MILOSEVIC TRIAL ENTERS ITS FIFTH WEEK

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, March 11 (Hina) - Two witnesses described the persecution of Albanians in southern Kosovo as the trial of ex- Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal entered its fifth week on Monday. Saquir Thac, a Turk from the village of Mamuse, said that immediately after NATO air strikes on Serbia began, Serbs started to persecute Kosovo Albanians, who were later deported to Albania or Macedonia. According to the witness, the Serb army came to Mamusa on March 27 and ordered refugees to separate from the locals. The refugees were immediately deported to Albania. The Serb army threatened to burn down the houses of local people, if they tried to harm the army in any way, Thac said. That night about 30 houses were burned down and seven people were killed, the witness said. Thac said there were no armed men among the villagers or refugees, and added he had never seen members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The witness said that in April 1999 the Serb police ordered him to transport refugees from Malisevo to the Albanian border in his truck. Thac said the police took his money, 500 German marks. The second witness in today's trial was Hazdija Loku, principal of an elementary school in the south-eastern village of Kotlina. He said Serb forces shelled villages, burned downed houses and demolished the mosque in the village of Ivaja. (hina) it