Milosevic caused death and destruction - Clark

US presidential candidate Wesley Clark has accused former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic of responsibility for years of death and destruction in the Balkans.

Clark, a retired four-star general who served as NATO’s supreme commander, gave closed-door evidence at a UN war crimes tribunal on his years of engagement with Milosevic, culminating in a 78-day air campaign in 1999 against Milosevic’s troops in Kosovo.

Speaking to reporters outside, Clark declined to give details about what had gone on in the courtroom during some five hours of hearings.

He said Milosevic’s trial would help bring a sense of closure to the millions of victims of Balkan atrocities.

“For the people of the region it’s a very important experience. It’s the rule of law. It’s closure with a man who caused the deaths, or is alleged to have caused the deaths, of hundreds of thousands throughout Europe.”

Milosevic, who is defending himself against 66 counts of war crimes, will be looking to undermine Clark’s credibility as a prosecution witness.

Although Clark declined to discuss details of his testimony, he was able to offer unique insight into the tactics of the former Yugoslav leader, who was ousted in 2000 and later extradited to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Milosevic is charged with war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Prosecutors have called hundreds of witnesses, but Clark is the most senior US official to testify at Milosevic’s trial, which began in February 2002.

They are hoping Clark will back up their contention that Milosevic was aware of Serbian wartime atrocities, such as the massacre of thousands of Muslim civilians in Srebrenica, Bosnia, and failed to prevent the abuses or punish those responsible.