KLA member or prisoner?

KLA member or prisoner?

An hour later, when he was cross-examined by the defense counsel, he said his father had been a KLA member, not its prisoner.

The judge warned the witness that perjury is “a serious crime”.

In mid-July 1998, Medin Gashi went from Peć, his hometown, to the village of Barane, where the KLA had its base in the local elementary school. Gashi, eighteen years at the time, wanted to join the army as a volunteer.

He was sworn in on July 20, 1998, and the first accused Ramush Haradinaj addressed the troops on that occasion. This is the only fact he stated in the examination-in-chief that he did not contradict in the cross-examination.

When he was questioned by prosecutor David Re, Gashi claimed that a few days after the swearing-in he had been summoned to the office of a KLA commander in Barane, Met Krasniqi.

The commander greeted him with a barrage of curses, calling him “the son of a Serbian spy”. Moans came from the room next door, and the witness claims he was able to recognize the voice of his father, Kemajl. The next morning he saw him in the make-shift barracks compound, walking towards Met Krasniqi’s office, but did not dare and couldn’t do anything to help him.

In early August, the KLA base was disbanded and the witness fled to Montenegro. Before leaving, he met his sister who told him that a week before the Serbian forces entered the area, she saw their father in the village of Bucan. He was escorted by four KLA soldiers. As she told it, the only words he could say to her were, “I’m leaving”.

At the beginning of the cross-examination, Haradinaj’s defense counsel showed the witness the statement he had given to the defense investigators in September 2006.

This statement is in many aspects contradictory to his evidence today. Gashi had told the defense investigators that his father had not been a KLA prisoner, but a KLA soldier – he was in the Barane base as a soldier.

It was the witness, and not his sister who saw the father last in the village of Bucan. The father was not “escorted” but “in the company” of KLA soldiers. The witness confirmed that all of it was true.

Presiding judge then joined in the debate, warning Gashi that he had first said one thing, only to say something else a mere hour later. This means, the judge clarified, that the witness lied at one point in his evidence under oath, and perjury is “a serious crime”.

Gashi said he knew that, adding that he stood by his evidence in the examination-in-chief, denying the claims he had made in his statement to the defense investigators.

The only uncontested element in Gashi’s testimony is the fact that the body of his father was found in the Radonjić lake canal in September 1998.

Since the prosecutor was unable to complete the re-examination of the witness despite the longer sitting time, the Chamber indicated it would decide soon whether the witness would complete his evidence on Tuesday, or whether he would have to be recalled at a later date.