Government covered up Kosovo killings, says Serb police chief

OFFICIALS in Slobodan Milosevic’s government ordered a cover-up of the remains of more than 80 Kosovo Albanians found in a refrigerated truck in the river Danube, a Serb police chief testified yesterday.

Colonel Caslav Golubovic headed a regional office of the police in eastern Serbia when the truck was discovered in April 1999.

The bodies, including those of women and children, were found more than a hundred miles from Kosovo, near the Serbian border with Romania, in what prosecutors say was an attempt to conceal evidence of war crimes by Milosevic’s forces in the Serb province.

Colonel Golubovic held Milosevic’s gaze with an emotionless stare for several seconds before taking the oath to truthfully testify against his former president at his war crimes trial in The Hague.

The witness said he received a phone call from Serb General Vlastimir Djordjevic a day after the white Mercedes freezer truck was found adrift in the river by a fisherman.

“Djordjevic said to explore the possibility of transferring the bodies to a different truck, then transferring them to a burial place in the area,” Golubovic said.

The instructions came directly from the Serb Interior Ministry, Golubovic said. Former Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic had issued instructions not to speak to the press about the incident. The human remains were later sent to Belgrade and the truck destroyed with explosives, Golubovic said.

In cross-examination, Milosevic contested the accuracy of the testimony and asked why Golubovic’s subordinates had given him varying body counts and descriptions of the victims’ clothing.

“As we did not conduct an official investigation, no information was officially obtained,” the witness responded.

Milosevic, who is conducting his own defence at the UN court, has claimed that the truck was an invention intended to incriminate him.

The former leader faces 66 counts of war crimes Allegations of genocide will be detailed in the second part of his trial, due to start later this month.