As his evidence continued, protected witness K-79 said that his squad commander killed two young Albanian men. He also described his encounters with Milorad Ulemek and Franko Simatovic, and the aftermath of the Special Operations Unit (JSO) actions in Kosovo


In the trial of the Kosovo Six, protected witness K-79 today described the murders committed by his squad commander. Yesterday he testified about a series of crimes committed by the members of the Special Police Units in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. Their superior officers were often aware of the crimes, and sometimes they even ordered them. The witness claims his commander killed two unarmed young Albanian men wearing civilian clothes on 20 April 1999, right after the action in the village of Budakovo near Suva Reka. He described another crime against four KLA prisoners. They were killed in the village of Bukosa. The police officers forced them to get into a house and then threw in two hand grenades.

The witness said that he had seen Milorad Ulemek, commander of the Special Operations Unit, and Franko Simatovic, Ulemek’s superior, in Kosovo on two separate occasions. In 1998 he once witnessed the aftermath of JSO actions in Kosovo: a village burned down to the ground after the KLA was pushed out.

The witness mentioned the VJ only a few times in the course of his evidence, never blaming it for anything. He says the military took the Albanian refugees from the village of Ljubisa near Prizren back to their homes. They had been expelled by his police squad. He mentioned the case of a soldier arrested after he was caught robbing Albanian refugees in Korisa in April 1999.

The witness K-79 finished his testimony today. The defense teams had no questions for the witness, with the exception of the defense counsel representing police general Sreten Lukic. Almost the entire cross-examination by Lukic’s defense counsel was conducted in private session.

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