FORMER BBC REPORTER TESTIFIES AT MILOSEVIC TRIAL

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 28 (Hina) - A former BBC reporter from Belgrade testified on Wednesday before the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. She defended the BBC from Milosevic's accusations of lack of objectivity in reporting from Kosovo. #L# Jackie Rowland gave her testimony at a moment when major media companies, like the BBC, are urging the Hague tribunal to exempt Washington Post correspondent Jonathan Randall from testifying before the tribunal because of the negative influence on the work of journalists in war areas. Rowland said she decided to testify because it was her duty, thus joining a group of reporters who have already done so in several trials at The Hague. Rowland said that in May 1999, Serbian authorities organised two visits by journalists to Dubrava, a prison in west Kosovo whose inmates, according to Belgrade authorities, were killed in NATO air raids. According to Rowland, the state of the bodies did not indicate they were the victims of bombing as some did not have external injuries. Rowland said she strongly doubted the bodies belonged to victims killed in the NATO raids. Milosevic, accusing the BBC of lack of objectivity, said that many bombing victims did not have external wounds, the case of death being the so-called blast injuries, i.e. internal damage. The prosecution maintains that police and guards at the Dubrava prison killed dozens of inmates, a claim corroborated yesterday by Kosovo Albanian Jusuf Krasniqi, a former Dubrava inmate. He stated that in May 1999 Serbian police and guards killed 153 Albanian prisoners with bombs and automatic weapons. Some of the victims were members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Milosevic dismissed Krasniqi's claims as false. (hina) ha sb