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Radomir Marković headed the Serbian State Security Service from November 1998 to 2000. |
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice reads a section of a statement that Radomir Marković gave to an authorised Serbian Interior Ministry officer on 2 June 2001. Marković later attempts to disavow this statement:
“Regarding the latest developments and articles in the press about a refrigerator lorry containing Albanian civilians' corpses, with explicit suspicions that systematic and, in principle, very well-organised attempts to conceal the scope of crimes and remove the vestiges were made during the war in Kosovo and Metohija. I know that there was a working meeting in Beli Dvor [the White Palace], on the ground floor, in the library, where a long table for working meetings is and where Slobodan Milošević … most often held meetings in March 1999… [A]t the very end of the meeting, [Interior Ministry Public Security Chief] Vlastimir Djordjević raised the issue of the removal of Albanian corpses in order to remove all civilian victims, if there were any, who could become objects of an investigation conducted by The Hague Tribunal. In that respect, Milošević ordered [Interior Minister] Vlajko Stojilković to take all necessary measures to remove the corpses of the Albanian civilians that had already been buried…”
"….
Q. Mr. Marković, I think, as we can see on the original, there's then three names with signatures, one of which is yours. Is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And indeed, each of the three pages of the original document bears your signature at its foot?
A. Yes.
….
A. I said to investigators of The Hague Tribunal what is true in this statement, and I pointed out to them more than once during our interview that this is a liberal interpretation of the employee, of the officer who made this report…”
Radomir Marković served as Chief of the Serbian Interior Ministry’s State Security Service from November 1998 and through 1999 when Slobodan Milošević is alleged to have committed crimes in Kosovo. The State Security Service is responsible for intelligence gathering, the Serbian equivalent of the American Central Intelligence Agency.
Marković provided important evidence on how Interior Ministry and paramilitary units were funded outside of the regular budget. Marković testified that the money came from the Federal Customs Administration headed by Mihalj Kertes. Approval, Marković said, “for allocating funding for the state security or the army of Yugoslavia or I don’t know who else, had to be obtained by Mihalj Kertes from Slobodan Milošević”.
In his testimony, Marković also described the chain of command within the Interior Ministry, showing the links between various officials whom the Tribunal charged with crimes in Kosovo, including Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljković, and his subordinates Vlastimir Djordjević and Sreten Lukić. Marković testified that Slobodan Milošević received reports about the situation in Kosovo on a daily basis, which supported the Prosecution's contention that Milošević knew about what was happening there.
The Prosecution also submitted into evidence a statement that Radomir Marković made to Serbian State Security officials on 2 June 2001 about the exhumation of Kosovo Albanian bodies from Kosovo and their re-burial in Serbia. In his statement, he describes a meeting held in March 1999, in which Slobodan Milošević ordered Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljković to remove Kosovo Albanian corpses that had already been buried. In his testimony before the Tribunal on 26 July 2002, Marković, a career police officer, attempted to disavow the statement that he had signed at the foot of every page. The Prosecution then called the State Security official who took the statement, Zoran Stijović. He testified that Marković read the draft, made some changes, and signed the corrected version.
Radomir Marković was a career police officer and head of Serbia’s security service from 1998 to 2000. At the time of his testimony in July 2002, Marković was on trial for murder in Serbia. He was later convicted to 15 years’ imprisonment for participating in the murder of former Socialist Republic of Serbia President Ivan Stambolić, Milošević’s former mentor and later opponent, and the attempted murder of then opposition politician Vuk Drašković. He was also convicted by the first instance court to 10 years' imprisonment for participating in another attempt on Vuk Drašković’s life.
Read Radomir Marković's full testimony on 24 July 2002, 25 July 2002 and 26 July 2002.
Read Radomir Marković’s statement to the Serbian Interior Ministry.