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Secrecy May Rule Out Star Witness - International Justice - Global Policy Forum Secrecy May Rule Out Star Witness
By Ian Black
Guardian
July 13, 2002United Nations prosecutors may not call a star witness in Slobodan Milosevic's trial for war crimes in Kosovo because the US is insisting that he can give evidence only behind closed doors.
In a move which has underlined mounting concerns about Washington's attitude to international law, diplomats confirmed yesterday that Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Dayton peace accords in Bosnia, was at the centre of an angry row with the UN. "It does raise important questions about the American government's relationship with the Hague tribunal and other international judicial bodies," a well-placed official said.
The Bush administration is apparently wary of setting any precedent by letting Mr Holbrooke testify in international courts because of its controversial opposition to the new International Criminal Court.
The chief UN prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, is considering not calling the former envoy because her negotiations with the state department have become so difficult and because she does not want to undermine the transparency of the most important war crimes trial since Nuremberg. Protected witnesses or rape victims have appeared in camera at the Hague tribunal, but judges have to be satisfied there is a substantial danger to their security. The US objection to Mr Holbrooke's appearance rather seems to be one of principle.
But he could face a more difficult time if he is called as a witness by the defendant. The former Yugoslav leader cited his negotiations with Mr Holbrooke when the trial began in February. As the case continued, Mr Milosevic yesterday challenged the testimony of William Walker, the US diplomat who headed the mission in Kosovo by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Mr Walker, whose job was to monitor human rights abuses, told the court he saw some 25 bodies lying in pools of blood at Racak, where a massacre in January 1999 focused world attention on atrocities by Serb forces. Mr Milosevic, he said, had known of Serbian atrocities. "His knowledge was in many respects quite detailed," he said. "I never wavered in my opinion that I was dealing with the person who was in the maximum control of events in Kosovo."
Mr Milosevic claimed the victims had been killed during clashes between ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army rebels and Serb government forces.
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