http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg120605.htm
Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center
OSCE VERIFIERS FED INTELLIGENCE TO THE KLA BEFORE THE NATO BOMBING
www.slobodan-milosevic.org
December 6, 2005
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic continued at the Hague Tribunal on Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Janos Sel's cross-examination did not continue as scheduled. No
explanation was given for that change.
Instead, the tribunal heard the continuation of the testimony of Gen. Krsman
Jelic, the commander of the 243rd Armored Brigade of the Yugoslav Army,
stationed in the Urosevac area of Kosovo.
The witness gave evidence refuting the indictment's charges relating to
alleged crimes in: Kotlina, Dubrava, Kacanik, Slatina, Stagovo, and
Urosevac.
In Kotlina, the indictment alleges that Serbian troops massacred civilian
men and threw their corpses down wells.
The Milosevic trial has already seen photographic evidence proving that
these so-called "wells" were really KLA bunkers disguised to look like
wells. The pictures produced by Gen. Stevanovic showed that there were
ladders going in and out of the "wells" and there were heaters inside the
"wells".
As further proof that KLA terrorists, not civilians, were killed in Kotlina;
Milosevic read-out a report that had been drafted by ICTY investigators
working for the Office of the Prosecutor.
According to the report, ICTY investigators spoke to villagers in Kotlina on
September 17, 1999 and were told that the bodies found in the wells belonged
to KLA fighters, not to civilians.
For his part, Gen. Jelic noted that the 162nd Brigade of the KLA was
stationed in Kotlina.
Obviously, armed KLA terrorists were killed in combat in Kotlina, and the
ICTY is now trying to palm their death off as the massacre of innocent
civilians.
In the village of Dubrava, the indictment alleges that on May 25, 1999
Serbian troops killed several Albanian residents and forced the rest of them
to go to Macedonia. Prosecution witnesses have even alleged that the army
gathered villagers at the Dubrava school and organized their deportation.
Gen. Jelic testified that neither the army or police ever entered Dubrava.
He said that his unit was the only unit in the area, and that if what is
alleged in the indictment had really happened, then he would have had to
know about it. He said that nobody from the army tried to force the
villagers to leave.
He said that there was combat on the road outside of Dubrava, but nothing
inside the village itself. The combat was provoked when the KLA attacked and
tried to ambush army personnel traveling on the road. Jelic confirmed that
during this combat KLA terrorists, not civilians, were killed.
According to intelligence that Gen. Jelic received, Dubrava was home to some
50 KLA terrorists.
The indictment alleges that between March and May 1999, forces of the FRY
and Serbia attacked villages in the Kacanik municipality and the town of
Kacanik itself, which resulted in the destruction of houses and religious
sites.
Gen. Jelic denied that any large scale offensives were launched. He said
that the army's primary task was to hold its defensive positions and be
ready for a possible NATO ground invasion.
He said that, aside from some skirmishes with the KLA, the Kacanik area was
pretty well controlled by the authorities and there wasn't any reason to
attack it.
The indictment alleges that on April 13, 1999, Serbian troops surrounded and
shelled the village of Slatina. After shelling the village, infantry troops
allegedly entered the village and looted and burnt the houses. It is then
alleged that 13 civilians were shot and killed.
Gen. Jelic testified that there was no fighting in the village. He said that
the KLA opened fire on the army from Slatina during the night and that the
army returned fire. He did not know whether anybody had been killed in these
gunfire exchanges or not.
The witness also pointed out that his unit was the only unit in the area,
and that it did not have any infantry troops. This is important because the
indictment specifically accuses "infantry troops."
The indictment accuses these infantry troops looting and burning the
village. According to Jelic this was impossible for two reasons. One there
weren't and infantry troops, and two nobody from the army ever entered the
village, so they could not have burned and looted it.
The indictment accuses Serbian troops of surrounding the village of Stagovo
and killing at least 12 civilians as they tried to escape on May 21, 1999.
The indictment says the village was burned and looted and that thousands of
people from Kacanik came to Stagovo to board trains bound for Macedonia.
Gen. Jelic denied killing any civilians. He said that the KLA was launching
attacks against the army from the village of Stagovo. In response, the army
laid mines between its position and the village.
Jelic confirmed that several KLA terrorists had been killed upon entering
the mine field. He also confirmed that gunfire was exchanged between the
army and KLA terrorists from Stagovo.
He said that the army never entered Stagovo so it was not possible that the
army could have looted the village. He also denied that the army had the man
power to surround that village.
He also denied that the Stagovo train station could accommodate the
"thousands" of people who were allegedly forced to board trains there by the
indictment.
The indictment claims that during the period between 24 March and 14 April
1999, forces of the FRY and Serbia shelled Urosevac and forced the residents
to flee to Macedonia.
Gen. Jelic, who served as the commander of the Urosevac garrison, dismissed
this accusation as complete nonsense. He pointed out that if the army had
shelled Urosevac, then they would have been shelling his position. He denied
that anybody forced the residents to leave. He said that NATO bombing and
the threat of a ground invasion is what caused people to flee.
In addition to testimony about specific crimes alleged by the indictment,
Gen. Jelic gave evidence about the orders and the culture within the Army
itself.
The indictment accuses Milosevic or masterminding a conspiracy to ethnically
cleanse Kosovo. It also accuses him on the basis of command responsibility.
In light of the charges against Milosevic, it is important to see what
orders the army was given. Only by looking at the orders can one determine
whether the army was engaged in a defensive war against the KLA and NATO. Or
if it was carrying out a conspiracy to ethnically cleanse Kosovo.
Unfortunately, the Judges do not seem to care what the orders were, and they
prevented Milosevic from dealing with the orders in as detailed of a manner
as he wanted to.
In spite of the Judge's attempt to obstruct the evidence, it emerged that VJ
soldiers were repeatedly ordered to adhere to international humanitarian
law. Each soldier was given a laminated copy of the rules of conduct and was
required to keep it with him at all times. The rules of conduct explicitly
forbid: the torture of captured enemy combatants, looting, the needless
destruction of property, and the mistreatment of civilians.
Gen. Jelic testified that measures were taken to prevent and punish criminal
conduct within the ranks of the army. For example, military police would
search soldiers after combat operations. The purpose of these searches was
to detect and punish looters. Jelic said that these searches resulted in 12
men from his unit being prosecuted for looting.
Gen. Jelic explained that the army publicized the criminal prosecution of
soldiers as a means of discouraging others from engaging in criminal
conduct.
The witness denied that the army ever received orders to carry out ethnic
cleansing. He said that ethnic cleansing was a clear violation of the
orders. He explained that the orders called for the protection of the
civilian population, and for assistance, such as food and medical care, to
be given to displaced persons.
He insisted that the NATO bombing caused the civilian population to leave
Kosovo. He recalled an incident that took place on April 16, 1999 when a
group of refugees was attempting to return to Kacanik from Macedonia. He
said that NATO bombed the road the refugees were traveling on so mercilessly
that the refugees were forced to turn around and go back to Macedonia.
Gen. Jelic ended his examination-in-chief by testifying about the OSCE/KVM.
He presented OSCE documents to the court dating from late February to
mid-March 1999. The documents, which were written on the very eve of the
NATO bombing, expressed the verifier's satisfaction with the level of
cooperation they were receiving from the army.
Disturbingly, Gen. Jelic made note of an incident that occurred in the
village of Raka. The police carried out an anti-terrorist operation there
and, upon searching the KLA base, found several files that Jelic's 243rd
Brigade had turned over to the OSCE verifiers. Clearly, somebody within the
OSCE/KVM had supplied these documents to the KLA.
Several previous witnesses have testified that OSCE/KVM Observers were
spotted taking GPS coordinates of bridges and various other targets that
NATO ultimately bombed during the war, but this is the first evidence that
has come out suggesting that the OSCE was feeding intelligence to the KLA
too.
With that the Judges cut-off the examination-in-chief. The trial will resume
on Wednesday when Gen. Jelic will be cross-examined by prosecutor Nice.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
