1 Wednesday, 16 March 2005

2 [Open session]

3 [The witness entered court]

4 [The accused entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.03 a.m.

6 JUDGE KWON: Judge Robinson is absent due to Tribunal business, so

7 we'll sit pursuant to 15 bis.

8 Mr. Milosevic, for you to continue examination.

9 WITNESS: RADOMIR GOJOVIC [Resumed]

10 [Witness answered through interpreter]

11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Kwon.

12 Examined by Mr. Milosevic: [Continued]

13 Q. [Interpretation] Good morning, General Gojovic. Yesterday, we

14 went through tab 14 containing a number of documents from which it

15 transpires that you as the head of the general administration of the

16 General Staff were informed about the work of the courts and the

17 prosecutors' offices. Was the Supreme Command Staff informed of the work

18 of the military judiciary organs?

19 A. Yes.

20 Q. I wish to draw everyone's attention to tab 15. It contains a

21 paper titled "Information." Was that the kind of information that was

22 supplied to the Supreme Command Staff?

23 A. Yes. That's the kind of report we received.

24 Q. It contains all the general data about formation, 1st Army, 2nd

25 Army, 3rd Army. In the penultimate paragraph, concerning the 3rd Army, it

1 says: "The difficulties encountered by this court in its work also exist

2 when it comes to delivering subpoenas because of the lack of security and

3 safety of movement in combat operations zones, the intense attacks carried

4 out by the aggressor's air force and the covert operations by dispersed

5 terrorists groups."

6 A. Yes. This is typical of the military corps and the military

7 prosecutor's office of the Pristina Corps.

8 Q. The Pristina Corps, in fact its zone of responsibility covers the

9 entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Is that correct, General

10 Gojovic?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. On the next page, in paragraph 3, we see information about the

13 number of cases. It says: "From the moment of establishment of military

14 judicial organs, military prosecutors received 7.807 criminal reports,

15 filed reports for the investigation of 2.911 persons, and charged 3.928

16 persons. A total of 2.825 requests to start an investigation were

17 submitted. 1.395 were implemented. Some 3.897 persons have been

18 indicted ..."

19 That is the kind of information you showed us in the form of

20 tables.

21 A. Yes. I would just like to give a clarification about this. This

22 paper was prepared for over a number of days, and it's dated 12th

23 September, but this information is as of the 15th September, because that

24 was the date when we actually submitted it to the Supreme Command Staff,

25 and the information was updated before it was sent. There were certain

1 corrections to these conclusions and assessments. So these numbers - for

2 instance the number of cases - coincides with the numbers given in tabular

3 form in the tables we saw earlier in attachments annexes 1 to 3.

4 Q. The basic problems are also covered here. In paragraph 4, it

5 says: "A large number of criminal reports were submitted in a very short

6 interval, and many of them were not supported by the necessary legal

7 evidence, which causes difficulties in the work of the prosecutor. Such a

8 large number of criminal cases are becoming a burden to the courts.

9 "There is a slight increase in more -- in graver, serious crimes,

10 with an increasing number of perpetrators committing serious crimes, which

11 represents a threat to society and requires greater engagement of the

12 competent organs in order to detect and prevent crimes."

13 A. Correct.

14 Q. In paragraph 5, we see what kind of measures were applied. It

15 says: "Provide adequate documentation for establishment of military

16 prisons," et cetera.

17 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreters request for the accused to provide

18 adequate references before starting to quote.

19 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, you are being requested by the

20 interpreters to indicate the appropriate references before starting to

21 quote.

22 THE INTERPRETER: And to slow down, please.

23 JUDGE KWON: And to slow down.

24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 6.3.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. "All commanders of units should report immediately to the

2 military prosecutor any crimes and perpetrators so that they can be

3 prosecuted. Any officers who do not comply shall be accountable and the

4 strictest measures shall be applied against them."

5 That's the kind of information that was supplied to the Supreme

6 Command Staff. This is dated 12 September 1992. Do you have any

7 comments, Mr. Gojovic?

8 A. There is especially this paragraph concerning the work of the

9 courts where they are urged to do their utmost so that all these cases can

10 be processed in the most efficient manner. The date of this document is

11 12 May 1999.

12 MR. NICE: Your Honours, I think we might have a little bit more

13 information about this document. The witness has been asked whether it's

14 like material he received. I don't know if he's saying he received it or

15 where he got it from or how he produced it, but given that it's anonymous

16 on its face, perhaps a little more detail will help us.

17 JUDGE KWON: I think Mr. Nice can deal with it in

18 cross-examination, but if you can help us with this question,

19 Mr. Milosevic.

20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can deal with it. I personally

21 drafted this paper. All the reports that went to the Supreme Command

22 Staff regarding the work of the military judiciary bodies were personally

23 drafted by me. Some corrections and adjustments were introduced here by

24 my superior, General Matovic, concerning the work of the Supreme Command

25 Staff. Otherwise, I compiled all this data.

1 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

2 Q. It is indicated here that it was the administration for

3 reinforcement, organisation, mobilisation, and system issues of the

4 Supreme Command Staff drafted this.

5 A. Yes, that is true. The legal department of the Supreme Command

6 Staff was part of this administration, and I drafted this with the

7 approval of the head of this administration, General Matovic.

8 Q. It says "attachments as indicated in the text." Those are the

9 attachments we reviewed yesterday.

10 A. That is correct, and those attachments contain exact data on cases

11 processed. So this is a package of documents.

12 Q. Tell me in the most general terms what issues from the domain of

13 the work of military judiciary were reported to the Supreme Command Staff.

14 A. They were reported about the number of perpetrators, the number of

15 criminal reports received, the number of requests for starting

16 investigations, and the number of indictments. As for military courts,

17 how many on-site investigations were carried out, how many requests for

18 investigations were received, how many investigations were actually

19 started, how many indictments were brought.

20 Also, the Supreme Command Staff was given a breakdown by the type

21 of crimes. There were three types of crimes concerning military courts;

22 failure to respond to call-up, desertion, and failure to carry out orders.

23 All other crimes were put in one group. There is crime against life and

24 limb, that is murder; heavy bodily injuries; and the third category is

25 crimes against property. Crimes against property, as I said, they

1 encompass all crimes concerning property. Additional information would be

2 later submitted concerning the status of persons who committed the crimes;

3 officers, non-commissioned officers, conscripts, et cetera.

4 That is the kind of issues that were contained in the reports

5 given to the Supreme Command Staff, including tables where all this data

6 is contained.

7 JUDGE BONOMY: General, can I take it that crime against life and

8 limb includes more than murder?

9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. All crimes against life and

10 limb are crimes against life and body, in other words. There is nothing

11 else in this category.

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. General Gojovic, did the Supreme Command Staff, after the state of

14 war ended, receive a final report of all criminal cases started before

15 military judiciary organs?

16 A. Yes.

17 Q. Is that the document contained in tab 16, "Report on the work of

18 military judicial organs during the state of war"?

19 A. Correct.

20 JUDGE BONOMY: Again can I be clear about one thing: The last

21 document we've looked at, which is tab 15, is dated at the end a date in

22 May, 12th of May, but at the beginning a date in September. Now, what

23 period does it actually relate to?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no, no, no. It was not

25 September. I'm sorry. The previous report provides information as of the

1 12th of May, but it is accompanied by annexes added as of the 15th of May,

2 and the information is added, as I explained earlier, speaking of para 3,

3 that the information was updated before the report was finally submitted.

4 The report took two or three days to compile, and we updated it before

5 submitting it on the 15th, because this report was submitted together with

6 the tables we discussed previously, and we updated the information so that

7 all the data would coincide between the tables and the report.

8 JUDGE KWON: Do you have that tab 15 with you, General Gojovic?

9 What Judge Bonomy has referred to is a handwritten date on the right top

10 of the document.

11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. That's the 12th of May. 12th

12 of May. I wrote that in longhand so I wouldn't have to turn to the last

13 page and look at the date, the last page in the left-hand corner. This is

14 written in pencil.

15 JUDGE KWON: I'm sorry, the first page, at the top of the right

16 part of the page, it says 12th of September, 1999. What does it mean?

17 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no. It's the 12th of May. 12/9

18 -- 12/5. I'm sorry.

19 JUDGE KWON: Yes, it's a misinterpretation. Yes, I follow.

20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Must be.

21 JUDGE BONOMY: One problem about that is a number of your answers

22 have actually referred to September, but we can take it that they're

23 wrong, can we, and they should be May?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It's the month of May. Maybe it was

25 a slip of the tongue. Maybe President Milosevic can help us, but I kept

1 speaking of the 12th of May. I kept speaking of the month of May, not

2 September. It must be a misunderstanding or misinterpretation. In any

3 case, it's the month of May 1999.

4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

5 Q. General, do you have the original of that document?

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. And what can you see on that document, the original? Can you see

8 -- can we see what you wrote down in handwriting?

9 A. Yes. Take a look, please.

10 Q. Because the copy isn't clear enough.

11 JUDGE KWON: That's clear, yes. Go on, Mr. Milosevic.

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, I'd like to tender tab 15

13 into evidence, please.

14 JUDGE KWON: We will admit from tab 13 and 14 and 15 as well.

15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.

16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

17 Q. You've already answered my question, that is to say whether the

18 staff of the Supreme Command received a final report at the end of the

19 state of war, which means also at the end of the existence of wartime

20 courts; right?

21 A. Yes.

22 Q. We're just going to dwell on this very briefly. On page 1,

23 paragraph 3, we see the total figure that: "Military prosecutors have so

24 far received a total of 18.541 criminal reports, filed requests for the

25 investigation of 5.370 persons, and indicted 6.708 persons."

1 Can you explain to us how an investigation was conducted against

2 5.370 whereas 6.708 were indicted?

3 A. This was the situation when you have a cross-section like this.

4 Part of the persons were accused after the investigation, and the second

5 portion were individuals which were not investigated if the evidence and

6 proof was sufficient, together with the criminal file -- criminal report

7 that was filed, for the prosecutor to be able to go ahead in the

8 proceedings, and this was something we could do during a situation of war,

9 which means that without the acquiescence of the investigating judge, an

10 indictment could be raised whereas regularly you would need agreement from

11 the investigating judge to raise an indictment for serious crimes meriting

12 sentences above five years. So that is the difference. It was a state of

13 war and that's why that difference occurs.

14 Q. Very well. Thank you. I've understood your explanation.

15 The third paragraph from the bottom on that same first page says

16 the following, that sentences ranged "from one to seven years in prison,

17 with the majority being around 2.5 to six years, while for other serious

18 crimes, far more severe sentences were pronounced."

19 A. Yes. That was for the cases where a judgement was made, and there

20 were fewer people where the high sentences existed, there were -- the

21 cases were referred on appeal.

22 Towards the end of this piece of information, it says crimes which

23 -- criminal cases that will objectively not be able to be completed will

24 be sent to the responsible peacetime military courts for further procedure

25 as envisaged by the rules of operation of military courts during a state

1 of war."

2 A. Yes.

3 Q. So is this absolutely in keeping with the rules of service and

4 rules of procedure, that wartime military courts are abolished and regular

5 courts of law carry on with the proceedings?

6 A. Yes. Once the state of war ceases, the military judiciary ceases

7 to work, which means that we don't need extra regulations for this. Once

8 a state of war has come to an end, so do the military courts, and it is

9 the peacetime military courts that take over these affairs. In Nis, in

10 Belgrade or Podgorica. So there were three military courts during

11 peacetime covering the entire area and the area of Kosovo and Metohija for

12 the 3rd Army. All the cases are ceded to the military court in Nis. The

13 1st Army has its military court in Belgrade, and the 2nd Army has its

14 military court in Podgorica and they continue to work regularly in

15 peacetime.

16 Q. Can we, General, now comment briefly on the attachments to this

17 piece of information, the state of criminal cases in military judicial

18 organs, the table we have, and criminal reports received against officers

19 172, 107 against non-commissioned officers, 3.843 against privates,

20 private soldiers, 14.252 against military conscripts, 31 against civilians

21 in the Yugoslav army, and 136 criminal reports received against civilians

22 not in the Yugoslav army, which makes a total of 18.541.

23 A. Yes. This gives us the total number of criminal reports broken up

24 according to the categories of persons committing the crimes, and this is

25 important for the supreme military staff to see who the perpetrators were

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1 according to the criminal reports filed and received.

2 Q. And next -- in the last column we see investigation requests, how

3 many indictees, what the judgements were. The total number is 2.185, 360

4 were freed, which makes a total of 2.811 judgements during the state of

5 war; is that right?

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. So that was while the bombing was going on, to all intents --

8 A. Yes. From the time a state of war was declared until it was -- it

9 came to an end.

10 Q. We have on the next page convictions by category of persons.

11 Could you just tell us briefly about the column referring to crimes

12 against life and limb.

13 A. The convicted persons for crimes against life and limb that the

14 president has just referred to shows the following: The total number of

15 convicted persons is 2.811, and they are divided up in categories,

16 categories of crimes and the sentences passed, from the smallest sentence

17 to the longest prison sentence. But as I said, 32 is the total number for

18 that category, up to 2 years, 28; up to five years, 4 persons. Four

19 persons received sentences of up to 5. So those are the judgements.

20 Q. And the others are the ones where proceedings continue.

21 A. Yes. And the last column shows the total number of convicted

22 persons. 2.185 convicted, 360 acquitted, and dismissed 266. This

23 dismissal - let me just explain this to you. The difference between

24 acquitted and dismissed is that when the prosecutor gives up during the

25 main investigations, gives up the case where he feels there's no case to

1 answer. Where there is not sufficient proof and evidence to raise an

2 indictment, then the case is dismissed. And this is distinguished from

3 the acquittals column.

4 Q. Well, let's just take note of that. All the convicted persons,

5 including the most serious crimes, were convicted during the state of war

6 or, rather, during the bombing; is that right?

7 A. Yes.

8 Q. You said that the courts dislocated, that they moved, that they

9 would have to go into safer areas because they were the target of the

10 bombing. Now, you yourself, based on your personal experience, did you

11 encounter a situation where you had to move?

12 A. Well, I took up my duties on the 16th of April. From the 16th of

13 April to the 10th of June, we had to dislocate three times, move three

14 times, and before that they had to move twice, which means a total of five

15 dislocations.

16 JUDGE BONOMY: Mr. Milosevic, can I have some clarification from

17 you on what the issue is that this evidence relates to, this evidence of

18 the general judicial system that was in operation at the time.

19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Bonomy, this relates to the main

20 charges in the indictment according to which it is said that the forces of

21 Yugoslavia or Yugoslav army perpetrated crimes in Kosovo and Metohija,

22 whereas on the basis of all this, we can see - of course nobody questions

23 or challenges the fact that there were crimes that had been committed -

24 but we can see from this material the whole chain of command and the

25 judiciary, the court organs that were working to punish the crimes that

1 were committed, to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to bring them to

2 court, to take them into custody and to try them. And the executive

3 powers say that perpetrators of crimes must be brought before the court.

4 Once they are in court, it goes -- they come under the domain of court

5 authorities, the judiciary, and not executive power and authority.

6 JUDGE BONOMY: But would the perpetrators that really matter in

7 this case not all be dealt with by the military court and, therefore,

8 should we not be looking at the cases that the military court dealt with

9 and perhaps the detail of these cases rather than the general cases of

10 ordinary criminal activity in the country?

11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As far as I understand it, these are

12 just cases that were dealt with by the military court and military

13 prosecutor's office. The cases that went to civilian courts and the

14 civilian prosecutor's office are not incorporated into these documents,

15 nor does General Gojovic, in view of his military functions, is able to

16 testify about what civilian courts did. So these are cases before the

17 military courts.

18 JUDGE BONOMY: You're quite right, but what I'm really getting at

19 is that the only category presumably that really matters here is the

20 crimes against life and limb. The desertion or the failure to answer your

21 conscription call-up and so on is neither here nor there. What we really

22 must be interested in is damage to life and limb and possibly damage to

23 property.

24 JUDGE KWON: And whether it is a crime against humanity or a war

25 crime.

1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] As to crimes against life and limb,

2 without a doubt in most cases that's what we did deal with. That's what

3 these cases are. I can't -- the majority. And I can't say that all of

4 them were, but General Gojovic is here to explain that. Whereas the

5 tables were provided as they exist in the documents and as the documents

6 sent up to the higher authorities, that is to say to General Gojovic

7 himself and how he informed the Supreme Command. We didn't make extracts

8 and excerpts from those documents, but as you can see, I'm asking General

9 Gojovic about crimes against life and limb. And I should like to mention

10 in this regard that General Gojovic yesterday indicated that the military

11 prosecutors were guided in their work by the practice of giving more

12 serious sentences --

13 THE INTERPRETER: Bringing in graver charges, interpreter's

14 correction.

15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- for these crimes. And some of

16 these crimes even merited the death sentence whereas the Criminal Code in

17 Yugoslavia had no death sentence provisions or, rather, didn't have at

18 that time, and now it doesn't exist in the Criminal Code of Serbia either.

19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Might I be allowed to give an

20 explanation, please?

21 JUDGE BONOMY: Not at the moment, please.

22 I just want to make it clear, Mr. Milosevic, that for my part this

23 evidence would be more significant if we were looking at examples to see

24 what is the nature of the case that's being taken up by the military court

25 that might be a case that was an example of criminal activity that would

1 fall under the terms of the indictment, and I don't really at the moment

2 have any idea of what these cases were.

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Bonomy, I hope that by the end

4 of my examination-in-chief of General Gojovic you will get an idea of what

5 this is about, because the descriptions of the cases that we're dealing

6 with will be found in the tabs to come. We haven't come to that yet.

7 JUDGE KWON: We are looking forward to it. Please proceed.

8 THE INTERPRETER: Could the speakers please pause between question

9 and answer. Thank you.

10 JUDGE KWON: General Gojovic, please put a pause between the

11 question and answer, for the sake of the interpreters.

12 Yes, please go on.

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. General Gojovic, I think you wanted to give an additional

15 explanation in this regard.

16 A. Yes, I did. I wanted to indicate this - not to waste time - what

17 I wanted to say was that we are going to see the individual cases next

18 individually and the way and what crimes were committed and which crimes

19 come under war crimes or crimes against international humanitarian law.

20 So you will have the names and surnames, the events, and the judgement of

21 the court in question.

22 JUDGE BONOMY: General, I know that because I've read through the

23 documents. I'm just anxious to try to make some progress.

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes, I see.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. General Gojovic --

2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm going to try and move ahead as

3 quickly as possible, Mr. Bonomy.

4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

5 Q. General Gojovic, are the military -- is the military judiciously

6 independent in its work?

7 A. Yes, of course certainly. Without a doubt.

8 Q. And the Supreme Command or any other level of command in the army

9 of Yugoslavia, did it have the right to influence the work of the military

10 judiciary in any way?

11 A. The Supreme Command was not able to exert influence on the work of

12 the courts on the individual cases except to provide necessary working

13 conditions and to insist upon speeding up the whole process. So if you

14 can consider that to be an influence, then in that way, but as -- as to

15 the method of decision-making, that came under the jurisdiction of the

16 prosecutor in the first place and the military courts and nobody was

17 allowed to meddle or interfere in their work.

18 Q. Very well. Now, when we come to the chain of command, could you

19 explain to us, if an officer learns or suspects that a crime has been

20 committed, what must he do? What is his duty?

21 A. Every officer is duty-bound to act in one of the following ways,

22 or in the following ways: First of all, if it is in his -- if his -- the

23 crime is committed on the territory of his unit, he must secure the area,

24 safeguard the evidence, take measures to uncover the perpetrators, to

25 prevent them from absconding. So those are the first steps.

1 Then he is duty-bound to inform the military prosecutor or,

2 rather, the organs of the military police for them to take further steps

3 to apprehend the perpetrator.

4 And if he does all this, then he is duty-bound to file a criminal

5 report to the military courts.

6 Q. Very well, thank you. Now, where does the -- where do the duties

7 of the officer end?

8 A. Once the officer has filed a criminal report, gathered all the

9 evidence, then it is the prosecutor who takes over. Where an

10 investigation is necessary and where the search for the perpetrator has to

11 be undertaken, then that is left to the military police and then the

12 duties of the officer cease. It is the professional organs that come into

13 play at that second stage to uncover the perpetrator and to gather

14 evidence. So those are the first steps that the officer takes.

15 Q. [No interpretation]

16 THE INTERPRETER: Can you hear the English interpretation now?

17 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, the French booth and Albanian booth do

18 not have the document, so could you slow down. And the last part was not

19 interpreted. Could you repeat the last question again.

20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I said to the witness that I wished

21 to move on to tabs 17 and 18, and the question is:

22 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

23 Q. What were the crimes committed that could be considered grave

24 violations of international humanitarian law whose perpetrators were

25 discovered and for whom proceedings were initiated before courts of law

1 during the state of war?

2 I'm referring to tab 17. This is a letter sent to the supreme

3 military court in Belgrade. It deals with the period from the 24th of

4 March, 1999, to the 10th of June, 1999, that is to say when the NATO

5 aggression started. Could we please go through tab 17 now.

6 I would just like you to indicate -- or, rather, we have all the

7 tables here of all the crimes involved in the period from the 24th of

8 March until the 10th of June, so this involves a great deal of statistics.

9 That's why I asked for tab 17, where we have a summary review of criminal

10 proceedings instituted against persons who committed crimes in the area of

11 Kosovo and Metohija during the NATO aggression, that is to say from the

12 24th of March until the 10th of June, 1999.

13 General Gojovic, if we look at the contents, we can see -- well,

14 actually, I'm going to skip over the summary review. Item 2 is war crimes

15 against the civilian population. This is on pages 2 and 3.

16 A. Yes.

17 Q. Three are multiple murders and you mentioned the Criminal Code of

18 the Republic of Serbia from pages 4 to 5.

19 JUDGE KWON: Would you indicate the page number in the English

20 version.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I haven't got the English version

22 now, but it's always just a couple of pages. I mean in the English

23 version too item 2 has to start on page 2, because the first page is the

24 summary review.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. You have here war crimes against the civilian population. That's

2 what it says.

3 JUDGE KWON: I couldn't find the passage.

4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could I please get this tab in

5 English, and then I'll be able to find the reference for you.

6 JUDGE KWON: Is it tab 18, then?

7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, yes, tab 18. As soon as you go

8 through the contents, I assume there would have to be something that says

9 "Summary," and then there's this summary review of one page only.

10 JUDGE BONOMY: I think the problem is we were referred to tab 17.

11 But is it 18?

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] No. Tab 17 are simply all the

13 statistical surveys, but then tab 18 is concrete. That is what you

14 insisted on, Mr. Bonomy.

15 In the English text, it starts from page 4, Mr. Kwon. Page 4, war

16 crimes against the civilian population. In the English text it is page 4,

17 in the Serbian text it is page 2.

18 JUDGE KWON: Yes, I think we are following you.

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. So it says here Article 142 of the Criminal Code of the Federal

21 Republic of Yugoslavia, and then the name and surname of the accused

22 person, the time of commission of crime, the place of commission. It's

23 the Istok municipality, you can see it here.

24 As you can see on this first page -- or, rather, the page that is

25 page number 4 in the English language, five persons were indicted, and

1 then there is a brief description of crime. That's what it says in

2 English, too, "Brief description of crime." And then the persons are

3 mentioned, and it says they "killed with premeditation five unidentified

4 Albanians whom they had previously taken prisoner and detained during an

5 operation by their unit. Having taken them out of custody, they put them

6 against the wall of a house, opened fire on them with automatic rifles and

7 killed them all. They threw them into a well into which they poured

8 petrol and then set it on fire."

9 Those proceedings or, rather, that case was later referred to the

10 court in Kraljevo. It has to do with five individuals. All five are

11 reserve soldiers.

12 And then A is Istok municipality and B is Donja Klina

13 municipality. These same persons removed two Albanians from a refugee

14 convoy in Donja Klina, they opened fire on them with automatic rifles in

15 the yard of an abandoned house, killed them, and then threw them into a

16 well. In the English text this is page number 5.

17 On that same page, page number 5, there is an indicted captain

18 first class reserve, and the description of the crime reads as follows:

19 "As platoon commander, he order his subordinate soldiers to fire at a

20 Siptar in a meadow in order to check the adjustments on their weapon

21 sights. In so doing, they killed him. He also ordered them to take

22 money, gold jewellery, and other valuables from the Siptar population."

23 Later on, the case was referred to the district court in Valjevo.

24 On page 6 in the English version - and in the Serbian language

25 it's on page 4 - there are three persons. There is a major, there is a

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1 reserve private, and yet another reserve private. It says here that this

2 officer, in the Susica village sector where his unit was, he ordered the

3 two privates to liquidate Feriz Krasniqi and Rukija, an elderly man and

4 woman who had not left the village. They did not -- they did this,

5 shooting at them with their automatic rifles.

6 Further on on the same page, there are three persons and there is

7 a description of the crime concerned. On the same page, there is a crime

8 committed by a reserve private. This is number 4. It says: "In the

9 Penduh village sector where a convoy of military vehicles had stopped,

10 when he saw two people, Flazmin Emini and Bahri Emini, running away, he

11 discharged a burst of gunfire after them from an automatic rifle and

12 killed both of them." However, I think it would be better if the general

13 could make comments with regard to all of this rather than have me read it

14 out.

15 The next page is page 7 in the English version, numbers 5, 6, 7

16 respectively. He killed Kaljif Berisa and Saljiju Pucoli, two Roma from

17 Kosovo Polje using an automatic rifle. Then the next person under number

18 6 is reserve captain first class, a particular captain. "Having taken

19 five people from the village of Zagradska Hoca into custody, he lined them

20 up against a wall and then killed one of them with one round from his

21 rifle and the others with a burst of fire.

22 And then soldier Igor Radojica, who killed several people, and so

23 on and so forth.

24 All of that is on page 7.

25 JUDGE BONOMY: Can I ask something, Mr. Milosevic? I would like

1 to ask two things, actually. One is in this catalogue, this list of cases

2 where people were prosecuted or proceedings were taken up in relation to

3 what might be described as war crimes, are any of these cases referred to

4 in the indictment? In other words, are any of them cases that the

5 Prosecution have taken up with the allegation that they are a war crime or

6 are these all quite separate cases that were individually prosecuted in

7 Serbia?

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I think, Mr. Bonomy, that this is

9 perfectly clear evidence that the organs of the army of Yugoslavia, the

10 judiciary of the military of Yugoslavia, arrested people, brought them to

11 courts of law, and submitted criminal reports.

12 JUDGE BONOMY: I understand that. That's not my question. My

13 question is whether any of them, any of them appear in the indictment.

14 It's just to try and relate these events to see if they're entirely

15 separate events from the ones that the Prosecution are dealing with or if

16 there's any coincidence between the cases here and the particular crimes

17 that are alleged in the indictments.

18 I'm only looking for some assistance to make the job easier.

19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I understand, Mr. Bonomy, but it is

20 my understanding that Mr. Nice is dealing with all victims for whom he

21 believes were killed by Serb soldiers and officers, by the forces of

22 Serbia and Yugoslavia. So this refers to such victims, with the names and

23 surnames of the perpetrators who were discovered.

24 JUDGE BONOMY: Many victims are named in the indictment, and I

25 just wondered if any of those named in the indictment against you appear

1 in this catalogue of cases which were taken up by the Serbian authorities.

2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have to tell you that I did not

3 compare the lists that appear.

4 JUDGE BONOMY: That's the first question.

5 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice has the answer.

6 MR. NICE: Your Honour may be assisted on page 76.

7 JUDGE BONOMY: Can you be more specific, Mr. Nice?

8 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for Mr. Nice, please.

9 MR. NICE: Page 76, Izbica. Izbica is charged. Although, of

10 course, I'm waiting to hear what the witness has to say about this as

11 about other entries.

12 JUDGE BONOMY: You mean 76 of the indictment.

13 MR. NICE: No, sorry, page 76 of this exhibit. Page 76 of this

14 exhibit, as I have it, in English is unknown persons, Izbica village, near

15 Srbica. Now that, I think, may relate to something that's charged.

16 JUDGE BONOMY: You mean charged in the indictment.

17 MR. NICE: In the indictment, yes.

18 JUDGE BONOMY: And is that the only one?

19 MR. NICE: As far as we've seen so far. We've only had the

20 translations since yesterday. That's the best we can do.

21 JUDGE BONOMY: That's helpful.

22 The second matter I wanted to raise was directly with the general.

23 Can you explain to me how this document was compiled?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can. The survey we are looking at

25 now is one that I personally compiled on the basis of the original

1 documents from the Nis military court. This is a report that was sent to

2 the supreme military court in Belgrade. This comes from the documents of

3 the Nis military court. They dealt with things in order, in chronological

4 order as they were entered in their register.

5 I made this survey, and I tried to group the crimes so they could

6 be followed more easily. You will see the page number reference and the

7 type of crime committed in order to be able to follow things more easily.

8 JUDGE BONOMY: General, when did you do that?

9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This was done in 2001.

10 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you.

11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Oh, I'm sorry. But the information

12 contained therein goes up to the 10th of May, 1999.

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. I don't want to go back to the very beginning now, but it's page

15 8. I want to draw your attention to the fact that all the columns are the

16 same, and there is also ruling to initiate proceedings. And if you look

17 at your page 8, and you will see that for the person under number 1, the

18 rule to initiate proceedings was -- ruling to initiate proceedings bears

19 the date of the 25th of April, 1999, and for the other person the date is

20 May 1999. So could you please just explain, General, criminal reports

21 have to be filed, I assume, before this ruling or decision is made to

22 initiate proceedings.

23 A. Yes. This is done by the investigating judge. Once he receives

24 this request and once he interrogates the suspect, he decides whether he

25 is going to initiate proceedings or not. According to the law on criminal

1 procedure, it is only then that proceedings actually start before a court

2 of law. Before that, it is in the hands of the prosecutor's office, and

3 that is not part of court proceedings.

4 Q. All right.

5 A. It is very important to state that all these preliminary dates

6 have to precede the date when the decision is made to initiate

7 proceedings.

8 Q. All right. We can move on further. On page 7, or, rather, in the

9 English translation it is page 9. There are four numbers yet again.

10 Under number 1 we see again murder. A soldier fired a burst of

11 fire from his automatic rifle at Rusiti Rusiti, inflicting injuries on him

12 and his wife. We see the decision to start criminal proceedings 26 of May

13 1999.

14 Number 2 and number 3. At the time when their unit was in the

15 general sector of Pec, they opened fire on an Albanian for no reason,

16 without provocation, and killed him.

17 Under number 4, another private reserve discharged a burst of fire

18 from his automatic rifle at a Siptar, hit him, and inflicted fatal

19 injuries. Proceedings -- ruling to initiate proceedings is dated 4th of

20 May, 1999. And --

21 JUDGE KWON: I think you established sufficient foundation to

22 exhibit this document. I don't think you have to read out all the items.

23 But I'm interested in knowing about the future conviction. How were they

24 dealt with by the courts referred to? Are you going to introduce that

25 evidence in the future?

1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Certainly. But these proceedings,

2 especially those that involve murder, take a long time. For instance, in

3 the examples we just reviewed, an event happened -- for instance, let us

4 look at page -- just a moment. Let me take one of the recent examples,

5 not to waste time. Page 9, the cases we just reviewed. If the time of

6 commission is the 24th of April and the ruling to initiate proceedings was

7 made on the 26th of May, that is a month after the crime was committed.

8 In the other two cases the commission -- the perpetration was in May, and

9 already in May the ruling to initiate proceedings was made. The interval

10 between the perpetration and the decision to initiate proceedings is

11 short, about a month.

12 I should ask the witness.

13 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

14 Q. Is this the usual time, one month, approximately, it took to bring

15 the ruling to initiate proceedings after completing all the preliminary

16 actions such as detection, apprehension, investigation, et cetera?

17 A. In those specific conditions, it was really efficient work. Those

18 are murders. But in the cases of theft and less grave crimes, the

19 perpetrator would be apprehended on the same day in cases of crimes

20 involving property. A good part of the crimes would already be under way

21 before the courts, or even adjudicated, in the space of a month.

22 Q. We see from this paper --

23 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, my question was whether these suspects

24 or accused were convicted at all.

25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Some were. Some still have not

1 received the judgement, I guess. This is the information that I can

2 elicit from the general, perhaps.

3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

4 Q. How many of these were convicted? I don't know if he knows that,

5 but the description of the crime is clear. Some of these cases must have

6 been referred to regular military courts after the termination of the

7 state of war.

8 A. I have -- I have data ending with the 2001 as to how many were

9 convicted. Some cases were decided, and some cases are still under way,

10 ongoing. After 2001, I didn't monitor any longer. But for instance, if

11 you look at murders, this is the type of case that would be complex and

12 would take a longer time. But in those -- in simpler cases involving less

13 serious crimes, I believe most of them have already been adjudicated.

14 JUDGE KWON: General, do you have your data with you now as of

15 2001?

16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

17 JUDGE KWON: Could you tell me that, please. Briefly. I think --

18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I have a similar review, a similar

19 overview as to what cases were completed, what cases were referred to

20 civilian courts, and in the final column you see the outcome of the

21 proceedings for those cases that were finished.

22 I have another survey yet concerning referrals to civilian courts,

23 and the data I received from the latter. I can provide this to you to be

24 translated and photocopied. You don't have it.

25 JUDGE KWON: For the sake of time, I would like the accused to

1 proceed, and we'll deal with it after the recess.

2 JUDGE BONOMY: Can I, just before we do proceed, be clear about

3 something, General. Can I take it that if there had been a judgement by

4 2001 in the cases we have been looking at, you would have reflected it in

5 the document we're looking at?

6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In this paper, in this paper I'm

7 holding right now, it would be --

8 JUDGE BONOMY: In tab --

9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] And in the other document that has

10 not been translated, there would certainly be.

11 JUDGE BONOMY: Yes. But the one that you're looking at as part of

12 the examination by Mr. Milosevic, that's tab 18 of the bundle, can I take

13 it that if there had -- if there had been a conviction by 2001, you would

14 have noted it in this document; is that right?

15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes.

16 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you. Now some of the cases have been

17 referred to what is described as the district court, for example, the

18 district court in Belgrade. That's a civilian court; is that correct?

19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. District and municipal courts

20 are civilian courts.

21 JUDGE BONOMY: And can I take it that you regarded it as

22 appropriate to refer cases which might be described as war crimes to the

23 civilian courts after the conflict was over?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I should like to clarify this

25 immediately. Military courts do not have competence to go on processing a

1 case after a person is demobilised, because most of these people were

2 engaged from the reserve force. After the termination of the state of

3 war, they ceased to be military personnel. If by that time an indictment

4 has not been confirmed by the court, the case would be normally referred

5 to the municipal or to the district court, depending on the gravity of the

6 crime.

7 Military courts would continue to process a case only if the

8 person involved, the perpetrator or the accused, continues to be a

9 military man. This concerns only the cases where a decision has been made

10 by a military court.

11 As for referrals, I have some additional data.

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. General Gojovic, I don't know if you paid attention to -- to this

14 last question by Judge Bonomy and what exactly he meant. He asked you if

15 a judgement was made in all the cases indicated in this document.

16 A. Yes.

17 Q. So all these cases were adjudicated?

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. We won't go any more through this document, in keeping with your

20 suggestion.

21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, we have other cases

22 dealing with voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

23 JUDGE BONOMY: Just before we move on, that's a completely

24 different answer from the one you gave to me, General. My understanding

25 -- and let's be clear we're looking at the same document. Have before you

1 tab 18. Be absolutely sure the --

2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

3 JUDGE BONOMY: And look at page -- look at page 6. My English

4 version is page 6. It's headed, "Murder multiple." The first accused's

5 name is Dragisa Petrovic.

6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

7 JUDGE BONOMY: Now, if by the year 2001 there had been a judgement

8 in this case, would you have noted that in this document when you were

9 compiling it?

10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There is a column here where it says

11 "referred to the district court in Pristina." That was done after an

12 indictment was brought. So he was already indicted when his case was

13 referred to the district court in Pristina, and then later on it was

14 transferred to Nis.

15 I have information that a hearing was scheduled -- the trial was

16 scheduled, and I believe a judgement was brought here. I believe also --

17 I seem to remember that it was reversed on appeal, but I'm not sure about

18 that.

19 What it says here specifically is that the case was referred after

20 an indictment was brought against this accused to the district court in

21 Pristina, later moved to Nis.

22 JUDGE BONOMY: So why did you not complete the column that says

23 "Judgement"?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] For the simple reason that I was no

25 longer working on this subject matter.

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1 JUDGE BONOMY: But that's my question. You see, my question

2 relates to the position as at 2001. Can you just concentrate on the

3 question I'm asking you.

4 Now, if there had been a result in that case by 2001, would you

5 have reflected that result in this document when you were compiling it in

6 2001?

7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

8 JUDGE BONOMY: Thank you. I thought that was the answer, and then

9 Mr. Milosevic got a completely different answer from you, so I just wanted

10 to be clear about the position.

11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, I answered the same. Maybe it

12 was interpreted differently.

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And I, too, understood him as giving

14 the same answer, namely that all those cases in which judgements were

15 made, judgements were brought, were reflected here.

16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Perhaps just another clarification

17 would be of assistance, if you allow me, please.

18 We should look at the column dealing with grave robbery or felony

19 theft. I don't know what page it is in English.

20 JUDGE KWON: Shall we take a look at page 20 in the English

21 version. That's grave incidents of robbery. There is noted down about

22 the judgement, sentenced to three years and six months each. That

23 judgement was entered into by the military court; is that right? So you

24 noted down all the dispositions by the military court.

25 MR. NICE: Page 18 in the B/C/S.

1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Correct.

2 JUDGE KWON: Judge Bonomy's question, as I understand it, is

3 whether you noted down the judgement made by the civilian court referred

4 to later if the judgement was made at the time of 2001 when you compiled

5 this document.

6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] If I had received a report, yes.

7 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. Very well. That was precisely my question. You reflected those

10 cases about which you received reports, which doesn't necessarily mean

11 that you included all of them.

12 A. Yes, because in some cases I did not receive reports. There are

13 both kinds in this overview. If I had received a report, then I would

14 indicate what kind of judgement, if any, had been made.

15 Q. Judge Bonomy also referred to this page about murders. Dragisa

16 Petrovic is the first name, and there is something handwritten in the --

17 on this page.

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. In my copy, there is a handwritten note in the column Judgement,

20 Nine years, seven years, nine years, and it's also added "war crime" down

21 below. Is it only in my copy or do you have it in your copy as well?

22 A. You mean in the case of Dragisa Petrovic?

23 Q. Yes.

24 A. That's why I said a moment ago I followed that in the newspapers,

25 and I indicated from my memory what the sentences were.

1 JUDGE KWON: Is it page 4 in B/C/S?

2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, page 4 in the Serbian version.

3 I'll find it in just a moment. Here it is.

4 In the English translation the Judgement column is empty.

5 However, in the Serbian copy --

6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

7 Q. Do you have that, General, too?

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And I hope you do, Mr. Kwon, as

9 well. It says nine years, then seven years, and then another term of

10 seven years, and then at the end it says "war crime." That was not

11 translated. It doesn't exist in the English version but it does in the

12 Serbian photocopy, the judgements.

13 JUDGE KWON: We've found it. Proceed, Mr. Milosevic.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May I continue? Thank you.

15 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

16 Q. I'm not going to dwell on this table. I will skip over the

17 voluntary and non-voluntary. And then we come to rapes. It is on page 16

18 of the English version; and for you, General, it is on page 14 of the

19 Serbian text.

20 Here we have a soldier who used force, together with some other

21 soldiers, from a room in a house accommodating refugees. They --

22 JUDGE KWON: Do not put it on the ELMO.

23 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

24 Q. They forcibly removed an underaged person. All right. I don't

25 want to read the names either, but judging by the names, I would say they

1 were Albanian women, perhaps Roma women, I can't differentiate between the

2 kinds of names. But Trivunovic, as printed, committed rapes, and the

3 other person, Marinkovic, was unable to do so, et cetera, et cetera. But

4 anyway, it's the 16th of April, crimes on the 16th of April, and then on

5 the 24th of April -- rather, the time of crime was the 16th of April and

6 ruling to initiate proceedings came on the 24th of April 1999 when an

7 investigation was conducted. All the evidence was collected, all the

8 necessary data, and legal proceedings were taken, and the general says

9 that the indictment was raised as well, filed.

10 Then once again out of a convoy of refugees so-and-so took aside

11 an individual - I'm going to skip the name, but we can deduce on the basis

12 of the name that it was an Albanian lady - took her to the sector where

13 his union was -- unit was encamped. Another case of rape. The time of

14 the crime was the 29th of May, the ruling to initiate proceedings came on

15 the 24th of June, 1999.

16 Then we have attempts at rape, attempted rape. And then several

17 pages after that --

18 MR. NICE: Your Honours, before we move on to that, this is

19 another page where the Serbian original at page 14 of the original has a

20 handwritten passage that's not been translated. And if the Chamber thinks

21 it would be helpful to get this sorted out as we go along, so does page 15

22 of the Serbian version, which I think --

23 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Thank you very much. If the witness could help

24 the Chamber. Could you read those handwritten parts on page 14.

25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Under number 1, in the

1 judgement, we heard that a request was sent to the UNMIK courts at Kosovo

2 for legal assistance to listen to the injured party, hear the injured

3 party. So by the time that this report was compiled, the judgement came,

4 I learnt that the court had asked for information and data and that UNMIK

5 -- they asked UNMIK for assistance, legal assistance. They didn't get it.

6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

7 Q. Well, we have the 24th of April, 1999, as the time of crime.

8 A. Yes. And the proceedings are still carrying on or were carried on

9 in the district court in Nis.

10 Q. Mr. Nice also drew our attention to page 15. There was something

11 written in hand there.

12 A. The situation here is the same as in the previous case. The

13 proceedings are ongoing. They contacted the UNMIK courts in Kosovo,

14 didn't receive any -- the assistance they required.

15 Q. Well, I'm not going to give any legal qualifications, but if we

16 look at severe crimes of burglary with killings, these serious crimes,

17 grave incidents of robbery and violence, to retain stolen goods, with

18 murder involved. That's that page.

19 And we see that the time of the crime was the 29th of March, 1999.

20 It is page 19 of the English text, gentlemen. The ruling to initiate

21 proceedings came on the 13th of April, that is to say two weeks later, and

22 evidence was collected in that space of time, within a fortnight. And

23 we're dealing here with seven perpetrators or accused, and they were all

24 reserve soldiers, reservists. And it says that based on a prior mutual

25 agreement they all went to the house of Uksin Uksini and this man fired at

1 him with an automatic rifle and stabbed his wife Djevahira in the neck,

2 killing both of them. They then took and kept gold jewellery, money and

3 other valuables from the house.

4 Then we come to B, brief description of crime. They took a

5 vehicle, a car, and then I assumed killed the owner.

6 And we come to C. Once again three individuals who killed or,

7 rather, three people were killed during a burglary, which makes it seven

8 accused in all, people accused of grave incidents of robbery and violence

9 to retain stolen goods with murder.

10 I assume that is how the qualification reads in the Criminal Code;

11 is that right?

12 A. Yes. Might I be allowed to make an additional explanation at this

13 point, please?

14 We see here six individuals listed or, rather, they -- it says

15 that six people were killed but are not shown in the summary

16 representation of the crimes. So this should be recorded as well, where

17 it says a summary report in the same tab when it comes to grave incidents

18 of robbery. There is an empty column, and there we need to add these six

19 persons killed. So that the number of victims in the victims column

20 should be six more. In the summary review at the beginning of the tab.

21 Q. Well, the statistics looked at the killings and represented them

22 with a figure, whereas the robbery was accompanied with the killing of

23 people. There was an omission there anyway.

24 I should now like to ask you -- well, I don't want to deal with

25 this further unless you have an additional statement to make, but I'd like

1 to move on now to tab 17 on page 67 or, rather, chapter 17, page 67, and

2 I'll try to find it in the English version. Chapter 17 starts on page 67.

3 And as we can see from the contents, it gives a review of unknown

4 persons who killed a number of individuals in Kosovo. So they are denoted

5 as NN, persons unknown. The perpetrators are not known. The crimes are

6 recorded. So that is on page 67. In Serbian. Page 67 in the Serbian

7 version.

8 MR. NICE: 75 in the English.

9 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

10 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

11 Q. So this is a summary review, as it says. Page 67 Serbian, 75

12 English. We know that thanks to Mr. Nice.

13 JUDGE KWON: No. It's page 75 of tab 18, not of tab 17.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, that's right, tab 18. That's

15 how I understood it; we're dealing with tab 18.

16 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Go on.

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. Could you explain this table to us, please? It says "Person who

19 committed crime," unknown. "Military prosecutor dismissed one charge,

20 military prosecutor gathering intelligence from reports, court proceedings

21 upon motion of the military prosecutor for conducting certain

22 investigative measures, case deferred to competent public prosecutor."

23 The total number is 598, number of persons killed. That's the summary

24 report and that's the total number. I assume that this doesn't need any

25 special explanation on your part, or would you like to give some?

1 A. Well, I think I could.

2 Q. Well, go ahead, then.

3 A. We're talking about unknown persons, perpetrators of crimes, where

4 the crime was uncovered but not the perpetrator, and the prosecutor takes

5 certain steps in cases of that kind and so do the investigating organs.

6 And in one case the prosecutor rejected the request because they were

7 members of the KLA. And in the next column, with five cases, the military

8 prosecutor collects information from the organs investigating the case and

9 takes further steps. One case was referred to the court and the other to

10 the public prosecutor. That is to say in cases where the prosecutor felt

11 that the possible perpetrators of those crimes were not members of the

12 army or were not military personnel and, therefore, those cases were

13 referred to the competent district prosecutor. There were 11 such cases.

14 We have a total figure of 598 persons, and three persons should be

15 added there. They were left out by mistake, because three more persons

16 were mentioned. So it is 395 -- 98 plus 3, which means 600-odd.

17 Q. Let's just clarify what you've just said. It was under number 2

18 on the following page. Now, did he reject the case because he learnt that

19 there was no military unit in the region? Was that the reason or was

20 there some other reason?

21 A. No. This criminal report was rejected because the military

22 prosecutor found that they were not civilians but --

23 Q. No. I'm referring to something else. On the next page, under

24 number 2. What you've just explained to us, you said that the military

25 judiciary did not prosecute because it wasn't under their competence to do

1 so. Is that because he concluded that there was no military unit in the

2 territory, in the area? Is that right?

3 A. Yes. And the district prosecutor is where the case was referred.

4 Q. Now, let's go back to page 68 for a moment where we have the names

5 and surnames and persons are listed as unknown, the time of perpetration

6 is unknown, and then we have the place listed as Izbica where 144 fresh

7 graves of unknown persons were uncovered. And the military prosecutor was

8 informed thereof. The time when the proceedings were initiated was the

9 29th of May, 1999, which means that there was detection first, information

10 gathered, and proceedings initiated on the 29th of May, 1999. And after

11 that there's nothing else except current affairs.

12 A. May I be allowed to give an explanation? Exhumation was

13 conducted, and the bodies were examined by a team, a forensic team from

14 the Military Medical Academy, and they carried out a post-mortem on 101

15 bodies. They were able to identify a small number of those bodies but not

16 the most part. And there were 144 fresh graves in all, and exhumation,

17 investigations were conducted with 101 bodies.

18 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, we passed the time to break. If it's

19 a convenient time to break, we will break for 20 minutes.

20 --- Recess taken at 10.36 a.m.

21 --- On resuming at 10.58 a.m.

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Continue, Mr. Milosevic.

23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.

24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

25 Q. General, we were dealing with page 68 of the Serbian version. You

1 have here, as we were saying, "Murders committed by persons unknown for

2 which the military prosecutor is gathering intelligence from reports."

3 That's the title. Will you please take a look at the table on that page.

4 You started with number 1 and explain that to us, the Izbica place of

5 crime, when the proceedings were initiated.

6 A. Do you want me to answer?

7 Q. Yes.

8 A. In this particular case, it was on the 29th of May, 1999, when the

9 case was uncovered. That is to say it was reported by the command of the

10 unit who happened to be there during that period of time, and straight

11 after that the prosecutor requested exhumation, which was conducted by a

12 team of forensic experts from the Medical Military Academy in Belgrade,

13 and they conducted the post-mortem and examination of 101 bodies. So

14 during that same time, and that was sometime at the beginning of June,

15 that is what happened. The prosecutor is still gathering information.

16 But as the locality itself does not come under the legal jurisdiction of

17 the federal state, Serbia and Montenegro as it is today, we have no access

18 to the crime scene for us to investigate the case more fully.

19 Q. All right. You said the exhumation was performed by the competent

20 authorities and that they -- it was a team of forensic experts from

21 Medical Military Academy who conducted examinations.

22 A. Yes. The order was issued by the court in Kosovska Mitrovica for

23 that to take place. It was not something that the military court of the

24 Pristina Corps was able to, and then the investigating judge from Kosovska

25 Mitrovica issued an order because without a court order you cannot

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1 exhumate bodies or conduct post-mortems.

2 Q. We see that the time of the proceedings initiated was the 29th of

3 May, 1999.

4 Now, tell me about number 2. That relates to the municipality of

5 Gnjilane, place of crime. There's no date as to when the proceedings were

6 initiated.

7 A. No, there isn't.

8 Q. Have you got an explanation for that?

9 A. Well, a number of bodies were found in the area, it was not

10 recorded for March to June 1999, 33 bodies in all, and the time the

11 proceedings were initiated I have information that it was the 24th of May,

12 1999, and the SUP of Gnjilane informed the military prosecutor and the

13 necessary steps were taken. So that was on the 24th of May, which means

14 that this does go up to the 24th of May although that column and square is

15 left empty, but according to when the military prosecutor was informed,

16 that was on the 24th of May, 1999. And a request was made for gathering

17 intelligence by the organs of investigation, and the case is ongoing.

18 Q. Next you come to the place of crime which is Pirane, a village

19 near Prizren. The bodies of five unidentified people were discovered, and

20 we see that the proceedings were initiated on the 5th of May, 1999.

21 A. Yes, that's right. So this could have been before, and that's

22 when the proceedings were initiated and a request made for intelligence to

23 be gathered, the request coming from the military prosecutor. And it is

24 the investigating organs that had to gather information.

25 Q. The next case was 14 graves of unidentified people discovered in

1 the Muslim cemetery in the village of Bijelo Polje. Time of crime, no

2 date recorded there.

3 A. Yes, that's right. And this is interesting because it's not only

4 when you come across the bodies of persons killed in the field but also

5 when they come across graves which are not marked and freshly dug-out

6 graves. So in those cases, too, the organs in question can suspect that a

7 crime has taken place, and then they take all the necessary steps to

8 investigate.

9 In this case it was a Muslim cemetery. Probably they were members

10 of the Muslim religion, Islam, so that could make it Albanians and others,

11 because other people -- other Muslims live in Bijelo Polje too. So we

12 can't see who reported the crime. Probably someone from the locality.

13 But anyway, the authorities took the necessary steps in these cases, too,

14 to determine the circumstances under which these persons were killed. And

15 we're talking about May 1999.

16 Q. And then under number 5 you have a case of 16 -- bodies of 16

17 unidentified people found in the village of Slovinje. The date the

18 proceedings were initiated is the 16th of April, 1999, and it says "report

19 submitted - deferred to district public prosecutor in Pristina." But that

20 was later on, wasn't it?

21 A. Yes, that was deferred or referred on the 18th of January 2001.

22 Q. Could you tell us anything more about that case?

23 A. I have here that an exhumation was conducted and the individuals

24 identified, and -- so their identity was determined on the basis of

25 exhumation, and then the case was deferred to the district public

1 prosecutor in Pristina, as it says.

2 Q. Could you please tell me what Yugoslav law envisages in such

3 situations when a crime was committed. This has to do with a number of

4 killed persons who were found and when the perpetrator is unknown. What

5 happens then when the suspect is unknown?

6 A. The law is quite clear on that. Especially the prosecutor has a

7 clear-cut task. There is a special file that the prosecutor opens for NN

8 persons, persons unknown. The military prosecutor acts through military

9 organs, and also it is the organs of the interior that have to take

10 action. That is say, all law enforcement agencies, regardless of whether

11 they are within the military or not, are supposed to work on such a case

12 and to collect information because the perpetrator is unknown. Such a

13 case remains open. The prosecutor keeps taking action, and therefore

14 there is no statute of limitation that applies. At any rate, if this is a

15 war crime, there is no statute of limitation. There can only be an

16 absolute statute of limitation. So in the case of crimes when the death

17 sentence is prescribed, then there is a period of 20 or even 40 years

18 during which the prosecutor can institute proceedings.

19 JUDGE KWON: General, can I ask a question while we are with this

20 document. It's the same document, murders committed by persons unknown.

21 You said that in relation to category 5, you received the information that

22 the victims were identified later. Have you received any similar

23 information in relation to number 1, the victims -- 144 victims in Izbica?

24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. I did look at the exhumation

25 documents, but I didn't really see all of them, and I did not find any

1 identification. I only saw descriptions of all the ways in which this was

2 done. But the doctor who carried out the post-mortem told me that there

3 were some persons who were identified, but I did not receive any such

4 information. So I do not have any accurate information about number 1,

5 only what I heard, that some persons were identified. But I was not in a

6 position to investigate that -- or, rather, not investigate. That's not

7 the right word. I was not in the position to receive the right kind of

8 information.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. General, could you please now look at the investigations carried

11 out in the case of perpetrators unknown. Just tell me whether this is

12 clear enough or whether I understood it properly.

13 This has to do with victims who had been identified. That is to

14 say investigations had been completed and the victims had been identified,

15 or is there some other difference also in view of the previous table?

16 So number 1, 25 bodies were found, exhumed, and identified,

17 namely, and then a list of names follows.

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. Mid-April 1999, the village of Malo Ribare, Lipljan municipality.

20 And the 24th of April, 1999, is the time when proceedings were initiated.

21 A. Certain investigative measures is the word used, and that means

22 that it is the investigating judge who acts upon the request submitted by

23 the prosecutor, and he takes certain measures, hence the wording.

24 Also, you can see the court register number, "Ki," that is

25 Krivicna Istraga, criminal investigation. "Kr" is a different situation.

1 Prosecutor's register. So hence the two different words. So it is a

2 question of whether the court or -- is going to take certain measures or

3 whether it is going to be the law enforcement agencies, namely the police,

4 that is going to take measures. The judge has the liberty to take

5 measures that were not even required by the prosecutor. That's the

6 difference involved.

7 Q. Let's move on to item 2. And you have said that the military

8 judiciary did not institute criminal proceedings because they did not have

9 jurisdiction. They considered themselves not to have jurisdiction because

10 there was no military unit there.

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. In the case of one person who was identified, it says that he was

13 killed by a policeman.

14 A. Yes, yes. It was the Prokuplje district court that carried out

15 the on-site investigation, and proceedings are taking place there in the

16 case of two policemen. These proceedings are still under way.

17 Q. Finally, you have number 3. The time is the 31st of May, 1999,

18 and it says: "Following notification, nine bodies were found in the

19 houses of Seljarin Grdjaliju."

20 A. It is a small typo. It is Grdjalija Seljarin.

21 Q. On the 31st of May, 1999, the investigating judge of the Pristina

22 Corps military court went to the scene on the 5th of June 1999 and

23 compiled a note on the incident. He found 13 7.62-millimetre cartridges.

24 He learned that Florije Borsoti was the victim.

25 A. It's a woman. A few minutes ago -- and she witnessed the killing.

1 We said a few moments ago that there were some other persons in an

2 adjacent yard. So in addition to these nine bodies that were found in

3 Grdjalija's yard, there were three other victims that were found in the

4 neighbourhood, so total is 12.

5 In tab 17 we have the report of the investigating judge. We see

6 that there is a report and we see that he could not continue his

7 investigation because fire was opened at him from the neighbouring houses.

8 Hence he had to leave the crime scene, and he instructed the police to

9 take appropriate measures in order to carry out an appropriate

10 investigation once the situation is right for that. Even his vehicle had

11 been hit by a bullet.

12 This was a great difficulty for the investigation agencies. It

13 was hard for them to get to the crime scenes because fire was opened at

14 them although it was very obvious that they were going out to conduct an

15 on-site investigation in police vehicles and the like. It was very

16 obvious.

17 Q. Could you just say a few more words about the next page, page 4,

18 persons unknown, mid-April 1999. This is number 4. And it is the 7th of

19 May, 1999, when investigating -- when proceedings were initiated. Could

20 you please be so kind as to explain. You have a very detailed explanation

21 here.

22 A. Yes. There are a few points that are not quite clear. I managed

23 to decipher it, if I can use that word. The military police organs

24 informed the military court of the Pristina Corps investigating judge that

25 there was a large number of bodies in the villages Dosevac. Dobrosevac is

1 what is written here but that is a typo. It's Dosevac. Anyway, the date

2 was the 7th of May, 1999, and the investigating judge was informed by the

3 commander of the Glogovac police station that on the 3rd of May, 1999, he

4 had been told on the 3rd of May, 1999, by Captain Rade Krsmanovic of the

5 military post 1365 Raska that there were about 150 bodies in the village

6 of Dosevac and 58 bodies in Gladno Selo. On the 23rd of April, 1999, the

7 military police organs -- in the village of Gladno Selo. Before the

8 police station commander had provided this information the military police

9 organs had already been in the area and on the scene. The military police

10 organs found a total of 20 bodies in the three yards, not as the

11 preliminary information had said.

12 Later on, further down, we see what they found. On the 30th of

13 April, 1999, the bodies were found as described, by a VJ unit. Since

14 member of the VJ did not commit these murders, the investigating judge did

15 not order an exhumation. Colonel Orovic informed the investigating judge

16 - that is the commander of a unit, Colonel Orovic - that -- I mean,

17 whatever he says Dobrosevac it's supposed to be Dosevac. He says that the

18 VJ units did not find any bodies in Dosevac or any traces that indicated

19 that there had been any, but in the village of Dosevac, which is another

20 village, he found about 140 bodies. VJ units were not stationed in the

21 village before this.

22 And he informs the investigating judge that it was impossible to

23 carry out an on-site investigation there, and this is what the

24 investigating judge says in his own report, which is included in the file,

25 because units of the KLA entered the area with weapons and they did not

1 allow any access.

2 Colonel Pavlovic was head of the MUP team there, and they were

3 given orders, and they were told to go to Gladno Selo and carry out an

4 on-site investigation.

5 So there is 140 bodies in Dobrosevac -- sorry, not Dobrosevac,

6 Dosevac. Again I'm saying that there's a typo here. It's the village of

7 Dosevac, the village of Srbica. And the total number of bodies is 160 in

8 these two localities. And certain action was taken, of course. The

9 investigating organs cannot act if there is fighting in the area. Then

10 they are not in a position to carry out an investigation.

11 Q. All right. I don't think there is any need to go into further

12 detail in this regard.

13 Tell me, General, what was the situation in view of all these

14 proceedings that were initiated, that is to say investigations carried

15 out, information collected, et cetera? What was the situation at the

16 beginning of October 2000, namely at the time when I and some other

17 persons who are included in this Kosovo indictment ceased to hold office?

18 A. All these cases were discovered during the state of war, all of

19 them. All were dealt with in a certain form and to a certain level as

20 much as possible. Apart from that, there is no information stating that

21 anything new was discovered, any new incident regarding which action could

22 be taken in this form. So this is the situation as it was when the state

23 of war ceased to exist.

24 Q. All right. While the state of war was still in force, to the best

25 of your knowledge, because you toured courts of law and other agencies,

1 what about our law enforcement agencies? Were they in a position to

2 discover all violations of humanitarian law that were carried out in

3 Kosovo and Metohija?

4 A. Well, in view of the fact that there was a war going on and that

5 there was fighting in this relatively small area and where there was a

6 great concentration of armed personnel, it was not possible to discover

7 all the perpetrators or to see all the crimes that had been committed. It

8 would be an illusion to expect to be able to do that within such a short

9 period of time. It would also be an illusion to believe that a

10 perpetrator would speak up and say that he had committed a crime. There

11 must have been many of them who have a mutual solidarity, and they know

12 that what they did is punishable by very severe sentences.

13 Not all officers were in a position to do something, especially in

14 view of the dispersion of units involved. Units could not concentrate

15 because they were targeted by NATO Air Force. The alax [as interpreted]

16 would discover them if they would be in concentrations of more than ten

17 persons. That's why they had to be dispersed, and the situation was such

18 that therefore, objectively speaking, the military officers in the area

19 could not establish complete control over their subordinates, especially

20 not the law enforcement organs that are at the level of the bigger units.

21 They went to where corpses were found. They also went to graveyards where

22 they found freshly dug graves. They went wherever it was possible to find

23 the traces of a crime that had been recently committed. They went

24 wherever they were aware of something like that, but they could not go to

25 places that they did not know about.

1 Also, when our forces withdrew, jurisdiction ceased to exist as

2 far as our agencies were concerned. If this had remained within our

3 jurisdiction, it is certain that there would have been visible results far

4 exceeding those that were achieved so far.

5 Q. General, I'm going to put a very clear question to you. Do you

6 know of any single crime that constitutes a violation of international

7 humanitarian law that Yugoslav organs found out about and did not initiate

8 appropriate proceedings?

9 A. There is no such case because that would have been sheer nonsense

10 as far as the judiciary is concerned.

11 Q. General, bearing in mind all your previous answers as well as the

12 fact that you were a lawyer, a judge, a prosecutor, did you have an

13 opportunity of familiarising yourself with the content of the Kosovo

14 indictment?

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. Did you compare the allegations contained in the indictment with

17 the information that our military judiciary had?

18 A. I did make some comparisons and some comparative reviews.

19 Q. And what were your conclusions?

20 A. There are several localities --

21 MR. NICE: I'm sorry. Just where are we going? Is the witness

22 going to give us an opinion on that very series of decisions that it's for

23 this Trial Chamber to make? Is that what the accused wants?

24 JUDGE KWON: We can decide after we hear some comparison he's

25 going to say. I will consult.

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1 [Trial Chamber confers]

2 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, could you reformulate your question in

3 a more specific way.

4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. Certainly, Mr. Kwon, I

5 will phrase it very specifically.

6 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

7 Q. So, General, since you compared the two, tell me, to what degree

8 is there a certain coincidence between what was established by our

9 competent authority - when I say "competent" I mean the courts and all the

10 other judiciary, including all the cases that were reviewed in our country

11 - and allegations in the indictment?

12 A. If we take the case of Racak, which is not under review here, we

13 have an 80 to 90 degree coincidence in the case of Izbica village, because

14 there were 144 fresh graves, 101 bodies were autopsied, but we have to

15 bear in mind that the indictment was revised several times - three times,

16 more exactly - and in the summary review that we saw before, the total

17 number is 120. So it is almost complete coincidence between the two.

18 There are another two localities where the information coincides.

19 For instance, the indictment mentions Sudimlje and Gornje Sudimlje

20 whereas in our information we have Donje Sudimlje. Those are places in

21 the same area, same municipality, and there is also a coincidence between

22 the two documents in Grdjalija where our investigative organs were not

23 able to finish their work because of the circumstances, but the

24 information coincides in cases involving death.

25 As for robberies and other crimes since -- crimes against

1 property, since it involves a broad spectre of crimes. In cases of

2 aggravated robbery, for instance, we have clear descriptions of what

3 exactly was taken without inventories, but the property in question was

4 found in the possession of perpetrators. Large numbers of peanuts, et

5 cetera, 200 kilos, et cetera, something that the perpetrator must have

6 stolen.

7 JUDGE KWON: General, I couldn't follow when you mentioned Racak

8 and Izbica village. Did you mean that Racak is in Izbica village?

9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, no. Racak is a completely

10 separate incident of the 15th of January where the competent judiciary

11 organs of the civilian courts in Pristina processed. That was not taken

12 into account in the indictment -- in the summary review, sorry, but it is

13 mentioned in the indictment. I am setting that case aside.

14 Izbica is a completely separate locality where the number of

15 victims is approximately the same. However, the locality is the same.

16 JUDGE KWON: Now I follow. There should be a period between the

17 sentences. Yes. Please go on.

18 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

19 Q. General, is it the case that the military -- that in the case of

20 Izbica, military judiciary organs had specific information whether the

21 victims were civilians or KLA members.

22 A. We had no such information.

23 MR. NICE: Extraordinarily leading observation for which there is

24 absolutely no material foundation, unless I've missed it. I'm

25 particularly interested to know what this witness is going to provide by

1 way of his foundation material in relation to Izbica, and so that last

2 question rather spoils the purpose of examination and cross-examination.

3 JUDGE KWON: Reformulate your question, Mr. Milosevic.

4 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

5 Q. General, do you know --

6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm asking a perfectly neutral

7 question. I asked about a case that the general has mentioned before.

8 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

9 Q. Did -- were, rather, the military judiciary in a position to

10 establish in all these various cases whether the victims were civilians or

11 KLA members?

12 A. I'm aware of only one case where it was established that victims

13 were members of the KLA, and the military prosecutor dismissed the

14 criminal report. In all the other cases, it was not possible to establish

15 from the initially available evidence whether any of the victims were

16 civilians or KLA members, except, of course, in the cases where the

17 victims were women and children, because in most of the cases it was not

18 possible to identify or decide whether somebody was a civilian or not,

19 only on the basis of whether they wore a uniform or not. A uniform is no

20 indicator, just as the -- just as civilian clothing is not enough to

21 establish that somebody was not a member of armed forces.

22 Q. Tell me, why was it that the judiciary did not complete its

23 investigation in the case of Izbica, for instance?

24 A. For the very simple reason that the military prosecutors withdrew

25 from Kosovo on the date envisaged by the -- by the Military Technical

1 Agreement. It was only up to that date that they could work. And they

2 could only gather evidence up to that date.

3 Q. In those cases where investigations were carried out to establish

4 the circumstances and identify perpetrators, were there such cases that

5 were not covered by the indictment?

6 A. Well, yes. All the cases that you can find in my documentation,

7 in this summary review. In all those localities, appropriate

8 investigations were carried out whenever it was objectively possible.

9 Q. Now, according to the data that is available to you, based on

10 those investigations and investigative measures carried out, and they were

11 carried out in all the localities, what numbers are involved, and what is

12 the correlation between that number and the numbers cited in the

13 indictment?

14 A. Well, as for cases where the perpetrator is unidentified, there is

15 a total of 601. This is incomplete data. So 601 unidentified

16 perpetrators. And as for known perpetrators, we have 42 or 43 victims.

17 So the total is 645 victims involved in both types of cases. That is a

18 precise number.

19 In the indictment, the last revised, amended indictment, the

20 number is 608. So it's approximately the same or very similar.

21 As for description of crimes, it is vague in the indictment. It

22 says "around," "approximately," et cetera. So in the last amended

23 indictment the number is 701. In the previous second amended indictment

24 the number was lower, around 400 for the indictment of the 22nd of May.

25 These are approximate numbers, although every death, every victim

1 is important. But if you ask me about correlation, there is a relatively

2 high degree of coincidence. Our investigative organs detected, uncovered

3 a great number of crimes and perpetrators, and now that this Tribunal has

4 access to the documentation and our investigative organs no longer have

5 access to the area, that is the number we have to work with.

6 Q. Is all this information public?

7 A. Well, relatively speaking, because investigative organs do not

8 make their information public to prevent panic while investigation is

9 going on, but anybody who is interested can gain access to this data,

10 because all the -- all the actions, all the proceedings are public.

11 They're not closed to the public by any means. It's just that the

12 information is not published, publicly announced, but it is accessible.

13 Q. Bearing in mind your entire experience, General, from the period

14 we are discussing now, what according to your knowledge was the principal

15 position of the highest military and civilian authorities regarding crimes

16 and their perpetrators?

17 A. Well, from all these actions that were taken at the level of the

18 Supreme Command Staff and the judiciary bodies in keeping with the

19 legislation, and if we look at the measures accompanied by the enforcement

20 of those laws -- that accompanied the enforcement of those laws, we cannot

21 see that there was no action, no measures taken that disregarded the

22 requirement to comply with international humanitarian law. All the

23 measures were taken to prosecute perpetrators in every case where a

24 violation of international humanitarian law was uncovered in the entire

25 territory, including Kosovo and Metohija. We can see this from our

1 surveys and overviews. As for the police, the military prosecutors, the

2 military courts and everybody who was in charge of reporting crimes,

3 everybody made a maximum effort. No case was neglected or forgotten.

4 Q. But I asked you specifically: What according to your knowledge

5 was the principal position of the highest authorities?

6 A. To prevent crimes, of course. And if crimes take place, that they

7 should be prosecuted and punished. This is the fundamental guideline, the

8 fundamental principle.

9 Q. To the best of your knowledge based on all the information you

10 received from all organs, everybody you came in contact with, was there

11 ever an idea in circulation that they should be killed and persecuted in

12 order to expel them from the territory of Serbia?

13 A. No way. There can be no question of that. Not even clandestinely

14 could there have been such an idea, because our competent authorities did

15 everything to prevent any murder. It would be an illusion to believe that

16 for a moment.

17 If we compare the number of victims which is currently recorded as

18 a thousand to 1.200, although it's very difficult to operate with

19 approximate numbers, that is -- that would be impossible with such a large

20 number of police in the military in Kosovo at the time.

21 If you just allow me. In the area of Djakovica, there is

22 reference here to some refugees who were moving out because of the

23 fighting between Yugoslav armed forces and the KLA. It was considered a

24 liberation army of Kosovo.

25 Q. Just another question. There is a paragraph in the indictment

1 dealing with the highest political and military leadership.

2 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreters beg the accused to repeat the

3 paragraph.

4 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Milosevic, could you repeat the question, or

5 could you repeat the paragraph from the beginning.

6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 19, Mr. Kwon.

7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

8 Q. So it says: "... while holding positions of superior authority,

9 Slobodan Milosevic and the others are also individually criminally

10 responsible for the acts or omissions of their subordinates, pursuant to

11 Article 7(3) of the Statute of the Tribunal. A superior is responsible

12 for the acts of his subordinates if he knew or had reason to know that his

13 subordinates were about to commit such acts or had done so, and the

14 superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent

15 such acts or to punish their perpetrators."

16 So from all you know, from all you were able to follow and

17 document, is there any coincidence between this allegation that he is

18 responsible if he is responsible, if he knew or had reason to know that

19 his subordinates were about to commit such acts or had done so and the

20 superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent

21 or punish?

22 A. This doesn't hold water, because all the competent authorities,

23 all the professional services established at the level of the Supreme

24 Command Staff were tasked, were legally bound and received orders to do

25 their utmost to prevent crimes, and if crimes were detected, to find and

1 punish the perpetrator.

2 So if you want to find a cause and effect connection between

3 omissions or failures of our organs, there is no such connection. That is

4 something basic in criminal law. I know that from my own work, because I

5 had direct access to all the information about what is being done on the

6 -- on the ground.

7 The chain of responsibility does not -- is uninterrupted there.

8 You cannot establish responsibility in this case. If you speak about

9 reasonable measures, all the reasonable measures were taken in view of the

10 time and the circumstances.

11 Q. As an experienced soldier and lawyer, can you tell me, was there a

12 measure that could have been taken and was not taken?

13 A. Absolutely not, because some measures were impossible to take.

14 You cannot have a policeman and a prosecutor following every soldier on

15 the ground.

16 Q. Thank you very much. We are coming close to the end of this

17 examination. But apart from the question of Kosovo, I just have a few

18 more short questions for you in view of your own activities in the

19 military judiciary, and I will be able to complete my examination in chief

20 within one or two minutes to get through it all.

21 But let's go back to the beginning of the 1990s. What was your

22 role in the case with respect to the well-known killing of the soldier

23 from a firearm and an attempt at killing another soldier by strangling him

24 in Split at the beginning of May 1991?

25 A. Ah, yes. That was on the 6th of May, 1991. It was in front of

1 the headquarters of the military naval district where some large-scale

2 demonstrations were held with the aim of provoking the command, and this

3 particular case I was the prosecutor in the case. It went to the Split

4 military -- from the Split military court and referred to the military

5 court in Sarajevo in order to create the necessary conditions for

6 unimpeded legal proceedings, and I was the prosecutor in that case. It

7 was about the killing of a soldier. His name was Bjesovski. Bjesovski

8 was the name of the soldier. He was a Macedonian soldier. Another one,

9 Svetlance, and the driver of that combat vehicle was also a Macedonian.

10 He was -- they were all members of the duty guard.

11 Q. I asked you what your role was, and you said you represented the

12 prosecutor.

13 A. Yes.

14 Q. Did you take part in any other case with respect to the Vukovar

15 case in 1991?

16 JUDGE BONOMY: Just before moving on, was there an accused person

17 in this case?

18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] In what case?

19 JUDGE BONOMY: Who was the -- in the case you've just referred to,

20 the one involving the Macedonian soldier, the case --

21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, yes. There were four accused;

22 Ivan Begonja. He's the one that tried to strangle the soldier. Then

23 there was Zvonaric, another -- four of them, four accused, and they were

24 civilians from Split, the town of Split.

25 JUDGE BONOMY: How did the military prosecutor have jurisdiction?

1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Because the attack was an attack on

2 military personnel in the course of doing their duty. They were on guard

3 duty for the command, and therefore it came under the military court.

4 JUDGE BONOMY: Does that mean that -- does that mean that in

5 Kosovo the military prosecutor investigated attacks on Yugoslav army

6 soldiers by Albanians?

7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

8 JUDGE BONOMY: But you don't have the particulars of that with

9 you?

10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, I don't have the particulars of

11 that, no. But the total number of persons killed --

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. Very well. I'll just follow on from what Mr. Bonomy said, and I'd

14 like to draw your attention to tab 19 now, General. Tab 19 is a review of

15 the losses in the Yugoslav army, officers, non-commissioned officers,

16 soldiers, contractual soldiers, reserve officers, reserve soldiers, and so

17 on and so forth. And it says the causes of death during the aggression in

18 combat operations, 546 persons; from NATO planes 248 or 45.4 per cent,

19 under the effects of --

20 JUDGE KWON: If we could pause there. We have a note that it

21 hasn't been translated. Could you -- could the B/C/S version be put on

22 the ELMO so that we can follow.

23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes. Since it is a table, you're

24 able to follow the figures quite easily, I think.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1

2

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7

8

9

10

11

12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and

13 English transcripts.

14

15

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25

1 Q. But it says in the note at the bottom, and I hope it's on the ELMO

2 now, the note at the bottom of the page says the cause of death during the

3 aggression in combat operations, and then in brackets 546 persons; under

4 the effects of NATO aviation, 248 persons or 45.4 per cent people were

5 killed. The victims of Siptar terrorist forces, the number there is 246

6 individuals or 45.1 per cent; from the effects of mines, once again the

7 KLA, 33 persons lost their lives, or 6.0 per cent; and other reasons,

8 miscellaneous, brackets, NATO and the Siptar terrorist forces later

9 identified as having been killed, 19 of those or 3.5 per cent.

10 So Mr. Bonomy asked you whether you were -- had the authority of

11 establishing these deaths, and here we can see -- or, rather, take a look

12 at the total number now, please.

13 A. These are the losses during NATO aggression in the combat

14 operations during the armed conflicts. I understood the question to be

15 that he was asking about crimes which were outside combat operations

16 because it was linked to the events in Split where there were no armed

17 conflicts at that moment. So that was the answer I gave along those

18 lines. I said I didn't have information of that kind.

19 But there were cases of that kind in Kosovo and Metohija where, in

20 peacetime, crimes were committed against soldiers. And these cases were

21 dealt with by the military court in Nis, but I didn't present that kind of

22 information and data here.

23 Q. Very well, General. Now, these are serious losses, large numbers,

24 several hundred people killed in the operations. I quoted the causes a

25 moment ago. I don't want to repeat it. But is it possible that they

1 could have been killed by unarmed civilians, because quite obviously they

2 were -- or is it quite obviously the case that people died or were killed

3 in struggles over a very violent enemy?

4 A. These are all -- this is all information from combat reports where

5 the commanders of each unit ascertained and established the deaths

6 resulting from terrorist armed formations of Albanians in Kosovo and these

7 are differentiated from the NATO aviation victims. So these are the

8 losses of the Yugoslav army members and not the losses of the MUP.

9 We have a column of people killed before the aggression.

10 Forty-five soldiers and officers died before the aggression from the

11 effects of KLA armed formations.

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, I omitted to tender these

13 remaining tabs that we dealt with in detail into evidence. I think the

14 last one was tab 15 that was admitted into evidence, and I'd like to

15 tender 16, 17, 18 and 19, the remaining tabs.

16 JUDGE KWON: We will admit them. However, those parts which

17 contain the names of the rape victims will be under seal.

18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Kwon.

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. Let me just ask you this in closing, two short questions linked to

21 your professional service. Did you take part in any court cases linked to

22 the Vukovar cases in the autumn of 1991, Vukovar and its environs?

23 A. With respect to that event, I acted as the investigating judge

24 although I was present at the military court in Belgrade but this was

25 pursuant to a request for the military prosecutor to take steps linked to

1 the event that happened in Vukovar, in Ovcara, and I spent -- I undertook

2 certain investigative steps and then the documents were sent to the

3 prosecutor who then referred the case to the district prosecutor in

4 Belgrade because he found that he -- this did not come under his authority

5 and competence to try the perpetrators.

6 And also I was the presiding officer of a court chamber which at

7 the request of this Tribunal asked that the three persons be taken into

8 custody. The request was refused because there was domestic criminal law

9 on the constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which did not

10 provide for the possibility of extraditing nationals, Yugoslav nationals

11 to a foreign country and foreign institution. Those provisions have now

12 been amended in the constitutional law.

13 Q. Thank you, General.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Kwon, that completes my

15 examination-in-chief of this witness.

16 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Nice.

17 Cross-examined by Mr. Nice:

18 Q. You said earlier that independence of the judiciary is important

19 in your system. Are you a fully independent person coming to give

20 evidence here yesterday and today?

21 A. Yes, I am.

22 Q. No connections with any vested interest or political interests

23 that underlie the cases we're dealing with?

24 A. No, none.

25 Q. No particular loyalty to this accused?

1 A. None except my professional approach to the matter in hand.

2 Q. Out of interest, when did you last visit Russia?

3 A. This is the first time that I've been abroad, outside the

4 boundaries of the SFRY. I've never been to Russia.

5 Q. Very well. Let's look at tabs 17 and 18 initially, because I want

6 you to tell us this: Can we find in either tab 17 or 18 any recorded

7 conviction of an individual for a war crime?

8 A. In tab 17, it is the report by the military court in Nis, they

9 took it in chronological order, and in the columns we see the judgements,

10 where the judgement was made. And in tab 18, I'd like to draw attention

11 to --

12 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... tab 17 because I'm afraid

13 I've only had a translated version of this document for a day, and I had

14 lots of other things to do. We've had a version of the B/C/S document for

15 about a week.

16 In tab 17, is there anything there that constitutes a war crime?

17 A. Yes.

18 Q. Can you just point us to one so that we can all understand what is

19 a war crime and how it was dealt with.

20 A. Here it is. In tab 18 you can see that. Just so that I can

21 connect the two. If you find the page in tab 17. Find page 43 in tab 17.

22 Under number 7. I don't know what the page is in English. 43, number 7.

23 Then you'll find the individuals listed. War crimes, Article 142 of the

24 Criminal Code linked to Article 22. So you have that on page 43.

25 Q. Give us a second. We've got to page 43 in the B/C/S, and we're

1 going to find it in the English if we can. This is the page -- this is

2 the page --

3 A. Under number 7.

4 Q. That's Slobodan Stosic. The page heads with --

5 A. Yes, and the others too.

6 Q. Ivan Nikolic, and we'll just see if we can find that.

7 A. It says Stosic --

8 Q. Just wait a minute. There's no point in our following it or

9 trying to follow it unless we can find the English, you see.

10 JUDGE KWON: What's the report number? There are several reports.

11 Tab 17.

12 MR. NICE: In tab 17, it's number 9.

13 JUDGE BONOMY: Trial page 56, Mr. Nice.

14 MR. NICE: Thank you very much, Your Honour. Yes, absolutely

15 right. We're now on the same -- on different page but effectively the

16 same pages.

17 Q. And you want to tell us little bit about Slobodan Stosic, and you

18 say this is recorded as a war crime. Just explain further, please.

19 A. Number 7 and number 10, another war crime. And the prosecutor

20 here qualified the crime as such wherever there was an order from a

21 superior officer that a crime was committed if the perpetrators committed

22 the crime. So here we have the suggestions that the crime be committed

23 and they perpetrated the crime. And this is a classical example. He

24 cannot bypass the superior officer. Wherever there was a superior officer

25 ordering somebody to do something and the subordinate soldier committed

1 the crime, that was considered a war crime. Where there was no superior

2 officer having ordered or kept quiet about, turned a bind eye to, et

3 cetera, then it wasn't considered a crime of that nature.

4 So you have this case in point, the one you were interested in,

5 number 7.

6 Q. Yes, I am interested in it, and I just want to see how we see

7 that it's reported as a war crime. What's different about it than

8 anything else. Is it that it's under Article 142 that shows its a war

9 came?

10 A. Yes, that's right. Article 142 is a crime, a war crime against

11 the civilian population pursuant to the Criminal Code of Serbia and

12 Montenegro. At the time it was the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of

13 course.

14 Q. And the facts of the Sl