FIRST ALBANIAN WOMAN TESTIFIES IN TRIAL AGAINST MILOSEVIC

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Feb 26 (Hina) - The first female witness in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal for crimes in Kosovo said on Wednesday she had lost her six-month-old baby in the shelling of an Albanian refugee column moving towards Albania. A widow who once had five, and now has four children, illiterate 32- year-old Kosovo Albanian Ajmane Behrami, told the story of her personal tragedy, which began in Izbica village in north-western Kosovo on March 28, 1999, when Serbian forces shelled and burned almost all houses in the village. One of hundreds of Kosovo women who fled their villages, Behrami escaped with five children and her sister only to be surrounded by Serbian forces, who took away their money, separated them from their husbands, killing hundreds of the men and forcing the women, children and elderly to go towards Albania in a column. The Serbian forces shelled the refugee column. The refugees were later abused by the Serbian police, the witness said, explaining that in the chaos her sister had taken her baby in another direction after which she had never seen it again. I have to ask you - did you ever see your baby?, Prosecutor Dirk Ryneveld asked. "My baby? No. The baby died from having nothing to eat", she answered with her head down and without changing the expression on her face. The witness found out about the fate of her youngest child after reuniting with her sister who told her "she did not have any food and could not find anyone who could breast-feed the baby and the baby died". She testified that she had heard from others her husband had been killed. (hina) np sb .