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No smoking gun { July 27 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7818-2002Jul26.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7818-2002Jul26.html
At Milosevic's Trial, No 'Smoking Gun'
Recess Begins as Prosecutors Still Seek Definitive Link to Events in Kosovo
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 27, 2002; Page A18
PARIS, July 26 -- After months of testimony from scores of witnesses, the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic recessed in The Hague today for a four-week summer break, with U.N. prosecutors having presented a detailed case that Serbian forces engaged in the systematic murder and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Despite extensive testimony from former Western envoys, military attaches, forensics experts, Serbian "insiders" and Albanian survivors, one crucial element still seems lacking, according to trial observers: the "smoking gun" that can link the events in Kosovo directly to orders from Milosevic.
Prosecutors had hoped that today's witness, Milosevic's former state security chief, Rade Markovic, would provide that. Flown here from a Belgrade prison where he is awaiting trial on charges of assassinating political opponents in Serbia, Markovic had been expected to place Milosevic at meetings where key decisions were made to exhume the bodies of massacred Albanians and have them trucked to Serbia proper to avoid detection.
But during cross-examination by Milosevic, who is defending himself despite a medical report on Thursday citing strains on the former leader's weak heart, Markovic played the role of loyal subordinate, denying that any orders existed to deport or execute ethnic Albanians and saying that soldiers who engaged in human rights abuses had been prosecuted.
"I never got any order, nor did I hear about any order or plan to expel Albanians," said Markovic, one of the highest-ranking witnesses who prosecutors had hoped would directly implicate Milosevic.
Markovic said 200 members of the Interior Ministry police had been prosecuted for abuses, and even more members of the Yugoslav army were investigated for crimes in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, which is Yugoslavia's dominant republic. Observers of the trial said it was the first time they had heard such figures.
Markovic had testified earlier that his orders came from the Interior Ministry, not Milosevic. But he did say Milosevic arranged large transfers of funds to help pay for the Kosovo operation, which he referred to as an "anti-terrorist campaign" against guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA.
Richard Dicker, who is monitoring the trial for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said today's testimony "does not show that Milosevic knew war crimes were being committed."
"None of that adds up to a smoking gun, by any stretch of the imagination," Dicker said.
Prosecutors will use the remaining time -- three weeks beginning Aug. 26 -- to finish their case on Kosovo and try to establish Milosevic's role there before the trial moves on to war crimes he is accused of committing in Bosnia and Croatia.
Milosevic has refused to recognize the tribunal's legitimacy and has used his cross-examinations mostly to make long speeches criticizing NATO's 1999 bombing campaign. But when he has directly addressed the Kosovo operation, which began in 1998, he has denied any plan to "ethnically cleanse" the province, saying ethnic Albanians who left were fleeing NATO bombardment or KLA conscription.
While not yet placing Milosevic's fingerprints on the Kosovo game plan, prosecutors have presented several outside witnesses who testified that they told Milosevic about the mass killings and property destruction in Kosovo. One was Paddy Ashdown, a former British politician and Balkans envoy, who said he warned Milosevic that if he did not rein in his troops, he would face war crimes charges.
Human rights groups and others contend such testimony is vital, because at the very least it shows Milosevic should have known what was happening in Kosovo. But they are angry that one high-level witness who could add weight -- former U.N. ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who was President Bill Clinton's Balkans emissary -- is being prevented from testifying by the Bush administration. The administration is negotiating with the tribunal over the terms for appearances by Holbrooke and other former U.S. officials.
The White House, citing security concerns, wants Holbrooke's testimony sealed. But others suspect the administration may also be signaling its concern about cooperating with any international tribunal as part of its opposition to the U.N.-backed International Criminal Court.
"It's a general suspicion they have about international tribunals, and not putting [themselves] in the position of having high U.S. officials, or former officials, interrogated in an international court," said Judith Armatta, who is monitoring the trial for the Washington-based Coalition for International Justice, which focuses on war crimes.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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