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| World News - updated 2:55 AM ET Jul 23 |
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By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer GNJILANE, Yugoslavia (AP) - For more than a year, a Serb father and his two sons have been held in an American detention facility accused of killing an ethnic Albanian. Now, new evidence raises the possibility that the victim may have been killed by U.S. troops. U.S. military and U.N. officials offered no explanation why it took so long for the new evidence to emerge. The unit involved has been rotated to Germany. Judge Patrice De Charette said Friday the new evidence was contained in a 130-page report submitted by U.S. authorities to the court trying Mirolub ``Mirko'' Momcilovic, 60, and his sons Jugoslav, 32, and Boban, 25, on charges of killing Afrim Gagica on July 10, 1999, in a confrontation in southeastern Kosovo. The French trial judge said the Americans confirmed in the report that U.S. troops had killed two people that day, instead of one as had been acknowledged previously. The U.S. military said American troops shot Naser Azemi in the same area that day after they were attacked. De Charette refused to give further details until the report is admitted into evidence Monday. However, a U.N. official familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Americans now confirm the second person killed that day was Gagica. U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel, summarizing a report from de Charette, said the Americans testified that one man had been firing at an observation tower where U.S. soldiers were stationed. The armed man then fled into a shed, pursued by an American soldier who fired two explosive rounds near the building and ``successive rounds into the shed door,'' Manuel said. U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gagica was killed at a shed. U.S. troops involved in any shooting incidents are thoroughly debriefed, and it was unclear why the Army waited so long to provide information in a case that has dragged on for more than a year. The case emerged at a time when key figures in Congress were objecting to the establishment of an international criminal court, arguing that U.S. soldiers on peacekeeping missions might someday be charged with offenses committed in the line of duty. On Thursday, the Army asked the court to reconsider the detentions of Momcilovic and his sons because an investigation by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division had uncovered ``additional investigative materials.'' The Army said it reopened the investigation after receiving an inquiry from the media, and it passed on its findings to the court. The latest evidence marks another strange chapter in the case against the Momcilovics, which began during the early, often turbulent months of the international peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Their trial began April 25 and was suspended the following day after the defense asked to introduce a security videotape showing some of the events of the day of the shooting. Although the tape does not indicate who killed Gagica, it shows the elder Momcilovic answering the intercom of his motorcycle repair shop and speaking with a stranger who ultimately demanded that he come out and surrender his weapons. Gun drawn, a man later identified as Gagica tried to kick the door down as a group of his armed companions looked on. An exchange of gunfire followed. Minutes later, U.S. troops entered the picture. Although the tape does not show who shot Gagica, human rights observers long have contended that it raises reasonable doubt that the Momcilovics were responsible. The court refused to accept the tape into evidence, saying it could not determine whether it had been altered. Earlier Stories
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