Serbia Armed Kosovo Serbs Court Told

The Hague tribunal heard this week that Serbia handed out up to 60,000 weapons to ethnic Serb civilians in Kosovo during the conflict there in 1998.



The tribunal was hearing evidence in the trial of Vlastimir Djordjevic, the head of Serbia’s police during the Kosovo war, who is accused of taking part in a widespread campaign of terror and violence directed at ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999.



The prosecution produced what it said were Serbian military documents showing that up to 60,000 infantry weapons, including machine guns, were distributed to so-called reserve police squads, RPOs, of Serbs in Kosovo villages.



Djordjevic said that despite the name, these squads were not part of the Serb police or even the official reserves for the police. The squads were effectively acting as civilians, although many of them had been in the reserve units of Serbian forces, he said.



He acknowledged that weapons had been given to Serb civilians in Kosovo villages during the war by Serbian police but he said he had not been aware that such a large number had been distributed. He also said that the RPOs had not committed any crimes in Kosovo.



Djordjevic said these weapons “were used only for self-defence” by the Serb civilians. He said that Serbs were asking for weapons to defend themselves against ethnic violence. But of the RPOs, he said, “These police squads were not used for offensive actions.” He added that he had told the local Serbs that the Serbian forces would protect them.



Djordjevic also said that the civilian RPOs were not managed by his department, even though they were supplied with weapons and training by the Serb police. “Interior ministry forces and the police stations did not manage the police squads,” he said.



Djordjevic was a high-ranking and decorated Serbian official during the war. In 1998, when the weapons were allegedly distributed, he was assistant Serbian interior minister. He was also the acting head of the Serbian police from 1997 onwards. He took this position formally in January 1999.



He was also awarded the Order of the Yugoslav Flag, First Class, by then president Slobodan Milosevic. The prosecution said that this decoration was normally reserved for those involved in fighting so-called terrorists in Kosovo. Djordjevic disputes this.



The prosecution also produced a document which they alleged showed that a Serbian general had instructed police chiefs to conceal the arming of Serb civilians. Djordjevic disagreed with this interpretation of the document.



Djordjevic was undergoing cross-examination by the prosecution counsel, Chester Stamp, and said that he was not responsible for any crimes committed by the Serbian police in Kosovo. “I don’t know who committed crimes,” he said.



Djordjevic has also denied any responsibility for the deaths of 55 people found in a refrigerator truck that surfaced in the Peruac lake in Serbia in April 1999. He said that he had wanted to investigate these deaths, but his superior, Vlajko Stojiljkovi, had told him that an investigation was under way.



Djordjevic said that was his only connection with the incident, “I had nothing to do with this business.”



Djordjevic acknowledged that he had been responsible for the burial of 80 ethnic Albanians who were found in another truck that was dumped at Kladovo on the Danube river, 250 kilometres to the east of Belgrade.



He said these bodies were later buried in the training compound of a special anti-terrorism police unit nearby and that Stojiljkovi had ordered him to bury the bodies.



He said that Stojiljkovi “told me there was a war going on” and that “this was the way to resolve the situation”.



Stojiljkovi was indicted by the Hague tribunal in 1999 but committed suicide in 2002.



The trial continues.



Mike Kielty is an IWPR intern in London.