Posted on 03/08/2002 5:17:32 AM PST by joan
March 8 — By THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic brandished what he said was an FBI document showing al Qaeda-backed Muslim fighters in Kosovo and insisted Friday that Albanian separatists were the true villains in the war-torn province.
Sparring with a Kosovo human rights activist who accused Serbs of killing and mutilating ethnic Albanians, the former Yugoslav leader said the document proved al-Qaeda and Mujahideen support for Muslim fighters in Kosovo, Bosnia and Chechnya.
"This is a congressional statement of the FBI. That's what this is," Milosevic declared, adding triumphantly that the report was dated last December -- "after September 11."
"Neither the (Serbian) army nor the police have been implicated in war crimes," Milosevic told The Hague war crimes court in the fourth week of his trial, pointing the finger repeatedly at Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas.
But witness Sabit Kadriu said he knew nothing of activity by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden in Kosovo, where a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanians triggered NATO action in 1999.
"It's not true there were Mujahideen in Kosovo. This is a fiction of your mind," the 41-year-old ethnic Albanian human rights activist and former teacher told the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Milosevic, who faces 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia, traded allegations of atrocities with Kadriu in an ill-tempered session that saw the three Hague judges intervene frequently to steer accused and witness back to the substance of the charges.
"The KLA was a liberation army and you were mutilating and killing civilians," said the 14th prosecution witness.
"We know whose specialty this is. It is the al Qaeda branch in Kosovo," Milosevic retorted.
"A MOCKERY OF THE VICTIMS"
Kadriu, who visited the site of atrocities in the north-western Cicavica region of Kosovo in September 1998, on Thursday had chronicled grisly killings in the province.
Kadriu was rounded up with thousands of others by Serbian forces in May 1999, he said. Interrogated and beaten, he was later deported to neighboring Albania.
He ended up in a refugee camp but returned to his native Kosovo in mid-June 1999 to become a municipal official.
Milosevic, who is defending himself, adopted the aggressive cross-examination tone that has become familiar since his trial began on February 12.
The former president zeroed in on specific massacres of Kosovo Albanian families, alleging they were killed during KLA clashes with Serbian forces rather than falling victim to Serb atrocities.
"This is a mockery of the victims and he should be ashamed of himself," Kadriu responded.
Most of those to testify so far have been Kosovo Albanian "deportation witnesses," as the prosecution calls them. Kadriu was the first who dared turn to face Milosevic directly as he answered questions from the former Serbian strongman.
Milosevic is accused of spearheading the deportation of 800,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in March-June 1999 as part of a grand plan to create an ethnically pure "Greater Serbia."
The involvement in the Balkans of Mujahideen guerrillas from Arab states and Afghanistan is well documented. U.S. agents tracked the trail of al Qaeda leader bin Laden and his followers in Albania and Kosovo itself, before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The KLA began a campaign of violent resistance to Serbian rule in the mid-1990s which brought Kosovo to widespread Western public attention and ultimately drew NATO into the conflict.
"It's not true there were Mujahideen in Kosovo. This is a fiction of your mind," the 41-year-old ethnic Albanian human rights activist and former teacher told the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia...
The involvement in the Balkans of Mujahideen guerrillas from Arab states and Afghanistan is well documented. U.S. agents tracked the trail of al Qaeda leader bin Laden and his followers in Albania and Kosovo itself, before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Methinks that Hoplite will finally have to admit
having UNMIK continue to pay salaries to the likes of KLA Supreme Commander Agim Ceku and Major General Rustem Mustafa, and 2,000 other KLA is not exactly good for America
Not really following you here - are we talking about laws and statutes?
Could you provide an example of this to illustrate?
Guess the HumWarriors don't wish to look too foolish, so they try to hide the fact that they've been supporting Al-Queeda all along.
And I have a bridge to sell really cheap too.
Glad someone knew. FYI.
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