The Circus of 'Frivolous' Witnesses: Djindjic wrong about witnesses

In a recent German magazine interview, Serbian President Zoran Djindjic reportedly described the trial of Slobodan Milosevic as a circus for its lack of 'serious witnesses,' after testimony from the first half-dozen of an anticipated 90 witnesses in the Kosovo part of the trial. Those witnesses include three farmers, a housewife, a doctor, and a professional translator.

Over more than two weeks, their testimony painted a picture of massive deportation of Albanian civilians from Kosovo, which began the day after NATO bombing started. According to their testimony, deportation followed a pattern of terrorizing the civilian population with shooting, looting, selective killing, burning of houses and property destruction, followed by the approach of military vehicles and infantry who routed the population, often separating men from women and children, forcing the latter to leave for Albania. One witness, Dr. Agron Berisha, described the mass exodus of frightened civilians amid burning and shelling as a 'Golgotha.'

The witnesses President Djindjic implies are frivolous include Mr. Agim Zeqiri, a 48-year-old farmer who lost 16 members of his family and became permanently disabled from a beating suffered in the war. He returned from forced exile in Albania and Germany to find nearly all the houses in his village burned and 75 villagers dead.

Mr. Fehmi Elshani, a 67-year-old retired farmer, told of the Serb military descending on the villages near him immediately after the first NATO air strike, shooting at houses and torching them. For days, he and other villagers went from house to house seeking safety. He and his wife were ultimately discovered hiding in their cellar by Serbian police, one of whom was moments away from cutting his throat when he was stopped by another policeman. Before reaching safety in Albania, police tried to extort money from him, and all his identity documents were taken, as they were for most of the other witnesses.

Mr. Halil Morina, a 65-year-old retired farmer, testified that he watched tanks and infantry arrive from a nearby village following the death of two policemen and an unidentified civilian. He stated that Serbian forces shelled the houses in the village for four hours, killing 13 people who had taken refuge on a hill, including an 18-month-old infant. They torched houses, damaged a mosque, and removed the bodies of the 13 villagers. Mr. Morina set his cows loose, joined other refugees and was taken to Albania on buses organized by Serb civilians.

Mrs. Ajmoni Behrami, a 32-year-old housewife, testified that she lost her husband and infant son, who starved to death when she was separated from him by shelling that split the refugee column in which she walked. After returning from Albania, she saw the mass grave in which her husband had been buried with 164 others.

Dr. Agron Berisha witnessed the murder of two cousins and saw the dead bodies of two other cousins dragged from the house next door where the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission had stayed for 6 months prior to the war. The houses were looted and burned. From a survivor, Dr. Berisha learned that 40 people were herded into a nearby pizzeria where they were mowed down with automatic weapons. The bodies were then put on a truck and taken away. The doctor returned to Suva Reka after being a refugee in Albania to find approximately half of the houses burned and 49 of 50 villages in the municipality destroyed. Five hundred of Suva Reka's citizens had died.

Mr. Besnik Sokoli is a 24-year-old professional translator from Peja/Pec. Likely because of his association with foreigners through his work, he was detained by police for five to six hours, interrogated and beaten before being helped by a Serb policeman to get on the truck with his family for the trip to Albania.

Reviewing the testimony of these witnesses, one wonders how closely Mr. Djindjic has followed the trial. That does not mean their testimonies were flawless or entirely consistent. Several of them were decidedly shy about admitting knowledge of the KLA, whether out of habit, fear, truth, or some other reason. Mrs. Behrami's husband was a member of the KLA, a fact which she admitted, though she was confused about when he joined and how long he had been with them. Mr. Elshani's son was also a member. It was left to a later witness, Mr. Halil Barani, President of the Mitrovica branch of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, to acknowledge the KLA, 'After the offensives and massacres of Albanians at the hands of the police, army and paramilitaries, the ranks of the KLA grew from day-to-day, so that people who were faced with extermination could defend themselves.'

Similarly, most of these first witnesses denied knowledge of destruction from NATO bombing. Mr. Milosevic has pinned blame on NATO and the KLA for the destruction of houses and villages and deaths of civilians, but these witnesses blamed Serbian forces exclusively. Several of the witnesses left Kosovo a few days after bombing began and, as they testified, knew no more than what was broadcast on television. For others, however, their denials of any destruction by NATO didn't always ring true. For example, Mr. Elshani tesitfied that 11 people were killed after he heard explosions in a house next door to him. Under questioning by amicus curiae, he admitted that the explosions caused his windows and doors to shatter and the ceiling to fall in. Later, Serbian police asked him to identify the bodies, while other police took video footage. When he returned from Albania he saw seven craters there and the remnants of bombs, which he denied were cluster bombs claiming that they had cyrillic lettering. The amicus' questioning raised doubt about Mr. Elshani's conclusions.

It is important to remember that the three judges will weigh this evidence and the credibility of the witnesses along with any evidence Mr. Milosevic presents when it is his turn. As professional judges, they are less likely than a jury to throw out a witness's entire testimony because one or two points are of questionable credibility. For the most part, judges understand that, even under oath, people can be less than accurate for a variety of reasons. Not least is the desire to make one's universe coherent. This may be especially true for those suffering extreme trauma and massive disruption in their lives.

It is equally important to remember that Mr. Milosevic's questions do not constitute evidence. For every new fact he raises, which is not confirmed by a witness, he must introduce sworn evidence in support when it is time for him to present his case. It is much too early to assess the prosecution's case, let alone Mr. Milosevic's defense. Trials are not sporting events where points are tallied to determine a winner and loser.