1 Monday, 25 April 2005

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 [The witness entered court]

5 --- Upon commencing at 9.07 a.m.

6 THE ACCUSED: Mr. Robinson.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic.

8 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

9 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, before we start

10 working, I have an objection. You know full well that I was not here last

11 week, although I had wanted to do otherwise, and I wish to draw your

12 attention to the following: Article 21 of your Statute, paragraph 4. You

13 know that very well. It refers to the minimum guarantees, entitled to the

14 following minimum guarantees. I am quoting (D) from your Statute: To be

15 present. Cross-examination is part of regular proceedings, so I think

16 that my rights have been infringed upon if an attempt is made to have this

17 done in my absence.

18 I also wish to draw your attention to Article 14(D), the

19 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the same is set

20 out there as a minimum guaranteed right.

21 So these are parts of jus cogens, cogent rights, so there are no

22 exceptions whatsoever which would allow you to decide to continue

23 proceedings in my absence. Therefore, I raise this objection.

24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, the Chamber considered this

25 matter, gave a ruling on it, considered that in the circumstances it was

1 appropriate. If you have an objection and you wish to insist on it, you

2 can take the matter elsewhere.

3 Mr. Nice, please proceed with your cross-examination.

4 WITNESS: KOSTA BULATOVIC [Resumed]

5 [Witness answered through interpreter]

6 Cross-examined by Mr. Nice: [Continued]

7 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, the accused served a purpose by becoming leader of

8 your group in 1980 -- I say by becoming leader of your group but by

9 becoming a leader who espoused the interests of your group in 1986, didn't

10 he? 1987.

11 A. No.

12 Q. He then used your group to achieve his own objectives, in

13 particular the centralisation of Serbia through bringing about the

14 downfall of Montenegro and Vojvodina's leadership, didn't he?

15 A. No.

16 Q. He then dropped you as you'd ceased to be of use to him.

17 A. Am I supposed to answer that?

18 Q. Yes, please.

19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Answer the question.

20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. Nice and gentlemen of the Trial

21 Chamber, I was never in power, before Milosevic or after Milosevic. I was

22 never on the police force. I was never a spy. I did not participate in

23 the war. I don't see how I could have been in any kind of authority, so

24 how could anybody have dropped me when I wasn't there in the first place?

25 Q. It may be that my time is limited. The accused remained

1 vulnerable to the pressure of nationalist Serbs like you right through to

2 the end of the 1990s, as you made clear in the middle of the 1990s, in

3 1994. Remember that?

4 A. I don't remember that.

5 Q. Well, in the 19 -- in 1994 -- we're going to come back and look at

6 the terms of your 1985 petition which have now been translated into

7 English, but for time reasons I'm going to go straight to 1994. You were

8 the first signatory on another petition, and this petition shows the

9 linkage between national Serbs, Kosovo, and the other wars with which this

10 -- in respect of which this accused is charged.

11 MR. NICE: May the document please be distributed. We've looked

12 at it earlier, Your Honours, but -- I think, but we haven't seen it in

13 this final version which has the translation associated with the document

14 itself. The document as photocopied in the version we have doesn't start

15 with signatory number one but I think Mr. Bulatovic will confirm that he

16 was signatory number one.

17 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, time doesn't allow me but to go through a few of

18 the paragraphs of this petition. We can see it summarised elsewhere. And

19 on the third paragraph, the petition says: "The current Serbian

20 authorities which were given an historic chance as well as an historic

21 obligation and responsibility to seriously resolve one of the biggest

22 problems of the Serbian nation have been bypassing Kosmet for the fourth

23 year."

24 Next paragraph: "The Serbian issue in Kosovo and Metohija has

25 become a means of winning and preserving power while the Serbian people in

1 Kosovo have been portrayed as a militant and stormy element unworthy of

2 anyone's sacrifice for their salvation. Because of such a picture the

3 Serbian issue in Kosovo has become a burden to the authorities and the

4 opposition which everybody now is avoiding."

5 If you go on, please, to the next paragraph but two, I think, and

6 on the Court's page it's the start of the next sheet, beginning, "Due to

7 ill defined and inconsistent Serbian policy..." but the sixth line says

8 this: "In March 1995, it will be five years since the passing of the

9 programme of Serbian colonisation of Kosmet which promised the settlement

10 of a hundred thousand Serbs. Unfortunately, not only were only a

11 negligible number settled there but the exodus continued while at the same

12 time more than 25.000 new Albanians were born."

13 And in the demands, the numbered nine demands, number 2 seeks

14 halting of the process of Albanisation; number 4, that the parallel ethnic

15 state be crushed; and number 7, that there be colonisation of Kosovo.

16 Now, that's a petition that you were the first signatory of in

17 1994; correct?

18 A. No. I'm not a signatory. I'm not the first signatory. Now, did

19 I sign it at all, that is something I cannot claim. I cannot see my

20 signature here.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, you had a point to make?

22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't want to go into the

23 interpretation, Mr. Robinson, but the Serb colonisation of Kosovo is not

24 mentioned anywhere in the Serbian version of this text, whereas Mr. Nice

25 referred to it twice, the Serb colonisation of Kosovo.

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: It's in the English text. Can we have another

2 translation of the B/C/S? It's number 7. Can we have the B/C/S --

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Settling Kosovo. "To urgently adopt

4 a programme of the settlement of Kosovo and to ensure money for its

5 implementation." No colonisation of Kosovo is referred to.

6 MR. NICE:

7 Q. Can we now please look at the next document which I'd like you to

8 look at --

9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, I just want to thank Mr. Milosevic for

10 that clarification, because "colonisation" is a loaded word.

11 MR. NICE:

12 Q. Can we look, please, at a newspaper article of the 21st of October

13 of 1994. If you'd like to look at this newspaper article, Mr. Bulatovic.

14 MR. NICE: The Chamber may like to look at the original first to

15 see the photograph and the set-out of this document. It's headed

16 "Milosevic has betrayed us."

17 Can the witness have the version, please, opened at the Serbian

18 text.

19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, again I got the very

20 same article that Mr. Nice presented a few moments ago, and he is

21 referring to a different article now, but I got the same one yet again,

22 just a different copy.

23 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Would you ensure that the accused has the

24 correct version, correct article.

25 MR. NICE:

1 Q. You see the -- can I have a look at the article he's got there?

2 This article is headed "Milosevic has betrayed us." It has a picture of

3 you. It's dated the 21st of October of 1994, and I'm going to read a few

4 passages from it.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: I think we have just been given now, Mr. Nice,

6 the correct article.

7 MR. NICE: I'm sorry there was a mistake.

8 Q. The English translation of the article on the first page says this

9 of you, Mr. Bulatovic, in the middle of the page in English: "No

10 individual is better qualified to testify to the dissatisfaction of

11 Kosovar Serbs, to outline the reasons for the reactivation of the

12 resistance movement, and to organise a new petition than Bulatovic, and he

13 has again been the first to sign it."

14 And then three paragraphs further on, it says this as your

15 observation in the interview: "Our petition was also motivated by that

16 fear. It simply awoke us from a deep sleep. If Milosevic renounces the

17 Srpska republic overnight, where he has people and territory, what will

18 happen with this part of Serbia, where he has neither people nor

19 territory? There are fewer than 200.000 Serbs in Kosovo, which is in

20 ethnic Albanian hands."

21 Your next answer says: "Of course it is our joint struggle, and

22 whether we shall succeed in defending the territory of the Serbian people

23 across the Drina is precisely the issue on which depends our strength to

24 defend Serbian interests here as well."

25 And you go on, Mr. Bulatovic, in the interview record to say this:

1 "Second, since it is we Serbs from Kosovo who created Milosevic and let

2 his genie out of the bottle, we consider ourselves to be responsible for

3 everything that is happening to the Serbian people and Serbia today.

4 Milosevic soared to the throne on the shoulder of the Serbian Resistance

5 Movement in Kosovo and Metohija. The movement prepared everything for him

6 and enabled him to rule in whatever way pleases him."

7 The interviewer asked you: "You seem to be disappointed with the

8 President of Serbia," to which you replied: "God could not have laid a

9 greater misfortune upon our Serbs than to leave the communists in the

10 power, instead of [Joseph Tito] Broz to give us a little Broz."

11 You were asked: "Still, the fact is that you supported Milosevic

12 and stood by his side," to which you replied this: "That is not true.

13 Milosevic stood by my side as long as he needed me and the entire

14 resistance movement. The movement was established in 1981, it became

15 stronger until 1986, when Milosevic came to Kosovo Polje in April 1987 and

16 simply captured our hearts with the famous statement of his, that nobody

17 will be allowed to beat us Serbs. He needed us until early 1989 when he

18 formed the Red Peony ... and ideologically coloured the national

19 question."

20 Do you accept everything you said in that interview,

21 Mr. Bulatovic, as accurate?

22 A. Partly yes, partly no. We accepted the words that President

23 Milosevic had said at the gathering in Kosovo Polje, and this morning at

24 6.30 a.m., it is exactly 19 years since that event, precisely this

25 morning. He spoke to us then like any other politician from Belgrade who

1 came to see us. We did not agree with Milosevic's predecessors either, or

2 with their positions. They left Kosovo, and they practically sold us down

3 the river, the leadership of Serbia did. We wanted to voice our criticism

4 in view of him and in view of his predecessors so that the voice of Serbs

5 there would be heard so that we would be finally brought to an equal

6 position to the Siptars and the others in Kosovo and Metohija. It's not

7 that we created Milosevic or that he created us. It is our own trouble

8 that created us, Mr. Nice.

9 MR. NICE: [Previous translation continues] ...

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: I'd be grateful if you didn't speak at the same

11 time. Mr. Nice, go ahead.

12 MR. NICE:

13 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, not for the first time you've used the word

14 "Siptars" about Kosovo Albanians. You know that the word "Siptar" on the

15 mouth of a Serb is offensive.

16 A. Yes --

17 Q. Why do you use it in this Court?

18 A. No. There's nothing offensive about it. The Siptars, they call

19 their own country Sipu. Maybe you don't know that. It's not offensive at

20 all.

21 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

22 A. It would be offensive if I call them Arnauts, like the Turks

23 called them, but saying "Siptar," there's nothing wrong with that. That

24 is their national state.

25 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, it is --

1 A. Yes.

2 Q. -- offensive to Albanians to call them Siptars if you are a

3 non-Albanian, and you know that. And believe me, there are Albanians here

4 in this room. Would you be so good as to describe them in a less

5 offensive way.

6 A. I'm glad if there are Albanians here.

7 MR. NICE: So that the Court can understand the Prosecution's

8 position on this - we've heard earlier evidence on it - there can be terms

9 such as, for example, Polak. My suggestion to this witness is that it is

10 as offensive to use the word Siptars by a Serb as it would be for

11 non-Poles to use the word Polaks to and about Polish people although that

12 is itself a Polish term.

13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, I understand. Mr. Milosevic did ask the

14 question of -- to the witness, and he answered that it is the way that

15 themselves described themselves. But I understand your point. It is that

16 for a non-Albanian to use the term it is offensive to them.

17 MR. NICE: Correct. And there are Albanians and Albanian speakers

18 in this courtroom.

19 Q. Can I take you now, please, Mr. Bulatovic, for want of time, to

20 two more passages in this interview of yours.

21 JUDGE BONOMY: Where are we so far? I mean, I have divined

22 nothing from the question and answer -- the way the question was posed,

23 Mr. Nice, inevitably produced the answer which came, and really has

24 advanced matters not at all, as far as I can see, unless you can guide me

25 to something that I ought to have taken from that answer.

1 MR. NICE: I certainly can. Your Honour should see from this

2 document that this man out --

3 JUDGE BONOMY: No, no, from his answer, not from the document.

4 I'm trying to understand -- I don't know what he accepts and what he

5 doesn't at the moment.

6 MR. NICE: Your Honour, the problem with that is that he gave a

7 long answer which was non-responsive to my question.

8 JUDGE BONOMY: I'm not so sure about that.

9 MR. NICE: Partly --

10 JUDGE BONOMY: I'm not so sure about that. The question

11 inevitably drew the answer, I think, that it got that part of it he

12 accepts and part he doesn't, but I have no idea which part he accepts and

13 which part he doesn't accept.

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

15 MR. NICE: -- nail points down, and the Court knows what time

16 restraint I will be under if I accommodate the two-thirds protocol. What

17 I was hoping to do, because the answer was long and non-specific, was to

18 put the two other passages to the witness and ask him to accept the two

19 points that I want from him, but that's all I can do in the time.

20 JUDGE KWON: Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Nice, but first of all, the

21 witness denied his signature at the letter but the first passage in this

22 document says Mr. Bulatovic the signatory, signatory to the letter. We

23 could pursue that point.

24 MR. NICE: I was going to pursue that again at the end, but I can

25 pursue it now.

1 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, in this interview you're identified as the first

2 signatory of the letter. Is that correct? Were you the first signatory?

3 The photocopy we have starts at number 6, I believe.

4 A. Please believe me when I say that I cannot remember any of this.

5 As for the petition of the 2,016, yes, I was the first to sign, and 219 of

6 the wisest person -- people in the Serb nation supported it, and I said

7 that the first day here before the Trial Chamber, and I don't think that

8 can be contested in any way.

9 Now, when we come to this, the criticisms of Mr. Milosevic, this

10 is just proof of the fact that we Serbs were not satisfied with the fact

11 that no steps were taken in Kosovo and Metohija after he came to visit

12 Kosovo Polje, and you're attacking him and saying that he did lots of

13 things there against - how shall I put this? - against the Albanians - you

14 want me to call them Albanians; is that right? - to fulfil our will. So

15 if that doesn't -- anyway, we Serbs call the Albanians who came to Kosovo

16 from Albanian, Mr. Robinson. That's who we refer to as Albanians. But

17 those who were born there and were there all the time, we refer to them as

18 the Siptars. We Serbs do, I mean. To clarify that issue. So I don't

19 think that I insulted them in any way. Now, whether you believe me or not

20 is up to you, but you're the first person that has made that remark in the

21 past 60 years and I've been living there for 62 years. No Albanian ever

22 told me anything like that. You don't have to believe me, but that's how

23 things stand.

24 Q. I'm going to ask you to look at two more passages in this

25 interview and I'm going to ask you a couple of questions.

1 If the Chamber on its second sheet would go three-quarters of the

2 way down and if you turn on a -- no, first of all we have to -- let's deal

3 with this. In the middle of the second page you -- dealing with the

4 organisation the Red Peony, you said: "... solely for that reason: to

5 square accounts with the leaders of the resistance movement, to pronounce

6 them traitors and turn the national platform into a platform of the

7 communist party. Milosevic was afraid of the leadership of the resistance

8 movement and knew that I was an implacable anti-communist. Since I knew

9 that, if I did not stop, a car might hit me, or a brick from some

10 dilapidated house might fall on my head ..."

11 Quick observation there: You're describing there the sort of

12 violence that might come to those who disagree with authority, are you?

13 A. Well, that's what the situation is like today in Serbia, too.

14 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

15 A. Worse things are happening.

16 Q. And it was then under the accused?

17 A. Let me put it this way. I'll give you a very clear answer to that

18 question straight away: This text is a criticism for us to force the

19 president, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, to take radical steps in Kosovo and

20 Metohija. He didn't take any steps. And on the other hand, you're

21 accepting this that in relation to the authorities was provocative.

22 That's true, it was provocative in order that something should be done,

23 that the authorities should do something, because they didn't take any

24 steps. Nothing was done. The republican authorities in Belgrade were

25 worse than in Pristina --

1 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... on to --

2 A. -- because we expected them to give us protection and they didn't

3 protect us, so that's where the crux of the matter lies.

4 Q. Next answer but two, I think: "The fact that he hasn't changed

5 the political system but is rather trying to settle problems by using the

6 old power mechanism is our greatest disappointment. He has remained a

7 communist, which is best seen in the fact that his party's interests are

8 more important to him than national interests. He wants to settle the

9 Serbian national question and to preserve communism at the same time. He

10 gave up the national struggle for the Serbian territories across the Drina

11 for ideological reasons. Fearing that the epidemic from there might

12 spread over here, he has imposed more severe sanctions against the Srpska

13 republic than the UN Security Council did against Yugoslavia."

14 Now, pausing there, you didn't know, did you, from your position,

15 the degree of daily support that the accused was actually providing for

16 those across the Drina despite the appearance of a blockade, did you?

17 A. No. We didn't know at all that Serbia was becoming involved, and

18 we considered that it should become involved because that's where our

19 people were. And you couldn't leave your people to be slaughtered as in

20 World War II. You have to protect it. And that border on the Drina was

21 intercepted. And all links were cut off with the republic. So this was a

22 criticism of those positions and that policy.

23 And on the other hand, you attack Mr. Milosevic, our president,

24 and say that he interfered across the Drina River. We're criticising him

25 for not having interfered to protect the people. We were left

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and

13 English transcripts.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

1 unprotected. Those across the Drina were left unprotected. So it was the

2 same when lions are attacking you. When lions attack herds of cattle in

3 the desert and they devour them.

4 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, would you just wait a minute, please.

5 I want to consult with the Chamber.

6 [Trial Chamber confers]

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, I'm not sure how this line of

8 cross-examination supports your case. It seems to be the opposite.

9 MR. NICE: Your Honour will in part have to wait for my next

10 question and in part have to await arguments built on the rest of the

11 evidence, but the Court will remember, it has heard it already elsewhere,

12 there is evidence that flowed -- that aid was flowing daily, from the

13 mouth of the accused himself, despite the blockade. In any event, putting

14 in a document like this for the purpose I'm going to put it in, requires

15 to be put in, broadly speaking, in full, both sides.

16 Now to my question to the witness, with your leave.

17 Q. You, Mr. Bulatovic, were concerned on behalf of nationalist Serbs

18 to put this accused under pressure because he wasn't doing enough, so you

19 said, either for the Kosovo Serbs or for the Serbs across the Drina, and

20 he reacted to your demands and gave you what he wanted -- what you wanted,

21 didn't he, in two ways.

22 A. No.

23 Q. Can you explain, then, why, having been quite so critical, and the

24 Chamber can see the rest of the highly critical terms you addressed to the

25 accused, can you explain why you're now such a supporter of his if he

1 didn't respond to you and give you what you wanted?

2 A. Had we -- we weren't given what we wanted but he did do a part of

3 it, and this is what he did: The constitution of Serbia and the provinces

4 was changed, was amended. The provinces had more power than Serbia

5 proper, Central Serbia. And with the amendments in the constitution,

6 those provinces came under the authority of Serbia --

7 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

8 A. -- and that part of the job was done.

9 Q. We're now in 1994. What --

10 A. Well, precisely because nothing was undertaken against -- to

11 combat terror and terrorism in Kosovo. Terrorism in Kosovo prevailed and

12 the authorities from Serbia - and Serbia now had absolute power - did

13 nothing radical, took no radical steps there. There was so much killing

14 there, and you have facts and figures, you delve in politics yourself.

15 I'm sure you have information, as a prosecutor, of the number of people --

16 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

17 A. -- who were killed there.

18 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... get an answer and then I'm

19 going to suggest to you what the answer is if you don't tell me. What is

20 it, please, that this accused did between 1994 and today that makes you

21 such a supporter of his given your criticism in 1994? Can you help us,

22 please?

23 A. Of course, certainly, certainly. It's very simple, Mr. Nice, a

24 very simple answer. We demanded of him you know what, it's written down

25 in the text, you have it in front you. Not in that interview, I mean, but

1 generally our demands, our requests, and the constitutional amendments

2 went through. But radical steps for us to have life in security and

3 safety, that we could move around properly, that we could work normally,

4 that we could take part in the life of Kosovo and Metohija, that's what we

5 didn't have and that's what we asked for, so from that time we expressed

6 our dissatisfaction about that. I don't know if I've explained this

7 properly.

8 Now, why am I defending him today? Because the indictment is

9 false. That's why I'm defending him. Because had he taken any steps in

10 Kosovo, had he done anything radical there, what kind of indictment would

11 you have had then? If we were brought into a position of equality,

12 whereas people had to leave their universities, their schools, their

13 companies, there was public sabotage by the Albanians, and the

14 authorities, the powers that be knew about this and did nothing about it,

15 did nothing to help us. So that's where the conflict lies. And the whole

16 nation today in Serbia, I'm sure you have your intelligence services and

17 know about all that, but all the people in Serbia were surprised as to who

18 wrote the indictment. Not even if Pristina had written the indictment

19 would it have been worded in the way it was.

20 Q. You understand that my general proposition to you is that this

21 accused, although he dropped you in 1988 and 1989, remained vulnerable to

22 the pressure of nationalist Serbs, and following this petition and your

23 letter, the -- even the appearance of the blockade against the Serbs in

24 the Drina diminished towards the end of 1994. That's one way in which he

25 met your demands. But the other way in which he met your demands and

1 satisfied you was to start the process of attacking in an institutional

2 way the Kosovo Albanians. And that started in 1995, and it was responsive

3 in part or whole to your pressure, and that's one of the reasons you

4 support him, isn't it, Mr. Bulatovic?

5 A. No, that's not correct. First of all, it's not correct that he

6 rejected us. And who are we? You have the whole nation, all the people

7 there. I wasn't there alone. So I was interested in whether I could

8 survive with my family in Kosovo and Metohija and continue living there.

9 Not my family but every Serb family in Kosovo and Metohija. And that is

10 what you, Mr. Nice, do not wish or cannot understand or do not wish to

11 understand, I don't know which, and that's the problem.

12 Q. Let me give you a few examples. You remember the famous 200

13 police trial where Kosovo Albanian policemen were tried and subject to

14 heavy sentences. That was responsive to this pressure of yours, and it

15 was said at the time by human rights organisations to be responsive to

16 this sort of pressure, wasn't it?

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: What year was that, Mr. Nice?

18 MR. NICE: 1995.

19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I don't remember that.

20 MR. NICE:

21 Q. At the same time, human rights organisations in 1995 were

22 recording the increase in oppression of Kosovo Albanians by discrimination

23 in employment, by police brutality, by restrictions on freedom of

24 association, and by political trials. That was responsive to your

25 pressure, wasn't it?

1 A. No.

2 Q. So you were a --

3 A. No. Your reports aren't correct. Your information is not

4 correct. There was no pressure exerted on them. What happened was that

5 at that time, and we didn't know who they were contacting, which forces in

6 the world were supporting them, that's what we didn't know, so that they

7 could go about doing the underhand things they did. So we had a state,

8 whereas they did not have a state of their own and what they wanted was a

9 state of their own. So everything that what -- were belonged to the state

10 was sabotaged and their behaviour to it was that they should destroy it,

11 destroy everything that was the state. That was the difference between

12 their population and our population. And according to what I know today,

13 that's it. I didn't know all that then. I must say that loud and clear

14 before this Tribunal. I've come here to tell the truth, not to tell

15 stories and tales of various kinds.

16 Q. And as we move on to other events of the late 1990s before I

17 return to the 1980s for the time that I may, to show the continued

18 integration of your pressure and of Kosovo and the other conflict areas,

19 do you remember in 1996, in July of 1996, a full year after Srebrenica,

20 being interviewed on the British Broadcasting Corporation, praising

21 Radovan Karadzic as the most popular living Serb, pressing for him to be

22 president of the joint country of Serbia and Montenegro? Do you remember

23 doing that?

24 A. Yes, that's true.

25 Q. That was -- is that still your view, that Radovan Karadzic is the

1 greatest living Serb, most popular living Serb?

2 A. Certainly.

3 Q. And you --

4 A. That --

5 Q. -- have not a moment's hesitation about any of the things that

6 happened in the course of his leadership in Bosnia, do you? Not a

7 moment's hesitation?

8 A. How do you mean "moment's hesitation"? He stood at the head of

9 the people to save the people, not to suffer the same fate as they did in

10 World War II at Jasenovac and other camps, and he did what he could to

11 save them. A lot of people did die. A war is a war. So Karadzic did for

12 his people as best he could to protect them. What he was able to protect,

13 he did protect. What he didn't, it was God's fate and destiny that that

14 happened. And that's it.

15 Q. The last thing that the accused did that makes you so favourable

16 to him now, Mr. Bulatovic, is that he, following March 1999, had hundreds

17 of thousands of Kosovo Albanians kicked out and thousands killed, didn't

18 he? And that met your national Serb demands.

19 A. Those are your observations. That's not true. I'll tell you

20 this: I was in hospital when the shelling in Kosovo started and the NATO

21 pact aggression on Yugoslavia started. I found myself in hospital

22 undergoing treatment. And let me tell you straight away that from Kosovo

23 everybody fled who was able to flee, both the Serbs and the Siptars -- I

24 mean Albanians, if you want - all right, I'll say Albanians now -- and the

25 Roma and the Macedonians and the Turks around Prizren, which is where they

1 mostly lived, everybody tried to escape from the territory that was being

2 shelled, to take refuge. Now, imagine this: Had the people not fled

3 outside the territory that was rocketed, that was shelled, can you imagine

4 how many more thousands would have lost their lives? Nobody expelled

5 them.

6 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... Mr. Bulatovic. That's not

7 responsive to my question.

8 A. Nobody expelled them.

9 Q. The evidence in this Court may satisfy the learned Judges in due

10 course that thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands expelled by

11 Serbs. You know that to be the case, don't you, and that's why you

12 approve of this accused, and that's why you're here to help him.

13 A. No, that's not true.

14 Q. Let's go back to --

15 A. First of all, I don't know about those thousands killed. In our

16 country, the figures say that 2 or 3.000 Albanians were killed and as many

17 Serbs, roughly, about 2.000 Serbs, a little less Serbs than Albanians.

18 Therefore, all the thousands that you mention and bring up is something

19 that I don't know about, and I'm hearing those figures, those many, many

20 thousands here for the first time today.

21 At Bolija [phoen], for example, now they are extracting the bones

22 of Serbs who were kidnapped and killed, for instance. Now you're skipping

23 over that. There's no word from you about the Serbs as victims, you as

24 the Prosecutor I mean, which means that that is tendentious, sheer

25 tendentiousness.

1 Q. You may carry on making remarks like that as long as you think

2 it's helping you, but you just tell me this, or tell the learned Judges

3 this: Do you think that the loss of lives in either Bosnia, Croatia, or

4 in Kosovo at the hands of Serbs to the extent that that was proved is

5 justified because of the Serb national interest? Is that your position?

6 A. My position is that we should have fought to save our people, and

7 if possible, to save it from genocide. No tendency. I don't think there

8 was any tendency on the part of Karadzic or anybody else that in defending

9 their own people to try and destroy another people. That would mean that

10 ultimately they were working against their own people and were the enemies

11 of their own people.

12 Our views of the world are not the same, Mr. Nice, and I apologise

13 for having to say that. No, they are not. You can't do evil and wish for

14 good. You can only do good and then God will reward you with good, but

15 evil begets evil.

16 Q. We will look at a 1985 petition which was your -- it had your

17 first signature, because although it was provided, it wasn't provided in

18 English, although it was said to contain no offensive term of any kind in

19 it, so I must use my time to put in the English translation.

20 Because this comes in 1985 -- and let's just remember the

21 position, Mr. Bulatovic: A full ten years before the arrival of what's

22 become known as the KLA, four years only after the demonstrations in

23 Pristina in 1981, four years into your Serb nationalist disappointment

24 with your inability to change the constitution. That's my suggestion to

25 you. And let's see what in fact this mild petition, as it was effectively

1 being described, reveals.

2 You put your signature in 1985 to a petition the second paragraph

3 of which says: "The real situation is crushing. A portion of Yugoslavia

4 is under occupation: the territory of our historical and national entity,

5 while a fascist genocide against us, Kosovo and Metohija Serbs, has gained

6 social recognition."

7 What was the genocide that you were alleging there in public,

8 please.

9 A. First of all, you're saying that the KLA was created now when the

10 war began, and that's just not true. The KLA was working clandestinely

11 the whole period after the war. But it wasn't as broad based. There were

12 individual killings, cattle were maimed and killed and blinded, roofs were

13 destroyed on houses, for example, and children did that, for instance. So

14 all this type of pressure from the KLA. And it has existed throughout.

15 What did you say?

16 Q. Which is the fascist genocide -- you're writing a document,

17 Mr. Bulatovic. I just want you to understand what I'm asking you about.

18 You're writing a document, distributing it publicly so as to go to your

19 fellow countrymen. Who are you accusing, please, of fascist genocide in

20 1985?

21 A. All the Albanian terrorists who waged terrorism throughout Kosovo

22 and Metohija, Mr. Nice. And that's what you can't understand.

23 Q. This is 1985. We can look --

24 A. Well, Mr. Nice, what would you say that it meant if you set fire

25 to the Pec Patriarchy, the very spirit and soul of the Serbian Orthodox

1 Church? What do you think that is? Is it genocide? It is intent, the

2 intent to destroy everything that is Serb in Kosovo and Metohija. They

3 have no cultural movements in Kosovo and Metohija.

4 THE INTERPRETER: Monuments, I'm sorry, interpreter's correction.

5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] -- monuments in Kosovo and

6 Metohija. Let them tell us what cultural monuments they have and what is

7 the cultural foundation for their being there. They don't have it. They

8 don't have anything to show. Kosovo is the largest Serb cemetery, the

9 largest Serb cemetery and the largest -- most of its churches and

10 monasteries are there and land belonging to Serb monasteries. That is it,

11 Mr. Nice. When you extract somebody's heart, can they continue to live?

12 And that's what the situation like -- is like in Kosovo and Metohija.

13 They want this alien factor to extract the very soul of Serbia. That's

14 how we Serbs see it, and we claim that that is so and it is indeed so.

15 MR. NICE:

16 Q. You're lost in the past, I must suggest to you.

17 A. Had we done anything against Albanian -- if you want me to say

18 "Albanian," I'll say it -- against the Albanian people, then what would

19 you say then? They terrorised us in our own state. They killed us in our

20 own state and expelled us from our own state or in our own state. Have

21 you got an example anywhere else in the world that you can quote which is

22 similar to that? You are an intelligence man. I am somebody who I'm sure

23 you consider to be illiterate, but can you give me an example in the world

24 of a country which has its own state and allows a minority to come in and

25 terrorise that? That only happened in Kosovo and Metohija, Mr. Nice.

1 Rest assured that that is the truth of it.

2 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... small clip - the audio

3 booth, we're using Sanction - an interview with you. I suggest this

4 reveals, along with your previous answer, where your thinking comes from.

5 [Videotape played]

6 MR. NICE:

7 Q. Murat, the man who has that emotion on you, died, what, over 600

8 years ago?

9 A. Murat died. He was a Turkish Tsar, leader, and he was killed and

10 so was Knez Lazar, the Serbian leader, at the battle of Kosovo, and that

11 was the only battle in the history of the peoples of the world in which

12 two leaders, Tsars, were killed. There's Lazar on the Serb side and the

13 Turkish Tzar Murat on the other.

14 Q. A few more passages because this document --

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. -- as a document of importance, and what I'm going to suggest to

17 you while we look at it is that the independent human rights reports for

18 the 1980s dealing with Kosovo will show that, yes, there were independent

19 and -- sorry, individual incidents of violence against Kosovo Serbs. Not

20 organised but by individuals, but that was the extent of it. You see?

21 Not a question of organised or KLA or anything like that at the time at

22 which we are concerned. That's my suggestion. We don't have time to go

23 into the reports, but if we look at your petition - I can make them

24 available to the Court, of course - this is what you said. The next

25 paragraph: "Brutal pressure of the Siptar chauvinists..."

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, Judge Kwon has inquired of me whether

2 the video was in fact played.

3 JUDGE KWON: Or did we hear anything?

4 MR. NICE: If you didn't hear anything that shouldn't

5 inconvenience the Court because, of course, of the transcript. I don't

6 know whether the soundtrack worked. It should have worked.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: No, we didn't hear anything.

8 JUDGE KWON: Some picture was portrayed in Sanction.

9 MR. NICE: Did you see a picture with -- or by my question, did

10 Your Honours hear sound?

11 [Videotape played]

12 THE INTERPRETER: The witness says there's no sound.

13 MR. NICE: Perhaps I can put the question built on the video so

14 that there can be no doubt the point I'm making.

15 Q. You still, Mr. Bulatovic, find an emotional thrill at the

16 contemplation of the last gasp of somebody who was killed 600 years ago,

17 and that's where you are lodged emotionally and, I'm going to suggest,

18 intellectually.

19 A. That's not true. This footage was taken by the BBC crew, but you

20 should be showing it in extenso, all of it, because I refused to give them

21 an interview because they wouldn't -- they didn't wish to go and conduct

22 the interview to a Serb village but I took them to the Serb village of

23 Crnoljevo, where there's not a single Serb house standing, where there are

24 no -- there's no Serb cemetery. It's all destroyed. And together we put

25 back the grave stones saying who was buried there. And they saw this, the

1 destroyed cemetery. All of this was filmed by the BBC. But it came and

2 went and then produced this programme which is tendentious. And this is

3 what I said, this speech of mine was said at the monument to the Kosovo

4 heroes, so that's where that speech was delivered, at the monument to the

5 Kosovo heroes. And I said that's where the two leaders, the two Tzars

6 were killed, Tzar Lazar and Tzar Murat. Now you seem to just focus on

7 Murat and present an impression to the public as if God knows what had

8 been said there. Everything that was said was honest and decent and

9 honourable at that monument.

10 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... this petition that you signed

11 in 1985. Go, please, to the demands. You see here under 3 you were

12 pressing for the immediate expulsion of greater Albanian chauvinists who

13 you said were leading a rebellion.

14 4, to publicly state the names of the genocide project against us.

15 5, to deny further hospitality to Albanian immigrants.

16 6, to annul every contract buying or selling Serbian property.

17 And then 11 another hark back, just an example, to reconstruct the

18 personal files of the Albanian Nazi supporters in World War II.

19 This was as provocative a document as you could have signed,

20 wasn't it, Mr. Bulatovic?

21 A. No. First of all, you mentioned paragraph 3 here, and then you

22 simply said that the cadres, the officials from the province should be

23 made accountable, and that's not true. We asked for that -- those steps

24 to be taken not only with respect to the provincial officials but also the

25 republican ones, because of what was going on. They were working against

1 the Serbia in order to create the greater Albanian, and the republican

2 leadership did nothing to prevent that. That was the point we were

3 protesting. We were criticising the republican leadership more than the

4 provincial one. However, we didn't fail to criticise the provincial

5 leadership as well. That's why it was in the first place.

6 The second point was to protest what was going on in Kosovo, the

7 torching, the terror, and so on, and how that was covered up with

8 political speeches, how that would be prevented, how they would put an end

9 to it and so on --

10 Q. Very well, I'm going to have to --

11 A. -- and punish them. However, nobody was ever punished.

12 Q. Let's go back to the Kosovo Polje meeting just briefly. We've

13 heard evidence about it already. First of all, perhaps you would be good

14 enough to confirm that between the Monday meeting and the Friday meeting

15 while you were getting the people ready to come and speak, a

16 representative of the accused, Mica Jakovljevic, flew down and advised you

17 how to stage manage the event. In particular, advising you to have every

18 word recorded because the press or the various media communication would

19 take it. Do you remember that?

20 A. No. That's not true. That's a false statement. I don't even

21 know who Mica Jakovljevic is. You should verify. Perhaps this person has

22 just heard about me but he doesn't know me, if this refers to me.

23 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... that's your answer, fine.

24 Azem Vllasi, a lawyer, then a political leader, he's a man of peace, isn't

25 he? He's not a man who has ever been engaged in or had suggestions made

1 against him that he's engaged in violence, has he?

2 A. As for Azem Vllasi, all of those who were in the leadership did

3 not personally participate in the violence. However, they protected those

4 who did. Why were people against Azem Vllasi? They were against him

5 because in certain of his public statements, he irritated the citizens.

6 For example, when the journalist Milic --

7 Q. He found himself against you, Solevic, and various other

8 physically very large men at that meeting in Kosovo Polje, and you large

9 men went on to lead demonstrations that bullied and terrorised political

10 leaders into surrender, and you did it on behalf of this accused; correct?

11 A. No. First of all, I personally do not know Azem Vllasi. I never

12 saw him in person. You can go and check with him whether we had ever met

13 or greeted each other or exchanged a single word. Never. So you have

14 false information. Somebody deceived you.

15 And as for the rest, the rallies that you are referring to, they

16 were scheduled by the people from the municipalities. In Central Serbia,

17 they didn't know what was actually going on, what things were done against

18 the Serbian people there. Therefore, in municipalities, various local

19 people wanted people to come and state that publicly, and this is why

20 these rallies were organised. There was no organisation standing behind

21 this. There were no nationalist organisations. It was the people. The

22 people asked for that.

23 And as for the petition and me signing the petition, you claimed

24 here that I was the first one to sign it, and I wasn't. I was the first

25 one to criticise the authorities. I always criticised the authorities,

1 and I do that nowadays. And I can tell you that as long as I have lived,

2 I have yet to see good people in power, that would do good for their

3 people.

4 Q. One of your --

5 A. This petition is unimportant.

6 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... Miroslav Solevic is a very

7 good friend of yours. You and he are in a relation of Kum one to the

8 other, I can't remember which way around it is, and he has been seen

9 saying --

10 A. Yes, that's right. Both of these things are correct.

11 Q. -- with the makers of the film Death of Yugoslavia but the stones

12 were taken, the paving stones were taken, preparatory for use against the

13 police at Kosovo Polje. He's right about that, isn't he? Stones were

14 taken in order to make it a violent event.

15 A. Certainly not. Mr. Nice, you don't know Miroslav Solevic. It

16 would be good if you met him. Let me tell you straight away: There were

17 no stones there. It would be --

18 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

19 A. It's a ludicrous claim, just as to claim that you brought any

20 stones there. What they were doing was expanding the road.

21 MR. NICE: Yes. The AV booth we would need the sound on this,

22 please.

23 [Videotape played]

24 THE INTERPRETER: [Voiceover] "He brought his executive secretary.

25 He had the executive secretaries. The principal Serbs told them what to

1 say."

2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson.

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, do you need to interrupt now?

4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have to interrupt because I'm

5 pointing to you a completely wrong translation. It says here that

6 Milosevic called his private secretary to relate this to Vllasi, and

7 Vllasi says that the executive secretary of the Central Committee came.

8 This is a huge difference whether this is the executive secretary of the

9 Central Committee, and there were several of them there, and their duty

10 was to travel regularly throughout the country. Milosevic had no private

11 secretary to send there. Once again, this is wrong translation in this

12 BBC footage. You can hear it for yourself. Vllasi, in Albanian, says

13 "sekretari eksekutiv," which is "executive secretary" in Albanian,

14 whereas it's translated as "private secretary." You constantly have wrong

15 translations here.

16 JUDGE ROBINSON: We'll keep that in mind, Mr. Milosevic, thank

17 you.

18 [Videotape played]

19 MR. NICE:

20 Q. They were there just in case. He also says in an interview, the

21 same interview in another part, that they had young men there with

22 pistols, 2 or 300 young men there prepared to do anything. He's right

23 about that, isn't he? This was a planned, violent --

24 A. No.

25 Q. And you were a party to it.

1 A. No.

2 Q. Very well. I'm going to move on. If we look at --

3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, let me just get what the witness is

4 saying in response to your proposition.

5 In relation to the lorry full of stones, I believe you said

6 earlier in response to Mr. Nice that they were there for the roads. Would

7 you like to elaborate on that?

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, gentlemen of the Trial

9 Chamber, the nature of this person that we just saw, Miroslav Solevic, is

10 such that he always gave provocative and -- statements full of jokes to

11 the journalists, and that's his personal choice. You can ask him why he

12 did that. This has nothing to do with reality. If you find another --

13 another person in Kosovo Polje who can confirm this, I would be ready to

14 allow you to let me hang by the feet and let me hang here for seven hours

15 until my soul departs.

16 I told you the truth. The road was expanded there, and the area

17 around was not cleared. When the police -- I didn't see this,

18 Mr. Robinson. I was inside, and this was happening outside. Police

19 started beating people because there were around 20.000 people around the

20 culture hall. People started fleeing from the police until they reached

21 this construction material.

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: You're saying that the comment that we saw

23 attributed to Miroslav Solevic, that was a comment that he made in a

24 jocular manner? He was joking.

25 A. Purely provocative.

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: And what do you say to the other proposition by

2 Mr. Nice that there were other people there with pistols, about 200

3 people, young men, and they were armed?

4 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] The police was of mixed composition

5 there. Had there been just a single person with a pistol he would have

6 been disarmed and beaten up. Just a single person with a pistol. So I

7 don't know where he came up with this story. I don't know how he came up

8 with something like this. This is completely untrue.

9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Nice.

10 MR. NICE:

11 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, you may be quite sure in this case --

12 A. This is something that is followed by the entire Serbia and

13 Montenegro and rest assured they know that this is not true. They know

14 that.

15 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, you may rest assured that Mr. Solevic has been

16 asked whether he stands by the contents of his interviews and I would not

17 be asking you these questions in this particular case were that not --

18 were he not to have acknowledged that he does indeed stand by them.

19 I would like you to look at another document from Solevic for your

20 comments. It's a newspaper article that came out on the 10th of February,

21 of 1993 and I want your comment on just a couple passages in it.

22 I think the Chamber has looked at it before. I'm only putting it

23 as an easy way of putting the propositions. In this case I probably won't

24 ask for it to be exhibited but nevertheless it's a useful way of

25 approaching matters.

1 This is an interview by Slavko Curuvija, or, to be precise, the

2 late Slavko Curuvija and Milka Kovacic. And again so the Judges can have

3 a better feel for your community, can you just explain what happened to

4 Slavko Curuvija shortly after the start of the NATO bombing. He was a

5 journalist. What happened to him?

6 A. I can't answer that question. I lived in Kosovo Polje, or rather,

7 in Pristina. I have lived there for the last ten years and what I know

8 about that comes from the newspapers. I couldn't give you anything more

9 than that, gentlemen.

10 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... by the secret police; is that

11 right?

12 A. This is something for you to say. I can't say anything about

13 that, nothing at all, because --

14 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

15 A. -- I can't say something that I don't know.

16 Q. Look at the bottom of the first page, please. In the --

17 A. This is in English.

18 Q. You should have got the -- at the bottom you should have got the

19 -- if the usher would be good enough to take the --

20 A. I was in hospital at the time.

21 Q. Yes, but this is what your very good friend Solevic said about

22 Novi Sad. You can see on the bottom left-hand corner in your version the

23 question, "It's well known what happened in Novi Sad," and Solevic replied

24 this: "Other things are well known too. The rallies started and brought

25 down the --

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, we have -- we haven't found it.

2 MR. NICE: I'm sorry. In your version it's the first page in the

3 English. It's the third document, I'm told. It's got the words "Feature

4 11" in the top right-hand corner, and it's dated the 10th of February,

5 1993. Sorry not to have dealt with that more carefully. And it's towards

6 the bottom of the page where Solevic said this: "Other things are known,

7 too. The rallies started and brought down the leaderships of Vojvodina

8 and Montenegro." Sorry.

9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Nice.

10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Neither of the two.

11 MR. NICE:

12 Q. "The rallies started and brought down the leaderships of Vojvodina

13 and Montenegro. We had prepared everything to overthrow the Bosnian

14 leadership too. We thought that the thing would be carried out the

15 easiest over there. But Sloba and Serbian leadership asked us to give up

16 Jajce. It was a mistake that he stopped us. He could, as he had done up

17 to that point, played dumb at their pressure, until we wipe off Bosnia."

18 Now, Mr. Bulatovic, again I'm looking at the integration of all

19 these matters together; your Serb nationalist activities and changes in

20 Montenegro, Vojvodina, and in Bosnia. Will you confirm, please, that

21 there was indeed a planned rally at Jajce in Bosnia?

22 A. This is the first time that I'm hearing about such a rally, and we

23 are best men, we are Kums. It is true, though, that he lives nowadays in

24 Nis and I live elsewhere, but this is the first time that I hear about

25 this rally in Jajce.

1 As I've told you, he had a tendency to joke when giving

2 statements, and it would be best if the Tribunal were to call him here to

3 clarify this. I don't know about this.

4 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... Tribunal to decide. You have

5 no reason to doubt what he says about a planned demonstration in Jajce, do

6 you? And I must suggest to you a little more why it didn't happen. See

7 if this jogs your memory.

8 Drasko Milicevic, coordinator for the Central Committee,

9 communicated between you and the Central Committee and thus this accused,

10 isn't that right?

11 A. I don't know the man.

12 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... and the planned demonstration

13 at Jajce --

14 A. I don't remember any Drasko.

15 Q. -- was cancelled because at that time the accused communicated to

16 you demonstrators that he wanted the Bosnian votes and that he wouldn't

17 get the Bosnian votes if -- that he needed in the Presidency or in the

18 committee, I'm not sure which, but he wouldn't get the Bosnian votes if

19 that demonstration went ahead, and that's why it was cancelled and that's

20 why Solevic said it was cancelled. Does that refresh your memory?

21 A. Mr. Nice, you're asking me about things that I know nothing

22 about. I don't know anything about that portion. You're not asking me

23 about what I testified about here. You're not trying to verify whether I

24 said something that wasn't true.

25 As for these other things, I can't testify about that. You should

1 ask Solevic why he gave these interviews and why he mentioned this rally

2 in Jajce. As far as I know, that rally was never organised, nor was its

3 organisation ever discussed. He called me Colonel. That was the name

4 that he used for me. And after that, the people started using that in a

5 jocular way, in a fun way. That's his nature. He likes to joke with

6 people. But there was no ill intention there. He never hurt anybody.

7 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... Chamber would go on to the

8 second -- the next page, rather, and the witness would stay with the

9 passage of the text a little further on. He says as to the rift of the

10 rally staff that Solevic said he wanted to dissolve the rally staff, that

11 no decision could be taken without Kosta, Bosko, Dusko Ristic and himself.

12 Milosevic said no, i.e., that the rally staff should not be disbanded but

13 then a month later said that it should be. Does that fit with your

14 recollection of history, that eventually it was the accused himself who

15 insisted that the rally staff be disbanded? Is that right?

16 A. There was neither any staff -- I know nothing about that. This is

17 the first time I hear of that staff. You keep using the words

18 nationalists and group of nationalists, Mr. Nice. Such group never

19 existed. Had it existed I would have known about it.

20 Q. A couple more questions because I don't have any more time

21 although I have a lot more I would like to ask you. To take Vojvodina as

22 an example, the way your demonstrations worked is this: Mob rule on

23 streets, political pressure from Belgrade, came together to frighten the

24 leaders into giving up. That's what you did, wasn't it? I'm not quoting

25 from the article, I'm putting a proposition to you.

1 A. This term you're using, "mob," to refer to the people, to people

2 looking for salvation, I think is offensive. However, this is not your

3 term, it wasn't coined by you, it was coined by the political leadership

4 of Kosovo. The defenseless people they referred to as mob, these

5 defenseless people who only asked to have equal status. I would kindly

6 ask you not to refer to them as a mob. It was not a mob. These were just

7 misfortunate people.

8 Let me tell you what happened on the 17th of March, 2004. Do you

9 think that that was the mob or the people asking to be helped? The KFOR

10 was there, the representatives of the UN were there, and all the while

11 they were going on with killing people and destroying their homes, and you

12 think that they're all mob?

13 Q. To take an example of Vojvodina, a province with a long history of

14 autonomy, dating back to the Austro-Hungarian times, seen throughout

15 Yugoslavia as a model of interethnic co-existence and a place where the

16 Serbs were, by the relevant time, about two-thirds majority, was a place

17 that you invaded on 13 different demonstrations, you and your group, I

18 don't mean you necessarily on every one, on the last time settling in for

19 two full days. Do you remember that?

20 A. I don't know about that. I attended the first rally, which was

21 not really a rally, but what happened was that 2.000 groups -- 2.000 Serbs

22 went to the Assembly of Serbia in order to inform them about the position

23 of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija and to ask Vojvodina as a

24 province, which supported the authorities because of its own interests,

25 without knowing what the authorities in Kosovo and Metohija were in fact

1 supporting and how they were ignoring the terror against the Serbian

2 people in Kosovo and Metohija. They didn't let us enter the Assembly

3 building. They didn't give us any water or provide any power to us.

4 Nobody went there to bring down the authorities. They did that themselves

5 through their positions and views.

6 Q. I asked you when I first asked you questions what on earth --

7 A. Krunic and the company.

8 Q. -- what on earth right Kosovo Serbs had to be bringing down

9 political leaders in Montenegro and in Vojvodina and I must suggest to you

10 the answer is that this was not just limited to Kosovo Serbs --

11 A. The Kosovo Serbs did not do that.

12 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreter's correction: The Kosovo Serbs did

13 not do that.

14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Find the footage -- find the footage

15 showing that where their authorities toppled the authorities and see if

16 there was a single person from Kosovo present there. There was nobody

17 there, Mr. Nice, and you can bring out any kind of ridiculous accusations

18 here.

19 Q. The man you say in your own interview "soared to the throne on the

20 shoulder of the Serbian resistance movement" was never a leader with an

21 ideological platform but he was a man whose taste for power you stimulated

22 by letting him espouse your cause. That's right, isn't it?

23 A. Nobody joined us. Your claims are tendentious. Nobody joined us

24 in achieving our interests. We asked him to come, and later on we asked

25 Dr. Zoran Grujic to come to Kosovo Polje. And now that you have

1 mentioned, I have to mention him, too, Mr. Azem Vllasi, Kole Shiroka, Agim

2 Heripi [phoen], that entire group which sat with him in the culture hall

3 in Kosovo Polje, listening to what these unfortunate people were saying.

4 Over 70 speakers informed them about everything that was done against the

5 Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. However, you do not care about that. All

6 you care are the quotations showing this or that. Well, we were not

7 lawyers, we could not write this document any better than we did. We did

8 it in the best way we could. However, we addressed certain people that we

9 expected would help us.

10 Now, let me tell you this: The Albanians in Kosovo, if certain of

11 their rights were violated, why didn't they write a petition to them and

12 have this issue raised of --

13 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

14 A. -- what rights of theirs were violated? They did not have a

15 single reason to complain.

16 Q. We don't have time to go into everything, but don't you remember

17 after 1981, the students' demonstration, the one that may have been

18 generated by the KGB or by some other intelligence agency, the students

19 indeed did petition against the oppressive response of the authorities.

20 Don't you remember that? Don't you remember the 1981 students' petition

21 complaining at the wrong treatment of the students?

22 A. These are fewer manipulations. What KGB are you talking about?

23 The CIA had its fingers there and it's all coming to surface now. At the

24 time we didn't know that. Now we're knowing where worm had come from.

25 The rotten apple was placed in a bushel of good apples and it turned the

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and

13 English transcripts.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

1 entire bushel rotten and we are just learning about this now.

2 Q. When you spoke in your interview of letting the genie out of the

3 bottle, that was a phrase that gave way to the truth, wasn't it? By your

4 actions you let this accused out and into positions of power by which he

5 did enormous damage to the former Yugoslavia, and you know that it's in

6 part your responsibility for having given him power.

7 A. Well, now you are bringing up this minor provocation which was

8 used in order to prompt the leadership to take even minor steps in Kosovo

9 and now you're saying that this is why Yugoslavia fell apart? No. If you

10 had not interfered, Yugoslavia would still be existing now.

11 Sir, Yugoslavia was destroyed by those who created it, those who

12 signed the Versailles treaty, and later on those who were figures in the

13 Second World War. Those are the people who destroyed Yugoslavia. Tito in

14 Jajce divided Yugoslavia based on national principles, and he created

15 these two provinces within Serbia. Dalmatia, Lika, and Krajina and Banija

16 were not created as provinces, were not established as provinces.

17 Mr. Nice, this is tendentiously aimed against Serbian nation and

18 Serbian state.

19 Q. My last question --

20 A. Baranja was taken away from Serbia and Vojvodina and given to

21 Croatia and it had never been part of Croatia before. Do you think that

22 that was the right decision?

23 Q. My last question, totally different, matter of credit only, it's

24 to do with your conduct in this courtroom. I just simply remind you that

25 throughout your answers you've referred to the accused as "Mr. President,"

1 you've used either the term "Mr." for the Judges - once you referred to

2 His Honour Judge Robinson as Judge Robinson - and you've referred to them

3 as the "gentlemen of the Court."

4 When you first came here, and you can obviously read, you didn't

5 read the words on the card of the solemn declaration and you gave your own

6 format of wording. Was that intentional?

7 A. No. When I give an oath -- are you referring to the oath? Is

8 that what you're referring to?

9 Q. Yes. I'm wondering why you didn't --

10 A. When I give an oath, gentlemen, I -- in the end I read that text,

11 but prior to that I swore to my faith. I swore on my dignity and on my

12 honour that I would say the truth, and following that I read out the text

13 that the usher gave me, the Tribunal's text. So my intentions were the

14 most honourable ones, and I fully -- I expressed my full respect to this

15 Tribunal, both to Mr. Robinson and to Mr. Kwon and to Mr. Bonomy. I

16 expressed my deepest --

17 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...

18 A. -- respect, and I don't think that I hurt or offended this

19 Tribunal in any way, nor you, for that matter, regardless of the fact that

20 you put some provocative and tendentious questions to me. But that

21 doesn't matter. You're a Prosecutor. Perhaps you're entitled to that and

22 I can understand that.

23 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... this Court, do you?

24 A. Do you mean --

25 MR. KAY: Is this relevant?

1 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice, we are near the time. We are beyond

2 the time for the break. What is the question you're asking?

3 MR. NICE: Does he accept the legality of this Court.

4 JUDGE ROBINSON: No. I don't think we need to go into that,

5 Mr. Nice, at this stage.

6 We'll take the break now for 20 minutes. And when we come back,

7 we'll deal with the documents which you wish to have exhibited.

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

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

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Nice.

11 MR. NICE: Exhibits. The '94 petition.

12 JUDGE ROBINSON: Which one is that?

13 MR. NICE: That's the first document we looked at today, to which

14 reference is made in the 1994 newspaper article, which was the second

15 document we looked at today and which, as His Honour Judge Kwon observed,

16 has the witness acknowledging that he was the first signatory of the

17 petition. I'd ask for those to be produced.

18 JUDGE KWON: You are not minded to tender the petition of January

19 1986?

20 MR. NICE: Your Honour is absolutely right. That was on the last

21 occasion. Yes, that should be the first exhibit, the petition of 1986,

22 yes, please.

23 JUDGE ROBINSON: We will admit that.

24 THE REGISTRAR: That will be 859.

25 MR. NICE: I'm grateful for being reminded about that. Then the

1 petition of 1994.

2 MS. HIGGINS: Your Honour, could I deal with the objections in

3 relation to that matter?

4 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.

5 MS. HIGGINS: The document referred to by Mr. Nice referring to

6 the 1994 petition, I think there may be some confusion relating to this

7 document. The answer when the witness was first presented with the

8 document was that he was not the first signatory and his answer was that

9 he couldn't remember signing the document. Your Honour Judge Kwon

10 referred to the interview with Mr. Bulatovic where there was reference to

11 Mr. Bulatovic being the first signatory to the letter or, rather, the new

12 petition, and the answer in relation to that, it was my recollection, was

13 that this witness spoke to the 1986 petition but did not speak to and had

14 nothing to do with the 1994 petition. I stand to be corrected if that's

15 not right, but that was my recollection, Your Honour, concerning that

16 document.

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

18 MR. NICE: Your Honour, I think his answer overall might have

19 started off by saying he didn't remember signing that petition or being

20 the first person to sign it but eventually he wasn't challenging the

21 possibility that he had done. After all, his answers in the newspaper

22 interview, which he did not say were fictional or untrue, are quite clear

23 that he was acknowledging signing that document. It's unfortunate that

24 the only copy we've been able to obtain doesn't have the first signature

25 but starts at number 6, but in my submission there is plenty of connecting

1 material for there this petition to go in. And in any event, it is a

2 document of significance in the chronology of events because the existence

3 of that petition as part of the pressure that the witness acknowledged he

4 was applying to the Serb leadership is an important part of the

5 chronology.

6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Looking at the document as a whole and the

7 evidence as a whole in terms of the witness's testimony, we'll admit it.

8 MR. NICE: I'm grateful.

9 JUDGE KWON: Number.

10 THE REGISTRAR: 860.

11 MR. NICE: Then the interview with the witness on the 21st of

12 October of 1994 in Nin newspaper or magazine, may that be admitted.

13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. We'll admit that.

14 MR. NICE: Your Honour, the next document --

15 THE REGISTRAR: 861.

16 MR. NICE: The next document to which I turned was the English

17 translation of the document put in by the accused a couple of weeks ago,

18 which was the 1985 petition. I'm neutral as to whether the translation

19 which we provided goes in as part of his exhibit, which was entirely

20 untranslated, or if it should go in separately as our exhibit. It may be

21 that in case there is ever a question on some aspect of the translation

22 it's better it goes in as our exhibit, although it's duplication of the

23 petition.

24 JUDGE KWON: Excerpts from Sleepless Nights.

25 MR. NICE: Yes. Ms. Dicklich says that in fact the petition,

1 although looked at and referred to by the witness in the course of his

2 evidence being led wasn't produced, so that therefore the 1985 petition

3 should go in as a Prosecution Exhibit, please.

4 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. We'll admit that.

5 THE REGISTRAR: 862.

6 MR. NICE: The next document, I think, was the -- the next

7 physical document was the interview record with Miroslav Solevic, as I

8 explained to you, that's been looked at before and not admitted. I'm --

9 obviously I would prefer it to be an exhibit because it's a

10 contemporaneous or more contemporaneous record of interviews but I'm in

11 the Court's hands on that one.

12 MS. HIGGINS: Yes.

13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Ms. -- We will not admit this one.

14 MR. NICE: The video of Solevic talking about the stones we've

15 looked at before, and again I'm not going to press that in light of the

16 Court's earlier approach to that. The witness had an opportunity of

17 seeing it and commented on it, and he didn't deny that the things were

18 said, he gave an explanation for their being said but that's that.

19 JUDGE ROBINSON: We will not admit this one.

20 MR. NICE: There was a very short extract of a BBC programme. The

21 witness objected to its being selected. You'll remember it is the short

22 passage where he expresses his emotions at the death of somebody on a

23 battlefield 600 and more years ago. In fact I only played that short

24 extract for want of time. We have, if the accused or the witness wants to

25 see it, what we believe to be all the parts of that programme that have

1 him speaking. That apart, but I simply make that clear that's available

2 if anybody wants to see it, but my request is that the passage that was

3 played should be exhibited, that single clip.

4 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes --

5 MS. HIGGINS: Your Honour --

6 JUDGE ROBINSON: -- just only that part. Ms. Higgins.

7 MS. HIGGINS: Your Honour, on behalf of the assigned counsel we do

8 query the relevance of that and we note that it was only a small extract,

9 which is of concern.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: We hear you, Ms. Higgins, but we'll admit it.

11 MR. NICE: And I think that's all.

12 THE REGISTRAR: That will be 863.

13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] In order to admit that excerpt from

15 Mr. Bulatovic's interview, the BBC clip, I mean, I think it would only be

16 fair to play it for Mr. Bulatovic so he can hear what he says. He could

17 not hear what he said, and you cannot really rely on the English

18 translation in the subtitles, and it was incorrect many times. So this

19 was not the usual procedure that was applied. Actually, the witness did

20 not see the exhibit in a language that he understands.

21 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Bulatovic.

22 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I wish to say that if the BBC played

24 only that -- I don't know what they played, but if they played only that,

25 that is purely tendentious because I took them to -- so that they could

1 see a Serb village, and there is nothing left of that Serb village there.

2 Not a single stone was left there. The cemetery was razed. The houses

3 were razed. And they cut out all of that, apparently, and they only

4 showed what I said by the monument where the two rulers had been killed,

5 and it's only natural that any people will defend their own state.

6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, you can have it played in

7 re-examination if you wish.

8 Your re-examination, is there any?

9 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, Mr. Robinson, very briefly.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Please commence.

11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes. Thank you. I thought that you

12 wished to finish something else before I started.

13 Re-examined by Mr. Milosevic:

14 Q. [Interpretation] First of all, I would like to clarify one thing,

15 Mr. Bulatovic. What Mr. Nice said to you when you say -- he said that

16 when you say "Siptar" that you offend Albanians. Did you ever hear anyone

17 insulting Albanians when they called them Siptars?

18 A. I never heard of any such thing in all my life, and I can take an

19 oath on -- as far as that is concerned. I can swear with my son's life.

20 God gave me a son only when I was 59, and I can swear on that only son's

21 life that I never heard of that as being offensive.

22 Q. Do you know that in the public gallery they have different

23 channels in terms of how they can listen to different languages? So the

24 channel number 3 is called "Shqip." That is the Albanian language on that

25 list of languages.

1 A. I never knew that, Mr. President.

2 Q. I assume that somebody from this administration wrote that list of

3 languages out. If you are insulting them when you say "Siptars," that

4 should mean that they also offend Albanians when they say "Sip."

5 Do you find that logical, Mr. Bulatovic?

6 A. I find that quite logical. I tell you I was totally perplexed

7 when I heard that question today. I know a whole army of Albanian people

8 in Kosovo and no one was ever offended when I said to them that they were

9 Siptars.

10 Q. All right. We are going to deal with this petition very briefly

11 now, the petition from the book called Sleepless Nights, and that is the

12 petition that you had signed. That is the petition from 1985.

13 A. Yes.

14 Q. Mr. Nice quoted the second paragraph of that petition to you. It

15 wasn't very accurately translated, but I'm going to quote it yet again,

16 this second paragraph in the Serbian language, because the point was in

17 the use of the words "genocide" and "fascist." The second paragraph reads

18 as follows of this petition that you signed: "The situation in reality is

19 a terrible one. A part of Yugoslavia was occupied, part of our national

20 being, and genocide against us Serbs by Albanian fascism in Kosovo has

21 received the right to -- to exist."

22 A. Yes.

23 Q. That's the sentence, and I'll go on. Before I put a question to

24 you now in relation to what Mr. Nice said, he said that you were a

25 nationalist because you mentioned genocide, I'm going to read out a

1 quotation to you.

2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, I have already quoted

3 that text. That is the text of Ivan Kristan, a Slovenian professor who

4 testified here, and this text comes from his article published in the

5 periodical called Socialism in 1981, that is to say four years before this

6 petition was sent.

7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

8 Q. And in that article, Mr. Kristan says -- Please listen to this,

9 Mr. Bulatovic, very carefully.

10 THE INTERPRETER: Could the speaker please slow down. The

11 interpreters do not have the text.

12 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, the interpreters do not have the

13 text and they're asking you to slow down.

14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right, Mr. Robinson. I'm going

15 to read it very slowly and it's a very brief quotation anyway.

16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

17 Q. "The irredentist aspirations of the Albanian nationalists in

18 Kosovo are not a recent development. Actually, they appear as the

19 extension of various quisling and fascist organisations that fought during

20 the war against the National Liberation Movement of the Yugoslav peoples,"

21 and so on and so forth.

22 So this would be my question, Mr. Bulatovic: Before you even

23 wrote this petition, was it not generally known that events in Kosovo and

24 Metohija were aimed at chauvinism, Albanian separatism, and the expulsion

25 of Serbs, that they were an extension of this Balist fascist movement

1 during the Second World War, they convey back to the times of Hitler and

2 Mussolini?

3 MR. NICE: [Previous translation continues]... leading or

4 tendentiously extended question and I'm not sure that any answer to it is

5 going to assist the Chamber very much. It's really the accused's

6 argument.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, the question is leading. You'll

8 have to reformulate it.

9 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

10 Q. All right. Mr. Bulatovic, you who wrote this petition, were you

11 the first to mention Balists and fascists carrying out genocide in Kosovo

12 and Metohija or was this mentioned very extensively?

13 A. A countless number of times in different newspapers this was

14 mentioned, and I know about it too. The first day when I testified here,

15 Mr. Robinson, I pointed out that during the war, rather towards the end of

16 the Second World War, Fadil Hoxha transferred all of them -- sorry, not

17 all of them. They called themselves Balists. They were fascists. He

18 managed to get some of them to join the partisan movements, and then they

19 came to join the partisan communist movements in Drenica. That is how

20 they operated and that is how Zenel Hajdini detachment was established and

21 Fadil Hoxha was its commander.

22 This detachment had only three Serbs; Darlic [phoen], Lakicovic

23 [phoen] and Mihailo Radulovic Kacak. All three of them had Albanian

24 names. Had they known who these three men were, they would have killed

25 all of them. That is why Vuko Popovic, a commander of a partisan

1 detachment in Drenica was killed. When they realised that the commander

2 was a Serb at the first meeting of their staff, they killed him. So they

3 simply changed sides and they came to join the Communist Party after

4 having been fascists. They functioned after the Second World War as they

5 did, but people are the way they are, and they could not have assumed all

6 of these things. And it was only in the 1970s that we realised where this

7 worm came from, as it were, and no one would -- no one would ever have

8 thought of them joining the ranks of terrorists. No one could realise

9 that that would happen.

10 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice quoted a few paragraphs of this petition

11 to you, though incompletely. So I will go through these paragraphs in

12 order to see whether this is some kind of a Serbian nationalist claim.

13 Paragraph 1 reads as follows: "They should put on the agenda

14 certain claims." Obviously you are addressing the two parliaments. You

15 want the parliaments to deal with them.

16 A. That was the objective of the petition. We expected them to have

17 extraordinary sessions, special sessions of the Assembly devoted to that

18 and that they would discuss the matters raised in the petition.

19 Q. So in this petition you ask for the parliaments to place these

20 questions on their agendas.

21 A. Yes.

22 Q. The first demand, number one, says here: "To carry out our basic

23 human rights on the basis of the SFRY constitution and international

24 conventions and which have absolutely been denied us." Is that the first

25 demand that you had?

1 A. Yes, that's the first demand in its entirety. We did not ask for

2 any more rights than other people but we did not agree to lesser rights

3 either and we did not want anybody to terrorise us or persecute us.

4 Q. All right, Mr. Bulatovic. Mr. Nice says that you asked for

5 removals, et cetera, et cetera, and that is paragraph 3: "To immediately

6 remove from the authorities of the province and the republic and to hold

7 accountable Greater Albanian chauvinists who are in charge of the

8 rebellion in Kosovo and who want to make it possible for Greater Albanian

9 chauvinists to take over Yugoslavia. We ask for them to be held

10 responsible, and also cadres of Serb ethnicity who are serving this

11 ideology."

12 So is that the point, to make it impossible for Greater Albanian

13 separatists to function, regardless of whether this has to do with

14 commission or non-commission on the part of Albanians or Serbs?

15 A. They should be held responsible before the authorities, and all of

16 those who tacitly supported all of this against the Serbian people. Like

17 Fadil Hoxha. He was the main person in charge of this ideology that was

18 carried through in Kosovo and Metohija. Perhaps it's shameful that I'm

19 talking about a dead man this way, so it wouldn't be right to speak of a

20 dead person in this way.

21 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice said that you advocated the expulsion of

22 Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija. Paragraph 5 reads as follows. I'm

23 going to read it: "That no hospitality should be offered to emigres from

24 Albania who settled as of the 6th of April 1941 to the present day,

25 regardless of whether they came to settle under Mussolini's programme or

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and

13 English transcripts.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

1 later on according to Enver Hoxha's programme."

2 Mr. Bulatovic, are you asking that the Albanians be expelled from

3 Kosovo or are you asking that hospitality be withheld to immigrants from

4 Albanian?

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Nice.

6 MR. NICE: Before that question is answered, what was said in

7 relation to the expulsion of Kosovo Albanians was not spoken of in respect

8 of the period 1985 but of course in respect of much later. I observe, I

9 don't object to the questions being asked, but simply for the sake of the

10 Court's record, that lack of time meant I certainly didn't address every

11 issue in this petition which was first raised in the course of

12 examination-in-chief and dealt with very briefly, and I certainly didn't

13 deal one way or another with the propositions advanced by Enver Hoxha and

14 it certainly shouldn't be interpreted as our accepting what is said here

15 about Enver Hoxha. I make no points beyond that.

16 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Thank you.

17 Proceed, Mr. Milosevic.

18 Answer the question, Mr. Bulatovic.

19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] What we demanded was this: That

20 from -- that the Albanian emigrants be sent back from Kosovo and Metohija

21 who came in to settle there, and the main violence came from them. The

22 Albanians who were autochthonous and lived there for three centuries and

23 were born there, they wanted to stir them up and work for their Albanian

24 separatist positions. So we know where the harm was coming from. We knew

25 where the rotten apple had come from and we wanted to get rid of the

1 rotten apple so that the people who had lived there forever could continue

2 to live in peace.

3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

4 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, the point of the quotation I read out, would it be

5 this: To deny hospitality to those who came in pursuant to Mussolini and

6 Enver Hoxha's programmes; is that right? Nobody else, it didn't refer to

7 anybody else.

8 A. No, nobody else, that's quite clear.

9 Q. Now, since Mr. Nice brought this up a moment ago and said that you

10 later on demanded the colonisation, although that word was never used, I'm

11 going to quote point 7, what you in fact demanded. That is all listed in

12 point 7: "We demand that under the supervision of the republican and

13 federal authorities without fail we see the return of expelled Serb

14 families," that that be enabled.

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. So does this refer to the return of the Serb families who were

17 expelled from Kosovo during the terror waged by the Albanian separatists,

18 regardless of whether it took place during Mussolini after World War II

19 but it referred to people who were expelled from Kosovo and Metohija?

20 A. Mr. President, Mr. Robinson and Your Honours the Judges in the

21 Trial Chamber, what we demanded was that all expulsed Serbs be allowed to

22 return, all the Serbs who had to leave the area as a result of Albanian

23 and Balist terrorists, and after World War II there was terror and the

24 terrorists expelled them. They were working under cover and worked

25 individually to begin with. So we did not demand any people who were

1 living there as peacefully, autochthonous people who were born there, we

2 had no problems with those people. But others were given support by the

3 fascists, the Balists, they gained support, and that was where the problem

4 came from and that's what ultimately led to the war as well.

5 Had the petition been placed on the agenda perhaps a lot of what

6 subsequently happened might have been avoided and everybody would have

7 been satisfied but nobody batted an eye to this petition. We could have

8 written a hundred petitions, whereas nobody prevented Albanians, if they

9 had been damaged in any way or disadvantaged, to write their own petition

10 and address it to the same leadership and then we would see whether they

11 would have taken any steps if they had done that, but they didn't do

12 that. They sought assistance from forces outside the country. We, on the

13 other hand, were aboveboard and asked assistance for the powers that be in

14 the country.

15 Q. Very well. Now, in your petition do you see anything there -- can

16 you quote any passage there, any of your demands which would be

17 discriminatory towards the Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija?

18 A. Certainly not. There's none of that there. There's nothing like

19 that there. They attacked me and criticised me for the speech I held in

20 Studenica on the 18th of May 1986, for example, to mark the celebrations

21 of 800 years of Studenica itself, and Mr. Azem Vllasi, the then-president

22 of the provincial committee of the League of Communists of Kosovo at the

23 time asked the state security service to send them the contents of the

24 speech that was delivered by Kosta Bulatovic in Studenica. He thought

25 that I might have said something against the Albanian people. And when he

1 received the text of my speech, and I have it in my attache case if you

2 want me to read it out before the Trial Chamber for the purpose of truth

3 so that we can complete all this -- complete this discussion, when he read

4 the text of the speech he just stood there and said, well, I really have

5 nothing to say, because he was told by his associates something else and

6 he said I have no criticisms to make of the speech. That's what Azem

7 himself said, and you can ask him whether he had any criticisms of my

8 speech delivered at the Studenica monastery at the celebrations there.

9 Q. Very well. Now, Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice said, and I made a note

10 of that, in asking you a question or making a comment of his own, I don't

11 remember that detail now, anyway he said that in 1995 I started attacking

12 the Kosovo Albanians in response to your petition and the demands you laid

13 down. And similarly, he said that there were individual violence, that

14 there was no organised violence.

15 Now, do you know anything about the organising of an illegal

16 Albanian SUP in Kosovo and Metohija? Do you know anything about that?

17 A. Well, I don't meddle with intelligence services. I don't

18 associate with them.

19 Q. I'm not talking about intelligence services, I'm talking about

20 public information.

21 A. Well, publicly speaking, we saw that there were things that were

22 happening that had been organised. We even saw footage from Cicavica and

23 a teacher there and what happened to him, but I think that the whole of

24 Europe saw that footage when this person made a statement, he was armed

25 and wearing a uniform, and we couldn't believe that that had happened. We

1 thought that it was individuals who were doing things like that, just as

2 Mr. Nice has been saying. But after that television footage, we became

3 aware that there was a dangerous organisation afoot and that radical

4 measures were unavoidable and that ultimately this would lead to war in

5 Kosovo and Metohija because it was their aim to bring about a war with the

6 help of people from outside, and that is what came to pass. Now, I'm a

7 man of the people. I'm not a politician. But I was part of the politics

8 that went on there and of course we weren't satisfied with the solutions

9 and with the situation. We thought that if we went to our leadership,

10 they would take steps to better our lot.

11 JUDGE ROBINSON: We want shorter answers.

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. Now, gentlemen, I'd like

13 to draw your attention to the fact that during the testimony of Judge

14 Danica Marinkovic, an exhibit contained in tab 4 during her testimony

15 contained an indictment against members of the illegal SUP in Kosovo and

16 Metohija, and among other things, I have it here once again, the number is

17 KT, that is the Prosecution number, 101/94 is the number of that document

18 I'm referring to. It is a criminal report dated 1994 in the Prosecution,

19 and it could not have been the product of something that took place, as

20 Mr. Nice said, in 1995 because it was a 1994 document. So if something

21 precedes a date cannot be the result and consequence of something that

22 happened if it happened before the event itself. And this has been

23 tendered into evidence and admitted into evidence.

24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

25 Q. I ask you, Mr. Bulatovic, that since this is a public trial, do

1 you happen to remember that a large number of members belonging to the

2 illegal SUP were uncovered and they were working to create armed

3 formations in order to cut Kosovo and Metohija off from the rest of the

4 country?

5 A. Yes.

6 Q. Thank you, that's my question.

7 A. That was public. Nothing was clandestine there.

8 Q. I'm not saying that it was clandestine. All the trials were

9 public and open.

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] You have the document in English, it

11 has been translated, and you'll be able to find it, gentlemen, in tab 4.

12 It is within Judge Danica Marinkovic's testimony and the documents

13 produced there.

14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

15 Q. Now, Mr. Nice said that I met your demands. Now, I'm asking you

16 this: Since he said that I met your demands and that the consequence of

17 that was that many Albanians were killed and expelled -- that's what

18 Mr. Nice said, words to that effect. Now, tell me this: Were your

19 demands to kill any Albanians?

20 A. Far from it. I said in my statement, and I address myself to

21 Mr. Robinson, I said that we did not ask anything, any reprisals against

22 anybody because evil begets evil and we would have been doing evil to

23 ourselves. So we never opted for that road.

24 Q. Very well, Mr. Bulatovic, so your demands were not that Albanians

25 should be killed. Now, were your demands that the Albanians should be

1 expelled?

2 A. No, we didn't have that demand either.

3 Q. So you didn't want them to be expelled or killed, did you?

4 A. No, never.

5 Q. Thank you, Mr. Bulatovic.

6 THE INTERPRETER: Could the speakers kindly be asked to slow down,

7 thank you, and make pauses between question and answer.

8 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, did you hear that from the

9 interpreters? And Mr. Bulatovic. You have to observe a pause between

10 question and answer in the interests of the interpretation.

11 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

12 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice said that there was no organised violence.

13 Now we can see that the illegal MUP was organised and had been organised.

14 Now, what else was organised? Did they organise dismissal or removal from

15 people leaving their jobs to form separatist movements?

16 A. Yes. There were -- that did happen en masse and we were

17 astonished to see this process taking place. We wondered who was

18 supporting it and how this came about and what was happening in our

19 country. Without any reason at all, people were leaving schools, they

20 were leaving their jobs. At the various institutions very few people

21 remained. People were leaving the municipality. There was nobody to

22 replace them in their work posts. Quite simply, we were taken aback.

23 What was all that about? What was happening? And that was the truth of

24 it.

25 Q. Very well. Now, since throughout that time you lived in Kosovo

1 yourself, you were there, were you able to notice any measures of

2 discrimination towards Albanians on the part of the Serb authorities or

3 from the Serbs themselves?

4 A. Mr. President and Mr. Robinson, the Albanians in Kosovo and

5 Metohija enjoyed beneficial rights and positions everywhere. I remember

6 when I was a young man Rade Jekenovic [phoen], for example, somebody from

7 my village, was president of the party and he assigned -- he gave me an

8 assignment. There was an officer from Belgrade, his name was Popovic, and

9 he brought a football and told us to go to an Albanian village and play

10 football together with their children so that they would socialise with us

11 and be friends with us and we wanted to demonstrate this by playing

12 football with them. It was difficult to get them to go to school at all

13 and study, and that's the truth of it. Now it turns out that we exercised

14 terror over them. It was quite two reverse opinions, two opposite

15 opinions.

16 Q. Very well. Mr. Nice asked you why you reacted emotionally to the

17 death of the Turkish Tzar Murat. Now, I didn't understand the question

18 fully but he did show you some sort of footage. So might we have that

19 same footage shown that we can all see your reactions to the death of the

20 Turkish Tzar whose name was Murat and who died almost 620 years ago.

21 A. Two rulers died on that occasion. The Serb Tzar or, rather,

22 Prince Lazar, and the Turkish Tzar Murat. They were both killed. And

23 I've never seen this.

24 [Videotape played]

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. You are quoting folklore there. It is an epic poem that you are

2 in fact quoting.

3 A. Yes, by Radovan Becirevic, who wrote the famous epic poem The

4 Battle of Kosovo Polje. So I quoted from his epic poem to celebrate this

5 event, and shame be on the journalist from Great Britain for having

6 presented this in this way.

7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Was the journalist made aware that you were

8 quoting from this epic poem?

9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Well, I just said it was a poet who

10 wrote that epic poem, and I was quoting the verses. In the Serbian

11 language, of course.

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. In Serbian we can see that it is a poem because we have rhymes

14 there, whereas the journalist was -- well, yes. You were reciting the

15 epic poem. He was taken to the spot where this took place and then you

16 were in fact reciting the poem, were you not?

17 A. Yes.

18 Q. Right. We have dealt with that exhibit. You can introduce it

19 into evidence as much as you like, but this just shows the nature of the

20 exhibits that you have before you.

21 A. Yes. They're quite unimportant.

22 Q. Well, I don't think they're unimportant. I think they're

23 important because they were used tendentiously.

24 A. Ah, yes, you're right there.

25 MR. NICE: Your Honour, it may be that the whole object ought to

1 be seen by the accused or others in order to be seen whether this is used

2 tendentiously or simply to reflect what this witness in that programme was

3 seeking to do.

4 My position, as always, is that I'm so pressed for time I simply

5 can't take extended periods of time with material like this. It's

6 available if they want to see it.

7 JUDGE BONOMY: Mr. Nice, I'm beginning to be disturbed by the

8 constant references to the pressure of time. We have been at pains, and

9 obviously are not succeeding in satisfying everyone, but at pains to try

10 to give both parties equivalent time to present their cases, and that is

11 because everyone understands the difficulty of dealing with a trial of

12 this magnitude within a reasonable time, and it's for the parties to

13 select what they present.

14 Now, if you present a snippet of a film and then discover that

15 there's an answer to the point, then that's the end of it, surely. And it

16 is very disturbing then to hear a complaint that that's done simply for

17 lack of time. It's a matter of preparation and presentation of what will

18 be helpful to us, hopefully, within the time that has been fairly

19 allotted.

20 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please, Mr. Nice.

21 MR. NICE: It's not a complaint, simply a recognition of the

22 pressures that are on us. In an example like this, it's not a question of

23 saying, so far as I'm concerned, that there's an answer to the point we

24 made. I'm simply making the point in answer to the accused's assertion

25 that something has been taken out of context, that it's all available if

1 he wishes to see it.

2 I have always to decide how many of the issues that are available

3 can be explored in part or fully, and those are the difficulties under

4 which I labour. But it's certainly not a complaint, Your Honour, I'm just

5 simply identifying the realities. If I may say so, taking for example

6 this witness, there are many issues I haven't been able to explore with

7 them that I would like to have done. I've only identified one, which was

8 the Enver Hoxha point, for fear of there being an inference that by not

9 dealing with it I waived any objections to the point raised by the

10 witness, and I didn't seek to do any more than that. Again, this is not

11 in any sense a complaint, it's simply identifying from time to time the

12 problems and the possible solutions to them. But Your Honour, that's all

13 I have to say on it.

14 As to this particular clip, which is indeed very short, I don't

15 press any solution, I simply make the point that it is available if

16 anybody wanted to see it.

17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you, Mr. Nice. I don't think the case will

18 stand or fall on the basis of this clip and I certainly don't wish to hear

19 any more of it.

20 Mr. Milosevic.

21 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

22 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice claimed that I had sent some sort of

23 executive secretary from the Central Committee to tell you what you ought

24 to say at the meeting.

25 A. He gave the name.

1 Q. Yes, Mica Jakovljevic was the name.

2 A. I don't know that man.

3 Q. Very well. Regardless of whether you know him or not it's not

4 important at all.

5 Under the circumstances in which you lived, in the protests that

6 you expressed, was there anyone there who could have come from Belgrade --

7 was it possible for anyone to come from Belgrade and tell you what you

8 ought to say?

9 A. Well, had we heard that, we wouldn't have been in the situation

10 that we were in. We were simply lost people. We were wondering what to

11 do. We were sending petitions. Nobody paid attention to them. Protest

12 rallies were held wherever violence had been committed. For example, in

13 Prekale we held a protest rally and in that protest rally people spoke

14 out. I wasn't there in the village but that is the only village in the

15 world where under the pressure of Albanian fascists and nationalists they

16 put a board in the village where they wrote out names. Out of 22 Serb

17 houses, all were put on sale. The entire village was put on sale. I

18 don't think that there's another case like that in the world.

19 There was, for example, another photograph with a woman bearing a

20 weapon with two children following her having pitchforks and then two

21 girls carrying buckets for water. So this gives you an impression of what

22 kind of people lived there. This is simply something that defies

23 explanation. I would need at least two years to tell you about all of the

24 events, and we would need people to go to the site, to the locations there

25 and talk to the people who lived there in order to uncover the truth.

1 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice said something about the rally in Kosovo

2 Polje and the time when the incident broke out between the police and the

3 citizens and said that this had been planned, the violence had been

4 planned. Do you know anything about that? Do you know about anyone

5 planning any violence?

6 A. I can guarantee you here before this Chamber, you can put me on

7 trial if anybody can substantiate and prove this. As for the jokes,

8 that's another matter. But seriously looking, that was impossible. I

9 lived in Kosovo Polje. How could something happen there without me

10 knowing about that, without other people knowing about that? This was a

11 joke, a pure joke and nothing more than a joke.

12 Q. Very well, Mr. Bulatovic. Mr. Nice said that 200 people had

13 pistols, that they were armed. First of all, tell us, did anybody fire

14 during that rally?

15 A. No.

16 Q. Did anybody see or hear anybody having a pistol?

17 A. No. That is completely untrue. You have to realise something:

18 Had there been a single person with a weapon there, and police followed

19 and monitored everything closely, God knows what would have happened to

20 that person who was armed. There was undoubtedly no weapons there. I

21 told those people --

22 JUDGE ROBINSON: The witness can't really say whether anybody saw

23 or heard anybody having a pistol, but continue.

24 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

25 Q. Is it beyond dispute that there was no use of weapons there?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12 Blank page inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French and

13 English transcripts.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

1 A. Absolutely beyond dispute. This is a pure fabrication.

2 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, do you remember that in the papers a report of the

3 commission of the federal SUP was published about how the police used

4 force against citizens without justification. Do you remember that?

5 A. Yes.

6 Q. Mr. Bulatovic, Mr. Nice asked you what right the Kosovo Serbs had

7 to topple the government in Vojvodina and Montenegro. When I -- did you -

8 and when I say you I don't mean just you personally, I mean other Kosovo

9 Serbs as well - did you ever go to topple the government in Montenegro?

10 A. God forbid.

11 Q. All right, Mr. Bulatovic. You didn't. Did you go to Montenegro

12 and Vojvodina seeking help?

13 A. Yes.

14 Q. In examination-in-chief when we discussed your activities, did we

15 have any questions regarding your visits to the leadership of Montenegro

16 where you sought help?

17 A. Yes. And we gave brief replies then to those questions. I can

18 repeat it again before the Trial Chamber. There were eight of us who went

19 to the Central Committee of Montenegro. We were supposed to meet with

20 Dobroslav Culafic, who was the president of the Central Committee of

21 Montenegro. Instead of him, the then-secretary of the Central Committee,

22 Vuksanovic, met with us, as did member of the Central Committee Angl

23 Kokovacovic [phoen]. The meeting lasted some two hours. We informed them

24 about everything that was being done against our people in Kosovo and

25 Metohija, and we asked him, can you help us in any way? Can you help us