WITNESS IN MILOSEVIC TRIAL SPEAKS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IN E. BOSNIA

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 8 (Hina) - Testifying at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday, protected witness B-1237 spoke about an attack on eastern Bosnia's Zvornik in April 1992 which was carried out by Arkan's units, the territorial defence from Serbia, and an armoured brigade of the ex-Yugoslav army (JNA) from Croatia's Jastrebarsko. #L# Zvornik's population in early 1992 was about 20,000, of which 60 percent were Muslims, 38 percent were Serbs, and two percent were others, including several Croat families, the witness told the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He described watching from a hill above the town how civilians were abducted, how men of military age were separated from women and children, and the killing carried out by members of paramilitary units wearing camouflage uniforms. B-1237 was eye-witness to the execution of two groups of ten men each. The indictment charges Milosevic with the Zvornik killing of 15 Muslims and Croats carried out that day by Zeljko Raznatovic aka Arkan's units. Women and children were taken across a bridge over the Drina to Mali Zvornik, where a centre was located for people who were to be deported, said the witness. The part of the indictment accusing Milosevic of forced deportations in Bosnia-Herzegovina states 15,436 people were deported from Zvornik. After the town had been captured by Serb troops, a large number of men was detained at six locations in and around Zvornik. According to the indictment, 338 were killed over May and June. The suffering of eastern Bosnia's non-Serbs was exacerbated by the proximity of the border with Serbia, from where regular and paramilitary troops were engaged. Some of the worst crimes in the Serbian aggression on Bosnia were committed in its eastern part. (hina) ha sb