Albanian describes mass killing of relatives

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A Kosovo doctor recounted how Serb policemen gunned down six of his relatives and burned their house like it was their "daily business" as he testified Monday in the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

Argon Berisha, an ethnic Albanian, described a rampage by Serb forces in the southwestern town of Suva Reka after NATO began bombing Yugoslavia in March 1999.

Berisha said he watched from across the street as police raided his uncle's house, forcing the 25 people hiding inside to run for their lives. His cousins Bujar and Sedat were in the terrified group.

"Police started to shoot at Bujar and Sedat, emptying all their magazines into their bodies," Berisha said.

He then saw police coming out of the house dragging the bodies of two more cousins, the wife of one of them and the mother of the other, Berisha said. Police later destroyed the corpses by burning down the house, he said.

"It seems that the criminals have this as their daily business. They were well trained and they knew where to leave the bodies so that they would be burned up," Berisha said, pointing to a photo of the site.

He escaped to Albania with 11 of his family members after bribing the police with 1,000 German marks, or about $560.

Frowning, writing notes

Berisha was the seventh witness to testify at the Milosevic trial, which began its third week Monday.

Milosevic, who is representing himself in court, sat frowning and writing notes as Berisha spoke. The former Yugoslav president has tried to build a case that Serb troops were defending themselves against Kosovo Albanian rebels.

Prosecutors have concentrated on the few days after the bombing began, trying to piece together proof of what they say was a plan to "cleanse" the Serb province of its ethnic Albanian residents.

Thousands were killed and more than 800,000 deported from their homes, according to the indictment, which was initially drafted in 1999 while the bombing campaign was still under way and later amended.

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

Berisha said beatings and robberies of Kosovar Albanians were already commonplace by June 1998, nine months before the Western military alliance joined to fight Serb forces.