Serbs on trial for filmed execution

THE main suspect in a landmark trial of five Serb militiamen charged with the videotaped execution of six Bosnian Muslims said he would have killed the soldier who filmed it if he knew it would become public.

The suspects at the trial, which opened yesterday, were charged after the June airing of the gruesome 1995 video showing six civilians being taken from a truck, tied, lined up on a hillside near Srebrenica and sprayed with machine gun fire.

The five face up to 40 years in jail if found guilty. Serbia has abolished the death penalty.