Witness identifies KLA suspects

A protected witness in the trial of the KLA’s Gnjilane Group recognized one of the indictees as the person who abused him in 1999 in Gnjilane. The witness, testifying under the pseudonym B1, was at the High Court in Belgrade today in a separate room, with his voice changed in order to protect his identity. Witness identifies KLA suspects The witness said that he was kidnapped by four men in uniforms in a yellow car with no license plates, and recognized suspect Faton Hajdari as one of the men that beat him the most. He was taken into the town's boarding school and released after several hours of abuse. “He beat me with a bat. I recognized his blood-thirsty eyes which were beaming with hatred. I felt sick when I saw him,” the witness said, adding that he passed out several times while getting beaten. The witness said that blood-curdling sounds were heard from the room next to where he was being held that sounded like screams of animals, and said that he did not see any other people, but that he heard others being abused as well. The witness also recognized suspect Selimon Sadiku as the person who wore a bullet around his neck on a shoelace, and as the person who took his personal documents and hisf his car. B1 said that several days before the kidnapping, he saw a man in a Mercedes completely covered in blood in his old neighborhood, in which only ethnic Albanians lived. He also said that he later heard that the bloodied person he saw was of Serb nationality. Asked if he reported the case, the witness said that he was afraid to leave his home and that the phone lines were out, since the KLA entered the village, "so that he was practically isolated". There are 17 former so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members accused of the brutal killings of Serb and other non-Albanian civilians. Eight of the suspects are in custody in Belgrade, after they were apprehended in late 2008, while the others remain at large. The indictment states that they viciously murdered at least 80 civilians, while at least 153 others were abused and tortured, and then set free. The indictment further states that the defendants broke the fingers of captured civilians using a square pipe, extracted their teeth and nails with pliers, stabbed their tongues with knives, drove lighters through holes made in the victims' skulls, strangled them with wires and bags, cut off their genitalia with machetes, cut their throats with knives and raped a large number of women. In order to cover up their crimes, the prosecution says, those accused butchered the bodies of their victims with axes and chainsaws, put them in bags, which were then thrown into dumpsters next to the boarding facility (Dom Internata). Some bodies were also thrown from windows of buildings, and into Lake Livocko.

Witness identifies KLA suspects

The witness said that he was kidnapped by four men in uniforms in a yellow car with no license plates, and recognized suspect Faton Hajdari as one of the men that beat him the most.

He was taken into the town's boarding school and released after several hours of abuse.

“He beat me with a bat. I recognized his blood-thirsty eyes which were beaming with hatred. I felt sick when I saw him,” the witness said, adding that he passed out several times while getting beaten.

The witness said that blood-curdling sounds were heard from the room next to where he was being held that sounded like screams of animals, and said that he did not see any other people, but that he heard others being abused as well.

The witness also recognized suspect Selimon Sadiku as the person who wore a bullet around his neck on a shoelace, and as the person who took his personal documents and hisf his car.

B1 said that several days before the kidnapping, he saw a man in a Mercedes completely covered in blood in his old neighborhood, in which only ethnic Albanians lived. He also said that he later heard that the bloodied person he saw was of Serb nationality.

Asked if he reported the case, the witness said that he was afraid to leave his home and that the phone lines were out, since the KLA entered the village, "so that he was practically isolated".

There are 17 former so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members accused of the brutal killings of Serb and other non-Albanian civilians. Eight of the suspects are in custody in Belgrade, after they were apprehended in late 2008, while the others remain at large.

The indictment states that they viciously murdered at least 80 civilians, while at least 153 others were abused and tortured, and then set free.

The indictment further states that the defendants broke the fingers of captured civilians using a square pipe, extracted their teeth and nails with pliers, stabbed their tongues with knives, drove lighters through holes made in the victims' skulls, strangled them with wires and bags, cut off their genitalia with machetes, cut their throats with knives and raped a large number of women.

In order to cover up their crimes, the prosecution says, those accused butchered the bodies of their victims with axes and chainsaws, put them in bags, which were then thrown into dumpsters next to the boarding facility (Dom Internata).

Some bodies were also thrown from windows of buildings, and into Lake Livočko.