December 31, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 15, 1422

BELGRADE, Dec 30: Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova is one of about 200 witnesses to be called to give evidence against Slobodan Milosevic on charges related to Kosovo, sources close to The Hague war crimes tribunal said on Sunday.

Another to be called is the chief of the former OSCE Kosovo mission, William Walker, the sources said.

The trial of the former Yugoslav President Milosevic on charges related to Kosovo is set to begin on Feb 12, but the prosecution is expected to ask the court to combine indictments for Bosnia, Kosovo and Croatia so that a single trial can be held.

Milosevic has been in custody in the Hague since June. The charges he faces include crimes against humanity, violations of the conventions of war and the Geneva Convention as well as genocide.

The unofficial list of witnesses for the so-called “Kosovo Case” has been obtained by dpa in Belgrade.

The list is to be made official by Jan 9, sources said, adding that the possibility of small changes could not be excluded.

According to the list, the tribunal’s Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, will also call French pathologist Eric Baccard, to testify. Other witnesses include the former leader of the British Liberal Democrat party, Paddy Ashdown.

Walker, chief of the OSCE ceasefire verification mission to Kosovo, which was pulled out before the Kosovo war, is to testify about “Milosevic’s political goal to raise number of Serbs in the province and change ethnic proportions in Kosovo”, the tribunal list said.

Among the witnesses are some — probably Serbs — who are being given protection. They are to testify about Milosevic’s influence in decision-making within the Yugoslav army and the police, and also about a plan to hide the evidence of murders of ethnic Albanians.

More than 400 bodies of ethnic Albanians were discovered on five locations in Serbia after the fall of the Milosevic regime in Oct 2000.

According to the list, some local Albanians will testify about Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, the destruction of historical monuments, sexual assaults and Yugoslav army attacks.—dpa