Milosevic frustrated by Kosovo peasant

Serb forces pillaged Kosovar Albanian villages in 1999, leaving the bodies of children and even a crippled old woman in the smouldering ruins, a retired farmer testified at Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial today.

The former Yugoslav president’s trial in The Hague moved into a third week as prosecutors called more witnesses to testify about atrocities in the province that left thousands dead and more than 800,000 deported from their homes.

Milosevic faces 66 counts of war crimes during conflicts in Croatia, Bosnian and Kosovo between 1991 and 1999. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted of any single charge.

Halil Morina told the UN court that Serb troops ransacked his property and burned homes in the southern Kosovar village of Landovice. His family of 39 fled for their lives.

‘‘I saw them (Serbs) when they burned the village. They killed a Gypsy,’’ Morina said. ‘‘An Albanian woman, they set fire to her in her own home.’’

Morina said he searched the village for survivors, but found only bodies. Mosques were destroyed and ‘‘everything had been razed to the ground,’’ he told the court.

Among the dead were many of his friends and relatives, including an 18-month-old baby girl and an elderly paralysed woman, he said.

‘‘The police and the army burned the village and killed them,’’ he said, naming some of those lost in the raids.

Milosevic spent around an hour cross-examining the Albanian peasant, asking him if he had seen Albanian rebels in the village or if the inhabitants had suffered during 78 days of Nato bombing.

Morina told Milosevic he was ‘‘just a farmer’’ and couldn’t tell him about the KLA. He said he hadn’t seen Nato bombers on their raids or the damage they had inflicted.

‘‘I don’t know anything,’’ he said.

Growing frustrated, Milosevic persisted that the witness must have seen crimes against the Serbs committed by the KLA independence fighters.

‘‘No there were none because the (Serb) army was close to the village,’’ the witness replied. ‘‘I had six sons and none of them were members of the KLA.’’

‘‘All right, quite obviously you know nothing of what I am asking you,’’ Milosevic snapped angrily. He then told the prosecution ‘‘you are obviously bringing in witnesses of this kind to ill treat me.’’

Milosevic, who is representing himself in court, has put up a fierce defence, extensively cross-examining every witness while trying to build a case that Serb troops were defending themselves against Kosovo Albanian rebels.