http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg040605.htm
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC.ORG, Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Judge Marinkovic Destroys Mr. Nice�s Cross-Examination
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Mrs. Danica Marinkovic, the Investigating Judge who led the inquiry of
events in the Kosovo village of Racak on January 15, 1999 was cross-examined
by prosecutor Geoffrey Nice at the Hague Tribunal�s trial of Slobodan
Milosevic on Wednesday.
Her testimony resumes after a nearly 2-week break in the proceedings taken
for the Easter holidays. Her evidence dealt with the forensic evidence that
she gathered in Racak. She testified that she found evidence of KLA
activities in Racak including, trenches, weapons, machinegun nests, bunkers,
and shell casings in the hills overlooking the village. In the village
itself she found the KLA�s headquarters, which contained weapons, KLA duty
rosters, and uniforms.
During her examination-in-chief, a number of videotapes were exhibited,
these tapes showed the police entering Racak, and the presence of OSCE and
media representatives on the spot at the time. It is clear from the tapes
that there was a firefight between the police and the KLA. The tapes
contained footage of the trenches, weapons, and various other proof of KLA
activity.
Judge Marinkovic�s testimony also dealt with autopsies that international
forensic teams from Serbia, Belarus, and Finland performed on the 40 bodies
that were found in the village. The autopsies revealed that the bodies had
been killed from gunshot wounds that came from several different angles,
from different weapons, and from a long distance. The autopsies revealed
that 37 of the 40 bodies had gunpowder traces on their hands, which means
that they had been firing weapons.
>From the forensic evidence, it is obvious that there was no massacre in
Racak. There was a clash between the Police and armed members of the KLA
terrorist organization, in which a number of terrorists were killed.
The forensic evidence is clear and convincing. There is no point in
attempting to contest it. Mr. Nice saw this, and focused his
cross-examination on character assassination in stead.
Mr. Nice led his cross-examinaion with an article Natasa Kandic wrote for
B92�s website. Ms. Kandic, who Mr. Nice praised as �the conscious of the
Serbs,� claimed, without naming a single source that some police had been
ordered to kill an Albanian family by Judge Marinkovic.
This was too much, even for the tribunal, and Judge Robinson scolded Mr.
Nice for leveling such a severe allegation on such a flimsy basis. He told
the prosecutor to provide corroborating evidence for such an extreme
accusation. Mr. Nice could not provide anything besides Ms. Kandic�s
baseless assertion, and so he dropped the issue saying that he was �only
concerned with the reputation of the witness.�
In spite of getting burned once, Mr. Nice persisted in praising Ms. Kandic,
he said that she �publishes what others don�t have the courage to.� Mr. Nice
went on to read from the same report. Ms. Kandic claimed that Judge
Marinkovic had covered-up evidence connected to the killing of Fehmi Agani,
a Kosovo-Albanian politician.
Judge Marinkovic dismissed Ms. Kandic�s remarks as absurd. She then pulled
out the case files concerning the Agani case. The files reveal that Agani
was killed by the KLA, and not by the police as Ms. Kandic claimed. Agani
was a leading member of the LDK party, which was connected to FARK (a
Kosovo-Albanian paramilitary group that rivaled the KLA).
Mr. Nice was amazed that Judge Marinkovic had the files handy. The befuddled
prosecutor asked her how she knew that he would rely on Natasa Kandic�s
articles. As if he were on a mission to prove that he had lost his mind, Mr.
Nice asked the witness if she was receiving intelligence information from
inside of the OTP.
Mr. Nice went on to ask the witness questions about her personal life and
her family, specifically about her husband, and whether he had participated
in Kosovo-Serb demonstrations during the 1980s.
When he finally turned his attention to Racak, he did not ask very much
about the forensic evidence. Instead, he criticized Judge Marinkovic for not
taking statements from witnesses.
This proved to be a weak line of cross-examination for the prosecutor,
because it was outside of Judge Marinkovic�s mandate to take witness
statements if the public prosecutor did not ask for them. Secondly,
videotapes, and other forensic evidence exist. Whatever people might have
said does not matter when there is hard physical proof, including videotapes
that prove what actually happened.
The only piece of forensic evidence that Mr. Nice tried to refute was Judge
Marinkovic�s observation that a lot of the corpses were wearing identical
leather belts.
Mr. Nice showed her pictures of dead bodies who he claimed were �victims�
from Racak. Mr. Nice observed that the corpses in the pictures he showed
were all wearing different belts.
Judge Marinkovic pointed out that there were leaves on the trees in the
pictures that Mr. Nice was showing. These could not be the same bodies from
Racak, because there were no leaves on the trees in the middle of winter.
The events in Racak took place on the 15th of January, in the dead of
winter; there would not have been leaves on the trees.
Then Judge Marinkovic really turned the tables on Mr. Nice. She asked him
where the pictures were taken, and he didn�t know.
Mr. Nice had almost two weeks to prepare his cross-examination over the
Easter break, but he was remarkably ineffective.
Surprisingly, Mr. Nice did not attempt to challenge her testimony that
Albanian judges kept their jobs. The indictment claims that Kosovo Albanian
judges were fired en-masse during the early 90s. Judge Marinkovic�s
testimony directly contradicts that claim, and Mr. Nice did not attempt to
challenge her.
In stead, Mr. Nice wasted his time (and everybody else�s) by quoting Natasa
Kandic�s hysterical nonsense, and asking the witness irrelevant questions
about her husband.
Mr. Nice failed miserably, he was unable to challenge the forensic evidence
regarding Racak, he failed to damage the credibility of the witness, and he
did not even bother to challenge other very important aspects of her
testimony that directly contradict indictment.
President Milosevic began his re-examination of Judge Marinkovic late on
Wednesday. He will complete his re-examination when the trial resumes on
Thursday morning.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
