THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 6 (Hina) - A member of the Yugoslav army with a secret identity at the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague on Friday described that he took part in several military-police
operations in which villages in Kosovo were shelled or burnt and the Albanian population murdered or displaced.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 6 (Hina) - A member of the Yugoslav army with
a secret identity at the trial of former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague on Friday described that he took
part in several military-police operations in which villages in
Kosovo were shelled or burnt and the Albanian population murdered
or displaced. #L#
The Prosecution brought out several dozen Kosovo Albanians,
witnesses in the Kosovo section of the trial who described the
typical way in which the Yugoslav army attacked villages, which
compelled the population to flee, after which the army deported
Albanian civilians out of the country while killing some. A twenty-
two year old Montenegrin soldier confirmed the statements made by
the witnesses by describing the operations in which he
participated.
Witness K-41, a member of the Prizren motorised brigade from
Prizren described how in 1999 his unit took part in "cleansing
villages" which had previously been shelled and the population
expelled, their houses burnt.
In the village of Trnje, the witness testified, he took part in
burning the villages and the murder of a group of residents in March
1999.
We entered the houses in groups of two or three and then burnt them
down one by one, the witness said.
The president of the international war crimes tribunal trial
chamber, Richard May, interrupted the witness advising him that he
was not obliged to answer questions that might incriminate him. The
witness decided to continue to testify nevertheless. In the end he
described how he took part in the execution of about 15 civilians
including women and children in a courtyard after they had said that
they were not sure if there were any Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK)
members in the village.
At the end of the questioning the witness expressed deep regret for
the crimes in whch he participated.
"I can still hear shot a child crying," the witness said.
"During that period serious and shameful crimes were committed."
He described the expulsion of residents from the village of Jeskovo
when the first Yugosvlav tanks began shelling the village.
"When it was all over we commenced cleansing the village. We were
told that no one was allowed to remain alive in the village."
No one in the village ever fired at the Yugoslav army.
Milosevic is accused for crimes against humanity committed in
Kosovo during 1999 and the deportation of 800,000 Kosovo
Albanians.
Milosevic however, was persistent during the trial that military-
police actions were legitimate because they were against Albanian
terrorists in Kosovo.
He rejected the testimony made by the soldier, stating that is was
obvious that the witness was a criminal.
K-41 testified via video link.
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