British colonel testifies in Kosovo Six trial

British colonel testifies in Kosovo Six trial

Before the NATO air campaign started in March 1999, British colonel Richard Ciaglinski held one of the last meetings with the Serbian commission for cooperation with the OSCE-run Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM). Ciaglinski was a KVM negotiator. He was given “some surprising information”.

As he said yesterday at the Kosovo Six trial, VJ colonel Milan Kotur told him after the meeting that the Serbian forces would soon take action to eliminate the KLA totally and permanently, adding, “when they were done with the KLA, they would permanently remove all Albanians from Kosovo”.

Ciaglinski recounted all that in March 2002, in his testimony in the Slobodan Milošević trial. Milošević then called Milan Kotur as his witness in January 2006. The VJ colonel denied all the allegations made by the British colonel, saying it was “all lies”. He couldn’t understand what had led Ciaglinski to invent all that, he added.

As Ciaglinski testified, their relationship during the OSCE mission in Kosovo was frank, bordering on friendly, leading Kotur to “tell more than he should” to his British counterpart, the prosecution argues.

Ciaglinski today stuck by everything he had said at the Milošević trial, including his claim that in that conversation the VJ colonel had showed him a map with all the lines of attack of the Serbian forces against the KLA. The map was admitted into evidence both at the trial today and at the Milošević trial. Milošević’s witness Kotur denied all those claims, saying that he had given the map to Ciaglinski, but that the lines of attack had been drawn in later.

This is not the end of the tale of two colonels. Ciaglinski said today that Milan Kotur’s wife had called him after his testimony at the Slobodan Milošević trial. In a “bizarre conversation” she first accused him of having “ruined her husband’s career” and then calmed down and invited him to lunch at their place in Niš. The British colonel did not accept the invitation and this ended their relationship. When the prosecutor put all this to Kotur at the Milošević trial, he admitted that his wife had called Ciaglinski, but denied that she had said his life had been ruined.

Ciaglinski’s cross-examination started at the end of the session yesterday and will continue on Monday.