NATO BOMBING CAUSED KOSOVO EXODUS

Janicevic pointed out the locations where the KVM observers were located on
January 15th 1999, and the location of the infamous Racak gully. From the
satellite picture it was clear that the KVM observers had an unobstructed
view of the gully. Janicevic said that the KVM observers were so close that
they could see the gully with the naked eye.

The witness also refuted the prosecutor's accusation that prisoners were
tortured at the Urosevac SUP building. Mr. Nice's allegations of torture
relied heavily on the OSCE publication "Kosovo/Kosova: As Seen As Told."
That publication is supposed to an account of what the KVM observer mission
saw, but Janicevic testified that nobody from the KVM ever came to the
Urosevac SUP building to investigate the claims of torture that got
published in "As Seen As Told". It is also worth noting that KVM Observer
Roland Keith questioned the truthfulness and objectivity of that publication
when he testified.

After Janicevic concluded his testimony, Milosevic called General Milos
Djosan to the witness stand. Gen. Djosan served as the commander of the 52nd
Artillery Brigade of the Yugoslav Air Defense. He was also the commander of
the Djackovica garrison. His area of responsibility was the air space for
all of Kosovo from 1998 until June of 1999.

Gen. Djosan testified that the officer corps of his unit was comprised of
Slovenes, Macedonians, Croats, Albanians, Hungarians, Muslims, and Serbs. He
said that the enlisted men were predominantly Serbs. The fact that the
commanding officers were mostly non-Serbs would seem to refute the idea that
ethnic cleansing was the objective of the Yugoslav Army.

Gen. Djosan testified that there was no plan to expel Albanians, or anybody
else, from Kosovo. He said that if such a plan had existed he would have
known about it.

He testified that the KLA increased its activities when the OSCE/KVM came to
Kosovo. The witness explained that the KLA was emboldened by the presence of
the OSCE observers, and increased their activity.

Gen. Djosan recounted one instance where a KVM observer came to visit his
unit and was only interested in inspecting the anti-aircraft missiles. The
KVM observer was not interested in artillery that could have been used
against people on the ground; he was only interested in missiles that could
threaten aircraft.

The obvious conclusion is that this so-called "KVM observer" was a NATO spy
on a reconnaissance mission. He wanted to see what sort of artillery the VJ
would have at its disposal when NATO started bombing.

Gen. Djosan gave evidence regarding collaboration between the KLA and NATO.
He explained that NATO gave the KLA full air support for its combat
activities. To make the point even clearer Milosevic replayed the video of
Paddy Ashdown chatting with KLA terrorists and inspecting their weapons
prior to the war.

As the man responsible for Kosovo's air defense, Gen. Djosan is intimately
familiar with the locations of the NATO bombing raids. As it turns out, all
of the locations that the prosecution refers to as "deportation sites" are
the areas that NATO bombed heavily during the war.

In other words, the areas that were bombed the most generated the most
refugees. Gen. Djosan pointed out that there isn't a single one of the
alleged "deportation sites" that wasn't bombed by NATO. NATO bombed every
last place where the indictment claims that "ethnic cleansing" took place.
No forced deportation is alleged in any of the places that NATO didn't bomb.

Gen. Djosan testified that everybody, Albanians and non-Albanians alike,
fled during the NATO bombing. He testified that there was an exodus of the
general population, not the mono-ethnic exodus of Albanians that one would
expect if there had really been an ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's Albanian
population.

The fact that everybody fled from Kosovo during the NATO bombing is proven.
On October 15, 1999 the UNHCR published a report entitled "Numbers of
refugees displaced from Kosovo 23 March-9 June 1999". Their report states
that "more than 100,000" Serbs left Kosovo during the NATO bombing. Compare
that to the total of 862,979 refugees, and you see that there was a greater
preponderance of Serbs among the refugees than there was in Kosovo's general
population.

In other words, a higher percentage of the Serbian population fled from
Kosovo than the Albanian population. The ratio of Albanians to Serbs in
Kosovo became more favorable for Albanians at the precise time when
Milosevic is accused of ethnically cleansing the Albanians.

After testifying about the reasons behind the mass-exodus of refugees from
Kosovo, Gen. Djosan focused his attention on specific incidents alleged by
the indictment in the area of Djackovica, where he was garrison commander.

He will continue his testimony when the trial resumes on Wednesday.

In general trial news, Milosevic announced that he needs at least another
422 hours (in-chief) to complete his defense case. He wants to call 199 more
witnesses: 15 Kosovo witnesses, 74 Croatia witnesses, 106 Bosnia witnesses,
and 4 hostile witnesses (Clinton, Blair, Schroeder, and Clark).

The judges, who have been reluctant to grant Milosevic more time in the
past, have said that they will hold a status conference to consider the
matter.

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg101805.htm