Confrontation At Milosevic Trial

Former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic accused a witness at his trial Friday of fabricating a gruesome account of Serb forces mutilating a corpse by cutting its heart out during notorious killings in a Kosovo Albanian village in 1999.

Several of the bodies strewn around the village of Racak after Serb forces gunned down and executed 45 locals on Jan. 15, 1999, were mutilated, Bilall Avdiu told the ex-Yugoslav leader's trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Avdiu, part of a group of villagers rounded up by Serbs and taken to a ravine to be executed, feigned death during the chaotic shootings before slipping away to hide in a nearby forest until Serb forces withdrew, prosecutors said.

Milosevic, who has said the deaths were a result of a legitimate battle with Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) separatist guerrillas, accused the witness of inventing the mutilations. Milosevic is defending himself and cross-examining witnesses.

"Why are you inventing this?" asked Milosevic, who is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

"I saw it...the heart was cut out," Avdiu replied, his tremulous voice rising with emotion. He saw around half a dozen mutilated corpses after returning at twilight to his village from his hiding place in the forest, he told the court.

The killings at Racak were widely credited with prompting NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia. Serbian police later admitted responsibility for the deaths but said those killed were KLA rebels shot in fighting with security forces.

Retired British Gen. Karel Drewienkiewicz who served with the Kosovo mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had told the trial that a battle with rebels had taken place in Racak.

The 45 corpses found there appeared to have been civilians, with many dressed in carpet slippers and rubber boots.

Milosevic is accused of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing against the majority Albanian population in Kosovo in 1999, driving nearly 800,000 from their homes. The trial, which is expected to run at least two years, opened in February.

The 60-year-old former Communist apparatchik argues his government was using legitimate force to fight KLA rebels he called "terrorists."

To convict Milosevic over Kosovo, prosecutors must prove not only that atrocities against ethnic Albanians took place, but also that he knew about them or should have known.

Milosevic does not recognize the court and has refused to plead to the charges, prompting judges to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.

By Eric Onstad and Paul Gallagher