http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg111605.htm
Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center
The Hague, The Netherlands
LT. COL. ODAK COMPLETES HIS TESTIMONY AS THE TRIAL ADJOURNS DUE TO ILLNESS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 16, 2005
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Lt. Col. Zlatko Odak completed his testimony at the trial of Slobodan
Milosevic on Wednesday. Odak served as the commander of the logistics
battalion of the 52nd Air Defense Brigade of the Yugoslav Army (VJ).
He also served as the deputy commander of the 2nd Battalion of the
549th Motorized Infantry Brigade. He was stationed in the Dakovica
garrison from 1986 until the VJ withdrew from Kosovo in 1999.
He completed his examination-in-chief yesterday, and was
cross-examined by Mr. Nice today. The prosecutor used his
cross-examination to ask the witness questions about topics that he
knew the witness would have little or no knowledge of.
For example, Mr. Nice asked the witness to cite documents to
substantiate his testimony that soldiers were arrested and prosecuted
for criminal misconduct, and when the witness could not provide such
documents Mr. Nice acted as though he had caught the witness out.
Mr. Nice's behavior is really quite ridiculous, Lt. Col. Odak's
testimony was not focused on the issue of criminal prosecutions, he
merely confirmed that the army's policy was to prosecute criminal
misconduct. Several previous defense witnesses such as, Gen. Farkas,
Gen. Delic, Gen. Stevanovic, and Gen. Gojovic, have already presented
several thousand documents detailing criminal prosecutions.
The entire point of Lt. Col. Odak's evidence was to testify about what
he saw, and what he knew, as a soldier serving in the Dakovica area of
Kosovo, not to analyze documents that are already in evidence.
Mr. Nice, citing the report of Mr. Andras Riedlmayer, accused Lt. Col.
Odak of lying when he said that the NATO bombing had destroyed the
Hadum Mosque and the old bazaar in Dakovica.
If I were Mr. Nice I would want to forget all about Mr. Riedlmayer
since his testimony was such an embarrassment for the prosecution. For
those who don't remember, the prosecution billed Riedlmayer as "a
Harvard University expert," and attempted to use his "expert report"
to prove that sites that the Serbian authorities claimed were
destroyed by NATO bombing had actually been burned by Serbian troops
on the ground.
But when Milosevic cross-examined Mr. Riedlmayer several embarrassing
facts were revealed. It turned out that the prosecution's so-called
"Harvard University expert" didn't have a PhD from Harvard -- he was
just the librarian at Harvard. His cross-examination also revealed
that he was not a trained ballistics expert. In other words, he was
completely unqualified.
To see Mr. Nice arguing about ballistics with a soldier, especially
when the only thing he has backing up his arguments is a report
written by a librarian, is just pathetic. It's obvious that a soldier
knows more about ballistics than a librarian.
Lt. Col. Odak explained that when a building gets hit by a bomb it
often catches on fire. In Dakovica, the streets are very narrow and
the buildings are built really close together. Therefore, when a
building got bombed and caught fire; the fire would often spread to
near-by buildings even though they weren't directly hit. This is how
come Riedlmayer saw buildings that had burnt down, but didn't show any
signs of bomb impact. If Riedlmayer had been a qualified expert, then
he would have figured that out.
Mr. Nice ended his cross-examination by accusing Lt. Col. Odak of
being a criminal and lying to cover-up his crimes. The witness denied
those allegations, and refused to be bated into making the sort of
childish insults that Mr. Nice resorts to.
Milosevic finished off the day by cross-examining the witness. During
the cross-examination Mr. Nice accused Odak of violating international
humanitarian law by taking over the convent of the Catholic Church in
Dakovica.
What Mr. Nice didn't let the witness explain was that the clergy had
given the army permission to use the convent and that it was not being
used for combat purposes. All the Army did was use the building as a
hospital, because the site they had been using was bombed by NATO.
During the cross-examination Mr. Nice criticized the witness because
he didn't have documents detailing the time and location of all the
NATO air strikes against Dakovica. Milosevic reminded the tribunal
that Gen. Djosan has already presented documents detailing the time
and precise location of each NATO air strike. Dakovica was bombed 236
times during the 78 days of NATO bombing.
Milosevic ended his re-examination by asking about the population in
Dakovica. Mr. Nice claims that the population was chased out and that
the city had been ethnically cleansed. Lt. Col. Odak said that that
was absurd. He said that the city was flooded with refugees from other
parts of Kosovo and that Dakovica's population doubled during the war,
because the KLA did not control the city.
The hearing ended immediately after the conclusion of Lt. Col. Odak's
evidence because Milosevic complained that he was feeling ill.
Milosevic made it crystal clear that he objects to any hearings being
held in his absence.
Milosevic, who suffers from high blood pressure, complained that he
was feeling great pressure behind his eyes and ears. The pressure in
his ears has gotten so bad that he is having trouble hearing properly.
What happened today highlights an urgent need for the tribunal to heed
the doctors' warnings and grant Milosevic the immediate six week
adjournment that his health requires. Unfortunately, the trial was
only adjourned until next Monday. One almost suspects that the
tribunal is deliberately trying to kill him by putting so much
pressure on him that he gets a fatal stroke or a heart attack. The way
the tribunal ignores the medical advice and forces him to work while
he's sick is just criminal.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
