Kosovo Trial to Press Ahead Despite Attack on Lawyers

An attempt by members of the defence team for former Yugoslav army chief of staff Dragoljub Ojdanic to visit the village of Krushe e Vogel/Mala Krusa in Kosovo on May 25 led to a confrontation between local residents and police. A number of people were injured.



But the judges hearing the case said they were not convinced by defence arguments that under the circumstances they were unable to prepare for trial. UNMIK's inability to provide proper security on this particular visit did not necessarily mean that they couldn't do so in future, the judges argued.



As evidence that UNMIK is committed to assisting the defence teams, they pointed to a letter from a senior UN official in Kosovo to Ojdanic's counsel setting out requirements for any further visits, including the provision of a detailed itinerary several days in advance.



Ojdanic and his co-defendants are charged with playing key roles in a campaign of ethnic cleansing directed against Kosovo's Albanian population in 1999. The crimes listed in the indictment against them include a massacre of over 100 men and boys in a house in Krushe e Vogel/Mala Krusa, allegedly carried out by Serbian and Yugoslav security forces in March 1999.