Who killed Radonjić Lake victims?

Who killed Radonjić Lake victims?

The defense noted that the Serbs might have thrown the bodies at the part of the canal that was under their control from time to time, and that they could have floated the length of the canal until they reached the territory controlled by the KLA.

For this reason, the prosecution called witness Faton Sefa, who was a manager in the Hidrosistem Radonjić company from 1983 until 2006.

Sefa spoke about the technical characteristics of the canal.

The witness explained that the Radonjić canal starts near the village of Gornja Luka and that it was about 7 kilometers long.

The canal passes through the village of Rznić, where Idriz Balaj had his HQ, and the site where the bodies were found is about two kilometers away from Haradinaj’s HQ in Glođane.

The place where the canal passes through Rznić was derelict and overgrown with vegetation in 1998, the witness explained, and any large objects floating down the canal would have gotten snagged there, which means that the bodies found at the end of the canal could only have been thrown in downstream from Rznić, in the territory controlled by the KLA.

In the cross-examination by Ramush Haradinaj’s defense counsel, Sefa confirmed that the bodies could have been borne downstream if the water flow was at the maximum.

In an effort to prove that the water flow in the spring and summer of 1998 had been increased, the defense counsel showed a statement by Sali Zenaj, maintenance worker at the Bistrica dam.

He controlled the release of the water flow into the canal. Zenaj is one of the next prosecution witnesses, and in his statement he said that from March 1998 onwards, he often would leave the floodgates open in order for the water to flow into the canal, which means that the flow was faster than usual.

This in turn means that the bodies may have been washed past the vegetation in Rznić. The witness agreed with the defense counsel’s suggestions, but only hypothetically, because he had no knowledge of the actual water flow at the time.

The issue of whether the bodies could have been washed past the vegetation at Rznić or not remained unclear even after the re-examination.

After the prosecutor asked him about the thickness of the vegetation and the trees, the witness replied that the data and photographs were taken in 2002, after the place had been cleaned and they are part of his witness statement.

The Hague Tribunal has indicted Haradinaj, Balaj and Brahimaj for the crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war committed in Kosovo.