"AMNESIA INC."
Witness Six Agron Berisha
Testimony starts on page 958
Slobo starts to cross examine him on the same day, page 991, and finishes the following day
Watson: Who's next for the Slobo chopping board ?
Holmes: Well, this guy is a little different in that he claims he really did see the Serbs murder a couple of people.
Watson: I don't believe it. At last, someone with some claims that have got something to do with war crimes
Holmes: I wouldn't get too excited, my fine friend. It's the same schtick basically. The witness changes his story, claims amnesia, Slobo pummels him, La di da .
Watson: La di da indeed. Some background dear boy ?
Holmes: Certainly dear doc. The guy was a doctor - he studied in both Pristina and Belgrade - then returned to Kosovo, to his home town, to work. This guy was better educated than the previous bunch, yet, for the prosecution, this turned out to be a terrible witness. His life prior to NATO's bombing was normal, he worked as a doctor in Kosovo and is from Suva Reka.
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( 958 )
Witness: Suva Reka is a little town with about 15.000 to 20.000 inhabitants in the middle, the southern part of Kosovo, not far from the town of Prizren. It has about 50 villages around it, with 60.000 inhabitants in the region.
Question: What was the ethnical composition of Suva Reka before March 1999?
Witness: Before the war, in Suva Reka , there was the following ethnicity, approximately: Ninety-five per cent of the population was Albanian, and the other portion was mostly Serbs, and a few Montenegrins and Roma.
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Watson: So this guy lives in the same area as the previous three witnesses, near Prizren .
Holmes: Yup. Imagine Kosovo and Metohija like a square balanced on one of it's corners. Well, Prizren is toward the southern - bottom - point, Pec is near the western point, Mitrovicia is towards the northern point, Gnjilane to the eastern point of the tilted square while Pristina is in the north east, midway between Gnjilane and Mitrovicia. Advanced geography class over. There' ll be a test next week.
Watson: Thanx a million.
Holmes: After graduating he found the situation in his hometown was tense
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( 960 )
Witness: I graduated at the end of June of 1998 and returned immediately to Suva Reka. The situation in Suva Reka was very difficult, very -- a lot of tension. In the streets of Suva Reka , there were very few people. Everyone was afraid. Most of the stores were not open, or if they opened, they only opened for a few hours in the morning, when the people, mostly women and children, left their houses to do their basic shopping, to get basic foodstuffs.
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Watson: Why?
Holmes: Well, he said it was because of the police and Army
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( 960 )
Witness:I think the tension in the population came from -- it was a result of the fear that the people had of the police and the army, the Serbian police and army.
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Watson: What were the army doing? Cutting up babies? Mass executions? Torture? All night bingo sessions?
Holmes: Nope. They wore uniforms and walked in the streets. Some even had the nerve to ride round in buses and trucks
Watson: Round about town in buses. The brutes. ( breaks down and lies on the floor in tears )(
( 960 )
Witness: I saw the soldiers of the Yugoslav armies, which were wandering around with automatic rifles........ The soldiers that I saw had mostly military uniforms, but they were mostly in vehicles -- in green uniforms. They were mostly in vehicles. They didn't walk around on foot in Suva Reka. They usually drove through in buses -- in military vehicles, buses, various types of vehicles, trucks.
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Watson: Oh Was that it
Holmes: Now, the witness spoke of some "really very brutal violence"
Watson: I can't bear to listen........( hides under couch and closes eyes )
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( 962 )
Witness: I think the reason for the fear in the population at the time was the violence, the police violence which was being exercised on the Albanian population from the police, from the Serb police, that is.
Question: Can you give the Court examples of this violence?
Witness: Yes, I can give you a couple of examples. This violence was really very brutal. The day I returned from Belgrade, when I graduated there, the day after that, we were mistreated walking down the street. We were -- one where we were coming by bus from the town of Shtime, which is about 30 kilometres away from Suhareke, and before we got out of the town of Shtime, we were stopped. There were seven or eight policemen who stopped our bus and got us all out of the bus and beat us up, all of us.
Question: Did you -- sorry, Mr. Berisha. Did you witness, apart from that beating that happened to you, did you witness anybody else being mistreated?
Witness: Yes. Yes. All of us. They gave us all a blow. Two young boys who were coming from different areas of Serbia, I don't know exactly where they were coming from, but they had their private affairs to tend to. They were young guys........There was really no reason, no pretext, no reason at all for the beating. They checked us, and they didn't find anything on us. We were civilians, travellers, simply. But they beat us all up.
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Watson: He was given "a blow"? Ooh er missus. That's all rather risque
Holmes: Now, now, you naughty man child.
Watson: So he claimed the Yugo security forces "gave him A blow". A blow. One hit. One. Not two. One.
Holmes: Yup, a cuff round the ears. Singular, nor plural.
Watson: Bit like a Maths teacher really. Anything else?
Holmes: Well, here we have to say a happy "Hello" to your friend, our friend and the ICTY's friend, namely "the bloke in the bar":
Watson: HE'S BACK!
Holmes: Yes, he's back!
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( 963 )
Question: And in your town, do you remember any incident that happened where police or soldiers mistreated the population at that time?
Witness: Yes. It was really a problem to go out on the street at the time, on foot or by car. The son of my uncle, Fatoni [phoen], he had a car, a good car, a BMW, and he was stopped by the police in the centre of Suva Reka . And they said, "This is not a type of car you should be driving. This is a type of car we should be driving." The car was okay.It was in order. It had been gone through customs, it was in a good state, and the boy had all the documents he needed. He had his driver's licence and the papers for the car.........But he was taken to the police station. The car was confiscated for a few days. He was beaten up and he was sent home.
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Watson: Yes, he's certainly back. Some more worthless hearsay. Ah well. How about the KLA?
Holmes: Well, like with the previous witnesses, the KLA were not in Kosovo. Maybe they were vacationing in Outer Mongolia or perhaps selling ice to the Alaskans but they were not in his town. Why no siree.
Holmes: Well, like with the previous witnesses, the KLA were not in Kosovo. Maybe they were vacationing in Outer Mongolia or perhaps selling ice to the Alaskans but they were not in his town. Why no siree.
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( 964 )
Question: Mr. Berisha, was the KLA in your town at that time?
Witness: I didn't see any UCK, KLA members in and around Suhareke, or their activities.
Question: Were you or your family associated to the KLA?
Witness: No.
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The police, he claimed, used his house as target practice
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( 964 )
Question: Do you remember hearing or seeing shooting at that time?
Witness: Yes, there was shooting. They were rare when I went into the town of Suva Reka, but there was shooting from time to time. At my house, which is situated near the police station, or was at the time situated near the police, I heard shooting, which I think came from the police station. They shot towards my house, towards the house of Ahmet Berisha, two times, on two evenings. On two separate evenings, there was shooting.
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Though he was forced to admit that none were hurt ( 964 )
And in fact was forced to admit he didn't actually see who was doing the shooting
And in fact was forced to admit he didn't actually see who was doing the shooting
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( 965 )
Question:Did you see policemen or did you see anybody shooting? Did you see who was shooting?
Witness: No, I didn't. It was in the late afternoon.
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And
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( 1019 )
Witness: I didn't say that they fired at my home, someone fired at my home.
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When asked by Slobo about some more mystery police naughtiness we get a couple of chuckles
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( 1020 )
Witness: I said that in the summer of 1998, someone fired at Ahmet Berisha in his home. The bullet entered his window and hit the back part of his room, the back wall of his room........ I went on the next day and saw with my own eyes the hole from where the bullet entered and from where it left. I saw the trajectory of the bullet, which showed that it came from the police station in Suhareke.
Slobo: And how far is the Suva Reka police station?
Witness: About 100 metres.
Slobo: So that means that from every -- this bullet could have been shot from any point within the 100-metre diameter around it. Is it so or not, since you obviously very professionally concluded that this was the fact, this was the case?
Slobo:Did you see a policeman shoot at the house of your relative?
Witness: No, I didn't. It was evening.
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Some more "some bloke in the pub told me" testimony
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( 1022 )
Slobo: Well, let me put this question in general terms. Was anybody shot at in those days prior to the aggression? Was anybody shot at? Was anybody hit by a bullet in Suva Reka, a bullet shot by the police?
Witness: Yes. I remember well an event which occurred in Suva Reka. It was the summer of 1998. That day, about ten persons were killed in the centre of Suva Reka. First a worker, a Serbian worker, was killed, who worked in a state-owned shop in the centre of Suhareke. Nobody knew who killed him. I don't know his name, but I know that he was from Sopi village. Afterwards, the police killed eight, up to nine civilians in the streets and houses of that part of the neighbourhood in Suva Reka. I remember this event.
Slobo:So you saw it? You saw this event?
Witness: No.
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He claimed he heard Mr Naughty - AKA Mr Seselj - say nauthty things on the TV: or maybe on the radio: or maybe somewhere else: he can't be sure you see.
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( 965 )
Witness: Yes, I do. I remember -- I'm not sure whether I read it or heard it on television -- I heard that Vojislav Seselj, the chairman of the Radical Serb Party, said that we will drive all Albanians behind the Mountains of the Damned. For Your Honours, for your information, your distinguished Honours, Albania lies behind these Mountains of the Damned. Then he mentioned some words about a corridor that Albanians should go through, the way they should be driven out by the then-chairman of Macedonia, Gligorov.
Question: This was on the TV, or do you remember where have you seen that?
Witness: I can't be precise where I heard it, whether I saw it on television or I had read it. I'm not sure.
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Watson: He's all a-flustered the wee little cherub.
Holmes: He certainly does seem to have ants in his pants. Later we get
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Slobo: When asked whether you heard about some propaganda aimed against Kosovo Albanians, yesterday, as far as I can remember, you replied by saying that you had heard Vojislav Seselj saying -- saying the following, "We will expel all Albanians across the Prokletije mountains." Do you know where Seselj stated this?
Witness: No, I don't know. I said yesterday I heard -- I don't remember whether I heard it on television or read it on newspaper or heard it from someone. I can't be sure.
Slobo:Are you sure that he was speaking about the Albanians, or was he speaking about the KLA terrorists, if he said that at all?
Witness:I said I'm not sure.
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Watson: Positively embarrassing. So he doesn't know where/ how he heard this, neither is he sure if it was about the Al Qaeda linked KLA. Less than worthless
Holmes: He certainly is a mite confused witness and he was also forced to admit
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( 1023 )
Slobo: Do you remember that any functionary, representative of the government, or any official person of Serbia or Yugoslavia said something against the Albanians?
Witness: I do not remember anybody having said such a thing
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He was big on the conspiracy nonsense too.
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( 1024 )
Slobo: You said that the president of Macedonia, Gligorov, spoke about the route the Albanians should be expelled by. I did not understand the point of that explanation, so I'm asking you the following now: Are you saying that the leadership of Serbia, or rather, of Yugoslavia, made an agreement about this with Gligorov, the president of Macedonia? Is that what you're saying?
Witness: Yes, that's what I meant. And also the statement of Gligorov, I don't know whether I heard it on television or I heard it from somebody or I read it in a newspaper, mentioning a corridor by which -- the Albanians should go through a corridor through Macedonia to be directed towards Albania.
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Watson: Conspiracy theorists of the world unite under that ICTY banner
Holmes: Anyway, not to worry for paradise is just round the corner in the guise of the KVM
Watson: Hurrah!
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( 967 )
Witness: After the agreement, yes, the agreement signed between Holbrooke and the Yugoslav negotiator. KVM mission came to Suva Reka too, and they settled in the house of my neighbour, most of them, the main -- the staff was there, actually, for the region of Suva Reka........ I may say that after the arrival, the situation changed radically. It became calmer, more relaxed. People began to go out of their homes more freely in the streets, began to return to their jobs.Most of the shops reopened. Generally life resumed its -- a more relaxed pace, I would say.
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Holmes: But Evil is always just round the corner for Mr Slobo made the KVM leave. Well, they left on their own accord actually, but it's always good to blame Mr Slobo
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( 967 )
Witness: As far as I remember, they stayed there for about six or seven months, the KVM, and then they withdrew suddenly sometime -- a week before the NATO airstrikes began against the former Yugoslavia. After the withdrawal, the situation became grave again. It became worse than it was prior to the arrival, prior to the summer of 1998........That week, I have seen military and police, Serb military and police forces, who were patrolling the main streets. I didn't know where they were heading, what they were doing there.
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On March 24th NATO started their "Humanitarian Bombing Campaign" ( Patent pending ). This got the witness all excited.
Scully: He had ants in his pants?
Mulder: Yup
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( 967 )
Question: Why do you say you were excited?
Witness: Because I heard, as I said earlier, from the words of Seselj, that there was a plan prepared deliberately for us, and we were scared for our lives, because we were just simply civilians shut in our own homes.
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Watson: Oh THAT broadcast. The one our heroic witness has just talked about but can't remember a thing about and which neither NATO nor the ICTY have bothered to broadcast to use as a justification for their actions?
Holmes: Yup. One and the same doc. He said the Serb authorities would search him when he went for work ( 967 ) but that's about it really. He claimed that from the 24th to the 27th he didn't hear a single NATO airstrike.
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( 968 )
Witness: I was in Suva Reka up to the 27th of March, 1999, at 6.00 in the afternoon. Up to that moment, I did not hear of any bombs being dropped from NATO planes there.
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Watson: What's so strange about that?
Holmes: Well, it's a tad surprising as NATO themselves spoke of bombing the area. Ah well, maybe the bombs had silencers on them. In fact even the prosecution and this witness talk of NATO bombing the area
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Question: Mr. Berisha, before the break, you finished your testimony by saying that, unfortunately, the next day you saw that the second came true, the fear came true. So I will ask you some questions right now about what happened on the 25th of March and the day after the NATO bombing. Mr. Berisha, the next day you were at home; is that correct?
Witness: Yes.
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Watson: Snigger. So NATO didn't bomb the area but they did bomb the area. It's like a parallel universe, something from the "Outer Limits"
Holmes: Yup, don't adjust your TV set.
Watson: Okay I won't
Holmes: Arf......... ( gazes fondly into the distance and reminisces about the goold ole' days of ropey, cheapy, cheezy Saturday night Sci Fi crap ) ........ Anyway back at the ranch
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( 971 )
Witness:That day, in the morning, I was woken up early in the morning, at 5.30, by my mother, who was very scared, because she had seen a large group of policemen going from the police station to the Reshtani village of our municipality........ It was my mother who saw the policemen earlier, because I was sleeping. And she came, scared, and woke me up from my sleep. And then I saw the situation from the window and saw with my own eyes a large number of policemen, about 70 policemen, who were walking on this road, from this part, in this direction.
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Watson: So his mum got her knickers in a twist because some policemen.
Holmes: And he added that "Each of them was carrying an automatic rifle." ( page 973 )
Watson: My! Security forces with guns. Amazing!
Holmes: Anyway the police entered a house. I think it's about time we heard from our pal "the bloke in the bar"
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( 976 )
Witness: I saw that the police did not stay long there, maybe about ten minutes. Then they left. They left the house........ I cannot say what they did inside, because I couldn't see it, but from what I heard later through a telephone conversation with Shyhrete, Nexhat's wife, is the following: that the policeman had beaten Nexhat up and they had taken from Shyhrete about 3.000 Deutschmarks to save her husband from being killed.
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Watson: So it's more hearsay. Ah well, the bloke in the bar is indeed a busy chap these days
Holmes: He testified that he saw
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Witness: After about 20 minutes, in front of their house, a white car of Niva brand parked, and I could see that various items, household items, were being taken out of Nexhat's house; piles of papers, documents which the international observers had left behind when they left Kosovo.
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Watson: So they took some of the KVM 's property. Some papers, a stapler, and maybe even some sellotape. Oooh! The naughty Serbs. Stationary hoarders. A new war crime
Holmes: Some more things he heard
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( 976 )
Witness: In about ten minutes, I heard fire shots, automatic fire shots, coming from the suburban part of Suva Reka , and I saw fire and smoke, flames and smoke, coming out of the houses.
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Watson: So he heard some shots. It could be from anyone and he certainly can't say. He just assumes it was from the Serb forces only.
Holmes: Yes, how can he be so sure it wasn't a firefight?
Watson: Does he have a pair of those plastic X ray glasses which kids used to buy that helped them see through walls and at womens underwear?
Holmes:........cough........Anyway at noon something happened. At last, after six witnesses and many days of testimony, a witness of them saw a crime.
Watson: Bring on the dancing girls
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( 979 )
Witness: At 12.00, quite suddenly, groups of 30 to 40 policemen surrounded the houses of Faton and Nexhat........ where Vesel Berisha and his sons were living.
Question: How many people were in the houses, approximately?
Witness: Approximately 25 persons. All were in the second house, not in the large house I spoke about, but in the second house, adjoining house. From what people saw during the previous day, people were scared of staying in their own home which is close to the street and had taken refuge in their neighbour's house, that is, Adversare's house, their uncle, to spend the night there, and they were there at 12.00 on the 26th of March, all together, as a group.
Question: And what happened after the policemen surrounded the house?
Witness: I saw that at the entrance of Faton and Nexhat, I saw three policemen going inside........One of them I did, the policeman who entered the house of Faton broke the door, the main door, and entered inside........ Two groups of three policemen entered the two entrances of the big house and began to shoot inside. You could hear the guns firing sporadically, and within a few seconds, I would say, smoke and flames came out of the windows of the house. The other group of police which had drawn up to Vesel's, the old man's house, a larger group of police went to Vesel's house, and I noticed that Vesel's elder son, Sedat, going out and talking with them........ This happened at about 12.00 noon. It was good weather, and I could clearly see what was happening from my window in my yard.
Question:And you said that you saw the houses on fire or the smoke from the houses. Do you know what happened? How did they come on fire?
Witness: I don't know. I don't know. But after the police went in, after 30 seconds or one minute later, the house was enveloped by smoke and flame. It seems that the police had a special kind of weapon to set houses alight. And I did not see this weapon and don't know anything about it.
After this, I saw how the members of the family who were inside members from several families, from Faton's family and Nexhat's family and the families of Vesel Berisha's sons, I saw how they came out in a rush, at great speed. They couldn't even put on their shoes. Some were wearing shoes and some were barefoot, running from this house along the road,
coming out onto the main road, and some of them came between my house and the house of Faton and Nexhat.
coming out onto the main road, and some of them came between my house and the house of Faton and Nexhat.
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Watson: So we have the Serbs using some kind of "house-o -fire" maker something the witness just knows they've developed but hasn't seen yet and people running around without shoes
Holmes: After all this silliness the witness at last claims he saw something serious. The police kill some Kosovo Albanians in cold blood
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( 980 )
Witness: Vesel's third son, Bujar, was the last to run, and the policeman called to the elder son, Sedat, calling, "Sedat, come here." I was able to hear this from inside because they came up close to my house. At that moment, after Bujar and Sedat had come together, a group of about ten policemen started to shoot at Bujar and Sedat with automatic weapons. The policemen emptied all their magazines into the bodies of Bujar and Sedat........ I saw this scene very clearly with my own eyes. I saw Bujar and Sedat fall about two or three metres from the rear of the house of Nexhatand Faton.
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The police carried out some bodies from the burning building
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Witness: I saw how the police coming out of the front of the large house which I have encircled, I saw them dragging the bodies of four people, and I was able to identify the bodies as those of Nexhat, the body of Hava Berisha, the body of Faton, and of Faton's mother, Fatime. These bodies were brought up close to the bodies of Bujar and Sedat.
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And the others who ran away?
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( 981 )
Witness: The others, I said, ran away, women and men, in the direction of the centre -- of the shopping centre and the trade centre. These two shops, which I'm indicating with my pointer, were not there before the war. They were built after the war. And this photograph, which I realise because I live in Suva Reka , was taken after the war. And more or less when I went to the window where you see from the front of my house, I saw -- more or less at this point I saw Nexhmedin, the son, the youngest son of Vesel, who was more or less my age, I saw him seriously wounded, and he was crawling and trying to walk along the ground with the help of one hand. He was being helped by his pregnant wife Lirie........ Lirie managed to drag Nexhmedin, wounded as he was, and to remove him behind the first shop of the shopping centre. From that moment, the members of the family which I had mentioned, never -- were unable to see anybody because nothing more could be seen from my house.
Question: Mr. Berisha, I know that you could not see from your house, but do you know what happened to these people, the people who went to the trade centre?
Witness: Before answering this question, I want to tell you about another detail, something that I saw a few minutes -- moments after the last time I saw the wounded Nexhmedin being dragged away by his pregnant wife Lirie. A policeman who was at the bus station - the bus station of Suva Reka is just there. That's the fence around the bus station - and hepassed through the little door there, and looking at the ground, and I imagine that he was following the bloodstains that came from the body of the wounded Nexhmedin.
Question: Mr. Berisha, coming back to my previous question, I know that you haven't seen -- what you're testifying right now, you saw it?
Witness: Yes.
Question: And even not having seen what happened to the trade centre, do you know what happened to the rest of the family?
Witness:The police pointed this entire group of unarmed civilians - women, men, children, including, as I said, the pregnant Lirie - and they directed them towards the premises, a pizzeria or cafeteria belonging to the Shala [phoen] family from Suva Reka, and they shot them up in this pizzeria. On these premises, besides members of my own family, there were also people from the family of Hajbin Berisha, the family of Avdi Berisha, from Suva Reka . In all, there were about 40 to 50 people.
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And he simply had to tell of what happened to the people in the dreaded "Pizza Massacre"
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( 984 )
Witness: Please allow me to tell you something about the fate of the people in the pizzeria........I will tell you what I have heard........ In one sentence. As they told me, as I have been told by people who saw it and experienced it, experienced that terror, groups of several policemen shot pitilessly, with automatic weapons, and threw grenades atthem. All of them were killed in that pizzeria. Then trucks came and loaded up 40 to 50 bodies and took them towards Prizren.
Question:Who told you this, Mr. Berisha?
Witness: Witnesses who were inside the pizzeria and fortunately survived told me of what happened. These witnesses jumped from the truck carrying the bodies along the road to Prizren.
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Holmes: So more utter nonsense from the "bloke in the bar". Why didn't the ICTY with all their funding and political support track down these "witnesses" and get them to speak instead of getting some other guy who was in a bar and some bloke told him?
Watson: Because it's all lies perhaps?
Holmes: Well, there's certainly precious little evidence that the Serbs gunned down anyone in a pizza bar. In addition, his testimony would have been a little more convincing if it didn't contradict his earlier statements
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( 1041 )
Question: Mr. Berisha, yesterday, during your testimony, you confirmed that, from a short distance, you saw four people being killed: Faton, Djedata [phoen], Sedata [phoen], Gjura; is that correct?
Witness agrees
Question: That is how I understood it as well. However, did you, on the 21st of April, 1999, when interviewed by the investigators in Tirana, in Albania, say the following: that from the distance of ten metres, you watched and you saw how four men from that house were lined up, four men - Fatime, Faton, Nedat [phoen], Gjura - and then killed, in other words, that they were shot there at that spot?
Witness: I don't remember to have said that precisely in Albania. If so, it must have been an error on the part of the interpreter. The truth is what I'm saying now, that I saw two men being killed, and then afterwards, four other dead persons of my relatives, who were pulled up to the dead bodies of the previous two persons whom I saw, as I said.
Question: Prior to signing this statement, this statement was read to you, and you apparently had no objections at the time.
Witness: Yes, but I'm sure it must have been some errors in translation, even for the second part -- second time when I was read the statement.
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Watson: Whoops-a-daisy.
Holmes: Whoops-a-daisy indeed.
Watson: What about his treatment in Yugoslavia in the 90's.
Holmes: Remember that, according to the KLA, NATO and the ICTY, the Kosovo Albanians were being treated terribly. "Apartheid", no less. However, it seems that "apartheid" can't be all that bad
Watson: How come?
Holmes: Well, he graduated from Pristina University as a doctor in 1990 , then studied in Belgrade, and worked in Kosovo as a doctor.
Watson: So he could study to be a doctor? It costs many 10's of thousands to train a doctor and he got the opportunity?
Holmes: Ouch! The pain! The discrimination! When he was studying in Kosovo, most of his colleagues were Kosovo Albanian ( page 993 ) and admitted that "generally, we had a good time there" ( page 992 ). In his hometown - Malisheve - things weren't too bad for Kosovo Albanians either
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( 994 )
Slobo: In Malisheve, were you the only doctor or were there more doctors?
Witness: There were several doctors in Malisheve.
Slobo: And they were all Albanians, were they?
Witness: Yes, they were.
Slobo:And all of you together received salaries on a regular basis for the work you did?
Witness: Yes, that's right.
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Holmes: He went to Belgrade where things were.........good ( 994 ).
Watson: WOW! This apartheid does seem groovy. What were all those South African blacks whinging about?
Holmes: Some more........erm........discrimination
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Slobo: Where did you specialise in Belgrade?
Witness: In the Narodni Front gynaecological clinic.
Slobo: And how were you treated at the Narodni Front gynaecological clinic?
Witness: Relatively well.
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And what about the hospital administration and his bosses?
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Witness: They behaved very well.
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He also admitted he was friends with people from all the ethnic groups and that ( page 996 ) "we had relatively good relations". He also admitted that he didn't hear of any ethnic Albanian who'd had problems because of their ethnicity ( page 996 ). He also admitted that "there were 20 to 25 Albanian doctors in the clinic of Suhareke municipality" ( page 1029 ).
As Slobo points out
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( 1032 )
Slobo: Because that side over there with the false indictment has endeavouredto explain how the Albanians were subjugated, how they lived in a difficult fashion from 1989 to the NATO aggression, which saved them. And now we hear from the witness here that all that wasn't so. He did his regular university training, and all the other Albanians, who were a majority, that he got a job, that he did his specialist training, that he went to Prizren and other towns, went back to Belgrade and then continued in his job, continued working. They are all essential, vital questions. Now, this pivotal point, this pivotal question that the Prosecution wishes to impose as being pivotal, is what I said in my opening statement, that that false indictment is endeavouring to turn about notorious facts, such as the 78-day aggression and bombing and the KLA activities be denied through witnesses, so that --
Judges tells Slobo to stop .
)
Watson: So are you telling me he was treated well by his Serb colleagues and many of the doctors were Kosovo Albanian.
Mulder: Yup. Now, and by now you've realised this, our prosecution witnesses have amnesia when the following letters are said. K, L and A. It's uncanny, really it is ( page 997 ) .
(
Slobo: During that time, that is to say from the beginning of 1998 or, rather, the end of 1997 until the middle of 1998 when you completed yourspecialist training, in that time period, did you hear anything about the KLA in Kosovo?
Witness: No.
Slobo: Your friends and the members of your family didn't tell you anything about that?
Witness: No
Slobo: So you heard nothing about that over the television, over the radio, in the newspapers and so on
Witness: No.
Slobo: So right up until mid-1998, you had heard nothing about any kinds of attacks, killings, kidnappings, or anything about the KLA in Kosovo at all?
Witness: No.
Slobo: So nothing about the attacks either on civilians or the police, army, et cetera?
Witness: No.
Slobo: When did you arrive in Suva Reka exactly? What was the date when you went back to Suva Reka?
Witness: One day after my graduation, which is 26th of June, 1998.
Slobo: Did you then at least, when you arrived in Suva Reka, hear that on the 22nd of June, 1998, five kilometres away from Suva Reka, in the village of Trnje, a policeman was killed, an Albanian? His name was Ilijas Vranovci. He was kidnapped and killed.
Witness: No
Slobo: And you didn't hear later on that he had been killed?
Witness: No.
Slobo: What do you think the motives of the KLA were to kidnap Ilijas Vranovci?
Judge: He can't answer that.
Slobo: Two months later in Suva Reka, when you were there, more exactly on the 17th of August, 1998, another policeman was killed. This time it was a Serb. His name was Dragan Stojanovic. Do you remember that?
Witness: No.
Slobo: You don't remember?
Witness: No.
Slobo: So , Suva Reka So it's a relatively small town, and that's why I'm asking you. How come you didn't hear of a policeman being killed in such a small town ?
Witness: I don't know
)
And
(
( page 1011 )
Slobo: Do you know how many policemen were killed before the aggression in the environs of Suva Reka?
Witness: I don't know.
Slobo: Do you know about an event when, on the 29th of April, 1998, a person was killed? His name was Sasa Jovic, and he was a policeman, and he was killed at Dulje, which is very close to you.
Witness: No
Slobo: And the 17th of June, 1998, what about that, when, at the same spot, a policeman was killed, another one? His name was Sladjan Niric. Do you know anything about that?
Witness: No.
Slobo: Did you hear anything about it?
Witness: No.
Slobo: Do you know about another event that took place on the 24th of June, 1998, in the village of Birac? That's three kilometres away from Suva Reka.
Witness: No.
Slobo: You heard nothing about the incident in which seven people were killed, including a child, only three kilometres away from Suva Reka, one day prior to your arrival in Suva Reka; is that right?
Witness: No
Slobo: And do you know about another incident when, at Dulje, Dragan Tomasevic, Milos Stevanovic, and Goran Boskovic were killed, on the 8th of January, 1999? At that time, you were practicing as a doctor in Suva Reka.
Witness: No
Slobo: Did you hear about an incident in Sematista, nearby Suva Reka, when, again, on the 28th of March this time, 1999, Ivica Spasic was killed? He was also a policeman.
Witness: No
Slobo: I assume you know nothing again about the killing of seven policemen in Suva Reka at the beginning of April, or rather, in April.
Judge refuses to let witness answer
Slobo: On the 24th of March, that is to say, on the first day, the repeater station Bukova Lala was bombed, near Suva Reka, and the whole of Suva Reka vibrated from that bombing. Is it possible that you could have heard nothing of that?
Witness: No
Slobo: And do you know about a residential block near the market in Suva Reka, which is 500 metres from your own house, and was hit by a bomb?
Witness: No
Slobo: Suva Reka is a small town. I suppose that when a bomb hits a small area of a small town, the whole town knows about this, and you're claiming that you know nothing of it. Well, just go ahead and say you don't know anything about it and we'll continue.
Witness refuses to answer
Slobo: Do you know about the KLA attacks prior to the beginning of the aggression in the villages around Suva Reka, Rektina [phoen], three kilometres; Musatiste, six kilometres; Budakovo, five kilometres, Vranic, seven kilometres? So all of these villages around Suva Reka where the KLA attacks took place, do you know anything about these attacks?
Witness: No.
Slobo: But you know everything about the houses being searched when they were looking for weapons after these attacks. As far as I understood, you only know about the searches; is that right?
Judge refuses to let witness answer.
Slobo: I will now refer only to the time when you were in Suva Reka, which means starting with the 23rd of August, 1998, until the beginning of the aggression on the 24th of March. Do you know that 15 Albanian civilians were killed by the KLA?
Witness: No
Slobo: This all took place in the area of Suva Reka where you resided.
Witness repeats that he'd NEVER EVER EVER seen KLA or any activity conducted by KLA.
Slobo: Do you know that at the end of May in 1998 until the end of June of 1998, Albanian doctors who worked in Belgrade all left Belgrade en masse?
Witness: No
Slobo:You didn't hear anything of it, did you?
Witness: No.
Slobo: I was told that there was even a letter by the director of your clinic, stating that Albanian doctors at that time had left all together the clinic and went back to Kosovo. This took place in May and June of 20 1998.
Witness says Slobo is lying
Slobo: Do you remember when in March, prior to the NATO aggression, the KLA announced mobilisation?
Witness: No.
Slobo: Very well. Do you know about the monastery in Musatiste, a Serbian monastery from the thirteenth century . Do you know that it was burnt down?
Witness: No.
Slobo: Do you know about the facts concerning how many people were killed by the KLA in that area, since you know that a lot of people had been killed there? Do you know the figures? Do you know that, according to the records, 72 people had been killed by the KLA? This is what was recorded, and there are a lot of stories going about this as well. Out of these 72 people, 19 were Albanians.
Witness: No, I don't know.
)
And
(
( page 1024 )
Slobo: Did you hear of an order by the KLA that everybody should leave Kosovo?
Witness: No.
Slobo:And did you hear that the only columns of Albanian refugees who were bombed by NATO were those who were returning and not those who were leaving Kosovo? None of the columns leaving Kosovo were bombed. Did you hear about that?
Witness refuses to answer
Slobo: Do you remember a slogan by the KLA: "Let's get out as fast as possible so that we can get back as fast as possible"?
Witness: No.
Slobo: And do you remember all the pamphlets in Albanian, appealing to the Albanians to leave Kosovo?
Witness: No.
Slobo: You never saw a pamphlet of that kind, ever?
)
Watson: La di dah.
Holmes: La di dah indeed. And so it goes on, for more pages, crime after crime carried out by the KLA right on his doorstep and this highly educated, learned man has absolutely no idea. The next day, Slobo makes a point about the vast resources at his disposal......erm.....a telephone........erm........which is bust.
(
( page 1004 )
Slobo: Before I continue where I left off, I should like to say the following: It is quite clear that the only means that I have at my disposal is a telephone and even that telephone, yesterday afternoon, wasn't working. But that's just a small detail. I don't think we can talk about any kind of equality of arms between the parties or any kind of trial, even before an illegal Tribunal of this kind, when there is absolutely no equality of arms, when one party only has the right to a telephone, whereas the other side has all the strength and power and everything here to construct these false accusations and indictments, and that is why I once again ask you to set me free, because I have the right to equality, to an equality of arms and to a defence.
)
Watson: The ICTY's budget is about a quarter of a billion greenbacks a year and Slobo has the use of an out of order telephone. Yup, seems fair to me.
Holmes: Anyway, back to the witness. He admits that a cousin of his murdered a policeman ( page 1007 ) in fact his answers are quite evasive -
Watson: Quelle surprise, as the French say
(
( 1007 )
Slobo: So your cousin, this man Naim Berisha, do you happen to know that the killed policeman, Vranovci, whom I mentioned yesterday, and he was also an Albanian, was an uncle of his on his mother's side?
Witness: I don't know anything about these things that the accused is talking about.
Slobo: Do you know that this man Naim Berisha, whom you say is a distant cousin, killed that uncle of his by the name of Vranovci?
Witness: I said that Naim Berisha was a distant cousin of mine. There are about 150 Berisha families in Suhareke. I do not have close ties of blood with the person you have mentioned and I don't know anything about him killing an uncle of his.
Slobo: That is usually the state of affairs amongst you, that you have no connections. You talked about a cousin who was killed at a petrol station too. Did you know that that particular petrol station in your town was full of weapons and ammunition belonging to the KLA?
Witness: The cousin about whom I spoke was Jashar Berisha, and he too was a distant cousin of mine. Jashar, the late Jashar, was not killed; he disappeared. He was taken on the 26th of March 1999 by people whom I don't know.
)
Watson: 150 Berisha families in a small town? And such evasive non answers to very simple questions? It certainly doesn't help his credibility
Holmes: About the witness's claims that life was peaches and cream when the KVM arrived in town ........erm.......even the KVM don't seem to agree.
(
( 1026 )
Slobo: In the whole region - Prizren, Pec - that means that whole region along the Albanian border -- but let me read the full observation. In the whole region of Prizren and Pec, there were abductions being carried out and killings of Albanians loyal to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on orders from the command structure of the KLA.........and I now quoted a portion of a report by the Verification Mission of the OSCE relating to the 5th to the 12th of March, 1999, in which it is officially noted that during that period, when he ( the witness ) says he considers the situation was normal, that in the whole region of Prizren and Pec, there were abductions and killings going on of Albanians loyal to the SFRY, on orders from the command structures of the KLA, and I am quoting a report by that particular mission for the period that the witness considers the situation was normal and which refers to the activities of the KLA themselves .
)
Watson: Whoooops!
Holmes: Our witness did admit, however, that many Serb houses had been burnt down ( page 1030 ), that Kosovo Albanians are now living in many other Serb houses, that the Serbs had been forcibly forced out, and that there are now zero ethnic Serbs living in Suva Reka now
Watson: Zero?
Holmes: The witness also claimed the the Serb forces came to his street to kill all Kosovo Albanians but was at a loss as to why they didn't touch him
(
( 1034 )
Witness: I think there were no weapons, but the police who came did not come to look for weapons; they came to kill Albanian civilians, men and women, children and pregnant women. The reason, the sole reason, was because they were Albanians.
Slobo: You're an Albanian too.
Witness: Yes.
Slobo: They didn't kill you.
Witness: Fortunately, no.
Slobo: Therefore, how do you arrive at the conclusion that they had come to kill the Albanians, whereas you, as an Albanian, was not killed?
Witness: But they went into the other people's house, not my house, and my family was safe.
Slobo:They came to your house too.
)
Finally the witness went to Albania, not because he was forced to but because he chose to.
(
Slobo: I don't want to go into your motives. All I'm saying is that you yourself decided to go to Albania. It wasn't that the Serb authorities deported you, because you said you made that decision, and I assume that you were telling the truth when you said that.
)
Watson: So are you telling me that
- He claimed he had absolutely no knowledge of the huge numbers of murdered ethnic Serbs, Rom and loyalist Kosovo Albanians who fell victim to the KLA even though his town is very small and he's a learned educated man.
- He was treated very well whilst studying in Belgrade
- All of the doctors he worked with in Malisheve were also Kosovo Albanians
- He was treated well whilst working in his home town
- Nearly all his claims were hearsay "the bloke in the bar said so" nonsense
- For example, his claim that a relative's car was confiscated
- Or that there was a massacre in a pizza shop
- Even his claim that he witnessed the killing of two ethnic Albanians is suspect as it contradicted his earlier written statement in many key details
- He made the slightly silly claim that the Serbs have a device that burns down buildings though added he's yet to see it
- He claimed that naughty boy Seselj bragged of kicking the Kosovo Albanians out of Kosovo though admitted he can't reember when or by TV or radio or if in fact Seselj was refering to the KLA only
- He admitted he wasn't forced to leave Kosovo but left voluntarily
- Now there are no ethnic Serbs in his town
- He claimed that life was peaceful when the KVM arrived but even the KVM reports don't agree
- Like many of the witnesses against Slobo he's a big conspiracy theorist. He was adamant that the Macedonian leader - Gligorov - had secretly agreed with the Serbs to make the Kosovo Albanians leave through a corridor into Macedonia. On the crazy-o-meter ( patent pending ) this registers slightly below Elvis being the assassin on the grassy knoll
Holmes: Yup. Another sorry excuse for a witness gets the Slobo wham bam treatment. Slobo wins a season ticket to see Barcelona FC: the ICTY? A season ticket to see Bognor FC
Holmes and Watson: Arf
