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Milosevic Says Kosovo Massacre Staged by Rebels
Mon Apr 15,11:55
AM ET
By Eric Onstad
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic (news -
web sites) at his trial on Monday accused separatist Kosovo Albanian guerrillas
of fabricating an alleged atrocity by Serb forces in 1999 in a bid to spur a
shocked West into attacking Yugoslavia.
The killing of about 45 ethnic
Albanians in Racak in January 1999 shocked the outside world and was widely
credited with stiffening NATO (news - web sites)'s resolve to launch its 11-week
campaign of air strikes against Yugoslavia two months later.
The former
Serb strongman, accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in Croatia,
Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, could face life behind bars if convicted at the
end of Europe's biggest international war crimes trial since World War
Two.
The Hague (news - web sites) tribunal heard last week from a Western
observer that dozens of unarmed men dressed in slippers and rubber boots were
found shot in the head at Racak in 1999 after Serb forces entered the village.
Milosevic disputed the testimony.
Milosevic told the war crimes court
that ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas shifted corpses
around Racak to an open mass grave as part of a ruse to convince Western
observers that Serb forces had butchered villagers. He said Serb forces had only
killed KLA guerrillas in gun battles.
"It may be, as Serb authorities
claim, and many Europeans tended to believe, that the victims were in fact
killed in the shoot-out reported by police and then aligned to give the
appearance of a massacre," Milosevic said quoting from an Italian press
report.
IN COLD BLOOD
The 60-year-old accused, who is conducting
his own defense at the United Nations (news - web sites) court against charges
he has rejected as "false," vigorously challenged testimony that Racak's
villagers had been gunned down.
Retired British general Karel
Drewienkiewicz, who served in Kosovo with a mission of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe (OSCE (news - web sites)),
said he was convinced a massacre had taken place and had not been staged by the
KLA.
"I know what I saw on the hillside and it was not manipulation...it
was men who had been gunned down in cold blood," said
Drewienkiewicz.
Drewienkiewicz acknowledged, however, that a fierce
battle had taken place between KLA guerrillas and Serb forces at Racak and that
there had been a "lapse" of some 15 hours overnight before Western observers
viewed the scene.
Last week Drewienkiewicz told the court he saw men shot
in the head at Racak. They had been dressed in carpet slippers and rubber
boots.
Since his trial opened in February Milosevic has accuses the West
and Islamic militant group al-Qaeda of supporting a "terrorist" campaign by the
separatist Kosovo Liberation Army to destabilize the Balkans.
He declined
to enter pleas to the charges against him. Not guilty pleas were entered on his
behalf. The trial is expected to last at least two
years.
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