13 October 2003 Morning Edition

Kosovo News

· U.N. police smash petrol-smuggling conspiracy in Kosovo (dpa)
· Kosovo delegation at Pristina-Belgrade talks, despite PM refusal (AFP)
· Serbs and Albanians discuss Kosovo, five years too late (AFP)
· Kosovo prime minister rejects invitation for talks with Serbia (Xinhua)
· Kosovo's Prime Minister turns down invitation for talks with Serbia (dpa)
· Kosovo premier pulls out of talks (BBC)
· Boycott may doom talks on Kosovo (Guardian)
· Kosovo PM rejects Vienna talks (Beta)
· Kosovo PM: "I won't be going to Vienna" (Beta/B92)
· 2005 decisive for Kosovo, says Montenegrin speaker (Pobjeda)

Regional News

· Serbian government to face no-confidence vote despite threat to (AP)
· Albanian elections seen as test of nascent democracy (AP)
· Behind the Srebrenica massacre (NYT/IHT)

U.N. police smash petrol-smuggling conspiracy in Kosovo

Pristina (dpa) - A Kosovo businessman and three local customs officers were arrested and charged with fraud and corruption in connection with smuggling petrol into Kosovo, United Nations police said Sunday.

According to a U.N. police statement, a joint investigation of the U.N. police and the Kosovo Customs Service established that petrol tankers were entering Kosovo from Macedonia through an official border crossing without paying the official duties or taxes.

The Kosovo Treasury had been defrauded of over 83,000 dollars by the crime ring, the statement said.

``The customs officers in custody are alleged to have taken payments in exchange for facilitating the entry of the tankers. The investigation has resulted in the recovery of large amounts of cash,'' the statement said, adding that further investigations are to continue.

Kosovo delegation at Pristina-Belgrade talks, despite PM refusal

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, Oct 12 (AFP) - The UN in Kosovo said late Sunday it will lead Kosovo's delegation in the first post-war meeting with Serbian officials, despite the refusal of the province's prime minister to attend the talks.

The top UN official in the province, Harri Holkeri, said in a statement the talks due to be held this week in Vienna will go ahead as scheduled.

"Since it has proved impossible to include leaders of the government of Kosovo, the Kosovo delegation will be represented by President Rugova, who is a symbol of the multi-ethnic unity of Kosovo," said Holkeri.

Earlier Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said he would not take part in the meeting with Serbian officials, the first of its kind since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999.

In a televised address broadcast by Kosovo's TV stations, Rexhepi said he would not go to the meeting backed by the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

"Today I had to make a difficult decision. I will not go to the Vienna meeting organized by UNMIK," Rexhepi said.

The move deals a blow to the UN-sponsored talks aimed at holding a largely symbolic meeting to launch an ongoing dialogue on "practical issues of mutual concern".

The talks will deal with issues of transport, energy and the return of displaced and missing persons. However, the contentious issue of the province's political status will not be discussed.

The United Nations has been running Kosovo with the participation of local institutions since a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces to end their bloody crackdown and withdraw from the region.

"It is not yet the time. It will be our decision as to where and what to talk about. This decision cannot be made by someone else," Rexhepi said.

Rexhepi's decision came after Kosovo lawmakers failed to give their backing to the proposed meeting as MPs voted not to include the issue on the agenda of Thursday's session.

Rexhepi, who asked the assembly to approve the meeting, said he would not attend without parliamentary backing.

Holkeri sent out formal invitations to leaders from Kosovo and Serbia to attend the meeting.

In his statement, Holkeri said the province's speaker of parliament, Nexhat Daci -- a senior official in Rugova's League of Democratic Kosovo -- would also attend the talks

The second largest political group, the Party of Democratic Kosovo (PDK), lead by former rebel leader Hashim Thaçi, has supported the talks but is yet to name a minister from its ranks to attend the Vienna meeting.

The commotion highlights the political divisions between the province's ethnic-Albanian parties whose squabbling is seen by many as political manouvering ahead of general elections planned for next year.

Serbs and Albanians discuss Kosovo, five years too late

By Stephen Coates

BELGRADE, Oct 12 (AFP) - Serbian officials and ethnic Albanian representatives from the breakaway province of Kosovo are scheduled to meet in Vienna this week for their first talks since the 1998-99 war.

The two sides remain deeply divided over the Kosovo Albanian majority's demands for independence, which fuelled the Albanians' insurgency against then Yugoslav president and Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The war ended with a NATO bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia, the withdrawal of Milosevic's troops and the establishment of a United Nations' protectorate in Kosovo under Security Council Resolution 1244.

At the time, Kosovo offered a blueprint for subsequent multilateral interventions such as East Timor, but four years later the province is still wracked by ethnic violence, its economy has stagnated and its political scene is paralysed by uncertainty about its future status.

The Serbs' bloody crackdown on the ethnic Albanian population has ended, but the violence has now been reversed, albeit on a much smaller scale.

A report to the UN Security Council last week said ethnic violence against the Serb minority was worsening despite the presence of a dwindling and increasingly distracted NATO-led peacekeeping force, numbering around 21,000.

And while the bloodshed continues, neither side is willing to give an inch on the fundamental question of Kosovo's status. Belgrade still rules it out while the Kosovar Albanians say it is inevitable.

Such is the sensitivity of this question, any mention of the word "status" in Vienna would cause a diplomatic flap and the possible breakdown of the proposed dialogue.
Instead the two sides have agreed, under immense international pressure, to hold a largely symbolic meeting to launch an ongoing dialogue on "practical issues of mutual concern".

Subsequent working group meetings in Belgrade and Pristina, it is hoped, will tackle issues such as transport, electricity supplies, missing people and, most importantly for the Serbian side, the return of refugees.

The Serbians are eager to highlight the plight of some 200,000 mainly Serb refugees who say it is still too dangerous to return to the province.

For the Kosovo Albanians there appears to be little to gain from the talks and a lot to lose, especially on the political front.

The province's second post-war election is only a year away, and few Albanian leaders are keen to be seen cooperating with Belgrade or backing off the central demand of independence.

"Neither Belgrade nor Pristina sees political advantage in successful talks. Any politician who comes home to either capital after being too friendly to the other side will suffer for it," wrote Daniel Serwer, director of the Balkans initiative at the US Institute of Peace, in a recent article.

Anlaysts said that whatever the results, the meeting will give both sides an important chance to curry favour with the international community.

The UN, the EU and the so-called Contact Group for ex-Yugoslavia -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States -- will be represented.
Belgrade and Pristina are equally eager to join the European Union, and they both know that at the end of the day the UN Security Council will be the final arbiter on Kosovo's status.

"If the dialogue is to succeed, they must be made to understand that Brussels and Washington expect them not only to talk but also to produce results," Serwer said.
"There will need to be consequences if they fail."

Kosovo prime minister rejects invitation for talks with Serbia

BELGRADE, Oct 12, 2003 (Xinhua) -- Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said Sunday he would boycott talks with leaders from Serbia and Montenegro scheduled for Tuesday in Vienna, the Tanjug news agency reported.

"It is not yet the right time to talk with leaders from our neighbor Serbia," Rexhepi said, adding that he would participate in such talks "only when the Kosovars could decide on when, how and what to talk about."

Last Tuesday, United Nations administrator of Kosovo Harry Holkeri formally invited leaders from Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo to attend the first negotiations on the Kosovo issue since the end of the Kosovo war in June 1999.

In addition to Rexhepi, Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugvo, Serbia and Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic and Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic are among those invited and have said they would attend the talks.

The Tanjug report said the final status of Kosovo was not on the agenda of the talks, which would concentrate on problems demanding immediate attention, including the return of 200,000 refugees.

Kosovo was an autonomous province of the former Yugoslavia. Its overwhelming ethnic-Albanian majority, whose leaders now dominate an interim government, demands independence. Since the US-led NATO forces drove Serb forces from the territory four yeas ago, it has been under the UN administration.

Kosovo's Prime Minister turns down invitation for talks with Serbia

Pristina (dpa) - Kosovo's Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi decided Sunday to reject the invitation sent to him by the United Nations administrator of Kosovo for talks with leaders from Serbia and Montenegro on Tuesday in Vienna.

``Now is not the right time. This is not the right way. Kosovars should decide on the right time and when this time comes, we will welcome the help of the international community for a successful dialogue'', Rexhepi stated in a national television broadcast.

He decided to say no to the talks initiated by the European Union and organized by the U.N. mission in Kosovo despite huge pressure by western diplomats keen to see politicians from Kosovo and Serbia communicate four years after the war.

Rexhepi, who heads a coalition government of the three biggest parties, said he will concentrate instead on strengthening and consolidating ``our new house'', as he called the post-war Kosovo.

The first talks with Serbia since the end of the war, scheduled for Tuesday in Vienna, have divided the political spectrum in Kosovo, with the President of Kosovo, the leader of the main political party, accepting the invitation.

The Kosovo Albanian parties, led by former rebels, were against the talks for fear of predetermining Kosovo's final status, despite the fact the talks are scheduled to address only mutual technical problems, and not the issue of Kosovo's final status.

The Kosovo Albanian majority wants nothing less than independence, while the Kosovo Serb minority and officials in Belgrade want the return of Kosovo under the authority of Serbia.

Western diplomats in Pristina maintained on Sunday that the talks will commence in Vienna on Tuesday and that a Kosovo delegation will be present.

Kosovo premier pulls out of talks
Plans for a meeting between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have suffered a blow after the premier of the breakaway province said he would not attend.

BBC NEWS

Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said he would not travel to Vienna for the UN-brokered talks due to start on Tuesday because it was "not yet the time".

Other Kosovo officials are due to attend the first post-war meeting along with the leaders of Serbia and Montenegro.

The UN has controlled Kosovo since Nato forced Serbian forces to withdraw in 1999.

"The Kosovo delegation will be represented by President (Ibrahim) Rugova, who is a symbol of the multi-ethnic unity of Kosovo," said Harri Holkeri, the senior UN official in the province.

But observers suggest the meeting will carry little weight without the presence of Mr Rexhepi.
You have to break the ice somewhere
Western official quoted by Reuters
The meeting is not to due to address the central issue - the demand of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians for de jure independence - but is slated to cover practical issues such as power shortages and car number plates which are not recognised in Serbia.

The agenda is also set to cover emotive issues such as the fate of 3,700 people still missing in Kosovo, mostly ethnic Albanians, and the future of more than 100,000 mainly ethnic Serbs who fled after troops withdrew.

Attacks on the province's remaining ethnic Serbs have continued, with seven people killed over this summer alone.

Breaking the ice
Mr Rexhepi announced his decision to boycott the Vienna meeting a few days after the Kosovo parliament failed to endorse it.
It will be our decision as to where and what to talk about
Bajram Rexhepi
Kosovo prime minister
He had been invited to it along with other Kosovo Albanian and Serbian leaders by Harri Holkeri, the UN administrator official in the province.

"Today I had to make a difficult decision," said Mr Rexhepi on Sunday.

"I will not go to the Vienna meeting... It is not yet the time. It will be our decision as to where and what to talk about. This decision cannot be made by someone else."

Serbia and Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic and Serbian Deputy Premier Nebojsa Covic are all due to attend the Vienna talks.

One Western official in Kosovo told Reuters that even without the Kosovo premier the talks would have a purpose.
"You have to break the ice somewhere," he said.

Boycott may doom talks on Kosovo

Helena Smith in Athens
Monday October 13, 2003
The Guardian

Talks due to start tomorrow between political leaders from Serbia and Kosovo seemed doomed last night after the main Albanian delegation said it would boycott the discussions, the first since the end of the 1999 war.

The pledge by Bajram Rexhepi, the province's Albanian prime minister, came hours before Serbia's parliament speaker confirmed that the Belgrade government will face a no-confidence motion tomorrow, which may also jeopardise the negotiations in Vienna. It had been hoped that the vote - which could force Serbia's ruling democrats to resign - would be postponed to avoid denting the authority of Serb leaders participating in the long-awaited meeting.

The talks, announced at the Salonika summit that ended Greece's EU presidency last June, are the first encounter between the two sides since Nato's air bombardment of Kosovo four years ago. The 79-day military campaign led to the birth of the province as a UN protectorate after Slobodan Milosevic's army was forced to withdraw.

Western diplomats were hoping the discussions would break the distrust that has long kept Kosovo's bitterly divided ethnic communities apart. Although the agenda is limited to the less touchy topics of energy, transport, missing persons and the return of wartime refugees, the talks have been seen as a precursor to settling former Yugoslavia's last unresolved territorial question: Kosovo's final status.

Kosovo PM rejects Vienna talks (Beta)

PRISTINA -- Sunday - Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi has confirmed he will not attend talks with Serb leaders in Vienna, saying it is not the right time.

"I am not going to the meeting in Vienna organised by the United Nations mission in Kosovo", Rexhepi said in a statement to the Pristina media.

The premier said he was prepared to talk with Belgrade, but that it will be "our decision when, how and why we talk".

"This cannot be someone else's decision. Now is not a suitable time, and this is not the best way. Kosovars should decide when it is time and when that time comes we will welcome the help of the international community for a successful dialogue".

Rexhepi is a member of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by former guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci.

Kosovo PM: "I won't be going to Vienna" (B92/Beta)

PRISTINA -- Sunday - Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi will not attend talks between Pristina and Belgrade due to begin on Tuesday, Pristina daily Koha Ditore reports today.

"I won't be going to Vienna, definitely not", Rexhepi is quoted as saying at a ceremony last night to mark the fourth anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, DPK.

The DPK is led by Hashim Thaci, the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and is the second largest party in the province.

Thaci insisted last night that the party supports the launching of talks with the authorities in Belgrade, telling B92: "The DPK believes that it is in the best interest for there to be talks in Vienna. This is not the best process, but constructive and principled dialogue will be of use to everyone".

Koha Ditore writes that there was an uneasy atmosphere at last night's session of the DPK.

So far, Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, Parliament Speaker Nexhat Daci, Health Minister Resmija Mumdziju and Returns Coordinator Milorad Todorovic have confirmed their participation in the Pristina delegation.

2005 decisive for Kosovo, says Montenegrin speaker | 16:53 | Pobjeda

PODGORICA -- Sunday - Belgrade-Pristina talks are a start, but 2005 will be the decisive year for Kosovo, the speaker of the Montenegrin parliament said today.

Ranko Krivokapic told Podgorica's Pobjeda that next week's meeting between the authorities in Belgrade and Pristina represent the start of a "long path" to resolving the practical problems facing Kosovo's people. But 2005, after elections in the US and Serbia, will decide the future of the province, he added.

Serbian government to face no-confidence vote despite threat to

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP)_ The Serbian government will face a crucial no-confidence motion on Tuesday despite concerns it might jeopardize delicate talks with Kosovo Albanian leaders that are to start the same day, a top official said Sunday.

Some government ministers had called for the parliamentary session to be postponed to avoid complicating the long-awaited launch of talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials in Vienna.

But now it looks like both will start on Tuesday. ``The session will begin as scheduled on October 14,'' Natasa Micic, Serbia's parliament speaker, told the Beta news agency.

The Vienna talks would be the first direct meetings between the two sides after the 1998-1999 Serb-led crackdown on separatist Kosovo Albanians that led to NATO air intervention, a Serb military pullout and subsequent U.N control of Kosovo.

The authority of Serb officials attending the talks would be put into question if the opposition succeeded in the no-confidence vote, which could force the government to resign and face new elections.

In another development that could affect the success of the talks, a key Kosovo Albanian leader said Sunday he would stay away from the dialogue, in comments indirectly suggesting that the province's U.N. administration had overstepped its bounds.

``I will not go to the Vienna meeting organized by the U.N. mission in Kosovo,'' Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in pre-recorded statement broadcast on local televisions. ``This is not the right time. This is not the right way.

``It will be our decision when, how and why we will talk ... this cannot be someone else's decision,'' Rexhepi said in the broadcast.

Rexhepi's refusal to attend was linked to parliament failing to authorize the government to participate. Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, however, has said he would go to Vienna, and western diplomats in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, told the AP the talks would go ahead, with or without Rexhepi.

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said without elaboration that the talks in Vienna would be a ``major victory'' for Belgrade and urged full participation by Kosovo Albanian leaders.

``We have been offering talks for nearly three years now... Kosovo Albanians should act in a responsible manner,'' Zivkovic told reporters in the city of Nis, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of capital, Belgrade.
Kosovo remains legally a province of Serbia and Montenegro, the loose union that replaced Yugoslavia, but Belgrade has had no say in its affairs since mid-1999, when the U.N assumed control.

Serbia wants to regain authority in Kosovo, while the ethnic Albanian majority seeks independence. But the status of the province is not up for discussion at the Vienna talks, which is focusing on how to ensure energy supplies to Kosovo and other questions aimed at keeping it functioning and easing ethnic tensions.

Micic said that the no-confidence vote had emerged at ``the worst possible moment'' since it could have ``negative consequences at the start of talks with Pristina.''

Many of the opposition are nationalist supporters of former President Slobodan Milosevic who is being tried for alleged war crimes at The Hague, Netherlands-based U.N. court for his purported role in the atrocities of those wars. Staunchly anti-Western, they consider the current government a traitor to Serbian national interests.

Albanian elections seen as test of nascent democracy

By LLAZAR SEMINI

TIRANA, Albania (AP) _ Albanians elected municipal officials Sunday in nationwide local elections that many consider a test of national government and opposition strength and a gauge of the nation's progress toward democracy.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and most closed 12 hours later, except for stations where there was an overflow still waiting to cast ballots. About 2.7 million registered voters in the country of 3.1 million were eligible to elect officials to local office in some 380 urban and rural communities.

NATO and the European Union, the two organizations Albania hopes to join one day, have urged the government and political parties to make greater efforts to meet international standards by preventing the manipulation of returns and accepting defeat.

Appealing for broad participation, President Alfred Moisiu described the vote as ``an important test for all institutions of our country.''

``We should not forget that the country's image ... (is) linked with the success or nonsuccess of these elections,'' Moisiu said in a televised speech on Saturday. ``Let's be part of this process, to do our civil and legal duty, so that Albania and Albanians win on Oct. 12.''

While unrest and major cheating during elections is now the exception, the opposition complained of irregularities in the voters' lists going into Sunday's poll.
The opposition Democratic Party of former President Sali Berisha said the irregularities were a willful attempt by the governing Socialists to exclude Democratic Party supporters from voting. But Ilirian Celibashi, the head of the Central Election Committee, called them ``technical and not political problems,'' resulting from the improper registration of citizens.

Turnout by 5:30 p.m. (1530GMT) was 43 percent. Definitive results were unlikely before Tuesday.

About 2,000 local observers and 230 from the Organization for Security and Cooperation were monitoring the elections at about 4,700 polling stations nationwide.

The country's two main political forces _ the Socialists and Democrats _ both expressed confidence they would be victorious as their monthlong campaigns concluded Friday.

In the last municipal elections three years ago, the Socialists won 67 percent of the local government posts, compared to 31 percent of the Democratic Party. The Socialists also won the capital Tirana for the first time since the end of communist rule 12 years ago.

The opposition called on voters to give them their support against what they called a corrupt and criminal government. The governing Socialists dismissed the accusations and argued a vote for them would improve lives in local communities.

Political parties are focusing their campaign on the capital Tirana, where the leftist Socialist-led coalition is headed by Mayor Edi Rama. The Democratic Party's top candidate there is lawyer Spartak Ngjela.

Behind the Srebrenica massacre
Marlise Simons/NYT NYT Monday, October 13, 2003

THE HAGUE Eight years after the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims, doubts linger about the degree to which the killings were coldly planned or were improvised in chaos.

Most of those killed were unarmed prisoners, boys and men, shot in groups, or sometimes one by one.

Among the executioners, only a few foot soldiers have talked about the events that turned Srebrenica - its name means the "place of silver" - into a symbol of a modern European nightmare. No architect of the crime has ever explained in public what was in the killers' minds, or what made them believe that the murderous frenzy was acceptable to their own society and to their leaders.

But now, two senior Bosnian Serb officers, both crucial figures involved in organizing the bloodshed at Srebrenica, have spoken out at the war crimes tribunal here, describing the countdown to the massacre and depicting a well-planned and deliberate killing operation. They say it was largely coordinated by the military security and intelligence branch of the Bosnian Serb Army and militarized police, forces that were on Serbia's payroll.

The two officers, an intelligence chief and a brigade commander, recently pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity and have now given evidence against two fellow officers.

They provided so many names, firsthand accounts, documents and even a military log of the crucial days that one court official blurted, "They've practically written the judgment."

One of the insiders referred to a directive he received that said, "The life of the enemy has to be made unbearable." He also said it was his role to coordinate "the separation, detention and killings of the men."

This officer, Momir Nikolic, a former intelligence chief, described with cool precision the steps he took in coordinating logistics, moving between army and police units, avoiding phones and radios, as preparations for the mass executions were under way.

The second officer, a brigade commander, Dragan Obrenovic, recounted how in the final hours prisoners were moved to different detention and killing sites in a deliberate move to avoid detection by the Red Cross and the UN mission, which were active in the area.

Occasionally, the two officers even offered rare glimpses of their feelings. Their accounts from the Bosnian war represent sharp departures from persistent denials on the part of the Bosnian Serbs, including a recent government report maintaining that most of the men found in mass graves - many with their hands tied behind their backs - were killed in combat.

The first officer to speak out, Nikolic, 48, the former chief of intelligence and security of the Bratunac Brigade, said that the countdown to Srebrenica's capture had begun a year earlier, in June 1994. During eight days of testimony, he said that his brigade commander sent out a directive detailing Bosnian Serb policy toward the Muslims in the enclave protected by UN peacekeepers.

"The life of the enemy has to be made unbearable and his temporary stay in the enclave made impossible so that they leave en masse as soon as possible, realizing they cannot survive there," the directive said, as it was quoted and read in court.

That policy was carried out, said Nikolic, speaking with the precision of a math teacher, which he once was. Civilians were fired at, aid was blocked and fuel, food and other supplies for the UN peacekeepers were halted so that "they could not be ready for combat," he said.

The harassment went on for a year, until late May 1995, Nikolic said, and then the military began to prepare its final assault.

Bosnian Serb troops, aided by militarized police officers and paramilitary fighters from Serbia, overran the enclave on July 11.

"They had been expecting Muslim forces to put up fierce resistance," said Nikolic. "No one thought the resistance would be so short-lived." Instead, he said, there was chaos, with thousands of civilians fleeing, many hoping for safety near a UN base at Potocari.

The next day, at an early morning meeting at the Bratunac Brigade headquarters, General Ratko Mladic announced his plan to kill the prisoners, according to the testimony.

Nikolic said he learned about it almost immediately from two of his superiors coming out of the meeting. One of them, Colonel Vujadin Popovic, told him that "women and children had to be deported to Kladanj and the men had to separated and temporarily detained," Nikolic said.

"When I asked him what would happen then, he said that all balija had to be killed," he said. Balija is a derogatory name for Muslims. "I was told my task would be to coordinate the different forces."

Orders were to concentrate prisoners in Bratunac, a nearby town under Bosnian Serb control, Nikolic continued, and he and his two superiors talked about suitable places, including several schools, a sports complex and a hangar. Then the discussion turned to sites for executions, including a brick factory and a mine, he said.

Nikolic also described an encounter on July 13 at which Mladic addressed several hundred Muslims who had surrendered in Konjevic Polje. The general told the Muslims not to worry, that transport would be organized for them, according to the testimony.

Later as Mladic greeted him, Nikolic said, he asked what was to be done with the men. Mladic, who has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal and is a fugitive, responded with a gesture, Nikolic said. He repeated the gesture in court, moving his hand from left to right, palm down, in a cutting motion.

The prosecutor, Peter McCloskey, asked, "What did you think would happen to the prisoners?"

Nikolic said: "I did not think. I knew."

That same day, orders came that the executions would take place not in Bratunac, but near Zvornik, some 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, farther north.

Nikolic said he moved from place to place, informing regional commanders personally, avoiding telephones and radios.

His version was corroborated in court by the second insider witness, Obrenovic, at the time the acting commander of the Zvornik Brigade. Obrenovic said his brigade's intelligence chief told him to prepare for some 3,000 prisoners in his area. Obrenovic said he asked why the prisoners were coming to Zvornik, instead of going to the prisoner-of-war camp at Batkovici.

The response, he told the court, was that orders were to evade the Red Cross and the UN peacekeepers.

"The order was to take the prisoners and execute them in Zvornik," Obrenovic said. When he questioned the order again, he was informed that it came from Mladic, the head of the army.

The prosecutor asked why he had cooperated. Obrenovic replied that once he understood that the order was coming from the top, he became afraid. "I thought there was no point in standing up to it," he said.

That same night of July 13, the small town of Bratunac was extremely tense, Nikolic said. About 3,500 to 4,500 prisoners were held in overcrowded schools, a warehouse, a gym, piled in buses and trucks parked around town, and more were arriving.

Soldiers, police officers and armed local volunteers were mobilized to guard them. During the night, Nikolic said, 80 to 100 prisoners were taken off buses and from a hangar and shot.

In the early hours of July 14, Nikolic said, he watched a long column of buses and trucks pull out of Bratunac, heading for Zvornik.

At the head of the column, as a decoy, was a white UN armored personnel carrier, one of the vehicles stolen from peacekeepers. On board were Bosnian Serb soldiers and police officers, Nikolic said.

In their testimony, the two officers said that they had not been present at the mass executions around Zvornik that began on July 14 and lasted four days, but that like most members of the forces in the area, they knew of them. Obrenovic said he had understood when he was asked to send engineers to dig mass graves.

Nikolic said he became part of the cover-up that followed the killings. He said that later, in September, he helped to oversee the operations to dig up uncounted corpses and rebury them at secret sites.

After the war, he said he burned all the documents that could compromise him or his brigade.

The insiders' accounts may well become crucial in the trial of the former Serbian leader Milosevic, who faces 66 charges, including genocide.