your background,

13 Mr. Keith. You were an army officer in the Canadian army; is that right?

14 A. That is correct.

15 Q. For what period of time?

16 A. I was a military officer in the Canadian army for 32 years.

17 Q. And finishing your service when?

18 A. I finished my service -- it was broken service, actually. I

19 finished initially in the year 1982. I then took what I call a

20 sabbatical. I was back at grad school, studying history. I returned to

21 the army for a further four years in the year 1987 to 1991.

22 Q. And your rank at retirement was captain; is that right?

23 A. That is correct.

24 Q. And you became a member of the Kosovo monitoring force in 1999?

25 A. Yes, I did.

1 Q. What we call the KVM?

2 A. That is correct.

3 Q. When were you first recruited to take part in that mission?

4 A. The background to my service with the Kosovo Verification Mission

5 was in the summer of 1998 when the first indication that it would be

6 constituted, and I subsequently applied to participate, and in the late

7 fall of 1998, my government and -- contacted me and said is that they --

8 they furthered -- they forwarded, rather, my resume and my application,

9 and I was notified in -- shortly after New Year's 1999 that I -- that they

10 would like me to serve with the OSCE, Kosovo Verification Mission.

11 Q. And did you arrive in Kosovo in the first week of February, 1999?

12 A. That is correct.

13 Q. And you undertook a period of training for some four days on about

14 the 9th of February?

15 A. That is correct.

16 Q. And did you go down to Pristina on the 12th of February for a

17 period of two days?

18 A. I believe that is correct, yes.

19 Q. And the purpose of that was for what?

20 A. The purpose of that was to assign me to a role within the Pristina

21 Regional Centre and the Pristina Coordination Centre of the Kosovo

22 Verification Mission, which was done in that short period of time.

23 Q. Before this period, had you ever spent any period of your service

24 in the Balkans?

25 A. No. This was my initial participation with the Balkans.

1 Q. Had your previous military experience had you undertaken observer

2 duties in other countries?

3 A. Yes, I had. In the mid-1970s I had served a double tour as a

4 United Nations military observer in the Sinai -- the Suez Canal, the

5 Sinai, throughout the United Nations truce supervisory organisation area,

6 including the state of Lebanon.

7 Q. And in your previous military history have you spent a previous

8 period in the Suez area, right at the start of your military career?

9 A. Yes. I was very, very proud as a young man to have served with

10 the Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron as one of the initial units

11 under General Burns in what was then the United Nations Emergency Force 1,

12 and a very interesting and challenging experience.

13 Q. Right. Now let's turn to Kosovo. When you arrived here in The

14 Hague, you brought with you some documents, and the first one I'd like to

15 put before the Court, which will serve as a familiarisation process, is a

16 general map of the Kosovo area centred upon Pristina.

17 MR. KAY: And if copies of that can be handed out and one put

18 before the witness.

19 THE INTERPRETER: Could the speakers please pause between question

20 and answer. Thank you.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Kay, you have seen the notification? Pause

22 between question and answer. And I say the same to the witness, for the

23 benefit of the interpreters.

24 MR. KAY: Yes. Thank you.

25 Q. It's what I discussed with you yesterday. We must be careful

1 about not running our questions and answers together, and the mistake is

2 entirely mine in not doing that which I told you not to do.

3 If we could look at this map, then, and we see Pristina in the

4 middle of the map. We see an area, a town to the left, Kosovo Polje. We

5 see, slightly above that, Obilic. And we see to the left Glogovac. And

6 if you could confirm this: The testimony that you're to give largely

7 concerns that area to the west of Pristina; is that right?

8 A. That is correct.

9 Q. I'd like you now to take us through your tour of duty, which I

10 believe commenced after you had had your familiarisation process in

11 Pristina, with going to Glogovac; is that correct?

12 A. Yes, that is correct.

13 Q. And if you could inform the Court what the circumstances were at

14 this time in the middle of February when you arrived in Glogovac. What

15 did you see?

16 A. My initial recollections of arriving in Glogovac in this time

17 frame, in the middle of February of 1999, this was a small Serbian --

18 sorry, a small Yugoslavian town inhabited by, I believe, some 6 to 7.000

19 inhabitants. It was predominantly Albanian, and to the best of my

20 knowledge, it was -- it was, I believe, entirely Albanian at this time.

21 The surrounding area consisted of a number of small villages. To my --

22 best of my knowledge, all of these were entirely Albanian.

23 The town had a -- a small MUP, paramilitary station in an old

24 industrial site or a former industrial site, and routine patrols and the

25 replacement of MUP personnel occurred on a daily basis, and there were

1 frequent patrols after the hours of darkness into and out of Glogovac to

2 visit this MUP site.

3 The general area both to the -- in the surrounding villages, to

4 the north-east, the east, and to the south, and to the south of Komorane.

5 If you see Komorane, it's a small community on the crossroads on the

6 Pristina to Pec road. And the surrounding -- the villages from Lopusnik

7 and all down the valley to the south there were all, as well, additional

8 Albanian inhabited small communities. In all of these communities there

9 was what I refer to as the home guard. They were local UCK members,

10 referred to as terrorists by the authorities, who had a presence in all of

11 these villages, and they maintained static armed checkpoints on the routes

12 in and out of their villages. There was no -- there was no harassment or

13 incursion of Serbian or Yugoslavian authorities or forces into any of

14 these villages at this time. To my knowledge, they stayed, as I've

15 previously stated, to the route in and out of Glogovac and patrolling the

16 main road which I've previously referred to as well, the Pristina-Pec

17 highway, and the road going down to Orahovac and down to the -- down to

18 the Prizren area from the north.

19 So this was my -- my general impression of the Glogovac area.

20 There were some incidents that had occurred as recently as the day before

21 I arrived when an individual was fatally murdered just south of Glogovac.

22 I did not participate in the investigation nor in the follow-up to that

23 particular incident, but to the best of my knowledge, it was a local

24 attack by one side or another or retribution.

25 Q. The period you spent at Glogovac was how long?

1 A. I don't have the precise dates in front of me at the moment,

2 Mr. Kay, but I -- I believe I was there for about one week.

3 Q. In your previous answer which I can see on the LiveNote

4 transcript, you said the MUP was in a paramilitary building. Is that what

5 you meant?

6 A. In Glogovac itself?

7 Q. Yes.

8 A. Yes. I believe I stated that the MUP team in Glogovac occupied a

9 military -- had a military presence in a former industrial building which

10 was fortified, of course.

11 Q. Yes. In terms of what you saw in that week of -- of Glogovac, did

12 you come across any abuses of power by the local MUP or the VJ or any

13 other body to be associated with the Serbian authorities?

14 A. No. During that -- that week that I was in Glogovac, as I've

15 previously stated, the -- the VJ had a very limited presence. There were

16 some armoured infantry fighting vehicle movement into and out of Glogovac,

17 small numbers of vehicles, platoon size. There -- but basically the VJ

18 were staying in their barracks, and other than some movement on the

19 principal roads, the MUP, again as previously stated, had routine patrols

20 on the roads into and out of their -- their patrol sites, and they manned

21 checkpoints along the major highway, again referring to the Pristina-Pec

22 highway, and these -- within the Glogovac area of responsibility, these

23 would number probably one or two a day along the main road or on the road

24 into Glogovac where they would set up temporary checkpoint, and they would

25 examine all personnel transiting that particular checkpoint.

1 I observed a number of these operations in progress. It was not

2 my observation that there was any abuse or -- or harm, physical harm, that

3 is, done to any of the inhabitants transiting those checkpoints. We did,

4 however, in conversing with the predominantly Albanian population of the

5 area, ask them if they were having any difficulty in moving through the

6 area, transiting the area, or being harassed. They stated in some cases

7 they thought they had in that -- in that their -- some of their documents,

8 they claimed, were taken from them. In some cases, they claimed that some

9 individuals were detained for a short period of time, perhaps maybe

10 overnight, but I did not see personally any maltreatment or physical or

11 harmful harassment to the inhabitants trying to participate in their

12 lawful -- lawful business.

13 Again, the -- the -- the local -- what I referred to as the local

14 home guard of the UCK, or the terrorists, did again stay within their

15 villages at this time in this area, to my knowledge.

16 Q. You've described there the UCK/KLA as having a home guard network

17 in the villages in the surrounding area. What level of strength are we

18 looking at in terms of KLA forces that you were able to observe at this

19 time in this area?

20 A. These were local forces, in my estimation. They would be in half

21 a dozen -- strength of half a dozen young men. Sometimes -- sometimes

22 there were more, but they appeared to me to be local inhabitants and not

23 part of any main force UCK offensive group.

24 Q. After that we -- did you then establish a field office in Kosovo

25 Polje?

1 A. That is correct. I was -- I had gone to -- I'd been assigned to

2 Glogovac with the understanding that I would take over the direction of

3 that field office. That did -- did not happen. And after the short

4 period of time, approximately one week, I was requested to assume

5 responsibility to form a field office under the direction of the Pristina

6 Coordination Centre and Regional Centre at Kosovo Polje. This was a new

7 team that did not exist until the time that I was appointed.

8 Q. You brought to the Tribunal with you some -- some notes from your

9 records at the time; is that correct?

10 A. That is correct.

11 Q. And these notes came from what source?

12 A. The notes were -- were put together by myself, and they are weekly

13 summaries, I believe the ones you're referring to, that were based on the

14 daily reports that were put together by myself and my team of verifiers

15 and submitted to the Pristina Coordination Centre on a daily basis. The

16 weekly reports were -- were put together by myself to -- to give a summary

17 of what those daily reports consisted of and to provide me personally with

18 a record of what my participation in the Kosovo Verification Mission was.

19 Q. Now, it would probably help to consider your evidence with those

20 notes before us.

21 MR. KAY: So, Your Honours, if the map we produced could be the

22 next exhibit, which would D246.

23 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, that's admitted.

24 MR. KAY: And if the notes of the witness can now be produced and

25 put before the parties.

1 Q. Whilst that's going on, Mr. Keith, on your left-hand side is a

2 very detailed map which is your personal property again; is that right?

3 A. That is correct.

4 Q. Which is a map of the general area and was your operations map at

5 the time; is that right?

6 A. That is correct, Mr. Kay.

7 Q. You're familiar with that map, and if you need to direct our

8 attention to anything on the map, please do so as it's on an ELMO and

9 we're able to look at it on the video screens if necessary. We've got the

10 general map and then we've got the more detailed map which may help your

11 testimony.

12 Just looking at the first note, then, which is headed 28th of

13 February, 1999, Weekly Summary Number 1, it states you established your

14 field office in Kosovo Polje on the 22nd of February, 1999; is that right?

15 A. That is correct.

16 JUDGE KWON: Before moving on, Mr. Kay, why don't we make sure the

17 ELMO is operating properly or not.

18 MR. KAY: We did a test earlier, Your Honour, and it was. Shall

19 we see?

20 JUDGE ROBINSON: We're not getting any signal.

21 JUDGE KWON: We can proceed.

22 MR. KAY: Are you getting something on your monitors now, Your

23 Honours?

24 JUDGE ROBINSON: No. But proceed, Mr. Kay.

25 MR. KAY: We just had a flash then and then it went.

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: There we are.

2 MR. KAY: We have the picture there. Thank you.

3 Q. Kosovo Polje, if you can tell us there what the situation was that

4 you found at that stage when you arrived on the 22nd of February.

5 Describe the type of place it was.

6 A. Kosovo Polje, of course, is a very historic site. The town -- I

7 can't recall the estimates of the population, but I would estimate 10 to

8 15.000; a major -- a major site.

9 It was -- in asking questions of the various authorities and

10 people who I had the opportunity to associate with, I understood the

11 ethnic distribution within Kosovo Polje, the town itself, to be

12 approximately 70 per cent Serbian and perhaps 20 per cent Albanian and 10

13 per cent of others, including Turks, Roma, and various other ethnic

14 minorities.

15 The -- now, would you like me to go on about the --

16 Q. Yes.

17 A. -- area of responsibility?

18 The area of responsibility that I was assigned ran from Pristina,

19 the western -- the western ends of Pristina going south, including the

20 Pristina airport, which was -- which was a military site and was -- we

21 were not allowed to go into the Pristina airport site itself without a VJ

22 escort.

23 The area again going down just to the west of the main south

24 highway down -- proceeding to the -- sorry, to the south and then to the

25 west and then up, including the principal town of Obilic and the very

1 large coal mining site of Belacevac - sorry if I do not pronounce the

2 names that well - and the area then actually exceeded right to the north,

3 up to the Mitrovica highway and a number of small villages. Is that

4 shown?

5 Q. If the map can be brought down the ELMO.

6 A. Thank you. And then as you see from my Chinagraph markings here,

7 going up through the wooded and the high grounds going from south to north

8 to the west of the Belacevac mine site and the Obilic power station and up

9 towards the Mitrovica highway, and actually beyond my Chinagraph markings

10 here to a number of small villages around Hamidija and to the north and to

11 the north of the Grabovac and Obilic road.

12 So this was the general area of my responsibility, then back to

13 the Pristina highway and north.

14 The -- to describe it, the -- the area south of the Pristina-Pec

15 highway, a number of agricultural villages, numerous villages, had been

16 there for many years, I assume. These villages were primarily occupied by

17 Serbs. I believe there were other smaller numbers of ethnic authorities

18 in some of them as well. However, in the -- in the Grabovac - and I'll

19 mention Donji Grabovac a little later - but at Grabovac area, again I

20 believe these villages had -- had been ethnically -- an ethnic mix prior

21 to the troubles of the summer of 1998. However, on my arrival in February

22 1999, I believe that these were, in my opinion, entirely occupied by

23 Serbian peoples. And the village of Donji Grabovac was totally deserted,

24 unoccupied.

25 And the small villages that I've referred to in the north and off

1 the major routes were -- had suffered damage in the troubles and the

2 fighting of the summer of 1998, and the peoples residing in these villages

3 to this -- at this time, to the best of my knowledge, were almost entirely

4 Albanian. And in all of these villages there was what I referred to

5 earlier as a home guard element of the UCK.

6 We were -- we were allowed in and out of all of these villages but

7 only after we showed our credentials. And each and every time the UCK

8 sentries made a point of writing down all our credential information and

9 communicating with some -- with superiors which I could not observe before

10 they would let us proceed. However, they did not obstruct us other than

11 going through this procedure.

12 The MUP, again, similar to the Glogovac area, the MUP patrolled

13 all the routes in and around Kosovo Polje, the main roads. Of course

14 there was a police station in Kosovo Polje, another police station in

15 Obilic. I went to these police stations and introduced myself to the

16 local police chiefs and worked with them throughout my stay in the Kosovo

17 Polje area up till the evacuation of the Kosovo Verification Mission.

18 They -- I was received hospitably, professionally, and at all times they

19 cooperated with me and all of my requests. I was not -- I was not

20 obstructed from carrying out any of my duties or responsibilities by them.

21 Q. If I can just --

22 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Kay. Mr. Kay, I remember the witness mentioned

23 the place which is called Grabovac, which is different from Glogovac.

24 MR. KAY: Yes.

25 JUDGE KWON: If you could help me to find --

1 MR. KAY: In between Glogovac and Pristina would be Grabovac and

2 Donji Grabovac --

3 Q. Perhaps you could find it on the more detailed map which we

4 anticipated may be needed. And I wonder if the scale can come up a bit.

5 We've lost it totally.

6 MR. NICE: I don't know if Your Honours will be assisted by having

7 a look at Exhibit 83 if you've got it with you.

8 JUDGE KWON: But in that map Grabovac is near in Pec, which should

9 be different from the location.

10 MR. NICE: I think if you look at -- look --

11 MR. KAY: The witness is pointing to the part on the map where

12 Grabovac is.

13 THE WITNESS: This.

14 MR. KAY:

15 Q. And Donji Grabovac, which is of importance in a part of your

16 testimony, is just to the north-west.

17 A. That is -- that is correct.

18 Q. If you just keep your pointer on Grabovac, and if we can go back

19 now to have a smaller scale, we can see where it is in relation to

20 Pristina perhaps. If the technical booth can do that.

21 JUDGE KWON: Yes. I found it in Exhibit 83.

22 MR. KAY:

23 Q. We can see Obilic on the right-hand side --

24 MR. NICE: I'm glad. If it can be found as Donji Grabovac --

25 JUDGE KWON: It appears --

1 MR. NICE: Grabovac itself is not marked.

2 JUDGE KWON: On page 6, yes.

3 MR. NICE: Yes. The map otherwise is quite helpful.

4 MR. KAY:

5 Q. And would I be right if you drew a line, say, between Glogovac and

6 Obilic it would cross-intersect over Grabovac and Donji Grabovac roughly?

7 A. That is correct. I believe it's off the map here, Glogovac, now,

8 but it would be just to the south of the Grabovac area, directly on an

9 east -- east-west line, that is correct.

10 MR. KAY: Yes. I hope that assists the Trial Chamber.

11 JUDGE ROBINSON: What is the distance from Pristina?

12 THE WITNESS: This map is a 1:50.000, so each of these squares is

13 one kilometre. We are looking at a distance of about -- in Donji Grabovac

14 we're looking at a distance of 9 or 10 kilometres from Pristina and of

15 course Glogovac would be something like 17 or 18 kilometres, as I recall.

16 MR. KAY: Yes.

17 Q. In relation to the KLA in that area, you've described the home

18 guard but it's the overall situation within the region that you're dealing

19 with. Are you able to give evidence about that?

20 A. Yes. Yes, I believe so. Am I being -- am I being heard?

21 Q. Yes.

22 A. Thank you.

23 MR. KAY: If the other microphone could be switched on so the

24 witness can speak across to me. Thank you. Yes.

25 Q. So if you could tell us about the overall strength. You've

1 mentioned the home guard in the villages, but was there a force behind

2 them elsewhere?

3 A. Yes, there was. In the area just west of Donji Grabovac -- I'm

4 not sure is this ELMO still projected or --

5 Q. We're off at the moment. If we could go on again. Yes.

6 A. In the -- in the area just to the west of Grabovac and Donji

7 Grabovac, we see a wooded rolling series of hills. I believe this is the

8 south-western end of the Drenica valley. When we proceeded into the

9 wooded rolling hills here and directly west of Donji Grabovac, we

10 encountered a local force of the UCK, and I had a number of meetings, as

11 did my deputy, almost on a daily basis, with this force. In my

12 estimation, what I saw when I was visiting and discussing security matters

13 with the UCK local commander would be a force about platoon size. That

14 would be about 35 armed personnel. They would have assault rifles, light

15 machine-guns, rocket propelled grenades. And in all our discussions with

16 the local commander and his deputies, they were not -- they were unable to

17 give us any assurances on -- on what they could or could not do without

18 reference to superior command, and this was seldom forthcoming.

19 They also -- they also were unable or -- or unwilling to answer

20 any queries about individuals from the authorities' side or the government

21 side who had disappeared, been abducted, or killed or injured. So

22 basically they were friendly, hospitable, but generally did not cooperate

23 in a meaningful manner for -- to enable me to carry out my

24 responsibilities as a verifier of the agreement.

25 Q. We'll just summarise those responsibilities now. They were to

1 monitor the cease-fire between the parties and to record incidents that

2 took place. And did you have a role as well in attempting to pacify the

3 area?

4 A. Yes, I did. The -- again, as you previously mentioned, Mr. Kay,

5 upon my arrival and my introduction in consultation with the MUP police

6 chiefs and local police chiefs, they claimed that -- that the area within

7 both Kosovo Polje and the Obilic police area, that the major concern was

8 this Donji Grabovac area. Again, just for the -- for the -- perhaps the

9 enlightenment of the Court or the assistance of the Court, the Bjelovac

10 mine, which covers almost -- a great deal of the area between Kosovo Polje

11 and Obilic and its power station, this is a vast coal mine that produced

12 the coal that fuelled the Obilic power station which not only provided

13 power to most of Kosovo but also to other parts of Yugoslavia, and with

14 the troubles and with the agreement that we were trying to verify, of

15 course the authorities were trying to facilitate the movement of mine

16 workers into and out of the mine on a regular shift basis. I believe they

17 operated around the clock, 24 hours. And because of the importance of

18 Donji Grabovac to the authorities and hence to myself and my team was that

19 that was an area where there was daily movement in and out of workers.

20 Not only were the MUP trying to maintain security and protect the -- the

21 mine operation and facilitate the comings and goings of the mine workers,

22 but the -- there was also a mine police force. This was a paramilitary

23 police force that was organised and hired, I assume, by the mining company

24 or the power company, and they also had a hierarchy of police,

25 non-commissioned officers, and police chiefs. I also dealt with these

1 people.

2 It was these -- it was this force that was primarily challenged,

3 in my opinion, with providing security to the mine and hence the mine site

4 which was right near the village of Grabovac. And this was a problem to

5 the authorities because they were suffering -- from all reports and

6 physical evidence that I saw, they were suffering almost daily harassing

7 attacks, sniping attacks. Prior to my arrival, an engineer had been

8 abducted, presumably -- to my knowledge he was never seen again.

9 Presumably he was murdered or disappeared. And mine guards --

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: Attacks from whom?

11 THE WITNESS: Allegedly from the UCK.

12 JUDGE ROBINSON: Was that the only presence of the UCK in that

13 area?

14 THE WITNESS: No, I think as I previously described, Your Honour,

15 the UCK were -- occupied all of the small villages outside of the beaten

16 track with their what I referred to as home guard forces, and in the

17 wooded area to the west of Donji Grabovac there appeared to be, to my

18 military estimate, a platoon or elements of a company size UCK force which

19 was perhaps local but perhaps it was more than the home guard element that

20 I described earlier.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: I'm trying to arrive at a number for the size of

22 the UCK force in that area.

23 THE WITNESS: I mentioned -- I mentioned in my previous testimony,

24 Your Honour, that the force that I witnessed when I visited was

25 approximately platoon size. That would be about 35 personnel, armed

1 personnel, and more heavily armed than the -- what I referred to as the

2 local UCK home guard in the various villages that I -- I visited.

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: You encountered one force of platoon size, but

4 there are others?

5 THE WITNESS: Yes. I would -- again I'm trying to portray what I

6 actually saw. If you see -- as a former soldier, if you see a platoon,

7 there's obviously a company; and if you see a company, there's obviously a

8 battalion. I say this because military forces do not operate in

9 isolation, they operate with mutual support. And it would be my estimate

10 that this was a small element of a larger element further to the west and

11 to the north.

12 JUDGE ROBINSON: So you assume that the UCK had such a

13 sophisticated command structure?

14 THE WITNESS: They certainly had a command structure over and

15 above what I -- whom I met or what I witnessed, yes.

16 MR. KAY:

17 Q. I think you referred as well to decisions being unable to be taken

18 by the local commander and so that matters were referred elsewhere; is

19 that right?

20 A. That is correct, and that's another supporting element of my

21 assessment that this was a smaller element of a larger force. The local

22 commander was never able to answer any of my queries or any of my

23 questions without reference to higher authority.

24 Q. Where you indicated the KLA/UCK were regionally centred from what

25 you could -- you could see, was the VJ or MUP presence outside that area?

1 A. The -- no. As I've tried to state several times, the -- the VJ

2 stayed either within their barracks area or camp areas other than for --

3 for patrolling the major routes or moving to conduct small exercises. And

4 the MUP, as well, occupied various observation posts overlooking some of

5 the highways. And of course they -- as I've previously mentioned, they --

6 on a daily basis they established checkpoints on the major highway

7 primarily but also on some of the rural areas, the rural roads, to provide

8 security to personnel and inhabitants moving along those corridors.

9 Q. You mentioned sniping attacks that were taking place which

10 affected the mine workers. Are you able to give any idea of responses

11 that there were to those sniping attacks, how the local authorities

12 attempted to deal with it?

13 A. The local authorities, again primarily the mine police, complained

14 to me on a daily basis that -- that they were being harassed and -- and

15 sniped at. I was shown evidence of new bullet holes in some of the mine

16 security buildings personally, and these -- I can attest that these were

17 not there the day or so before when I had looked at that same building.

18 So the rounds had been fired from west or north of the site.

19 Again, if you -- refer you to my weekly summaries of my daily

20 reports, and I don't for a minute think that the harassment was coming

21 from -- entirely from one side. The -- in discussions with the UCK

22 commander in this area, he, of course, complained that the mine police

23 were sniping at his forces and he was -- would respond. In discussing

24 with the mine police, of course I received entirely the other story. They

25 said that their -- their movement of personnel workers and security

1 personnel were being harassed and sniped at, and they then would respond

2 to ensure their safety.

3 In some cases, in my -- excuse me. I believe -- I believe there

4 are several quotes in my documents that I wrote at that time where I give

5 greater credibility to one side or the other based on my personal

6 judgement, and I think in the Grabovac area, given the situation that I

7 have tried to describe in the mine police to maintain security to their

8 workers that probably - and this is my assessment - that they probably,

9 during the hours of darkness were -- were somewhat nervous and probably

10 initiated a number of the gunfire accounts which, of course, would

11 probably elicit a response from the UCK side.

12 So I think -- I think there was a two-way stream here given the

13 general insecurity and the importance of this site to maintain the

14 operation of the mine and the power plant.

15 Q. Yes. Also in this region, and we can see that on your first

16 weekly summary of 28th of February, is somewhere known as the chicken

17 farm, which was a site of local economic importance; is that right?

18 A. Excuse me. No. The chicken farm was an unoccupied former

19 agricultural site, and I can point it on the big man here, to the ELMO, I

20 guess, to find it. It is -- it is the area shown on this map around the

21 crossroads of Krivovo --

22 MR. KAY: We're not picking it up. If the map could be moved,

23 please. We're on screen with it but if you can put the part where Mr.

24 Keith has the wand.

25 A. You see the Pristina-Pec highway.

1 Q. Yes?

2 A. Again running west from Pristina through Kosovo Polje, and it goes

3 through a small -- a small -- on my map it's known as Krivovo. And this

4 is again on the road going to the crossroads for Glogovac, and there are a

5 number of agricultural buildings on my map. I am circling the area with

6 the pointer at this time. The highway is just to the north and you see a

7 series of buildings there. This was -- this was not in operation as an

8 agricultural site when I was there. It was occupied by a VJ company team,

9 varied. There would always be a platoon of tanks, perhaps a company of

10 tanks - a company of tanks would be ten tanks, a platoon three tanks - in

11 this area. Certainly a platoon or more of infantry fighting vehicles.

12 And -- but they generally stayed in that area other than, as I've stated

13 earlier, moving out for small exercises or to conduct route patrols along

14 the main routes, primarily from there towards the Pristina air field,

15 which was -- is right within about three to four kilometres from that

16 site.

17 Q. Right.

18 A. Which was a heavily militarised area.

19 Q. Was that part of the security for the air field?

20 A. Well, it would be -- it would be addition to -- in addition to the

21 security at the air field, but it was a crucially military important area

22 because of its location right on the highway. It could facilitate a rapid

23 response to any major emergency in that area.

24 Q. The chicken farm, as it was called, was that subject to any

25 hostilities?

1 A. The chicken farm per se I -- I know of no attacks on the chicken

2 farm. However, I was witness to an attack on a police patrol just -- just

3 approximately 1.000 or 1.500 metres to the -- no, less than that, I'm

4 sorry. Probably about 200 metres to the west of the -- of what we refer

5 to as the chicken farm. Again, the Pristina-Pec highway comes out of the

6 open agricultural area and goes into a re-entry to get into the higher

7 ground, and there, as you approach the -- what we referred to as the

8 chicken farm, is what in military terms I would know as a D file.

9 Consequently a dangerous area if your opponents controlled the ground to

10 either side.

11 Q. And what did you witness there?

12 A. I believe it was on the 27th of February, if I recall correctly.

13 It's in my notes, I believe. At that site one of my patrols was -- had

14 proceeded to the west and was returning. It was towards last light, this

15 being February; the days were short. He encountered a major military

16 operation with a large amount of fire, including tanks, although I don't

17 know -- the tanks were not firing their main armament but their

18 machine-guns, and infantry fighting vehicles that had responded to what

19 was clear to me an attack on the police patrol that took place a few

20 minutes before this. And what my patrol was witnessing was the response

21 and retaliation to this attack. And I myself was proceeding on -- on

22 other business, about to leave Kosovo Polje, when I received his call.

23 The sound of heavy gunfire was obvious because it was transmitted when his

24 radio was transmitting. I immediately proceeded to the area and was there

25 within three or four minutes.

1 The -- when I arrived, the firing was beginning to subside but

2 there was still -- it had -- it had been going on for some time, and the

3 MUP estimated platoon, again about 35 armed paramilitary police, had

4 assaulted across the road under the support of a platoon, three T55 tanks.

5 And when I asked the local police commander if he could tell me what had

6 occurred, he said yes. He was cooperative, and although there was a great

7 deal of tension as one of his police NCOs had been fatally injured,

8 another critically injured, and I -- I observed the fatal casualty, and I

9 was witness to the evacuation of the critically injured police

10 non-commissioned officer, and the -- it was clear to me that there had

11 been an attack from the north of the D-file, in my estimation with the use

12 of light machine-gun or similar weapon that had been used to make this

13 attack. It was clear to me that -- that the force that had attacked had

14 been opposed to the government, and I assumed that they were UCK.

15 Q. I think in your report you used the phrase: "It appears to be a

16 clear case the KLA provocation."

17 A. That is correct, Mr. Kay. It -- it was -- this was no accident

18 where the MUP or the VJ had moved out and -- and challenged any of the

19 outlying areas. This was a clear case that the -- the terrorists,

20 insurgents from outside were coming in to harass the authorities,

21 obviously, in my estimation, to provoke a response.

22 Q. Thank you. You referred slightly earlier in your testimony to the

23 cooperation that you received from the local MUP police chiefs, and you've

24 referred to their involvement --

25 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Kay. Sorry. Can I ask the witness, what

1 indicated to you that it was a KLA provocation? By that, I gather you

2 mean that the KLA initiated the attack.

3 THE WITNESS: It was -- my assigned role as a verifier was to

4 verify the -- the situation in accordance with the agreement of October

5 1998 of which the authorities, meaning the MUP and the VJ, would withdraw

6 from confrontation but maintain security in their -- along their routes

7 and in their -- in their -- the main sites, and they would not -- they

8 would not move into the hinterland, if I may use that term, that was

9 occupied primarily by the Albanian Yugoslavs. And -- and again, as I've

10 tried to describe and I certainly witnessed during my -- my few months in

11 Kosovo, the -- they generally did.

12 Conversely, it also was part of the agreement to my understanding

13 that the KLA or UCK would stay in the hinterland and would not harass,

14 interfere, or conduct military operations where the government authorities

15 held sway. And it appeared to me in this occasion and on several others

16 that I witnessed or observed that the UCK were not abiding by the

17 agreement, and they were conducting military attacks. In my military

18 assessment, given their strengths and the strengths of the authorities,

19 they were trying to -- trying to provoke a response. And being a military

20 man, the responsibility to defend your forces, to defend your assigned

21 responsibilities, if you are attacked, you naturally, given the authority,

22 you respond.

23 JUDGE ROBINSON: When you arrived at the scene, the attack was

24 already in -- taking place?

25 THE WITNESS: The -- the -- by the time I arrived there, I would

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1 assume it would be ten minutes after the attack had been initiated, and

2 the perpetrators of the attack had withdrawn because they -- there was no

3 -- there was no fire coming from - sorry - the attack position in that

4 ten minutes when I arrived there. The fire was all going from the MUP and

5 the VJ side into the -- the -- the high ground where the attack had been

6 committed from.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Kay.

8 MR. KAY:

9 Q. And the significance of the attack is that it's 200 metres from

10 the military installation at the chicken farm?

11 A. I believe that is significant, but it's also significant that the

12 attack was on a routine police patrol on the main highway from Pristina to

13 Pec, a highway travelled not only by the local inhabitants but also by

14 NGOs. International Committee of the Red Cross and other NGOs used this

15 road frequently as did the Kosovo Verification Mission.

16 Q. It's the Pec to Pristina highway?

17 A. That is correct.

18 Q. Carrying a great deal of traffic?

19 A. It's one of the major routes in Kosovo.

20 Q. And the chicken farm itself was -- was how far from the road?

21 A. The chicken farm, as you can see from the map, was just a matter

22 of metres, 50 metres to a hundred metres south of the road.

23 Q. You turned off the road into the chicken farm military

24 installation?

25 A. Who did? I'm sorry.

1 Q. No. If you were to drive along, you'd turn off the road and drive

2 into it.

3 A. Correct. You -- anybody transiting that road can observe the --

4 what we knew as the chicken farm, yes.

5 Q. You described the higher ground at this particular site. Was that

6 to the north of the road?

7 A. The -- there was high ground primarily to the north but also some

8 high ground to the south, and the attack allegedly had come from the

9 north. And by looking at the fatality and the injured, the damage -- and

10 one armoured jeep was destroyed in this attack, another one was damaged,

11 the -- it was quickly clear to me the attack had come from the north.

12 Q. Back on the other matter I wanted to deal with, which was the

13 cooperation you received from the local police commanders.

14 A. Could --

15 Q. You had dealings with several; is that right? Perhaps if you

16 could name those individuals and where they were based, if you're able to

17 remember this length of time.

18 A. I would be -- I would be really -- I'd be pleased to do that but

19 perhaps if I may just momentarily -- when we're talking about the security

20 of the Pristina to Pec highway, I had observed a previous UCK attack when

21 I had arrived in Glogovac at the Lopusnik observation point, which is on

22 this same highway just further to the west.

23 Q. Towards Komorane?

24 A. Beyond Komorane.

25 Q. Beyond Komorane towards Lopusnik?

1 A. Yes, and I believe five kilometres to the west of Komorane.

2 Q. Still in the Drenica region?

3 A. Yes.

4 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Kay, all those names appear on this map book so

5 if you can check during the adjournment, we will be more assisted by using

6 this.

7 MR. KAY: Yes.

8 THE WITNESS: I'm pointing to Lopusnik site now. Again, as the

9 highway moves west there is a high ground to the south of the highway,

10 approximately 800 metres south of the highway. The MUP had established a

11 section observation post - a section being approximately ten personnel -

12 and in early -- in early February while I was doing an introductory patrol

13 from Glogovac, the sound of heavy gunfire came from the Lopusnik area. We

14 immediately responded, as did a MUP reinforcement element of platoon size

15 - again two armoured Land Rovers, approximately 25 to 30 armed personnel

16 - when we -- they evacuated a wounded policeman from the observation site

17 maintained by the section with a corporal in charge. When we asked what

18 had happened, they explained that one of their personnel had gone from the

19 fortified observation post to a well to fetch water, which would be

20 approximately 20 to 30 metres distance from their site, and he was fired

21 upon from the east by a sniper and was wounded. Not critically, to my

22 knowledge, but was wounded. And they responded with a fusillade of

23 automatic fire in their defence and their responding reaction force also

24 swept the area looking for the sniper and no sniper was found. But again,

25 it was -- there was a clear police location that was fired on from the --

1 from the west -- sorry, from the east, which is indicative of the type of

2 incidents that took place periodically along this route.

3 Now, to respond to your query, Mr. Kay, on the cooperation with

4 the local police chiefs, again I mentioned they were cooperative to me

5 personally and to my verifiers. The police chief in Kosovo Polje was an

6 individual by the name of Dragan Miric. He and his police commanders and

7 deputy commanders -- developed a working relationship with him and his

8 staff, and they -- they cooperated with all the requests that I gave them,

9 to the best of my knowledge.

10 The other individual who I found cooperative and helpful to enable

11 me to carry out my task was Bozidar Spasic, who was the police chief in

12 Obilic and his area of responsibility, and he and his staff were

13 cooperative. The -- the mine police as well were cooperative, and I

14 mentioned that earlier. When we sought their information on what their

15 problems were and what their troubles were, they -- I'm not -- I'm not for

16 a minute saying that I was told the whole truth and nothing but the truth,

17 but they were cooperative and did reply to my queries, I thought,

18 relatively well.

19 MR. KAY:

20 Q. Thank you. Let's just look at the next page, then, in your weekly

21 summaries. You've given a lot of the general evidence that covers this

22 period now. The next one is the 7th of March, 1999, in which you describe

23 the area remaining generally calm, sniping Grabovac area, regular nightly

24 sniping at Glavotina, and you refer to the chicken farm and movement of

25 tanks and vehicles. You describe there the good contacts with the police

1 chiefs. "Humanitarian issues increased during the week with the

2 increasing incidents of attacks on the MUP and consequent retaliation

3 against KLA positions to our north. These resulted in the movement of an

4 estimated group of 100 plus IDPs" - internally displaced persons - "to our

5 northern area of responsibility from the north." And: One of our patrols

6 escorted 70 former villagers from Donji Grabovac from Pristina station.

7 We'll look at that issue separately, but what I've read out there

8 from the situation of the week ending the 7th of March is a summary of

9 that week. What did you mean by "humanitarian issues increased during the

10 week with the increasing attacks on the MUP?"

11 A. I -- my meaning in this report was that the -- the retaliation by

12 the MUP to the increasing incidents of sniping and other attacks resulted

13 in a -- the normal disruption of the movement of the -- the civil

14 population. As the tensions rose, the contact and the movement became

15 more difficult. And in visiting these series of villages, many of them of

16 which I've listed in this report, Mr. Kay, to the north, north of Obilic

17 but also north along the -- towards the Mitrovica highway, they were

18 individuals who required medical treatment or other treatment, and their

19 ability to attain foodstuffs and the normal paraphernalia of a civil

20 society was disrupted, hence they were in contact with them. During this

21 period, there were always concerns that somebody couldn't get there or

22 somebody couldn't be taken out to receive what they thought were necessary

23 treatments. And the NGOs, who they were reliant on for providing some

24 assistance, were -- were unable, with the growing instability, of

25 attending to these people. So they -- when we encountered them, they

1 always had concerns.

2 Q. You referred to the "consequent retaliation against KLA positions

3 to our north." If you are able then to describe what was going on between

4 the two parties here, being the MUP and the KLA, what was the pattern of

5 events?

6 A. I believe that the -- we've talked about several incidents, but to

7 the north there was -- as the month of March moved on, there were

8 increasing reports of -- of UCK attacks. Policemen were being abducted,

9 were being murdered. Other people were being abducted and murdered. And

10 the -- then out of Pristina and out of the various other military camps

11 the VJ moved to support the MUP in counter-terrorist operations. They

12 would move north, and this was further north than my area of

13 responsibility, I just saw the forces on the move and of course heard the

14 consequent radio reports of military and MUP activity.

15 These forces then moved in away from the major routes and the

16 highway in an attempt to cleanse the area and re-secure the area where the

17 UCK were conducting what I have referred to as a mid-level insurrection.

18 I -- I would -- I would describe the situation that I've tried to portray

19 here this morning as generally a low-level insurrection, but by the early

20 part of March, the middle of March, this had -- had grown to what I would

21 describe as a mid-level insurrection where there were -- major forces were

22 now attacking the authorities and the authorities were responding. The VJ

23 went into action in conjunction with the MUP in major military operations

24 up to the battle group level. By "battle group," I mean a force of six or

25 so hundred military personnel, including all arms, supported tanks,

1 mechanised infantry, the MUP in wheeled armoured vehicles, all of it

2 supported by artillery. And they were -- in my military assessment, they

3 were conducting counter-guerilla operations to secure their major routes

4 and their control of the area.

5 Q. This report for this week refers to Donji Grabovac. If you could

6 tell us briefly what your interest was in Donji Grabovac. What happened?

7 A. Well, Donji Grabovac, as I've -- as I wrote about after my

8 experience in -- in Yugoslavia and in Kosovo, had been a village that had

9 been evacuated in the summer of 1998 when the troubles of that time. And

10 again, as I've tried to stress in my testimony, the importance of this

11 particular site because of the mine and the operation of the mine

12 supporting the Obilic power plant, the villagers of Donji Grabovac,

13 predominantly Albanian, to my understanding had generally moved into

14 Pristina but they still retained a cohesiveness, and they were anxious to

15 return to their village and resume their normal life.

16 I had the opportunity to meet with them and their village leaders

17 on several occasions in Pristina, meetings that were arranged, and I told

18 them that I would try with the best of my ability to facilitate their

19 return to their village. These meetings had taken place over a number of

20 weeks commencing shortly after my arrival in Kosovo Polje up until, if I

21 recall correctly, a day or so before we were evacuated on the 20th of

22 March, 1999.

23 The cooperation with the authorities was good, in my estimation.

24 The police chiefs said they would -- they would help facilitate security.

25 They even offered to provide small arms to the villagers to enable them to

1 protect their homes if they were to re-inhabit them.

2 I helped facilitate a visit back to their homes by bus, or several

3 buses, of a number of them so they could see their homes and see what

4 damage or what existed of their homes, considering they had not been

5 occupied for some months. This visit was carried out. It generally went,

6 the visit itself, of the -- of a village delegation generally went well.

7 There were some -- there was some verbal harassment by the mine guards

8 allegedly of the personnel when they returned under escort from my

9 verifiers. They had the opportunity to spend some hours in the village,

10 and then, under escort of my verifiers, they returned to the -- the main

11 highway and returned back to Pristina.

12 The -- I was trying to facilitate this re-occupation of Donji

13 Grabovac, because I believed that if we could have achieved a small

14 accomplishment of restoring normality and putting people back in their

15 homes at such a -- in a critical area that had caused so much disruption

16 over the last number of months, we might have some hope of re-established

17 stability throughout the province of Kosovo. And of course the fact that

18 all my negotiations and whatever endeavours others made to help facilitate

19 this particular operation, it appeared to me after that that powers higher

20 than mine had no -- no real interest in rebuilding stability in Kosovo but

21 probably had other political agendas of which this would not play a role

22 whatsoever.

23 Q. And just -- did the resettlement of Donji Grabovac take place?

24 A. The resettlement did not take place. As I said, the meetings were

25 taking place, I believe, up 'til, I believe, the 18th of March. After

1 that, we had facilitated the return of the delegations to Donji Grabovac,

2 and of course with the -- the order to evacuate Kosovo in preparation for

3 the NATO war, there was -- that was the end of that particular programme.

4 Q. Evacuation of KVM 20th of March.

5 A. That is correct.

6 MR. KAY: If we take the morning --

7 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Kay, just before that. The villagers who wished

8 to return to Donji -- Kosovo Polje, were they of Serb ethnicity?

9 A. The majority of them were Albanian ethnics, to my understanding,

10 and I don't know if there were any Serbs amongst them or not.

11 JUDGE KWON: You said that they had been evacuated in the summer

12 of 1998.

13 THE WITNESS: Yes, that was my understanding.

14 JUDGE KWON: Do you know why?

15 THE WITNESS: Well, because of the fighting that was taking place

16 at that time, which was the -- the precursor to what I've tried to

17 describe today in that this was such a critical site because of the mine

18 operation and the very close presence of UCK in the -- to the -- a few

19 thousand metres to the west.

20 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

21 MR. KAY: If we take the break now, Your Honour.

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Time for the adjournment. Mr. Keith, we're going

23 to adjourn now for 20 minutes.

24 --- Recess taken at 10.34 a.m.

25 --- On resuming at 10.56 a.m.

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: Please continue, Mr. Kay.

2 MR. KAY: Thank you, Your Honour.

3 Q. I'm on the last session with you now, Mr. Keith. If we just turn

4 to the 14th of March, in your bundle of reports, weekly summary number 3.

5 And there again you cite what the activity was at that time; is that

6 right?

7 A. Which activity are you referring to, Mr. Kay?

8 Q. Just generally the situation report for the week.

9 A. Yes. That relates to the situation as I reported it at that time.

10 Q. You deal at the end of it with the -- with one of your verifiers

11 being sick on leave in Germany. So that we have an idea of your

12 resources, can you tell the Court how many people you had working under

13 you in your region of Kosovo Polje.

14 A. Yes, I can. My team consisted of myself and eight other

15 verifiers. These were from a variety of nations representing the OSCE. I

16 was the only Canadian in my team, and the rest of the team represented

17 verifiers from countries such as France, Norway, Germany, the United

18 States, and several others that don't pop into my mind momentarily.

19 We were supported by 13 interpreters. These interpreters were, to

20 my recollection were eight -- sorry, seven Albanian Yugoslavs. One

21 identified herself as a Turk, and four were Serbian. They provided the

22 translation and were always present when I or my patrols were attempting

23 to conduct our verification role.

24 And in addition to this, I -- the office and the location where I

25 resided in Kosovo Polje was the Herzegovina Motel. This was a building

1 that had been leased by the United States State Department to support the

2 United -- formerly support the United States diplomatic mission. They had

3 been evacuated from Kosovo early in February, during the Rambouillet

4 negotiations, and took up residence in Skopje in Macedonia, and hence the

5 building was available, and it was given to me to use as a site to reside

6 and to operate my responsibilities within the Kosovo Polje area of

7 responsibility.

8 Q. Thank you.

9 A. I should just add to that, Mr. Kay, that because of this I did not

10 have to hire security personnel. Most of the field stations hired local

11 personnel to provide 24-hour security to prevent theft or other

12 disruptions. The security personnel at the Herzegovina Motel were

13 employees of the United States State Department.

14 Q. Just moving on to the next page, 9th of March, which is an

15 incident report; is that right?

16 A. That is correct.

17 Q. There had been a murder during the night, and as a result of that

18 murder, an investigating judge appeared at the scene; is that right?

19 A. That is correct, Mr. Kay.

20 Q. If you could just briefly say what you found there, what the

21 situation was as you saw it.

22 A. This was one of a number of instances where fatalities occurred.

23 As I've said in my commentary, in articles, and in comments, in my

24 judgement many, if not the majority, of these murders were criminal in

25 nature and not necessarily political.

1 In this particular incident, as I've reported and have this one

2 document, in early hours of the morning a police commander - not the

3 police chief but one of their subordinate commanders - came to my office

4 in Kosovo Polje and stated, because I had asked them to keep me informed

5 of any -- any troubles or problems that would be of interest to the

6 Verification Mission and my field office, and said that there had been a

7 murder of a male and that the investigating judge would be there and if I

8 would like to go and have a look and observe the scene I would be welcome

9 to do so. I -- I did that.

10 I arrived at the scene about the same time as the investigating

11 judge. There were a number of MUP policemen who were in the area

12 conducting their police work, and I observed, as I have reported here, a

13 vehicle and who had been a male in the back seat who had been fatally

14 injured by a number of bullet wounds from automatic machine pistol, and

15 the casings of a number of rounds, allegedly 33 rounds from the machine

16 pistol were in the area. The individual had sustained gunshot wounds from

17 the groin to the head and was obviously very dead.

18 Q. And the -- from what you were able to see of the activities the

19 investigating judge?

20 A. The investigating judge and the police work at this particular

21 incident seemed to be routine. The victim's name was provided to me, of

22 which is recorded on the document, and I received no further information

23 to this incident other than submitting my report and carrying on with my

24 other activities.

25 Q. But you were brought into this to observe rather than conduct any

1 investigations yourself?

2 A. That is correct. That is correct. This was --

3 Q. And that was in accordance with your mandate.

4 A. In accordance with my mandate and in accordance with the

5 arrangements that I had established with the local police authorities so

6 that I would be aware of what was happening in relation to the stability

7 and the violence that was taking place within the Kosovo Polje area of

8 responsibility.

9 Q. The remaining pages in your bundle of exhibits concerned activity

10 reports, 10th of March, and 18th of March, 1999, which are just general

11 daily activity reports; is that right?

12 A. That is correct. This, of course, a daily report was submitted

13 for every day.

14 Q. Yes.

15 A. These are the only two I've managed to retain in my possession.

16 When we evacuated Kosovo Polje, we actually left on the evening of the

17 19th of March, and unfortunately we left most of my possessions and all of

18 our records other than what I could carry, and we proceeded to Pristina,

19 to the Coordination Centre in Pristina, and then of course I never had the

20 opportunity to return to Kosovo Polje.

21 Q. And then you went to Macedonia where you remained for a few weeks;

22 is that right?

23 A. Yes. We -- we left Kosovo the morning of the 20th of March and

24 proceeded to Skopje and then carried on to the south-west of Macedonia, to

25 the Lake Ohrid region, where the whole of the Kosovo -- Kosovo

1 Verification Mission was housed in a number of resort hotels around the

2 lake.

3 Q. Thank you.

4 MR. KAY: I would like to exhibit this now, Your Honour, as D247,

5 the collection of reports.

6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. That will be admitted.

7 MR. KAY: 247. Thank you.

8 Q. And thank you very much for giving your evidence. Wait there,

9 please.

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson.

11 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, do you wish to ask any questions

12 of this witness?

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, this

14 examination-in-chief is completely senseless. For example, Mr. Keith was

15 explaining how the superiors in the Verifying Mission did not have --

16 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, there is a procedure that the

17 Chamber has established, and you will either follow that procedure or you

18 will not be heard. And the procedure is this: At the end of the

19 examination-in-chief, you may, if you wish, invite the Chamber to consider

20 allowing you to ask questions of the witness, and that's what I just did.

21 You're not to make a speech, whether in criticism or in support of

22 the examination-in-chief. If there is an aspect of the

23 examination-in-chief that in your view needs to be supplemented by further

24 questions, then the Chamber will allow you to ask questions. That's the

25 procedure.

1 I don't want to hear a speech from you, and I will not allow you

2 to make a speech. If you have questions, you may put questions to the

3 witness, and that is all you will be allowed to do. And that's consistent

4 with the order that we made. It's entirely a matter for you.

5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson. Mr. Robinson, I'm

6 asking that you return me my right to defend myself, because this

7 examination-in-chief is senseless, as I've said --

8 JUDGE ROBINSON: I've cut you off again. We've made an order

9 assigning counsel, and you indicated that you would appeal that decision.

10 The Chamber has certified the appeal. That's the end of the matter for

11 this stage of the proceedings. If you have no questions to ask of the

12 witness, we'll proceed to the cross-examination.

13 Mr. Nice.

14 Cross-examined by Mr. Nice:

15 Q. Just dealing with your very last bit of evidence and before we

16 overlook it, you gave us an account of the strength of your office, which

17 included 13 locals. Can you just help us with the ethnicity of those

18 locals, please.

19 A. I thought I had done that, Mr. Nice. To my recollection, seven of

20 them were of Albanian extraction, one identified herself as a Turk, four

21 identified themselves as Serbian extraction. As far as their gender goes,

22 if I recall correctly, the majority were female but some were male.

23 Q. What was the -- no, no. First of all, this: You had no prior

24 experience of the Balkans at all.

25 A. This was my first visit and work in the Balkans, that is correct.

1 Q. In the course of your long service with the Canadian military, was

2 it your first working visit to this part of Europe at all?

3 A. I had -- I had spent several tours serving in Western Germany,

4 travelled extensively throughout Western Europe. I had spent, as

5 previously stated, three tours in the Middle East, travelled extensively

6 both then in the Middle East and since have visited the Middle East and

7 other places in Europe.

8 Q. What part --

9 A. Western Europe.

10 Q. The Balkans you hadn't visited before?

11 A. During most of my life in Western Germany it was during the era of

12 a bipolar world and the Cold War was the reason that I was present in

13 Germany, and I was not permitted to travel to many of the countries beyond

14 what was then the division of Europe.

15 Q. I see. What was the purpose of the October agreements that gave

16 rise to the KVM mission?

17 A. The agreement, as I understand it, and I've read it myself - not

18 recently but I did at the time - was to allow normality and stability to

19 return to the province of Kosovo and enable -- enable the government to

20 restore authority and also to enable the -- the ethnic Albanian element of

21 the population to -- to have their rights and -- and have an opportunity

22 to have a civil society.

23 Q. Were the Kosovo Albanians in any way a party to this agreement or

24 these agreements?

25 A. It's -- not the October agreement, as I recall. It was negotiated

1 between the governments.

2 Q. You've spoken about the chicken farm. Help us, please. It was on

3 your patch. What particular significance did that have as a location?

4 A. It was important from a security point of view because of its

5 proximity to the Pristina-Pec highway, which I have described as a main

6 arterial within the province of Kosovo. It also was identified as a

7 company location for the VJ to enable them to provide security and carry

8 out their security role within that part of Kosovo, and that is its

9 significance.

10 Q. Identified where?

11 A. Identified where? In what context?

12 Q. Well, you say it was identified as a company location for the VJ.

13 A. I believe -- I believe I was told the -- as part of the October

14 agreement, the location and disposition of the VJ was in the various

15 barracks, and I understood the -- that this was a company site that was

16 authorised.

17 Q. Of how many? How many such company sites were there, do you know,

18 in the totality of Kosovo?

19 A. I'm not sure. I -- I remember somebody mentioning four, if I

20 recall.

21 Q. They were very limited exceptions, were they not, to the general

22 rule about deployment of VJ forces?

23 A. That's my understanding.

24 Q. So when we look at the particular area over which you were to have

25 some oversight for -- was it five weeks?

1 A. I believe so.

2 Q. We find this: That on the western side you have an armoured VJ

3 unit, and in Pristina you had which brigade? Do you remember?

4 A. I don't remember the number of the brigade.

5 Q. 15th Armoured Brigade?

6 A. There was an Armoured Brigade in Pristina, yes.

7 Q. So that this small area in which you worked for five weeks was

8 actually unusually well guarded on either side by VJ presence?

9 A. The disposition of the VJ, I think, is understandable in the sense

10 that Pristina was the capital, the administrative capital of the province.

11 The -- when you say 15 Armoured Brigade, in my understanding of military

12 organisations, this was a very small brigade compared to what I was used

13 to in Western Europe.

14 MR. NICE: Can we have a look, please, at the map we routinely

15 used, Exhibit 83, opened at page 6. And it will be bottom right-hand

16 portion of it.

17 My monitor isn't showing me anything at the moment. Oh, yes,

18 there it is.

19 Q. If we look at the bottom right-hand corner of the right-hand page,

20 we see the word "Kosovo." In fact that is Kosovo Polje, the word is --

21 oh, yes, you can see it under the figure 20. So there's Kosovo Polje.

22 And the area to the left within the strongly drawn border, do you

23 recognise that area? It's a sort of --

24 A. Are you referring to the hash marks on the --

25 Q. No, not the hash marks, they're the train. But the general area

1 you see going up -- the area that's got the strongest border surrounding

2 it. South of Obilic. South of Obilic there's a borderline.

3 A. Yes.

4 Q. What does that line show? It's sort of not a rectangular shape

5 but it's broadly rectangular, I suppose.

6 A. It was my understanding, I think, that the railway ran along that

7 line.

8 Q. I'm not explaining myself well. Just look to the -- Kosovo Polje

9 is to the right-hand side of an area that is delineated by a fairly strong

10 line on the map, a borderline. Do you see it? That's the one there, yes.

11 And we can see it stops -- well, it goes up north, crosses the

12 railway line, turns left and then wiggles westward, and then to the west

13 of Donji Grabovac it turns south. I'm so sorry you're having trouble

14 following this, Mr. Keith. No, further down than that, please. Yes.

15 That's it you were there. Yes, that line there. Follow it to the west.

16 And then the line, you can see it, it's a big bold line, then it goes

17 south. That's the line. And if we can look at that whole area on the

18 map. What's that area enclosed by that line?

19 A. Are you referring to this entity?

20 Q. Well, the bottom half of it, yes.

21 A. This area here.

22 Q. Yes.

23 A. I'm not certain. This is a boundary that I'm not familiar with.

24 Q. Does that fit with your understanding of the extension of the

25 Kosovo Polje municipality?

1 A. That's probably correct.

2 Q. And is that roughly the area that was in your area of

3 responsibility?

4 A. No. That is only a small part of it.

5 Q. Your area went up to Obilic?

6 A. That is correct.

7 Q. And then how much further? Because the map that was being shown

8 was rather shiny and the -- it was hard to follow it, I'm afraid. So you

9 went up and you incorporated the Obilic municipality?

10 A. Yes, and beyond that.

11 Q. Up to a bit of Vucitrn?

12 A. Yes. I'm having some difficulty relating to you -- to your map

13 here as well.

14 Q. But you didn't go as far west for responsibility purposes as

15 Glogovac?

16 A. No. I was part of the Glogovac field station in my earlier

17 service before Kosovo Polje.

18 Q. Well, in that one week.

19 A. That is correct.

20 Q. So at most it appears that you had two and perhaps two and a bit,

21 or oversight of two and a bit smallish or small municipalities; correct?

22 A. No. I would -- I would expand on that. My responsibility went

23 south of the Kosovo municipal boundaries there as well to some -- a few --

24 ten or 12 kilometres and extended north of the Obilic municipal

25 responsibilities by again another estimated ten or 12 kilometres in parts.

1 Q. You've told us about the reporting mechanism in short. How many

2 members were there altogether of the KVM? Do you remember?

3 A. I believe we were authorised for -- to have several thousand. I

4 believe 1.638 is the number that comes to mind, were deployed before the

5 mission was evacuated.

6 Q. And all these people were reporting in -- in what, daily reports

7 or weekly reports?

8 A. The routine -- the basic routine was daily reports and incident

9 reports. My weekly reports were -- were just my own process of trying to

10 provide some context to what we were doing on a larger scale.

11 Q. So that the daily reporting in -- of matters of detail is what was

12 going up the -- up the chain of command.

13 A. Correct.

14 Q. You have no reason, do you, to doubt that your reports were

15 faithfully reflected at the intermediate stages before they reached the

16 central and final clearing house for reporting?

17 A. I saw several general reports coming out from the Regional Centre

18 and perhaps from the mission itself. They generally reported, to the best

19 of my knowledge, what was included from the smaller field sites. However,

20 I -- I don't think, in generalising the situation, that the full essence

21 of what was happening was perhaps being transmitted as clearly as it could

22 have been.

23 Q. But before we go on, and I want you to focus on this, please,

24 Mr. Keith, because you're a man who has written about these events since,

25 are you suggesting that there is in some way bias on the part of those 16

1 or 1.700 people in transmitting reports, or do you accept that what you

2 wanted to be reported was reflected centrally?

3 A. I -- I can't speak for biases of anybody else. I did not try to

4 bring any biases to my service in the Kosovo Verification Mission. I

5 tried to be objective at all times and -- however, as I became more

6 knowledgeable and familiar with the procedures and what was happening

7 there, I realised that not everybody was perhaps as objective as I was

8 and --

9 Q. Where did you find that out from?

10 A. That was my sense of communicating with my fellow verifiers and

11 observing the process of the -- what was happening.

12 Q. We'll come back to that a little later, but are you familiar with

13 the Blue Book?

14 A. I'm not sure which book you're referring to.

15 Q. It's an exhibit in this case, and we'll just have a little look at

16 it, if we may.

17 MR. NICE: It's a very substantial document, as Your Honours well

18 know. I propose just to remind the Court of the way in which it was

19 prepared and then we can look for one or two entries that relate to the

20 witness's testimony.

21 You'll see -- and the usher -- perhaps the usher could put it on

22 the overhead projector. I think it would be helpful. Exhibit 321. The

23 Blue Book's in a big folder, a big file. I don't know if you've brought

24 it with you, but it will help, in any event, to remind ourselves of how

25 it's composed.

1 The pages, unfortunately, are not easily numbered, and so I'm

2 going to deal with things in a slightly different way.

3 Q. What was the first day of your arrival in Kosovo, Mr. Keith?

4 A. I don't have my detailed diary in front of me now, Mr. Nice.

5 Q. Roughly, shall we say.

6 A. In Kosovo Polje?

7 Q. No, in Kosovo.

8 A. In Kosovo. I believe it was in the first week of February, about

9 February the 6th or 7th.

10 MR. NICE: If the usher to whom I've explained the way the

11 document works goes to one of the red tabs at the top for an early week in

12 February, we will see something there perhaps.

13 Which date have we got there? Let's have a look. The 1st -- no,

14 that's the 1st of January. Can we go on to February, please. 1st of

15 February. That's perfect. Thank you.

16 Q. Now, Mr. Keith, if you haven't been acquainted or haven't

17 acquainted yourself with this document, it was prepared on a daily basis,

18 and the first principal sheet of which is recorded like this, you see.

19 "Significant events as reported" on and the code means the 24 hours of 1st

20 of February, 1999. And we then see various pointers, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, to

21 events that have been reported in that 24-hour period. Did you follow?

22 A. I do.

23 Q. And then if we look to the next page, Usher, if you would be so

24 good, we see the first of the itemised blocks in the map. Here's number

25 1, which is an expansion of and giving some detail to the matter shown on

1 the map as number 1. And similarly if you go on you'll get actually

2 number 4, and number 2, and number 3, and number 5. And then the next

3 page, not surprisingly, is the map for the 2nd of February.

4 This is a document that summarises on a daily basis things that

5 are happening all around Kosovo.

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. When you started forming and expressing your views on what had

8 happened in Kosovo, bearing in mind you only had this limited number of

9 your own documents to refer to, did you seek to research at all documents

10 that existed to show what was happening?

11 A. I did not have access to these documents at the time, you are

12 correct.

13 Q. Did you seek access to any documents before you started forming

14 your views on what had happened in Kosovo?

15 A. Mr. Nice, I left Kosovo under the circumstances which I think this

16 Court is aware. The media of the international community had -- had

17 decided that -- and were reporting things that were -- were not objective,

18 in my -- my limited experience, as you have pointed out. I thought it was

19 proper and just and right that -- that somebody who had had personal

20 experience over a matter of albeit limited weeks should take the

21 opportunity to try to redress some of the incorrect statements that I was

22 hearing and other people were hearing in the general Western media.

23 Q. Uh-huh. Well, let's just see what --

24 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice, pausing there.

25 MR. NICE: Yes.

1 JUDGE KWON: I have difficulty locating this page which appears on

2 the ELMO.

3 MR. NICE: The one for --

4 JUDGE KWON: If you could identify the registry number.

5 MR. NICE: Yes, certainly. The expanded registry number for the

6 2nd of February is 03524965.

7 JUDGE KWON: No, no, registry number. My registry number is --

8 February begins on page 13118, but it's a different map.

9 MR. NICE: I'm very sorry to be working from different numbers.

10 The -- but if Your Honour -- unless the bundle that Your Honour has has

11 been incorrectly compiled, the indicator at the top starts off with the

12 day number, so it will be 01 and the month of February, to 28, and then

13 the month of February is shown at the end of that expansion.

14 JUDGE KWON: The map in my binder begins with number 030018 and

15 not with this.

16 MR. NICE: 03?

17 JUDGE KWON: Yes, it begins with 03.

18 MR. NICE: In which case it should be the immediately preceding

19 set of pages, if Your Honour would be good enough to go back a few pages.

20 JUDGE KWON: It's January then.

21 MR. NICE: Your Honour, can I help further? Because I want the

22 Court to be able to follow these documents, obviously. We're going to go

23 on a little further.

24 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Proceed, please.

25 MR. NICE:

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10

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12 Blank page inserted to ensure the pagination between the English and

13 French transcripts correspond

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15

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1 Q. Well, Mr. Keith, you -- your last answer said that you wanted to

2 redress some of the incorrect statements. Let's just see what this

3 document shows so far as your period of reporting is concerned.

4 MR. NICE: Can we perhaps, Usher, go to the red tag at the top

5 that relates to the 21st of February, if you'd be good enough to find

6 that.

7 Your Honour, while that's happening, Your Honour Judge Kwon's

8 query may be resolved in this way, that I gather we are yet to have agreed

9 on an authoritative version of this document with Registry. It was put, I

10 think, on hold, or the exercise was put on hold by Judge May, with copies

11 being left in the vault for Your Honours, I understand, but I can't help

12 further than that at the moment.

13 JUDGE KWON: That can be sorted out later.

14 MR. NICE: Yes, certainly.

15 Q. Now, this, if we've got the right one, yes, is for the 1st -- the

16 21st of February. We can see immediately, Mr. Keith, by looking at

17 Pristina that there's nothing of any great significance reported for

18 Pristina or the area of Pristina, which is your area, but we can see lots

19 of things reported, or several things reported, round and about. And if

20 you look at number 2 on the map, we can see a reference here to the

21 shelling of Studencani resulting in 5.300 internally displaced persons.

22 And, Usher, if you'd be good enough to go over, please, to the

23 next page but one where we see number 2, which will be the detail for that

24 entry. This comes from UNHCR: "The shelling of the village of Studencani

25 on 20 February 1999 has resulted in 5.300 internally displaced persons

1 from Studencani. These villagers fled their villages during the shelling

2 and are now residing ..." And it says where. Now, this is an example of

3 the sort of thing that was happening in Kosovo. Do you accept that?

4 A. You're showing me a document recorded by an NGO, or in this case

5 the UNHCR. I was not present there. I cannot vouch for the validity or

6 the correctness of this report. I do know, however, that many reports

7 were made that when -- when even in my limited area, as you so correctly

8 pointed out, when I was told by people - locals, that is - that we were

9 talking of hundreds of IDPs, upon investigation normally it would be a

10 score or a dozen.

11 Now, I was present in following up things. I have no idea who

12 made this report and what accuracy is involved here. Whether -- I'm not

13 here to say it's wrong, but I have no way of attesting to its validity and

14 correctness either.

15 Q. Well, I asked you earlier on whether you were really suggesting

16 bias against any or a majority or some of the 1.700 or 600 members of KVM,

17 and I don't think you were able to identify any, and I am going to explore

18 more with you how you came to be saying as early as May of 1999 the

19 wide-ranging things you felt you could say. But let's turn on, please,

20 and look at -- if the usher would be good enough now to go to the 27th of

21 February.

22 And this, I think, is a little nearer to home.

23 You've got the map up for the 27th of February. Thank you very

24 much.

25 Here we see, although plenty of activity round and about Kosovo,

1 we see number 2, MUP ambushed, one dead and one wounded. And if we go

2 over to look at number 2, the significant event reported, "MUP killed. At

3 approximately 1730 hours a MUP patrol was ambushed west of the Pristina

4 air field." This is the incident you were telling us about, isn't it?

5 A. This is correct.

6 Q. This is the reporting process as it worked. "It is believed that

7 they were engaged by sniper fire. The vehicle, though armoured, had holes

8 in the roof." Then this little line: "Interestingly, a local Judge and

9 TV crew were both in the immediate vicinity of the ambush at the time of

10 the incident." Do you remember that?

11 A. I do remember it. They were travelling the road. They were not

12 at the site when I was there, but when the firing ceased, they -- I

13 believe they were to the west on the road proceeding towards Pristina and

14 then they moved into the area on the cessation of the engagement.

15 Q. Was it you who reported that up the chain of command?

16 A. I reported this incident up the chain of command, yes.

17 Q. Including the bit about the judge?

18 A. I can't recall whether that was in my incident report or not.

19 Q. Let's go on now --

20 A. It -- it may well have been.

21 Q. Let's go to the 3rd of March. Because you're painting a picture

22 of the kind you are, and you know what the October agreements said about

23 whether arms should be brought into Kosovo from Serbia or taken out, do

24 you?

25 A. I don't have the details in front of me, but I am aware that there

1 was not to be an increase the arms that were present, as I understood it,

2 yes.

3 Q. So if we can now then go to the 3rd of March, looking at the map

4 first and then at item number 9. It's rather a busier map now on the 3rd

5 of March. We can see lots of things there. A little something at

6 Pristina air field with some MiG 21s. Any significance in that?

7 A. In the MiG 21s?

8 Q. Uh-huh.

9 A. I recall -- I recall there being some increased aviation activity

10 during this phase. MiG 21s were observed by myself and my team members,

11 more than normal, yes. I didn't --

12 Q. That wasn't the KLA. The KLA didn't have MiG 21s, did they?

13 A. Not to my knowledge, no. But the -- the activity -- they were not

14 conducting hostile action against any location that I was cognisant of.

15 Q. Shall we go to number 9. You see number 9 at the top: "Tanks

16 arrive by train." And if we go over a few pages, please, Usher, to where

17 article number 9 is detailed: "Tanks arrived by train. Seven M-36/85

18 tanks arrived in Mitrovica by train. Point of origin is unknown at this

19 time. One was off-loaded in Mitrovica while the other six continued by

20 train south towards Pristina. The train normally only carries sand or

21 gravel. It is not known yet where the other six were off-loaded.

22 "Comment: There is currently no indication that the train with

23 its tank cargo has reached Pristina. There are numerous points along the

24 rail line between Mitrovica and Pristina where tanks can be off-loaded.

25 This event clearly indicates the current rail capability in the area.

1 Investigations by RC2 and RC5 continue to determine where the tanks are

2 and what their point of origin was. If the train originated outside of

3 Kosovo, this may indicate a build-up in forces."

4 Did you ever learn where those tanks were off-loaded?

5 A. I can't recall, but I was -- I was cognisant of the movement of

6 some armoured vehicles by rail and by road, and I was asked to report on

7 all armoured vehicles, whether they had come into the province or they

8 were moving from one location to the other. I tried to do that to the

9 best of my ability, and being a former armoured officer, I took particular

10 interest in monitoring the types of armour and the numbers and quantities

11 of armour and what they were and what they were doing.

12 Q. You had been a tank driver at one stage, didn't you?

13 A. Not only -- I've done every role in a tank squadron up to

14 commanding it.

15 Q. When you were a tank driver?

16 A. That was when I was a very young man.

17 Q. Now, you've given evidence about your three days of reporting --

18 not three days, about the days which you kept records of reporting that

19 I've temporarily mislaid but let's have a look at those.

20 The first one in time was the 7th of March, so I think we better

21 check your reporting, make sure that anything you wanted to go through

22 went through. So if you go, please, to the 7th of March.

23 MR. KAY: First one in time was 28th of February.

24 MR. NICE: So sorry. I missed that one.

25 THE WITNESS: I don't --

1 MR. NICE:

2 Q. I'm now past it.

3 A. I don't have that document in front of me any more.

4 Q. Well, you must have it, of course.

5 MR. NICE: Let's go back, Usher, if we can, to the 28th of

6 February at the top.

7 JUDGE KWON: Let the witness have the D247 in front of him.

8 THE WITNESS: Thank you.

9 MR. NICE:

10 Q. Now, we see, of course, in the -- on the general map for the 28th

11 of February, there was a local businessman shot in Pristina, but that

12 would not be within your general area of reporting, would it?

13 A. I was involved in some of these incidents because I, in transiting

14 to Pristina to coordinate my activities at the Coordination Centre, there

15 were two occasions that I responded to incidents that involved murder or

16 fatalities, but because it wasn't in my area of responsibility, any input

17 I had with passed on to other verifiers.

18 Q. So when we look at this part of your own exhibit which is in front

19 of you, Mr. Keith, for the 28th of February, we see familiarisation of

20 administrative controls. Next paragraph: Patrolling continued for the

21 rest of the week. Contacts made, positive and friendly, and so on.

22 We read a line which says: "Regular patrolling of this area will

23 be maintained, and our assessment is that the KLA account may well be more

24 correct in this particular location."

25 A. Yes.

1 Q. Then you refer to an incident in which a tank platoon and wheeled

2 APCs were involved, and one MUP was killed and one wounded.

3 A. That is the same incident --

4 Q. That's right.

5 A. -- you previously alluded to in the Blue Book.

6 Q. So that everything in your report that should have been recorded

7 centrally would appear to be there.

8 A. I'm not questioning that it wasn't.

9 Q. Thank you. So if we now move to the next day of your reports,

10 which is, I think, the 7th of March. Would the usher very kindly go to

11 the 7th of March and have in our hands your document.

12 You deal with, in your document, unconfirmed reports of sniping,

13 daily movement of one to three tanks at the chicken farm and the airport,

14 six other tanks observed moving, good contacts made with various police

15 chiefs, humanitarian issues increasing during the week with increasing

16 incidents of attacks on the MUP and retaliation against the KLA positions

17 to our north.

18 Nothing specific here, is there?

19 A. Keep in mind, Mr. Nice, this is a -- a summary of daily reports,

20 and I tried to relate as accurately and as objectively as I can the things

21 that occurred at that time, and this document was written at that time.

22 No, you're correct, the --

23 Q. Because reporting from the north would be the responsibility of

24 other KVM officials?

25 A. Yes, in adjacent areas of responsibility. However --

1 Q. Account of movement, humanitarian movement of 70 former villagers,

2 and what you describe as regular routine patrolling.

3 A. If I may, Mr. Nice, that 70 former villagers is the incident that

4 Mr. Kay had me recount and which I was instrumental in participating in

5 the arrangement of trying to re-establish normalcy and restore the

6 inhabitants from Donji Grabovac.

7 Q. And since you remind us of that, you will remember His Honour

8 Judge Kwon's question, I think, the villagers who had been displaced, to

9 your knowledge, had simply been displaced generally because of fighting in

10 the area; is that right?

11 A. Yes. I think it would be very difficult to maintain a normal

12 civil life when you're within a few hundred metres of fighting, regardless

13 of whether it's initiated from one side or the other.

14 Q. And you have no further knowledge to help the Court with why they

15 actually became displaced persons at an earlier stage?

16 A. No, that is correct, I do not have detailed knowledge.

17 Q. So if we look at the map for the 7th of March, we just see in

18 Pristina "Local members of KVM claims to have had warning shots fired into

19 the air. Two MUP are killed and one wounded after going to a home to

20 arrest three people for theft." But otherwise, events around and about

21 Pristina but nothing on Kosovo Polje.

22 A. No. To keep in mind, though, Mr. Nice, these are very perfunctory

23 reports that are compiled from a number of inputs, as you're well aware,

24 including mine and a number other Kosovo verification individuals. And

25 this is a very, very brief summary, and I don't think it -- it relates to

1 the tensions and the -- the anxieties of the people who were either

2 working there or living there at the time.

3 MR. NICE: Usher, if we could go to the 7th of March, please,

4 which is the next day for which we have -- I beg your pardon. No, not the

5 -- we have one for the 8th, but before we move -- can we go to the 7th,

6 in any event, just for this reason -- thank you very much.

7 If we look at -- sorry, Usher. We can go on to the 8th. My

8 mistake. The 8th will do fine.

9 Q. And would you like to look at your report for the 8th, Mr. Keith.

10 Have a look and see what found its way to head office, as it were.

11 On the map on the 8th we can see that there are interesting things

12 going on. Number 7, large scale MUP convoys heading west in an area well

13 to the west of you. To the north, VJ shelling five villages resulting in,

14 shall we just say a number of internally displaced persons. We see to the

15 east at number 6, VJ troop movements in and out of Gnjilane, and other

16 activity, but nothing relating to your area.

17 And if we look at your report for the 8th of March, little hard to

18 follow it -- I don't mean that critically, but follow it briefly, swiftly,

19 but there wasn't anything here that should have been reported, was there?

20 A. Mr. Nice, this particular report is one of many. This is not a

21 daily report, this is a specific incident report that came out of an

22 incident of which I and several of my other verifiers were participating

23 in and it resulted in damage to a vehicle which had to be withdrawn and

24 repaired. There would have been a daily report, which I no longer have

25 access to, from this day as well. But this is only a small part of that

1 day and refers to a specific incident that I -- in my opinion, could have

2 been quite nasty. As it turned out, it was not and nobody was

3 significantly hurt.

4 Q. So in the great scheme of things, not what you would expect to

5 find your superiors reporting at head office?

6 A. I'm not surprised that this incident didn't get into the blue

7 book, no.

8 Q. So no complaint about the method of reporting so far?

9 A. No.

10 Q. In which case the next report is the 9th of March, which we can

11 find if the usher can carry on with his helpful working through the

12 papers.

13 And here we see on the map various things around the area,

14 sporadic -- number 1, sporadic firing of heavy weapons by the VJ. Number

15 3, the abduction of an Albanian male. Number 4, air activity west of

16 Prizren. And then at number 8, we see an Albanian male in Pristina

17 murdered on the evening of the 8th of March.

18 We come to your document for this day. We see at 0830 "police

19 commander at Kosovo Polje reported a murder had occurred at Donje Dobrevo

20 and the police escorted JB," which is a code sign -- call-sign, "to the

21 site where the victim is found." This would appear to be that report,

22 would it?

23 A. That is based on the same incident, and the "JB" refers to "Juliet

24 Bravo," which was one of my vehicle call signs.

25 Q. Yes, and we can see that again. If the usher would be good enough

1 to turn over to the itemised entry just a few pages on -- you've already

2 done it, haven't you?

3 A. Yes, I have.

4 Q. There it all is. And while we're on this day, the 9th of March,

5 Usher, if you could come back, please, just to number 5 in the detailed

6 analysis so that we can see what was happening elsewhere in Kosovo.

7 "The VJ MUP operation to clear the KLA from General Jankovic area

8 continues. KVM patrols were initially blocked from proceeding to the

9 affected villages. MUP forces then followed their pattern of surrounding

10 the local villages and forcing the inhabitants to flee, through the use of

11 direct and indirect fire. By mid-afternoon, houses were burning. MUP

12 units appeared intent on destroying these villages."

13 Mr. Keith, although I've been focusing, with the assistance of the

14 usher, on entries you've referred to, will you accept from me that we have

15 actually pretty well covered all the references to Kosovo Polje in this

16 Blue Book for the period with which we are concerned?

17 A. I'm not sure what the point you're getting at here, Mr. Nice, but

18 yes, more or less, I can't argue with that.

19 Q. And you've clearly spoken to others in other areas of reporting,

20 and the reality was that the Kosovo Polje was actually, as we can actually

21 see by looking at the maps, one after the other, was actually quite a

22 quiet area. There wasn't much happening.

23 A. Actually, if you refer back to your incident number 5 on the 9th

24 of March, some of those villages are in my area of responsibility that

25 we're talking about being attacked and -- and burning.

1 Q. And in which case, then -- and that was properly reported?

2 A. I tried to report all events as best as I could, yes.

3 Q. Sorry, not to pick that up as your reporting but ahead of your

4 giving evidence we had no idea of the area that you covered and the

5 exhibits didn't reveal it.

6 We look on then from the 9th --

7 JUDGE BONOMY: Before you move on, Mr. Nice. I'm not following

8 that answer at the moment, Mr. Keith. You're saying that some of the

9 villages referred to in 5 were in your area.

10 THE WITNESS: Those villages that are reported in that incident

11 item number 5, yes.

12 JUDGE BONOMY: And are you saying that you had no knowledge of

13 them being attacked?

14 THE WITNESS: On the contrary, Your Honour. I reported them, and

15 I assumed this report is taken from my report.

16 JUDGE BONOMY: So this is your report of events.

17 THE WITNESS: It consists of information that I assume came from

18 my report, yes.

19 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you.

20 THE WITNESS: If I may, Mr. Nice, in your line of questioning --

21 I'm sorry?

22 MR. NICE:

23 Q. You probably may, yes.

24 A. In your line of questioning and the reporting procedures of the

25 Kosovo Verification Mission, the 1.638 verifiers which came from, I

1 believe, 54 of the nations of the Organisation for Security and

2 Cooperation in Europe involved people and individuals who I respect for

3 participating and respect where they came from and who they were.

4 However, in my humble opinion, of many whom I had the privilege to work

5 with, very few had a sound military background, and many of them did not

6 -- were not able to understand what they were seeing at times. Now, I'm

7 not suggesting they were incompetent, I'm not suggesting they were trying

8 to provide bad information. I'm suggesting to you that in many cases

9 reports may not have been as factual as they could have been or perhaps

10 should have been. And that -- I'm not trying to take away from who

11 reported and what they said, but I know in working with others, not just

12 in my area but adjacent areas and across the mission, many people did not,

13 in my humble opinion, did not have a good grasp of the military situation

14 on the ground and hence had difficulty in reporting competently and

15 accurately in some cases.

16 Now, this doesn't take away what they were saying, but it may not

17 be -- it may not be what was occurring on the ground.

18 Q. I'll come back to that answer immediately after I tidy up

19 something that follows on from His Honour Judge Bonomy's question. And if

20 the usher would be good enough to take us back to the map, the red tag at

21 the top for the 9th of March. And if we look together, Mr. Keith, at

22 number 5. We can see that number 5, "VJ operation, a further flow of

23 IDPs, minimum KLA response," is the entry that is expanded at the number

24 5, if the usher would then turn back to the number 5 we were looking at

25 and that said a number of villages -- houses were burning. Now, this is

1 the entry you say related to you; is that right?

2 A. I haven't had the opportunity to translate those map coordinates

3 onto the map, but the names of some of those villages I do not believe are

4 in the General Jankovic border area. I believe they are north of Kosovo

5 Polje on the Mitrovica highway.

6 Q. Well, that -- I see. That would mean, then, that you saw, had

7 evidence of, and now have a recollection of the MUP and VJ burning houses

8 and forcing people to move; is that right?

9 A. That is not correct, and that is not what I have reported.

10 Q. I mean, the map is -- before you answer, the map is quite clear

11 that point 5 could hardly be further away from your location to the south

12 -- I suppose it could be a bit further away if it was underneath Prizren,

13 but it's a pretty long way to the south. Now, are you sure that you

14 remember these villages as being villages on which you reported, or do you

15 think, on reflection, that this may have nothing to do with you?

16 A. If you refer to my weekly summary number 3 in my document reported

17 on 14th of March, you will see, about halfway down in my weekly summary --

18 perhaps these are not the same ones then but if you look at the names of

19 the villages that I was reporting, just at the end of the second paragraph

20 the movement of IDPs and the humanitarian needs decreased during the week

21 although conflict in the Priluzje, good contact in Mihalic intensified

22 during the week. These were villages to the north of -- in the north of

23 my area of responsibility bordering on the adjacent area of

24 responsibility, and these were areas that during this period of time and

25 in the days to follow where the -- where the counter-terrorist operations

1 took place inhabitants did leave their villages and buildings were -- did

2 sustain damage.

3 Q. It may be, Mr. Keith, but please look at number 5. You've

4 adopted, in answer to His Honour Judge Bonomy, or possibly initially to

5 me, I can't remember, these villages as being in some sense villages on

6 which you were reporting. There's nothing in your report for the 14th of

7 March that relates at all to the names shown here, is there?

8 A. I think that's correct. I was referring to the recollection of

9 the names that I had reported and I thought there was a similarity between

10 some of them.

11 Q. Can we just leave it on this basis: You may have been entirely

12 wrong and number 5 on that particular report has nothing to do with you?

13 A. That report may not include any input from my reports.

14 Q. Thank you. Let's go back now to the question that you raise by

15 effectively criticising the reporting skills of some of your fellow KVM

16 staff.

17 You started in the army at what age?

18 A. I was a reserve soldier at the age of 17.

19 Q. When did you become a full-time soldier?

20 A. At the age of 19.

21 Q. What year was that, please?

22 A. 1955.

23 Q. You then stayed in the army until a sabbatical break in 1980?

24 A. 1982.

25 Q. So between 1955 and 1982, 27 years, continuous service, what ranks

1 did you hold?

2 A. I started out as a soldier. I was a -- went through the -- became

3 a commissioned officer in 1962 and -- and went through the various junior

4 officer ranks.

5 Q. And when you took your sabbatical, were you a captain?

6 A. When I retired I was still wearing the -- the rank of captain,

7 that is correct.

8 Q. That means, without being in any way critical, that your access to

9 senior command, to how senior command is dealt with is necessarily

10 limited.

11 A. No. I would -- you're -- you're right. I did not wear

12 significant rank, if you will, but given the small size of the Canadian

13 army during my military service and the participation that I had in it, I

14 had opportunity to work with a number of senior officers quite intimately

15 and on various staffs, although most of my service was in lower-level

16 leadership and in instructional roles.

17 Q. Did you go to staff college?

18 A. I'm staff trained, yes.

19 Q. You went to staff college?

20 A. That is correct.

21 Q. But in the course of your working in the Kosovo mission, for the

22 Kosovo mission, you had absolutely no access to senior military figures on

23 any side, did you?

24 A. Reference to the Kosovo Verification Mission?

25 Q. Yes.

1 A. No. My -- my responsibilities were as described, to -- to lead

2 and direct the small team at Kosovo Polje.

3 Q. You didn't, for example, discuss things with your own countryman

4 General Maisonneuve?

5 A. No, I did not.

6 Q. Although I suppose you would agree, would you, with his assessment

7 that to use tank fire against houses is quite a disproportionate use of

8 force, isn't it?

9 A. I'm not sure of the incidents that he was commenting on, but tank

10 fire is -- can be used to provide covering fire. It's direct fire, as

11 you're probably well aware, and to be -- to use against buildings or copse

12 or a farmhouse in the context of a military operation I would think

13 totally appropriate. However, I'm not suggesting that tank fire against a

14 farmhouse -- it depends -- is appropriate. It depends on the

15 circumstances of the military operation.

16 Q. You didn't have any contact with a British man called Ciaglinski,

17 did you? Or Ciaglinski as I think it's pronounced.

18 A. No, not to my knowledge.

19 Q. Have you followed the evidence in this case at all?

20 A. I have tried to follow the media accounts. I haven't followed the

21 detail, no.

22 Q. Because we'll see perhaps in due course, if it's necessary, what

23 you were later to express so firmly as your views -- and indeed your views

24 didn't stop at the military, they extended to the political, didn't they?

25 A. The views that I wrote and expressed subsequent to my service in

1 the --

2 Q. Yes.

3 A. Yes.

4 Q. So you're a man who held and expressed political and military

5 views. You were unaware, were you, of the fact, if it's in due course

6 accepted by the Court, that the officer Ciaglinski was informed of a plan

7 both to rid the area of the KLA and to force the Kosovo Albanians out?

8 A. I'm not aware of any such plan.

9 Q. And when you were subsequently to express your opinions, you of

10 course had had no discussions with senior military figures on either side,

11 were you?

12 A. No, I was expressing opinions from my sentiment, and in

13 conversation with the various other verifiers, especially after the

14 evacuation in the days and week or so before we left the area, I had the

15 opportunity to talk to a number, now in the scores I guess, a score or so,

16 of the 1.638 verifiers, and it was my recollection, Mr. Nice, that many of

17 the people that I talked to agreed with my sentiment and provided me with

18 some insight into some of their own sentiment and experiences, which may

19 or may not be related in