Witness “Excavated Human Bodies” in Kosovo

A witness told the war crimes trial of Vlastimir Djordjevic this week that he was hired by the Yugoslav army and the Serbian police to excavate bodies in the Kosovo district of Djakovica/Gjakovë.



Witness K72, an ethnic Serb from Djakovica, testified in the trial of the former Serbian police chief under a pseudonym, but his face was not concealed.



This week, he said that ranking officers from the Yugoslav army, VJ, and the Serbian interior ministry, MUP, took him to fresh grave sites, where the witness would use his excavator machine to uncover bodies before they were transferred to nearby trucks. This occurred in three towns surrounding Djakovica during the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, he said.



Djordjevic is on trial at the Hague tribunal for his alleged participation in a “systematic campaign” of terror and violence against Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian population.



He is accused of engaging in a “joint criminal enterprise” that resulted in the deportation, murder, transfer and persecution of about 800,000 ethnic Albanians between January 1 and June 20, 1999.



According to the indictment, Djordjevic “took a lead role” in efforts to conceal murders, in cooperation with Serbian state security forces and the VJ.



Witness K72, a resident of Djakovica from 1981 to June 1999, told the court that a VJ officer first approached him at his home in 1998, asking him to dig trenches for the army. The witness said he was unaware of the man’s rank or name.



He said that he then worked for the VJ as well as for the MUP throughout 1998 and early 1999, digging trenches, bunkers and excavating roads.



In April 1999, Witness K72 said that a man in a MUP uniform arrived at his house at 8 or 9 pm, wearing blue camouflage, without any rank insignia. The officer said that the witness was needed to perform “a delicate job”.



According to the witness, the officer drove to the police station where his excavating machine was parked at the time, before the men began driving towards Prizren. Witness K72 followed the officer in the excavating machine, and they turned off the road just before reaching Bistrazin, the witness added.



“I saw that some digging had been done there already,” the witness said, describing a clearing approximately 100 metres off the road. “There was a strong stench. I felt straight away that corpses must be involved, and then I saw them.”



The witness was told to start digging by the officer, who returned to his car on the main road.



Prosecutor Eliot Behar asked what the digging involved.



“I excavated human bodies,” the witness said. “There were four or five gypsies around. They’d separate the bodies up to the point where I could dig the shovel.”



The witness said he could see the “gypsies” searching the pockets of the deceased.



“I damaged many of the bodies with the machine,” the witness added. He said they were “not badly mutilated”, but added that with an excavation machine you might “detach an arm or leg”.



The witness said the bodies were all male and were wearing civilian clothing. He said he could not judge how long the bodies had been in the ground, only that there was a “terrible stench” emanating from the grave site. He could not see their faces, since they were covered with dirt and sand, he said.



The MUP officer, the witness said, told him that he had dug up 100 bodies at the site. The witness described the “gypsies” loading the bodies onto what he described as “refrigerator trucks” and other small trucks.



The witness said he excavated bodies for two to three hours. Behar asked him to describe his reaction to the dig.



“It was harrowing,” the witness said. “What else could it have been?”



Witness K72 said that approximately three weeks later, a different MUP officer approached him about a job.



The two men drove to a nearby elementary school where the witness’s excavating machine was parked. They waited until it was dark before they drove to a cemetery a few kilometres outside of Brekovac.



There, he said, he was told to dig up some graves. These were covered with fresh earth and marked with wooden planks, some of which had names on them, Witness K72 said.



Prosecutor Behar asked the witness what types of names were written on the planks, in terms of ethnicity.



“I suppose they were Muslims judging by the names, but that’s not necessarily true,” the witness said.



One by one, the witness removed the bodies, which were then loaded onto a nearby tractor-trailer by a group of “gypsies”, he said.



The witness told judges that he began the excavation at 9 or 10 pm in the evening, and finished at 10 am the next morning. He said he could not guess how many bodies had been pulled from the ground.



“I could discern faces here and there,” the witness said of the bodies, adding that they were all male. “Some were naked to the waist, with bullet wounds.”



The prosecutor then asked the witness about a statement he had given to the prosecution in which he said that he saw the letters “KLA” shaved into the head of one of the corpses.



Witness K72 told the court that because of this marking, he suspected the man was a member of the Albanian separatist Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, but couldn't be sure. None of the bodies was wearing distinctive KLA uniforms, he said.



Witness K72 said that he was recruited for another job in Guska a couple of days later. Once again, a man in MUP uniform picked up the witness, who collected the excavator, and was then led to the nearby settlement, he said.



There he was instructed to dig up three to four graves in three rows. Once again, the bodies uncovered were all adult males, dressed in civilian clothing.



Behar asked Witness K72 whether he believed the police were organised in planning these excavations.



“They were badly organised,” the witness said, adding that it was “something that shouldn’t have happened”.



“But after it was over, traces remained,” the witness said. “People could tell… something has been covered up.”



Behar asked if the witness had spoken with anyone from the MUP about the excavations.



“Yes, one man kind of threatened me,” the witness said, saying the officer told him he could “lose his head” if he told anyone about it.



Witness K72 said he did not know the particulars of the excavations or how they were authorised.



During cross-examination, defence attorney Dragoljub Djordjevic asked Witness K72 why he had left Djakovica in June 1999, questioning if it had to do with the MUP and VJ.



“Were you afraid?” Djordjevic asked the witness.



“Yes, very much so,” he replied, adding that he would never return to the district.



Djordjevic then asked whether the witness ever discussed the excavations with any of the MUP officers or “gypsies”, or questioned how the buried men had died.



“I was just a simple worker,” Witness K72 said. “There was no need for anyone to talk to me. No one ever said how those people were killed.”



Djordjevic concluded his cross-examination by revisiting particulars of the witness’s testimonies on the excavation scenes, particularly those relating to the presence of the MUP.



He asked the witness if he thought it was odd that the police would secure the perimeter during an excavation.



“Well, it was strange that no one informed me what I’d be doing,” the witness said. “Whether it’s strange that police are involved in exhumations, I don’t know. It was my first one. I hope I don’t do any more.”



The witness previously testified about the same events in October 2006 at the Hague tribunal trial of six Serb officials charged with war crimes in Kosovo, including Milan Milutinovic, the former president of Serbia. Milutinovic was acquitted on all counts in February this year.



The Djordjevic trial continues next week.



Julia Hawes is an IWPR contributor in The Hague.