James Peter Covey, former deputy to the United Nations special representative in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, is being questioned by prosecutors at the Special Court in The Hague regarding his knowledge of the activities and functioning of the Kosovo Liberation Army, as he is testifying in defense of Hashim Thaçi and other former KLA leaders.
He was asked if he had been aware that the KLA had launched a synchronized grenade attack on Serbian police stations in September 1997.
"I'm trying to figure out where I was at the time, I may have had knowledge," he initially said.
Covey denied when asked if he knew who had brought those grenade launchers to Kosovo a month before the attacks.
A prosecutor showed a portion of an interview with Rexhep Selimi from 2003, quoting parts from it.
Selimi, as quoted by the prosecutor, had said that Hashim Thaçi and Kadri Veseli had brought hand mortars to Jabllanicë in August '97.
"We had 11 of these, three came in other forms. Then we had 14 to prepare for action on September 11, 1997. Until then, we had not used any of them, even though we needed them. This was done so that Serbia would not take action because this was considered a major weapon and we wanted to take it by surprise, which we did. We had 14 mortars and we made 14 attacks. If we had 20, we would have attacked 20," Selimi was quoted as saying in that interview.
Covey said he didn't remember that event.
At the request of prosecutors, the document was admitted as evidence, since, according to them, it served to refute a statement by Covey that Thaçi had not been a soldier.
Covey said he had no knowledge of who the founders of the KLA were or of the LPK's role in founding this guerrilla army.
"I can't say I was aware. No," he said.
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