MILOSEVIC: CORPSES FROM FREEZER TRUCK SMUGGLED IMMIGRANTS?

THE HAGUE, July 23 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday said that corpses found in a freezer truck, sent to the bottom of the Danube river in the spring of 1999, could have been illegal immigrants smuggled from Romania by a local criminal organisation, and not Kosovo Albanians. The ex-Yugoslav president said Serb authorities publicised the discovery of buried corpses near Belgrade to prepare the public for his extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. #L# During today's cross examination, he disputed the testimony of Serb police captain Dragan Karleusa, who headed a task force to investigate reports of the freezer truck containing 86 bodies that was believed to have come from Kosovo. During his investigation, Karleusa was told about a meeting in March 1999, at which Milosevic's order to cover up crimes in Kosovo was presented. Karleusa did not attend the meeting, but he learned about it from a participant, former state security chief Rade Markovic, who is also in The Hague waiting to testify. The ICTY Trial Chamber said a hearing on the Croatian and Bosnian part of the Milosevic trial would be held on Thursday. The tribunal will also examine an objection submitted by former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic who arrived in the Hague to testify after being subpoenaed. Lilic said on Monday he was willing to testify, but demanding of the Yugoslav Supreme court and incumbent President Vojislav Kostunica to exempt him from the obligation to keep military and state secrets. (hina) it