THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A Kosovo Albanian farmer testified Thursday that he lay silently under a corpse for 20 minutes while Serb police gunned down dozens of unarmed civilians during the NATO (news - web sites) bombing campaign of Kosovo in 1999.
During the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosovic, Isuf Zhuniqi stated that he was one of the few survivors of a massacre outside the town of Bela Crvka in March 1999.
In written testimony to the U.N. tribunal, the 42-year-old farmer said that a Serb execution platoon dressed in camouflage uniforms slaughtered more than 60 ethnic Albanians fleeing Bela Crvka after Serb tanks attacked the town in southern Kosovo.
Zhuniqi said he was shot in the shoulder but that the troops left him for dead as he lay under the corpse of a fellow villager who had fallen on top of him.
Prosecutors have charged Milosovic with five counts of war crimes. He also faces more charges for earlier wars in Croatia and Bosnia, and could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted.
Acting as his own defense counsel, Milosevic told the witness that NATO bombs had killed the villagers.
"They weren't wounded by bombs, but by Serbian police with automatic rifles," Zhuniqi said. "I saw it with my own eyes."
Milosevic presided over nearly a decade of war in the former Yugoslavia before he was ousted from power in October 2000. Authorities in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, arrested him in April 2001 on charges of abuse of power, and handed him over to international authorities to stand trial in The Hague (news - web sites) for war crimes.
In the Serb province of Kosovo, he is charged in the deaths of nearly 900 ethnic Albanians, the deportations of 800,000 people and sexual assault by Yugoslav army troops under his command.
For all three indictments, Milosevic faces a total of 66 counts of crimes against humanity, violating the laws and regulations of war, and genocide.