Milosevic Trial Resumes

THE HAGUE, Aug. 25 — As he told his ghastly story, Bosko Radojkovic came across as a kind and methodical man. For 25 years he was a police detective, mostly working in a small riverside town in Serbia. His job was always to unravel crimes, from cattle theft to murder.

But he was now describing his own role in a gruesome cover-up, so perturbing that he ended up sick in the hospital.

In the witness chair at the United Nations war crimes tribunal, the police detective avoided looking at Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's former president, now in the dock.

Mr. Radojkovic was the first to open a freezer truck from Kosovo, found in the Danube River in 1999. It held 86 bludgeoned and mangled bodies, presumed to be of Kosovo Albanians.

The event was kept secret until last year, when Belgrade suddenly disclosed details of that and other mass killings in the Albanian-populated province of Kosovo in southern Serbia. Belgrade was apparently paving the way for sending Mr. Milosevic to face war crimes charges in The Hague.

Now prosecutors say that Mr. Radojkovic's testimony about the truck, presented in late July just before the tribunal took a short summer break, is central to their case that war crimes were committed in Kosovo and that Mr. Milosevic ordered the evidence removed. Mr. Milosevic's trial, which began in February, resumes Aug. 26.

The story of the truck and its cover-up also offers a glimpse of how a small-town policeman was caught up in the mad schemes of killing and deception in the Balkan conflict.

It is all the more unusual because until now, most Serbs who have appeared as witnesses or accused have discounted or denied their responsibility. Mr. Radojkovic, 46, who is still on active duty, is not charged with any crime.

The detective, a short, graying figure, spoke with precision. On the morning of April 5, 1999, a fisherman alerted the police at Kladovo that the tip of a white truck was visible in the Danube. Mr. Radojkovic went to the scene.

He sent in a diver, who reported that the freezer truck was from a Kosovo meat packing plant. Its front window was missing, its cabin empty. But one of the back doors, although closed with a chain, was slightly open, and some human limbs were sticking out.

The police borrowed a crane from a nearby power plant. It took several hours to pull up the heavy truck. As it rose onto the riverbank, Mr. Radojkovic saw "two human legs and an arm" protruding from the back. He took pictures, as he always did at a crime scene. Then he "pushed the limbs back inside and closed the door with nuts and bolts," because the scene was "disturbing" for the crane workers and the watching villagers.

Next, "we informed an investigating judge, the coroner and the public prosecutor," Mr. Radojkovic said. Once they arrived, he said, he broke the padlock and opened the back doors of the truck. "I saw a heap of corpses," he said.

As a result, Mr. Radojkovic and a colleague sent a message to the district police at Bor, and the cover-up began. Orders came to remove the names lettered on the cabin doors, which included Prizren, a town in Kosovo. In the dark, Mr. Radojkovic said, he spray-painted over the words.

The truck had no license plates. Mr. Radojkovic brought some from the police station, damaged them and smeared them with mud to make them look used and affixed them to the truck. He patched the hole in the back door. At each stage he took photographs, which were projected in the courtroom.

Asked why he disguised the truck, the detective replied that the Romanian border was less than a mile away and Romania supported NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia because of the Kosovo situation. There were Romanian patrol boats on the Danube. "They could think all sorts of things," the detective said.

The next day, the district police chief arrived and took over. "He told me to take no further photographs," Mr. Radojkovic said. The truck was to be treated as a state secret and the bodies were to be removed.

At night four civilians and a dozen policemen began the horrendous task. "I was inside the truck, with a colleague, taking out corpses," Mr. Radojkovic said.

Other men wrapped them. In the faint light they saw that the dead were adults, except for two children, all in civilian clothes.

"On the basis of my experience I think two or three days," the detective said. "The water was cold. The weather was cold."

Most bodies had visible wounds, inflicted with something blunt or something with a sharp edge, he said. One young man had a bullet wound in his chest and his hands tied behind his back.

At 3 a.m. the men stopped. "Everyone was exhausted," the detective continued. A truck took away the first 30 bodies. The next night, they pulled out the rest. They counted 83 bodies plus the heads and some body parts of three more victims.

The next day, on April 8, the district chief ordered the freezer truck to be towed away and burned. Mr. Radojkovic said he and a colleague had poured gasoline over the vehicle and set it on fire. But its metal structure remained. After checking with the police chief, he blew it up. "We used industrial explosives," the detective said.

For his final question, the prosecutor asked, "How do you feel about the way you were instructed to carry out your investigation?"

"As for my feelings, I had none at the time," the detective replied. "There was a war going on. I did what had to be done." Once the job was finished, he said, he had to check into hospital, overwrought.

Some of the bodies from the truck are believed to be among the bodies found in a secret grave at a police training camp in a Belgrade suburb. More than 1,000 bodies of Kosovo residents have been found in Serbian mass graves, and many people are still missing.

Mr. Milosevic, almost friendly, cross-examined the detective for close to two hours but was unable to dent his story. Supporters of Mr. Milosevic have said Belgrade fabricated the truck story to speed up the former president's surrender to the tribunal.

What did the witness know about the identity of the dead? "In a few cases we looked into their pockets," Mr. Radojkovic replied, and he went on: "The little girl who was 7 or 8 had a small backpack." They found a Unicef notebook and crayons. "In the notebook was only a drawing of a little house and a flower. Nothing else."

"All right," replied Mr. Milosevic, putting away his list of questions. "Enough about this phantom freezer truck."

it ignores the documentation that western military forces -- admittedly German and British, not US as far as I can tell -- were training the KLA in 1998

I don't profess to be an expert on the Balkans, so I'm not familiar with the evidence. Do you have a source?

Let's face it, the KLA has proven an embarrassment and is fast becoming a threat, so now it's expedient to pretend that the marriage was one of convenience instead of mutual lust for Serbian blood.

While I have a deep respect for Serbs and Serbia, I have never been able to understand the Serbian persecution complex. Nobody, outside the Balkans, has a lust for Serbian blood, with the possible exception of the Germans. Yet the Serbs continue to memorialize defeat and persecution by canonizing such events as their defeat to the Turks in 1389. Really, its been over six hundred years, get over it!

As for massacres, I'll pay attention when Messrs _card and Ranger show as much outrage over the mass graves in Afghanistan populated by Talibans who were suffocated by America's allies there.

Ok, I'll be consistent. I want to see General Abdulrashid Dostum punished for his crimes, just as I'd like to see punishment meted out to certain elements of the KLA and Serbian Army and police.

>>>>>Shpendw BOGUJEVCI Male 12 years...Source: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)<<<<<

Andy, I told you in personal communication to shape up otherwise you will not last long on FR :-) . And you keep sinking in the quicksand of lies. Among dead There were no persons younger than military age in Cuska

Are you referring to this OSCE report?

See what it says about Cuska village:

Cuska-1/Cyshk, Pec/Peje Municipality

42 bodies were discovered buried in a grave. According to an eyewitness 38 bodies were burned to ashes, four were untouched by fire. Two members of the family of a local UCK Commander were among those killed (see below). OSCE visited and documented site on 24th June.

List of identified bodies:
----------------------------------- Name/ Surname/ Sex / Age /
Agim CEKU Male Unknown
Kadri CEKU Male Unknown
-----------------------------------
Isn't it curious that the age of Agim Ceku's father (KLA chief in command) is not known? (Btw. Ceku's father is Hasan, not Agim)

What about others? If they are indeed from the Cuska village, why there are no names in OSCE report?

You know what kids say: Liar, liar, pants on fire

See what professional liars from HRW (Morton "Bin Laden's daddy" Abramowitz et al.) say about Cuska "massacre"

Briefly:

-NO MEN YOUNGER THAN MILITARY AGE
-NO AGIM CEKU FROM OSCE REPORT

Thanks for motivating me to dig this gem out.

Two more strikes and you will demoted to the Court Jester of the Balkans front :-) . We need more sharp guys here, not Bozos.

He doesn’t show any connection between these boys names and the May 14 Cuska report he uses which quoted boys as being killed. I can't find these boys names in any report on Cuska. He says in post #58 that the names are taken from an OSCE report, but he doesn't identify where the boys were from and when they died. I asked about his May 14 Cuska quote, and he can't seem to show any boys killed in that attack.

No. House Last Name (Father's Name) First Name Age Notes

1 A Gashi (Shaban) Musë 64
2 B Gashi (Bekë) Emin 60
3 C Gashi (Shaban) Brahim 60
4 E Gashi (Kadri) Isbish 56
5 B Gashi (Dervish) Halil 55
6 D Gashi (Azem) Sylë 49 forced to translate for serbs
7 B Gashi (Azem) Jashar 47
8 C Gashi (Rustem) Ahmet 35
9 D Gashi (Dervish) Skender 37
10 B Gashi (Dervish) Ramê 60
11 A Gashi (Ramê) Xhafer 42
12 Gashi (Dervish) Brahim 56 killed in own house
13 Gashi (Adem) Selim 42 killed in Haki's house
14 Gashi (Nurê) Haki 38 killed in own house
15 B Kelmendi (Dinë) Ibër 52
16 B Kelmendi (Dinë) Skender 46
17 C Kelmendi (Dinë) Besim 36
18 C Kelmendi (Skender) Erdogan
19 19 C Kelmendi (Sylê) Brahim 40
20 B Kelmendi (Isufë) Demê 41
21 C Kelmendi (Shaban) Mentor 23
22 Berisha (Shaban) Avdi 64 killed in own garden
23 F Rama (Hysen) Rasim 40
24 F Shala (Isa) Muhamet 50
25 Ceku (Brahim) Hasan 69 killed at own house
26 Ceku (Ahmet) Kadri 68 killed at own house
27 C Lushi (Haxhi) Sefedin 41
28 B Lushi (Haxhi) Osmon 47
29 A Lushi (Lush) Xhafer 46
30 A Lushi (Lush) Skender 44
31 A Lushi (Lush) Avdulla 60
32 B Lushi (Lush) Ukë 57
33 C Lushi (Lush) Ramiz 41
34 Lushi (Drustem) Qaush 51 outhouse/wc
35 A Lushi (Qaush) Arian 20
36 B Audylaj (Bekë) Gani 42 Guest from Gorozhdevci
37 C Audylaj (Metë) Hasan 40 - 11 -
38 A Shala (Shaban) Isuf 50 Grabol
39 A Krashiqi (Zenel) Emrush 49 Vranoc
40 B Dinaj (Zekë) Ismet 32 Raushiq
41 A Aliaj (Quest) Zequir

There are 41 names listed as being killed in Cuska (it is interesting to note that 14 members are men of the Gashi family, and there are multiple killed from other family members.) It makes me wonder if it was KLA rivalry - as there was some of this that went on after the Serbs were long gone, and the attackers are said to be in mixed uniforms speaking Albanian. Also, attacking other Albanian families in their houses was done fter the Serbs were cleared out:

MUSA FAMILY: WE WERE ATTACKED

Zëri on page five carried the story of Sadik Musaj, who claims to have thrown a grenade at the Haradinaj brothers, who he said came with about 40 people to attack his family.
"It was about 0100 hours, I was at that moment in the bathroom. One brother was awake, while the other part of the family was asleep. They came with 10-15 vehicles, there were 7-8 jeeps and other vehicles. One jeep had Tirana license plates; there was also a red Audi. There were about 40 people. They came from all directions through both gates and over the wall. Ramush Haradinaj was the first, accompanied by Daut, Lieutenant Idriz Balaj, Faton Mehmetaj, the self-proclaimed chief of security for Dukagjin area. A brother saw them from inside and told us to wake up because we are surrounded by the KPC. I was only half-dressed and I came out the door. Ramush directed the laser weapon at me and told me: 'Don't move or you and your family will be liquidated,' then Daut and the Lieutenant reacted and together with Faton Mehmetaj and Bekim Zekaj, they surrounded me."
"I considered myself dead, but I knew that someone from my family was killed, because the automatic weapons hit the windows. At the moment I had revolvers and automatic weapons on my head. I took the grenade the Lieutenant held in his hand, and he was left with the ring. I quickly went backwards, Bekim Zeka (Daut's bodyguard) directed his weapon at me. I removed his hand quickly; the bullets hit the wall and I jumped quickly on the other side, I hided behind the car and threw the bomb. It was a matter of seconds. The bomb exploded near the chair and from its explosion Ramush, Daut and others were wounded, who are probably being treated privately. Then there was a lot of firing from automatic weapons and different arms, and another bomb exploded. All this lasted two hours. My brother jumped from the stairs and scuffled with one of them, took his automatic weapon. He had a revolver in his hand and after a scuffle he luckily escaped. Then they started to withdraw. Later they withdrew the wounded with much difficulty. During all this time, the firing never stopped from both sides. Then, I came to the street to stop somebody to inform KFOR and UNMIK. First came UNMIK and later KFOR. This lasted from 0100 to 0300 hours. When people from UNMIK came, they verified the event, saw the blood of the wounded and somewhere they found the official permit of Ramush. After the search, they verified the blood was theirs and that we were attacked in our yard," said Musaj…

http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/p5pec.htm

Early on 14 May many more people were killed in a larger assault a few hundred metres away in Cuska itself. According to witnesses, Serbian forces in mixed uniforms, including local Serbs who were recognized [who were the Serbs recognized, the ones identified were simply identified and not said to be at the scene, as far as I can tell] and some of whom spoke Albanian, came to the village. The forces were apparently after members of a family with connections high in the UCK, and they killed members of that family, as well as many members of another family. On 24 June, the OSCE-TFK documented a grave, where local witnesses said that the remains of 42 local Kosovo Albanians were buried; 38 of the bodies had been burned. The bodies had been found in six houses in an area spread over about 200 metres. Remains of burnt ID cards and empty casings were found.108

http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/oct/kos1025.htm

Villagers positively identified in photographs two individuals they claim were present in Cuska on May 14. [They claim they were in Cuska – but do they claim they were at the scene of the attack?] Witnesses named one man, Zvonimir Cvetkovic, and other sources identified the second man, Srecko Popovic, from these photos. Other witnesses recognized a third man who was present in Zahac on the same day, Slavisa Kastratovic. While none of these men are known to have opened fire on the ethnic Albanians, their presence in the villages means that they should be able to identify the perpetrators, as well as the commanders of the unit.

It doesn’t even seem that the identified men are connected with the scene – simply that villagers are aware of who they are, and that undated photographs taken in different places were shown around to see if anyone simply knew of them.

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