Muslim describes how Serbs slaughtered civilians

A Muslim, who served with the Yugoslav army in Kosovo, today described the slaughter of civilians and said his brigade commander ordered his men ‘‘not to leave any survivors.’’

The witness, identified only as K-32, told Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial that members of his unit executed dozens of civilians in several villages during their campaign against ethnic Albanian rebels.

The former soldier, a Muslim from Montenegro, said that in an operation shortly after Nato warplanes began bombing Yugoslav troops to force them out of Kosovo, his brigade commander Colonel Bozidar Delic ordered his men to mop up the village of Trnje near Prizren, a suspected rebel base.

Delic ‘‘told us to enter the village and to do our best not to leave any survivors,’’ the witness said.

‘‘Women, children and elderly were executed. I did not see men of military age,’’ he said.

The witness said he saw a group of civilians being gunned down as they tried to flee advancing military and police units, which swept through the village with tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

He said he saw a baby and its mother killed with the same bullet. He later found dozens of corpses piled up in a courtyard, apparently executed.

The village was then set ablaze, the witness said. He admitted that he also destroyed a house and a bus after being ordered to do so.

Afterward, the witness said he and other soldiers were ordered to return to the village, to collect corpses and bury them near the Albanian border.

During cross-examination, former Yugoslav President Milosevic accused the witness of being a deserter whose testimony reflected ‘‘the hatred he feels against his commander Colonel Delic and the army.’’

Milosevic is charged with five counts of war crimes in Kosovo in 1999 and faces another 61 counts, including genocide, for alleged atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1991-95 wars.

The prosecution in The Hague is trying to link Milosevic with an alleged premeditated campaign to kill or drive out the ethnic Albanian population from Kosovo.