Ashdown 'warned Milosevic about Kosovo war crimes'

Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the British Liberal Democrats, has told the UN War Crimes Tribunal that he warned Slobodan Milosevic in 1998 to stop the Serb campaign in Kosovo of face trial for crimes against humanity.

Mr Ashdown said he met Mr Milosevic in September 1998, the day after he witnessed the Yugoslav army offensive in Kosovo's Suva Reka Valley.

The British politician said he begged the former Yugoslav President to stop his crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo because it was "designed to drive innocent civilians out".

Mr Milosevic asked Mr Ashdown if he was aware of the war crimes committed by NATO when it attacked Kosovo and Serbia in 1999, but Mr Ashdown replied:

"This was entirely your responsibility. It had nothing to do with NATO. I sought to persuade you to stop. I told you in specific terms that you would make it inevitable that the international community would act. I warned you that you would end up in this court, and here you are."