Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06PRISTINA461
2006-05-30 06:29:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

KOSOVO: ICTY DEFENSE TEAM VISIT TO MASSACRE SITE

Tags:  PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI 
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VZCZCXRO0558
OO RUEHAST
DE RUEHPS #0461/01 1500629
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 300629Z MAY 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6162
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0704
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMIUU/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFIUU/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000461 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE
NSC FOR BRAUN
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: ICTY DEFENSE TEAM VISIT TO MASSACRE SITE
CREATES UPROAR

REF: (A) 05 PRISTINA 958 (B) PRISTINA 282 (C)

PRISTINA 336

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SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000461

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE
NSC FOR BRAUN
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: ICTY DEFENSE TEAM VISIT TO MASSACRE SITE
CREATES UPROAR

REF: (A) 05 PRISTINA 958 (B) PRISTINA 282 (C)

PRISTINA 336

PRISTINA 00000461 001.2 OF 003


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The unannounced visit of two Serbian ICTY
defense lawyers to a rural village that was the site of a
1999 Serb-on-Albanian massacre caused an uproar among village
residents, virtually all of whom are relatives of the
victims. Kosovo Albanians blocked the main village road and
stoned the visitors' vehicles, prompting police to deploy
tear gas. Many of the Kosovo Albanian village residents and
area radicals insist that the visitors were not lawyers or
UNMIK officials but former Kosovo Serb residents of the
village who were involved in the massacre. The Kosovo press
has generally fanned misinformation coming from the scene.
END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) According to UNMIK sources, on May 25 two Serbian
lawyers accredited to the International War Crimes Tribunal
(ICTY) as defense council in the case against seven
high-level indictees -- including former Serbian President
Milan Milutinovic and former Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav
Army Dragoljub Ojdanic -- visited the village of Krushe e
Vogel/Mala Krusa in Prizren municipality. The adjoining
villages of Krushe e Vogel and Krush e Madhe were the venues
of a March 26, 1999 massacre after which 363 ethnic Albanian
men and adolescent boys went missing (Ref A). The remains of
107 of them have been located, mostly in mass graves inside
Serbia, and have since been returned to their families. The
rest remain missing.


3. (SBU) Deputy UNMIK Police Commissioner Paul Hutchings
reported in an e-mail made available to E/P chief that the
convoy, consisting of several UNMIK vehicles, UNMIK Close
Protection and one KPS Regional Operations Support Unit
(ROSU),entered the village at about 1130 on May 25 and the
lawyers began asking residents about the March 1999 events
through a Serbian-Albanian interpreter provided by UNMIK.
Some of the villagers, evidently mistaking the interpreter

for a Kosovo Serb former village resident they believe was
complicit in the massacre, blocked the convoy's progress and
pelting the vehicles with stones. Hutchings reported that
the ROSU was then deployed and, when a car window broke and
the interpreter injured, the ROSU fired tear gas into the
crowd, managing to disperse it, whereupon the convey was able
to leave the village. An UNMIK press release later confirmed
that three police officers and the interpreter were injured
in the incident, along with several Kosovo Albanian
villagers, most of whom suffered effects from the tear gas.
The media reported that 37 people were injured -- 21 adults
and 16 children.


4. (SBU) Krushe e Vogel resident and frequent USOP contact
Agron Limani called PolFSN as events were unfolding. He said
the incident began when residents, who had not been informed
in advance of the visit, thought they recognized former Serb
residents riding through town in the UNMIK convoy and
attempted to question them regarding the whereabouts of their
loved ones. (NOTE. Some grieving family members remain
convinced that their missing relatives are detained in secret
prisons in Serbia (ref B). END NOTE.) Limani otherwise
essentially confirmed Hutching's account of events, adding
that village residents blocked the main road connecting
connects Prizren and Gjakova municipalities for an hour after
the convey left, opening the road only after UNMIK Police
Commission Kai Vittrup promised to meet with them. He also
said that villagers continue to believe that two of the
visitors were former village residents Borislav Cvetkovic and
Gordana Djordjevic. He alleged that Cvetkovic was involved
in separating men and boys from their families in March 1999
and that Djordjevic's brothers were involved in the
massacres.


5. (SBU) Amcit Wayne Hissong, deputy chief of the organized

PRISTINA 00000461 002.2 OF 003


crime directorate at UNMIK, told RLA that the visit to Krush
e Vogel was in preparation for an International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) trial scheduled to
start in July. He said two Serbian defense attorneys visited
ten sites in Kosovo and did not experience any problems at
any of them other than Krush e Vogel. He said the KPS has
established a task force to investigate but added that he
believes the police conducted themselves appropriately. He
said Gordana Blanusa, the injured interpreter, sustained a
superficial head wound. (NOTE. Blanusa briefly worked at USOP
last year. Her personnel file lists her as being from
Gracanica. END NOTE.)


6. (SBU) SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen quickly condemned the
incident, saying, "It is important for the people of Kosovo
to understand that their quest for justice can only be
achieved through the course of justice, not by extra-judicial
means." He said rule of law must be respected and, "at this
crucial time, their every action has a bearing on the future
of Kosovo." The government of Kosovo issued a statement
echoing these concerns, but added that it does not support
the use of violence against citizens and announced that
further investigations would be conducted.


7. (SBU) Kosovo media widely reported the incident. Some
television stations reported that the villagers believed that
UNMIK had been trying to return Kosovo Serbs to the village;
other stations skipped the sourcing and incorrectly reported
as a fact that the incident was a returns visit gone bad.
Even after the UNMIK press release, rumors continue to fly
that Kosovo Serb former residents of the village, either
those directly involved in crimes or their family members,
were traveling in the convoy.


8. (SBU) The Prizren branch of the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) veterans organization accused UNMIK of "conspiring with
Belgrade to create chaos and panic in Kosovo with the
intention of destabilizing the situation." Self-styled
radical Albin Kurti's Self Determination Movement accused
UNMIK of "the gravest provocation of the people of Kosovo --
returning Serbs to the most sensitive place possible," and
the radical National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo
(LKCK) said police attacked defenseless widows and orphans,
in order to "please criminals" who had returned to the "crime
scene."


9. (SBU) On May 26 Limani told PolFSN that Commissioner
Vittrup and Deputy Kosovo Protection Corps Commissioner
Sheremet Ahmeti came to Krush e Vogel on the evening of May
25 and met with the villagers. Limani said the meeting was
constructive, and the residents were pleased that they came
so quickly. He said the parties had agreed in particular
that the village council and Prizren authorities would be
notified in advance of any future visits.


10. (SBU) COMMENT. USOP officers have several times visited
Krush e Vogel and other villages in its vicinity. Ambassador
Frank Wisner, the Secretary's special representative for the
Kosovo status talks, met there in April with several
relatives of missing persons (ref C). Many of these
survivors have clearly never come to grips with the
overwhelming tragedy of March 26, 1999. Visits there even by
Kosovo prosecutors demand careful planning given that many of
the villagers cling to the irrational belief that their
missing relatives remain alive. Visits by Serbians, UNMIK
notions of political correctness notwithstanding, demand at a
minimum advance notice to residents and careful explanation
of who is coming and why. UNHCR would never conduct returnee
"go and see" visits to former Kosovo Serb homes without such
planning. It astounds us that UNMIK saw no potential
difficulty with the idea of unannounced visits to massacre
sites by lawyers defending individuals charged with the mass
murder of Kosovo Albanians. END COMMENT.


11. (U) Post clears this message in its entirety for release

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to Special Envoy Ahtisaari.
GURIAN