Witness Says Belgrade Commanded Kosovo Police

A defence witness said this week that defendant Sreten Lukic did was not in charge of the special police units deployed in Kosovo in 1999, as the chain of command led back to the interior ministry in Belgrade.



Lukic is on trial in The Hague alongside former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic, former Yugoslav vice-president Nikola Sainovic and Yugoslav army generals Dragoljub Ojdanic, Vladimir Lazarevic and Nebojsa Pavkovic.



Expert witness Branislav Simonovic, who took the stand this week in the trial of the six officials, testified about the structure of the police in Kosovo in 1999, focusing on the role of Lukic, who was then head of the Serbian interior ministry, MUP, Staff for Kosovo and Metohija.



“[I] came across several statements during [my] research of people trying to make their roles bigger then they actually were, and that might be the case with Mr Lukic,” said the law and criminology professor.



When Lukic testified in his own defence few weeks ago, he stated that the special police units operating in Kosovo were under a dual command structure, taking orders both from the commander of the given unit and from the Kosovo MUP headquarters, which he commanded.



This week, prosecutors asked the witness to comment on these claims.



“Dual command is not possible in police structures,” said Simonovic.



The six defendants are charged with responsibility for the killing of hundreds of Kosovo Albanians and the forcible transfer of 800,000 others in the first half of 1999. According to the indictment, they were part of a “joint criminal enterprise” aimed at cleansing Kosovo of its non-Serb population.



In March 1999, NATO forces bombed targets in Serbia to stop the expulsion of Kosovo Albanians. The campaign ended three months later.



Simonovic spoke at length about the paradoxical position of the Kosovo MUP headquarters.



“The ministry for internal affairs [was] in Belgrade, and beneath it there were police divisions and police departments. Their jurisdictions were clearly defined by a rulebook which didn’t contain a Kosovo-based [MUP] headquarters; hence it had no power to command units,” he said.



“The only activity it took part in was directing the flow of information from Kosovo towards Belgrade,” he added.



During cross-examination, Simonovic was asked whether that made the Kosovo headquarters a “complementary unit” to the Belgrade ministry.



He replied, “No, it was more like a unit for assistance with logistics and training, but with no oversight or control over units.”



However, when asked by the judges if it was at all possible that ministry in Belgrade had placed Lukic in charge of the special police units, Simonovic said it was possible.



“But there would have to be an order or document which I could not find in my research,” he added.



The witness was shown a document signed by the Serbian interior minister in May 1999 which said Lukic had been promoted to the rank of police general because of his “extraordinary achievements in commanding police units that work on containing terrorism in Kosovo”.



Simonovic repeated that Lukic could not have commanded units in Kosovo at that time, and added that promotions had been common in May 1999.



“It was the time of the NATO attacks and people needed to keep their spirits high. I remember seeing on TV dozens of promotions of this sort every day,” he said.



The witness was also questioned about travel documents which Serb police officers allegedly took from Albanians when they were forced out of Kosovo. The aim, according to the prosecution, was to ensure they could no longer prove their citizenship.



However, Simonovic said that such a tactic would not have worked.



“There are other ways to prove a person is a citizen of Yugoslavia. There are birth records in every country, and registration records. These are always available if a person loses their documents; they could also be used in this case,” he replied.



During cross-examination, the prosecution asked whether the witness had ever researched police structures before.



Simonovic said that while he had never studied the Kosovo police, he had researched overall police structures and had also worked on police reform issues in Serbia for several years.



The judges expressed concern about some of the written testimony given by Simonovic at an earlier date, which listed the constitutional positions in government in 1999 and stated that the president of Serbia had “very little actual power”.



Presiding Judge Iain Bonomy asked how it was possible for Slobodan Milosevic to be such a powerful political figure if he actually enjoyed little power.



The witness replied he “didn’t know the answer”.



Asked whether he did not think Milosevic had been a powerful political figure, Simonovic said, “[I don’t] refute the claim, only I wouldn’t know how to answer that question.”



The trial continues next week with testimony from the final defence witness.



Denis Dzidic is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.