War crimes investigations facing difficulties with witnesses in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - The U.N. war crimes tribunal is facing difficulty bringing ethnic Albanian suspects in Kosovo to justice because witnesses fear testifying to the court, the chief U.N. prosecutor said Tuesday.

Carla Del Ponte indicated that investigations into war crimes committed during Kosovo's 1998-1999 war were hampered because some witnesses hesitated to confirm their initial testimonies made against the suspects.

"I have some difficulties (with) witnesses who fear to confirm what they have said previously — and particularly to appear in court as witnesses," she told reporters on a brief visit to the province. She did not elaborate.

Del Ponte was on a routine visit to the region aimed at pressing the governments of several Balkan countries to cooperate with the war crimes court in The Hague (news - web sites), which is trying former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) on genocide and war crimes charges.

During a previous visit to Kosovo earlier this year, Del Ponte said that investigators in the province were hoping to finish their probes later this year into three cases involving suspects from the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought for the independence of the southern Yugoslav province.

On Tuesday, Del Ponte said she still believed that the court would be able to issue its first indictment against an ethnic Albanian later this year.

"If it will go as I think it must ... we will be ready with the first indictment before the end of the year and another two next (year)," Del Ponte said.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal has been criticized for allegedly showing anti-Serb bias. Most of those indicted for crimes in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo are Serbs. No ethnic Albanians have yet been indicted for their role during the Kosovo conflict.

Kosovo, legally a part of Yugoslavia, has been administered by the United Nations (news - web sites) and NATO (news - web sites) since June 1999, when an alliance air war halted a crackdown by Serb forces on separatist ethnic Albanians. An estimated 10,000 people were killed in the 1998-1999 war, the majority of them ethnic Albanians.

Later in the day, Del Ponte traveled to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, where she expressed distress that leaders in Yugoslavia, Croatia and Bosnia have failed to fully cooperate with the tribunal.

"It's been now three years that I have been coming down looking for the arrest of fugitives, to get access to witnesses, to have access to documents, to achieve cooperation," she said.

She complained that the three countries are becoming always less willing to cooperate with the court. "I'm astonished that it's going even worse," she said.

"I saw this in Kosovo and I was working under the Nato umbrella. Can you agree that the likes of Arkan and Captain Dragan infamous paramilitaries with their reputations..."

Of course one was actually something you witnessed up close, the other, "reputation" based on media stories. I'm not going to say Serbs committed no crimes, but the media has often spread lies against Serbs and "witnesses" too have been found to be liars. It is all too easy to lie.

Those who committed crimes against Serbs are most often given cover by the press (press ignores or excuses their crimes), and many who committed genocide, torture, and ethnic cleansing keep their government positions or are given high positions in the military or police. Agim Ceku is one example. Another is Izetbegovic who paraded around with Mujahedeens and visited the Silo prison in Tarcin where Serbs were tortured, beaten, and starved - his visits were secured by the Malaysian UN soldiers - the UN is complicit in guarding torture camps of Serbs. Then there's Naser Oric who showed video of he and his men burning Serb homes and the men they had decapitated - he also narrated his men's actions - strong proof that he and his Muslim soldiers were mass murders. Naser Oric's businesses are patronized by SFOR soldiers - they see no problem with murders and terrorists, as long as their actions were against Serbs. The mission of NATO and the Muslim (and other separtist) murderers and terrorists in the Balkans is one and the same: destruction and torture of the Serb people.

This is something you may find interesting - there's an online exchange between a British Captain (Rtd) who served in Bosnia and the editors of Spy Magazine. I post extracts here, but you can see the link for the whole version. According to him the media wasn't reporting how it really was in Bosnia.

http://www.spynews.net/BalkanWarCriminalsect.html

In one of my forays we came upon intense shootings near some woods in the outskirts of Sarajevo. When we arrived at the location we witnessed dead Serbs. Yes dead Serbs! I am sure many of your "fans" or "readers" or even "members" would be shocked to know that there were dead Serb civilians too in that civil war and that many were killed or can I say murdered by Croat and/or Muslim militias. The Muslims out numbered the Serbs three to one and they had so many of their men running around with AKs. Some pretending to be Serbs, some pretending to be Croats. We were quite lucky to save one woman's life but then she died a few days later. In her dying murmurs she just mentioned "Bosniaks!" Several times we were shocked when the Bosniaks would force their way into our compound and fire off their artys at the Serbs positions in violation of arranged cease-fires. Where do you think the Serb retaliatory shells gonna land? Oh yes....this is how so many of the cease fire arrangements were broken. Talk about being in the middle of these chaos and the very people who we were trying to help were causing the most problems. Thus far I have not heard of the local commander of the Bosnian muslim who was operating there charged with any war crimes. He is said to be operating as a businessman now bilking and collecting protection money from International organizations and local civilians today...
Added note on the conflict as I saw it..... After the end of my tour I got back and found so much of misleading news in the media hence I did some research of my own. many of my boys felt the same but most were not interested in revisiting the same battle scenes again. In Gorozde for example, before the conflict exploded the Muslim side with the help of foreign Muslim mercernaries had already chased away thosands of serbs from their homes. Serb homes were either occupied or set ablazed. When the Serb attempted to make a comeback all remaining Serb properties. houses, churches etc were bombarded by the Muslims and shown from afar to reporters (mostly to CNN crews) as Serb bombardments of "Muslim city of Goradze". How amusing. We arranged so many cease-fire agreements but it was always broken by the Muslims who enjoyed huge numerical superiority and can sustain higher casualty. Several times we intercepted "humanitarian relief" convoys most of the time either escorted by Bangladeshi UN, Malaysian UN or even Dutch UN soldiers. Many times we saw the Malaysians and Bangladeshis bringing in Muslim men and materiel under the pretext of relief supplies. These were usually replenishments for further Muslim offensive efforts. I can only guess same or worse situations in other fronts of the war.

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