Milosevic Allies Go on Trial in Hague for 'ethnic Cleansing' in Kosovo

A key ally of Slobodan Milosevic and five other former Serbian officials were put on trial yesterday charged with the murder and persecution of thousands of Kosovo Albanians during the 1999 conflict.

Milan Milutinovic, a former president of Serbia, and his five co-defendants allegedly joined forces with Milosevic to deport up to 800,000 ethnic Albanians from the Serbian province.

Thomas Hannis, the prosecutor at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, told the court: "These six accused were co-participants with Slobodan Milosevic and other Serbian political, military and police officials in a joint criminal enterprise. They burned or destroyed villages, so there was nothing left to return to."

The trial of Mr Milutinovic has taken on added significance since Milosevic died of a heart attack in March while standing trial for war crimes. Mr Milutinovic now becomes the most senior Serb facing charges at the tribunal.

The prosecution alleged that Milosevic was the "primary planner" behind Belgrade's plans to deport hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, a province where ethnic Serbs form a minority. The prosecution linked the six co-defendants to the operation by saying they had all been appointed by Milosevic "to ensure that like-minded people were in positions of power", according to Mr Hannis. The six defendants are: Mr Milutinovic, 63; Nikola Sainovic, 57, the former prime minister of Serbia; Dragoljub Ojdanic, 65, a former army chief of staff; Generals Nebojsa Pavkovic, 60, and Vladimir Lazarevic, 57; and Sreten Lukic, 51, a former head of the internal affairs ministry for Kosovo.

The Serbian offensive against Kosovan Albanians in early 1999 - the last throw of the dice by Milosevic after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia - prompted the Nato bombing of Serbia. This eventually forced Milosevic to back down, with the UN taking control of Kosovo. The province is expected to be granted a carefully defined form of independence this year.

The court was told that Kosovo had been crucial to the survival of Milosevic, who made his name with a rabble-rousing speech in 1989 on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, a key date in Serb history when its forces suffered devastating losses at the hands of Ottoman forces.

Mr Hannis quoted Milosevic as telling General Wesley Clark, the former US Nato commander in the province, that "Kosovo was worth more than his own head".

Mr Ojdanic said he had done nothing wrong because he had acted honourably in defending his country. "For seven years I have waited to remove this feeling of shame," he said. "I can look anyone in the eye without for a second flinching."

His statement echoed the stance of Milosevic, who was originally indicted with today's defendants. Milosevic's trial was separated out when he was extradited to The Hague in 2001, where he was also charged with war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia. Milosevic insisted Serb forces had been fighting a legitimate war against the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was conducting a war of terrorism against the province's ethnic Serbs.