"THE DOG ATE IT"
Witness 1: Mahmut Bakalli
Testimony begins on Page 511 - February 18th
Slobo's cross begins the following day on page 543 - 19th February - http://www.un.org/icty/transe54/020219IT.htm
Watson: I see the first witness against Slobo, a Mahmut bakalli, was a roaring success:"The Times Online" for example said he'd "savaged Slobodan Milosevic" with his testimony . I imagine that the witness was a simple poor Kosovo Albnanian farmer who'd faced the wrath of the evil Serb war machine ( patent pending )?
Holmes: Erm, not quite. He'd been the de facto boss of Kosovo for about 10 years - a typical Communist apparatchik - who had actually called in the army to quell ethnic Albanian rioters on occasions.
Watson: Oh. I heard he had proved that his people lived under APARTHEID. Second class schools: no representation in business, politics, all that tosh. Those evil Serbs......foam foam foam......( shakes fist at imaginary Serb )........Grrrrrrr!
Holmes: Not quite. He claimed it but gave no evidence. It was just his opinion. Also he was forced to admit that many of the leaders in Kosovo were Kosovo Albanian .
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( 559 )
Slobo:At the time constitutional changes were implemented, was Sinan Hasani President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia?
Witness: Yes. He was Chairman of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, and he was on our side.
Slobo: Sinan Hasani is an Albanian, and he was President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia. He attended the session of the Serbian Assemblyduring which the Constitution was promulgated on the 28th of March. Is that true?
Witness: Yes.
Slobo: Is it true that also all other high officials on the federal and republic level of Albanian nationality were present as well? Yes or no
)
Holmes: The witness didn't deny it. Also he admitted that many of the Kosovo Albanian children were taught in their language in state schools. In fact even the judge got him to admit that Kosovo Albanians could use their mother tongue in court.
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( 550 )
Judge: For the moment, the question is: What language were they allowed to use? And the answer is: They were allowed to use Albanian
Witness: Yes.
)
He was also forced to admit on the next page that the Serb and ethnic Albanian kids were taught with the same curriculum.
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Witness: As far as I know, there was no difference, or difference in the curricula for Albanian language education. It was a unified programme for all of Serbia, for the Albanians and for the Serbs in Kosovo.
Slobo: That means that all children in Serbia followed the same school programme, the same curriculum?
Witness: Yes.
)
And
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( 549 )
Slobo: ( You ) are not challenging the fact that national minorities in Serbia and national -- that national minorities in Serbia are able to attend tuition in their own languages, and as the Albanian children were taught and had tuition in Albanian and were taught the Albanian literature and all other subjects were taught in the Albanian language
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Holmes:He was forced to admit on the next page that - although he didn't know how many Albanian kids went to state schools - some did do
He also admitted
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( page 559 )
Slobo:Please try to focus on the answer. Is it true that a member of the Constitutional Commission of Serbia was from Kosovo, and his name wasProfessor Surija Popovci. He was also an Albanian, which perhaps is not immediately obvious to everybody here. Is it true that a member of theConstitutional Commission of Serbia was an Albanian and was from Kosovo? Is it true that Professor Popovci appeared on television prior to the session of the Assembly and supported the amendments?
Witness: Yes
)
And
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( 562 )
Slobo:Do you know who Muharrem Ismaili is?
Witness: Yes.
Slobo: Is he a friend of yours and also a director of a bank in Kosovo, also an Albanian?
Witness: He's a Kosovo Albanian. He was the director of Kosovo Bank
)
And so it carried on , with the witness being admitting that many if not most senior politicians in Kosovo were Kosovo ALBANIANS . Some Apartheid .
Watson: That wasn't like South African Apartheid at all .
Holmes: Indeed it wasn't. The witness had also previously claimed that the Serb side hadn't seriously discussed an agreement prior to the NATO attack in March 99, however
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( 564 )
Judge: Let's try and get to the bottom of it. What's being put is that there was not simply one meeting, but there were occasions atwhich the Serbian delegation came to Kosovo to meet, but the Albanian representatives, as I understand it, didn't come. Now, is that the caseor not?
Witness: Yes, but these meetings were not planned beforehand. Yes, there are some cases.
Slobo:There were 11 such cases; yes or no, Mr. Bakalli?
Witness: I have not kept track of them. I don't know.
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Watson: So it wasn't the Serb who weren't negotiating but the KLA? WOW. So, in summary so far, are you saying that the prosecution witness has admitted that........
- most of the senior political leaders under Slobo's rule, in Kosovo, were ethnic Albanians
- all children were taught under the same curriculum
- that many ethnic Albanian kids went to state schools and were taught in the Albanian language
- Kosovo Albanians could use Albanian in court?
- The Serbs had always been willing to negotiate with the Kosovo Albanians, it was the Kosovo Albanian extremists who never had any intention of negotiating.
Holmes: YUP. It also seems that the witness had been lying when he'd claimed he had no links with the KLA
Watson: Is that the terror group that has links with Al Qaeda and runs the heroin and sex slave industry in Europe?
Holmes: YUP, one and the same.
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Slobo:Mr. Bakalli, you were an advisor to Demaci; is that correct?
WItness:Yes, for a couple of months before the beginning of the conference of Rambouillet.
Slobo:Thank you. So you were an advisor of Adem Demaci and you have just confirmed that. Now, as far as I remember as far as I remember, you said yesterday that you had nothing to do with the KLA. Now, if I'm not remembering this correctly, or perhaps I didn't hear it correctly, I'm asking you now: Did you have any connections with the KLA?
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Watson: So he fibbed too? That's naughty of him. He'll go to Hell now.........forever.
Holmes: He will indeed. Some of his friends have........cough........colourful lives.
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( 570 )
Slobo: You are a deputy of the alliance. Is the president of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo Ramus Aradinai?
Witness: Yes.
Slobo: Do you know, in connection with your president, the president of the alliance, that as he wrote, as Elefteros Tipos wrote, according toreports of the British service, where he is called the Mafia Ramus, that Aradinai, is head of the Albanian underground and he engages intrafficking and dirty work in the Balkans and the whole of Europe? Do you know that?
Witness: I do not know that, and that is exactly the opposite of my opinion. I have a very high consideration of Ramus Aradinai.
Slobo: Do you know that there is a Mafia in Djakovica for smuggling tobacco, armaments, and this is Ramus Aradinai who is in charge of that,your President? Are you aware of that?
Witness: No, I don't know that. I know that he was a good -- he's a good person. He was a very good commander. He was a very skilful commander,and is a good, young politician.
Slobo: Do you know that he was the organiser of armed activities by Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and in Southern Serbia in recent months?Do you know about that?
Witness: No. On the contrary. But I know on the contrary, from conversations, that we had to exert our influence in the Presevo Valleyand Macedonia to calm the situation and get rid of the violence there.
Slobo: Do you know that Aradinai is accused of having committed the murders of a number of Albanians and Serbs?
Witness: No. And I don't think that there could ever be any possible evidence for such accusations. I haven't heard of any anyway.
Slobo: Is it true that Aradinai was wounded when he threw bombs at a house, the house of a Sadik Musai, a fellow Albanian from the party?
Witness: The information you're bringing here you've got -- you were very badly informed. I would ask you to be more careful with the informationyou present.
)
Watson: Crikey! Such uncouth chaps. What is a prosecution witness doing with such peeps?
Holmes: What indeed. Now, the prosecution had put great store in the Jashari family - a violent clan - many of whom had been killed in a battle with Serb police. MURDER! They'd shouted in their opening address. The witness had previously gone on and on and on about it ad nauseum the day before. Now, it seems, the witness knows NOTHING about the incident. NOTHING, you hear. NOTHING!
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( 571 )
Slobo:You spoke of the killing of Jashari yesterday in Donja Prekaz. Do you know that the police surrounded the house to arrest them and that theydid not want to surrender themselves to the police and that they shot at the policeman?
Witness:That's your -- what you're saying. I don't know any details.
Slobo:Do you know that Jashari -- let me say before that, do you know that for those two hours -- during those two hours it was the women andchildren that came out of the house mostly?
Witness doesn't know yet claims people were murdered
Slobo: The ones that came out of the house certainly weren't killed, but do you know that Jashari killed even his own uncle at the time because hisuncle wanted to go out and surrender? I don't know whether it was his mother's or his father's brother, but an uncle any way. The uncle wantedto go out and surrender, but Jashari shot him. This is contained in the court reports pertaining to the investigation of the event that tookplace.
Witness doesn't know and doesn't believe it
Slobo: Do you consider that a two-hour time period is insufficient for terrorists to decide whether they're going to give themselves up or notand that once those two hours had expired they once again opened fire at the policemen and that those who thought -- who wanted to leave the houseleft? Do you consider that any other police force anywhere in the world would have fled when somebody was shooting at it from a barricaded housebehind whose walls there were killers?
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Watson: MY! Such ignorance .
Holmes: Right you are Sir. Now, the previous day he'd claimed that many Kosovo Albanians had been imprisioned for political reasons . Under cross examination he claimed that " you - Slobo - were keeping 2.000 Albanians in prisons for -- imprisoned for political reasons." ( 575 )
When asked to give some names of those imprisoned , our witness starts to waffle......and waffle......and waffle........for well over 300 words........before finally saying the list is somewhere else
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( 575 )
Witness: Please, Honoured Court, you should be aware that there are many humanitarian societies, even in Serbia, who know the names better than Ido. Pressure was exerted against them from the state. They themselves wanted the prisoners to be liberated, the Albanian prisoners who were inSerb prisons. I'm not talking about normal prisoners, normal convicts. I'm talking about political prisoners under the reign of Milosevic.........There are two or three Serb councils there -- which are maintaining a very positive attitude. Mrs. Biznarko knows. Another distinguished lady - I don't remember the name now - knows about them. Then all -- all the international institutions engaged in human rights protection know them, as well as the Kosova Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms. They all know the exact names, and they have sent these names to the relevant bodies, whereas the prosecutors, many prosecutors, always go to the Minister of Justice of Serbia and present him the names. So the Serbian authorities know. They know whom am I talking about, who the political prisoners are.........We have the names of the political prisoners as well as the victims. For the moment, I don't have them with me. I might tell that -- I might tell you only that I remember -- I told you the name of Ukshin Hoti, the way he was taken out of prison and disappeared without leaving any trace. Then I -- many other names I may give you at any other moment as pieces of the evidence or through witnesses to The Hague Tribunal
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Watson: Oh deary me, so he can't give any names but has a list somewhere. That's like a student saying he couldn't hand in his homework because the dog had eaten it. It's just ridiculous.
Holmes: It certainly is a lame excuse. The witness also had difficulty with simple concepts like dates. The poor lad was indeed most confused
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( 555 )
Slobo: All right. Is it true that the Serbian Assembly proclaimed changes or amendments to the Constitution on the 28th of March, 1989,which means three months prior to the speech to which you ascribe the fact that it led to changes in the Constitution? You just said a moment agothat after my speech, there were changes in the Constitution, and now I'm giving you the dates that were actually formally recorded as being the28th of March, 1989. This is three months before the date after which you claim the Constitution had been changed.........Mr. Bakalli, just a while ago, two minutes ago, you said that the changes in the Constitution took place after my speech in Gazimestan.
)
Holmes: He also talked about a declaration that all Kosovo Albanians had been forced to sign on pain of losing their jobs.
Watson: HA! I knew it. Slobo checkmated! ........( punches air in celebration )
Holmes: Not really, it was quite funny. He'd claimed ( 578 ) there was "a declaration of loyalty towards the Serb state" and had to be signed by all, else they were fired. When asked to produce one of these declarations he couldn't.
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Slobo: Since this is the first time that I've heard about some declaration of loyalty, could you please give us the text of thisdeclaration? Could you provide it for us, this declaration of loyalty to the Serbian state that allegedly Albanians were required to sign?
Witness: Yes. I can bring it to Court as soon as I return to Pristina and get it.
Slobo:Are you aware that nobody in Serbia knows or has heard of this declaration, starting from me?
WItness: No, I did not know that.
)
Yes , you read it correctly , he'd forgotten to bring it , he'd left it back in Pristina .
Watson: Oh what a sorry fool.
Holmes: Indeed my good doctor. Same with trade unions
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Witness: The trade unions were under pressure from the membership as to what to do if people would be asked -- forced to signsuch a declaration.
Slobo: So you claim that they were required to sign a declaration in order to be able to work?
Witness: Yes.
Slobo: Can you provide us with one of those signed statements or declarations?
Witness: Yes. I'm sorry, I don't have it with me at the moment.
)
And he continued with this "the dog ate it" line a page or so later .
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Slobo:Since that is not true, can you perhaps tell us what document ssued by the government of Serbia asked for this declaration of loyaltyby Albanian residents?
Witness: I'm sorry, I don't have one of these forms with me, but, Honourable Judges, I am sure I can send it from Pristina.
)
Watson: He does have a hungry dog doesn't he.
Holmes: He does indeed, Sir. And his dog's still got a dessert to finish
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( 556 )
Slobo: Okay. I didn't say what you just said, but you did say what we heard from the Prosecution, and this is something that I disputed herewhen I gave my opening speech. Are you able to provide to me what you wrote at the time? I would be able to give you my speech and newspapers from 1989 containing my speech. Are you able to give me the other papers? You indicated here time, struggle, and you indicated here newspapers Vreme and some other ofour newspapers. So would you be able to show me these articles of yours that were published in these papers?
Witness: No, because at that moment I did not write in Nasa Borba and Vreme, but I did write in Albanian-language papers, in a letter I sent toEagleburger which I published in Vjesnik in Zagreb and in Albanian paper in Pristina. But I don't have them with me now so that I can cite them.
)
Watson: Hungry Fido
Holmes: Indeed. And so it carries on for page after page. Awful, embarrassing witness testimony . For example
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( 627 )
Slobo:Very well. Do you know that this provisional Executive Council was composed of Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Muslim, Gorani, Romany, and soon, which means all of the ethnic groups that live in Kosovo? Do you know about this?
Witness: Yes, I do, but I also know that it was a tool, a blind tool, in the hands of the Serb parliament and government to rule over Kosovo, andthere have been some members in it of the nationalities that you mentioned, but Serbs were in greatest number, and they acted under theorders of the Serb parliament.
Slobo:Are you aware of the fact that in that temporary government of Kosovo, Serbs were a minority as compared to the others?
Witness doesn't remember
)
And
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( 598 )
Slobo: You said that Albanians did not attend the celebrations in Gazimestan, the celebrations of the battle. Are you sure that out of 2 million people in Gazimestan there was not a single Albanian?
Witness says "there might be one"
Slobo: Are you aware that the entire Presidency of Yugoslavia, including representatives of all Yugoslav republics, were present at Gazimestan?
Witness denies it
Slobo: Mr. Bakalli, do you know that there is film footage and TV footage showing that, without exception, representatives of all republics attended the event at Gazimestan, including the Presidency of Yugoslavia? And with the exception of one or two members of the Diplomatic Corps, all members were present. Do you know this?
Witness doesn't know
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Watson: Oh, it's getting rather sad. The witness is making a fool of himself.
Holmes: You're right there, Sir. And finally , he had no idea about a Greater Albania. You know the concept. Huge areas of Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, parts of southern Serbia, the entire Kosovo and Metohija.....and even parts of New Jersey........are to be violently cut off and stapled onto that economic paradise and cultural oasis, AKA Albania .
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Witness: As far as I know, it has never existed, Greater Albania as such, neither today as a notion -- maybe the notion of Greater Albania exists insome political platforms of Albania in the Balkans, but neither in Tirana, nor in Tetova, Pristina. The notion of Greater Albania is a by-product of Serb political propaganda aiming at presenting the Albanians as people who struck fear among others.
)
He claimed it was, it seems, just a cunning Serb ruse, A cheeky caper to fool the world.
Watson: So are you telling me........
- he'd pretended he'd NEVER heard of the concept of a Greater Albania but claimed it was the vivid imagination of those beastily Serbs
- he'd been the leader of the Kosovo Communist Party for over a decade
- he was unable to back up his claims of APARTHEID and instead was forced to acknowledge that
- ALL kids in Kosovo were taught with the same curriculum
- Kosovo Albanians could speak Albanian in court
- most of the political leaders in Kosovo under Slobo were ethnic Albanian
- Kosovo Albanian kids were taught in their own language
- he was unable to produce the "loyalty" documents that he'd claimed all Kosovo Albanians had been forced to sign....the dog was hungry it seems
- he lied about being an advisor to the KLA: The very same guys who have links with Al Qaeda
- many of his political friends have links with smuggling and terror activity
- he was unable to produce a list of names of Kosovo Albanians convicted for political crimes. It was somewhere else but he "might" let the court see it
- claimed that not a single Kosovo Albanian from over 2,000,000 who attended Slobo's speech at Gazimestan even though it was captured on film that the entire Yugo Presidency attended
- he'd claimed that the Jashari clan had been murdered but admitted he didn't have a clue when pressed for details
- got simple dates hopelessly mixed up
- he had to admit that it was the Serbs who'd worked for an agreement on Kosovo and the opposition who'd refused to talk
- when asked to quote Slobo's famous speech in Kosovo in 89 the witness was unable to and said the speech was at home.
- he has a very hungry dog?
Holmes: YUP. Slobo routs first witness. Slobo wins a luxury penthouse suite in Hawaii: the ICTY? A dirty weekend in New Jersey
Holmes and Watson: Arf .
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