Military

DATE=10/24/2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268376

TITLE=YUGOSLAVIA / KOSTUNICA (L ONLY)

BYLINE=STEFAN BOS

DATELINE=BUDAPEST

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, has acknowledged that Yugoslavia's army and police forces committed widespread killings in Kosovo last year. Stefan Bos has the story from Budapest.

TEXT: Ousted Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic never admitted wrongdoing in Kosovo. But in a television interview to be broadcast Tuesday night in the United States, Mr. Kostunica says that he is ready to accept "the guilt for all those people who have been killed."

President Kostunica says that, as a Serb, he would take responsibility for many of the crimes committed by Mr. Milosevic's forces. Under Mr. Milosevic's rule, Yugoslav troops and Serbian police units launched a massive crackdown on ethnic-Albanian rebels in Kosovo in 1998 that resulted in thousands of deaths and forced tens of thousands of others to flee their homes.

When asked whether Yugoslav forces were guilty of genocide in Kosovo, the Yugoslav leader responded that crimes had occurred. He stressed that both Serbs and ethnic Albanians were killed.

Mr. Kostunica added that Mr. Milosevic should be prosecuted for war crimes but he did not make clear where. The United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has indicted the former Yugoslav leader for crimes against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians.

Balkan observers say Mr. Kostunica's interview appears to be the latest initiative in his effort to keep the Yugoslav federation intact. The interview is also being viewed as a peace overture to Yugoslavia's neighbors before a meeting of Balkan leaders Wednesday in Macedonia. (Signed)

NEB/SB/KL/PT