MILOSEVIC TRIAL: WITNESS SAYS KEY PIECE OF EVIDENCE IS AUTHENTIC

THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - The claim that Slobodan Milosevic had ordered the elimination of traces of crimes in Kosovo is authentic, an investigator of the Yugoslav State Security Service, Zoran Stijovic, said at the trial of the former Yugoslav President at the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal on Thursday. #L# The claim, which the prosecution considers a crucial piece of evidence, was made by the former chief of Serbia's State Security Service, Radomir Markovic. Testifying at the Hague tribunal in July, Markovic said the contentious claim, made in a statement to the Serbian Interior Ministry in 2001, was the result of "liberal interpretation by state security staff" and that it contained words he never said. In that statement, which Markovic signed, he described a 1999 meeting in Beli Dvor at which Milosevic was warned about bodies of Albanian civilians in Kosovo which might be of interest to the Hague tribunal. According to Markovic, Milosevic ordered the then Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic that the bodies be dug up and removed. "The statement is an authentic presentation of what Mr Markovic said," said Stijovic, who had compiled the statement following a conversation with Markovic. "I did not add anything that had not been said," said the witness. He said it would be ridiculous to attempt to impute something to a person with so much working experience as Markovic. In his July testimony, Markovic said that in his talks with Belgrade investigators he had spoken about the "rehabilitation" of Kosovo. "Nobody had said that the corpses should be transferred from Kosovo to somewhere else," Markovic claimed in July. Stijovic said today that prior to his departure to The Hague he had been exposed to strong pressure to further charge Markovic but to deny the authenticity of the Markovic statement. Stijovic also said that he had not come to testify of his own will but following a decision by the authorities in Belgrade. (hina) ha