"Milošević's solar system"

"Milošević's solar system"

“Slobodan Milosevic was at the centre of the joint criminal enterprise, whose purpose was to expel Albanians and change the ethnic balance in Kosovo. Milan Milutinović, Nikola Šainović, Dragoljub Ojdanić, Nebojša Pavković, Vladimir Lazarević and Sreten Lukić revolved around him like planets in the solar system.”

In this way the prosecutor began his response to the arguments presented by the defense of the six Serbian officials. The defense counsel asked for the acquittal of their clients, because in their view, the prosecution had failed to present evidence to support the charges.

The prosecutor, however, believes that “more than enough” evidence has been presented to support a conviction of the accused on all five counts of the indictment, charging them with deportations, forcible transfer, murder and persecution of Albanian civilians in Kosovo in the first half of 1999.

Speaking about the six accused, the prosecutor noted that aside from Milošević, the Serbian president Milan Milutinović was “the central figure of events” covered by the indictment.

“When he participated in the meetings in Belgrade and Kosovo with the high-ranking military and police officers in late 1998 and 1999, he was not there as “a symbol of national unity”, as the defense tried to paint it, but as a man who took part in the planning of the operations in which crimes were committed,” the prosecutor argued.

Milutinović, the prosecution claims, received reports about Kosovo crimes, but did nothing to prevent them, thus violating the provisions of the Serbian Constitution and the presidential oath he had taken, which made him accountable to all the citizens of Serbia, including Albanians.

“Had Milutinović stood against the crimes in any way, he would have made the implementation of the joint criminal enterprise more difficult,” the prosecutor said, adding that by his “omissions [Milutinović] contributed to the realization of those goals”.

At the time relevant for the indictment, Dragoljub Ojdanić was the highest ranking officer in the Yugoslav Army (VJ), the prosecutor reminded the court. He was appointed VJ CoS in November 1998.

The prosecutor said he believed that enough evidence had been presented to support the allegation that he was appointed as “Milosevic’s minion”. He went on to say that the evidence called so far shows that Ojdanić did not command only the military but also the police units that were subordinated to the military during the actions in Kosovo:

“It is quite clear that Ojdanić and the other two accused army generals, Nebojša Pavković and Vladimir Lazarević, knew that the army and the police were committing crimes, but did nothing to prevent them.”

In the prosecution’s view, this means that they consciously sent their soldiers in to expel and kill Kosovo Albanians, and thus to contribute to the efforts to “change the ethnic balance in Kosovo”, which was the purpose of the joint criminal enterprise.

On Monday, the prosecutor will address the arguments proffered by Nikola Šainović’s and Sreten Lukić’s defense.