Racak was a Major Hoax

“I said it almost ten years ago, and I say it today: Racak was a major hoax! There was no ‘massacre of the innocent villagers’, but a legal and legitimate police action against the members of the terrorist organization of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army”, Investigating Judge Danica Marinkovic told Glas Javnosti.

At the time of Racak setup, Danica Marinkovic was the investigating judge of the Pristina District Court (now serving as the judge in Kragujevac District Court), and a chief investigator of the event which took place in the Kosovo-Metohija village of Racak. This ugly hoax and the vile setup was orchestrated by Mr. Massacre, American CIA operative William Walker, who was sent to Serbian Kosovo province under the guise of the OSCE Mission chief, with a task to create a trigger event for the long-planned US-led NATO aggression and bombardment of Serbia which lasted almost three months.

Reacting to the recent confession of the Finnish forensic dentist Helena Ranta, who admitted her report about the Racak event was a product of tremendous pressure William Walker and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had exerted upon her, to accuse the Serbs of a “massacre of innocent civilians”, Judge Marinkovic said it was good Ranta had started telling the truth. Judge Marinkovic believes it was time for the state of Serbia to initiate certain legal procedures and the criminal lawsuit against Ranta, Walker, OSCE mission and the others responsible for the criminal involvement in the Racak hoax.

Q: Please remind us, what took place in Racak on January 15, 1999?

DM: A classic battle between the Serbian police and the terrorist KLA [UCK] took place in Racak. In this region — just like in all of Kosovo and Metohija, after all, terrorists were constantly attacking and killing civilians and policemen from the ambush and the police went to find the culprits. By the way, Racak was a large and one of the staunchest KLA strongholds in Kosovo and Metohija. Police announced its action in a timely and professional manner to the OSCE, and OSCE observer joined the police squad. Police clashed with the terrorists in the morning hours and there were casualties on both sides. After the battle, around 11 a.m., the police informed Pristina District Court about the clash.

What are the “Innocent Villagers” Doing with the Arsenal of Weapons?

Q: When did you arrive to Racak?

DM: We arrived to Racak around 14.00 hours [2 p.m.], with the other team members and the police, with intention to carry out the investigative activities. During the clearing of the terrain, among else, we found the Browning calibre 12.7mm [heavy machine gun], two Brownings with the pistol calibre 7.9mm with the enhanced charger, 36 automatic guns calibre 7.62mm, two sniper guns, five shoulder-held missile launchers of the Chinese make, 12 mines charged with the hand grenade charger, 22 hand grenades, around 8,000 pieces of ammunition of different calibre, three hand-held radio stations, medical equipment and military uniforms with KLA tags. Everything we found was photographed. So, we have found the entire weapons arsenal among the “peace-loving villagers”!

When we tried to move further to find any of the victims, the barrage fire was opened at us from all the sides — we barely managed to pull out alive. That was the day Walker had published a photo that circled the world, about the alleged massacre committed by the Serbian police. Then-head prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, Louise Arbour was also brought to Racak.

Q: Did you manage to inspect the scene?

DM: No, not even during the next two days. We tried to enter the village again on January 16, but we were again showered with bullets and we had to return. The next day, Walker’s deputy John Drankiewicz (sp?) arrived to Stimlje near Racak. He tried to coerce me to go in only with him, without the other members of the team. He was telling me that the “innocent villagers” from Racak will be distressed when they see me with the police, and that they will shoot. I asked him: “What are the innocent villagers doing with weapons?” He fell silent, turned around and left. But we didn’t manage to visit the scene of the alleged crime on that day, January 17, either.

Only on the fourth day after the battle, on January 18, we were able to get over there. But there were no bodies in the village at all, not a trace. We did not see a single body Walker had shown to the world public, and was being horrified over. We went through the entire village, but all we could see were the trenches, shovels, empty bullet shells, numerous machine gun nests, a deserted KLA headquarters, uniforms… There wasn’t a living soul in the village, we could not see a single woman or a child anywhere. And the bodies of the killed KLA terrorists were moved to the village mosque.

The Hague tribunal had called me to give a statement about the “Racak case”. I have done so in the Belgrade office. The truth I told them, just like what I’m telling you now, wasn’t pleasing to them, so they did not call me as a prosecution witness. But I was a witness on behalf of Slobodan Milosevic’s defense. I believe that my testimony had helped remove the “Racak case” from the indictments and stopped its being used to accuse anyone, including Milutinovic, Ojdanic, Pavkovic and Lazarevic.

Ranta was Neither an Expert, Nor a Professional

Q: What did you find in the mosque?

DM: All of the bodies were dressed in the civilian clothing, but many wore military pants, belts and boots. Underneath they had several pairs of pants or the other clothing, which clearly pointed to the fact they were dressed to spend long time outdoors. Out of 40 bodies of the “peace-loving villagers”, 37 had gunpowder residue found on their hands, which unequivocally shows they were discharging firearms prior to being shot. Criminal investigation was conducted in entirety and, after the autopsies, it was decisively determined there was no massacre or a “genocide”, but that the wounds were exclusively resulting from the bullets. There wasn’t even one “massacred” body! [This despite accusations by Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State at the time, who said on CBS' Face the Nation that there were "dozens of people with their throats slit" in Racak].

Later on, during the course of investigation, it was determined that majority of the Racak victims were active members of the KLA. Most interestingly, the Belorussian and Finnish forensic specialists who also took part in the autopsies have reached exactly the same conclusions as our own forensic experts. However, Ranta did not want to state that for the public.

Q: Did you talk about that with Helena Ranta or William Walker?

DM: Already at the first meeting with Ranta I could not find a way to communicate with her and we have never met again. It was evident she was sent to Kosovo province with the political agenda, with the task to harm Serbia. She was neither an expert, nor a professional. I did not speak to Walker, but it was obvious he was there to assist KLA.