SERBIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST NINE SERBIAN-CITIZEN ALBANIANS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 001343

STATE FOR TODD BUCHWALD (L) AND AMB WILLIAMSON (S/WCI)

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL MARR SR KV
SUBJECT: SERBIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST NINE SERBIAN-CITIZEN ALBANIANS
SUSPECTED OF KOSOVO WAR CRIMES

REF: BELGRADE 1059

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) On December 26 in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley,
authorities arrested nine Serbian-citizen Albanians on allegations
of war crimes committed against Serbs in neighboring Kosovo in 1999.
Police are searching for an additional eight suspects while
judicial proceedings have begun in Belgrade. Serbia's Albanians
have protested the high profile way in which the arrests were
carried out and the situation remains calm but tense. While the
Government insists that the arrests were not politically motivated,
the high-profile arrests certainly will factor into Serbia's case
against Kosovo independence with the International Court of Justice
(reftel). This case renews the urgency of preparing a convincing
case for Kosovo's independence as Serbia attempts to win in the
court of public opinion. End Summary.


Nine Ethnic Albanians Arrested
--------------


2. (U) In coordinated raids in Presevo Valley on December 26,
Serbian special police anti-terrorist units and gendarmerie, acting
on the orders of Serbia's War Crime Prosecutor, arrested nine
Serbian-citizen Albanians accused of war crimes stemming from the
1999 Kosovo conflict, government and media sources report. Minister
of Interior Ivica Dacic and Minister for Local Self Government Milan
Markovic were on the scene in south Serbia overseeing the police
action. The suspects were brought to Belgrade where they were
questioned by an investigating judge of the War Crimes Chamber and
placed in pre-trial detention for 30 days. The nine are accused of
being former members of the Foreign Legion branch of the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) and of involvement in the kidnappings of 159
Serb civilians and the murder, torture and rape of at least 51
persons in the area of Gnjilane, Kosovo from June to October 1999.



Government: Operation Not Political
--------------


3. (SBU) In a December 26 meeting with Contact Group ambassadors
(Quint plus Russia),Serbian Ministry for Foreign Affairs Political
Director Borko Stefanovic said the action was not political, but
rather a legal process. Stefanovic said the police action had been
coordinated under the auspices of War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir
Vukcevic. According to media reports, Dacic called on Albanians in
South Serbia to remain peaceful, insisting that the police actions
were not directed against Albanians, but rather against alleged war
criminals. "Serbia, naturally, participates in investigations of
war crimes in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. We think that
the whole world should learn what kinds of crimes were committed
against the people of former Yugoslavia, especially in Kosovo,"
Dacic told B92 media on December 27.


Vukcevic Describes Evidence
--------------


4. (SBU) In a December 29 meeting, Vukcevic told us that the
investigation hinged on the cooperation of a local informant, now in
witness protection, who had been a member of the KLA's "Gnjilane
group" and who had provided explicit details about the war crimes
carried out in 1999 as well as the present whereabouts of the
perpetrators. After investigating 17 individuals for several
months, the Prosecutor's office decided to act now because several
of the suspects had come to Presevo for the New Year's holiday;
Vukcevic also said that concern for the informant's safety was a
factor in the timing. Nine had been apprehended and transferred to
Belgrade; Serbia will seek Interpol warrants for the remaining eight
individuals, four of whom are "well-known Kosovo Albanian criminals
who are feared by the local population," according to Vukcevic.


5. (SBU) Reading to us from the criminal charges, Vukcevic detailed
the crimes the group was alleged to have committed, including
dismembering a Serbian woman by tying her arms and legs to cars, and
torturing and killing several individuals in a basement and then
chopping up their remains. Vukcevic told us that the defendants had
already corroborated the details of the events in Gnjilane during
questioning, but each had denied personal involvement. The
informant had identified 52 victims from photo albums f missing
persons, and prosecutors had already questioned an additional 15
potential witnesses who were tortured and released in Gnjilane,

BELGRADE 00001343 002 OF 002


according to Vukcevic.


6. (SBU) Photos of the defendants in KLA uniforms, heavy weaponry
such as machine guns, and explosive materials were found in their
houses during the raids, Vukcevic said, adding that anti-terrorism
officials had begun the case but he had assumed jurisdiction when
the war crimes allegations surfaced. Vukcevic also told us that
Minister of Interior Dacic's decision to go to Presevo and
personally announce the arrests came as a surprise, as Dacic has
minimized the role of his Ministry in previous war crimes-related
arrests such as Radovan Karadzic. Vukcevic told us that it was
Dacic who decided to allow the press to film the defendants being
led into custody in Belgrade, a step he did not agree with and which
angered many Presevo Albanians. Missing persons' activist Natasa
Kandic told us that such a public display of police power was
unnecessary and evidence of political pressure to demonstrate that
Albanians committed war crimes. She also confirmed that at least 80
Serbs were killed, 35 of whom remain missing, in Gnjilane, and
expressed hope that the Serbian authorities had arrested the right
people for the crimes.


Extensive Media Coverage in Serbia
--------------


7. (SBU) Serbian press has spared no ink in detailing the alleged
gruesome details of the crimes, including the dismemberment, but
also allegations that the accused killed their victims in as
time-consuming a fashion as possible to drag out the suffering.
(These are similar, if not identical, de-humanizing tactics used by
the Milosevic-controlled media to justify Serbian aggression, not
just in Kosovo, but also in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.)


South Serbia Peaceful but Tense
--------------


8. (SBU) Albanians in southern Serbia protested the arrests and the
supposed harsh police tactics used in the operation. On December
26, the sole ethnic Albanian Member of Parliament Riza Halimi told
us the situation was calm but said there were allegations of police
mistreatment during the arrests. On December 28, a crowd estimated
by embassy sources at between 1,000 to 1,500 persons peacefully
demonstrated in Presevo, calling for the release of the accused and
condemning the alleged police brutality. Protesters carried
Albanian flags and banners that read, "KLA warriors don't belong in
jail," "We want freedom in our areas," "Stop with searches," and
"NATO in Presevo Valley." OSCE Mission staff based in South Serbia
told us on December 29 that local leaders demanded the release of
the suspects by January 5 or daily protests would begin.


Comment
--------------


9. (SBU) War Crimes Prosecutor Vukcevic has proven himself in the
past to be a serious professional who prosecutes with vigor,
regardless of ethnicity, and with great risk to his own personal
safety. Nevertheless the timing and drama of the arrest belie
assertions that the Presevo operation was apolitical. As Dacic's
comments and actions show, the government is intent upon shining a
spotlight on these alleged crimes as further evidence that Serbs
were the primary victims in Kosovo in the 1990's. Embassy once more
renews its request that the U.S. argument for the legality of
Kosovo's independence at the ICJ spare no effort in detailing
Serbian actions, from revocation of Kosovo autonomy in 1988,
repression of Kosovo's Albanians throughout the 1990's, through
Serbian atrocities leading up to the NATO bombing. By the lurid
nature of these arrests and the surrounding publicity, Serbia is
quite clearly building its case as the victim. End Comment.

BRUSH