Serbs deny atrocity claim

Cover-up allegations as Albanians refuse to collect 52 bodies

AS tens of thousands of Albanians protested the killing of their kin by Serbian police, relatives of the dead refused to claim the bodies, accusing the Serbs of trying to cover up ''an atrocity'' by hastening burial.
Ethnic Albanians said they counted at least 52 corpses, including 13 children, 12 women and four elderly people, from the second sweep by Serbian police through an area west of Pristina last week.
''The Serb regime has committed an atrocity,'' said Enver Maloku, spokesman for the ethnic Albanians' Kosovo Information Centre. He said some bodies were so badly burned they could not be identified.
His account and casualty toll - which went down from 62 earlier yesterday - could not be independently confirmed.
The official toll from last week's two sweeps of villages west of the capital, Pristina, included 46 Albanians and six Serb policemen killed.
Maloku said some ethnic Albanians managed to view bodies of those killed while they were in Pristina morgue. Police moved the bodies on Sunday evening to the town of Srbica, the centre of last week's crackdown, about 25 miles west of Pristina. Associated Press Television and an AP photographer managed to get into Srbica, which was heavily patrolled by police.
In a rain-swept construction yard, dozens of bodies were lined up in two rows, heads and limbs protruding from a single long white sheet. The stench of human flesh was powerful. A tractor lumbered in, dumping another corpse.
The journalists saw no signs of burning on the body parts they glimpsed.
Police allowed the crew to film only one body, which they claimed was that of Adem Jashari, whom Serbs say was the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Below his heavy beard, he appeared to have been wounded in the throat.
Relatives were refusing to pick up the bodies, demanding autopsies by internationally appointed forensic experts, Maloku said. He said the Serbs were anxious to hold funerals today and accused them of wanting to cover up their alleged crimes. Serb sources denied this, saying they wanted the funerals quickly because the bodies were starting to decompose.
Across the Balkans, swift burial is traditional, usually a day after death.
Brushing aside foreign criticism of excessive violence, the Serbs say they had to crack down on a militant group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has claimed 50 killings in the past 19 months and crush Albanian attempts to win independence from Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia.
Kosovo is the heartland of Serbia's medieval empire and Serbs – outnumbered 9-1 in Kosovo by ethnic Albanians – vow they will never give it up. For the first time since restive Kosovo was stripped of autonomy in 1989, police did not interfere with a 50-minute protest by 50,000 people in Pristina, flashing victory signs and carrying English language banners like ''NATO – wake up!'' and ''Europe, where are you?'' to demand foreign intervention.
Heavily armed riot squads sat in buses in side streets and police with sub-machine guns and bulletproof vests formed cordons but did not break up the crowd. ''We got orders from Belgrade not to beat them,'' said a policeman. A similar protest in Pristina last week ended with riot police lobbing tear gas and clubbing demonstrators.
The lack of police intervention this time was a clear sign that Serbian authorities did not want violence on the day of an international meeting in London. The conference agreed on an arms embargo and other measures against Yugoslavia in response to the crackdown. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will face further sanctions unless special police units are withdrawn from Kosovo within 10 days, said representatives of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.
The conference also called on ethnic Albanians to enter into negotiations without conditions to seek an end to the unrest.
At least 25,000 people demonstrated in other towns. Ethnic Albanians claimed police clubbed several protesters in two locations and shots were heard in a third. Serb sources denied there was any violence.
The last peaceful mass demonstrations in Kosovo were in 1988, before Milosevic, then president of Serbia, stripped the province of its autonomy. Serbs have ruled with a massive police and military presence ever since.
Last week's Serb police sweep left houses in ruins and forced thousands to flee. Media in neighbouring Montenegro said 3,500 Albanians from Kosovo had arrived there in the past two days. In Donji Prekaz, a prime target of the Serbs, about half the village's 50 houses had been destroyed or heavily damaged, with gaping holes in facades from heavy weapons, charred or bullet-riddled walls and shattered windows. Police said they struck only at homes from which they had been fired upon. The ruins indicated individual homes had been targeted, unlike the blanket destruction common in the war in Bosnia. Police also said the Albanians had used mortars, but the only sign of heavy artillery destruction was the gaping holes in the crumbled walls of ruined houses.
According to police, more than 30 people surrendered when given the chance to do so. Only after that, police say, did they open fire. Hundreds of people fled into surrounding hills.

Congress party seek a Ghandi for direction

THE President of the Congress party which once dominated Indian politics is to quit in the wake of a dismal election performance.
And pressure is being mounted to put a Gandhi back in charge of the party that ruled India for 45 of its 50 years since its independence.
Party president Sitaram Kesri recommended that Sonia Gandhi, the Italian born widow of assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, should take over.
Many in the Party want to see Mrs Gandhi, who has played an active behind-the-scenes part in Congress politics for years, in charge.
She campaigned heavily for Congress during the elections — appearing at more than 140 rallies — but refused to run for parliament.
She was first offered the party presidency after her husband was killed by a suicide bomber while campaigning in 1991.
Kesri's resignation came after it became clear that the Congress could not win enough support from other parties in Parliament.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the biggest group after the general elections and is likely to be called by President K R Narayanan later this week to form a new government.
The BJP has criticised Congress for promoting Mrs Gandhi, even though she took citizenship after her husband became prime minister in 1984.
"It is a tragedy that they are asking her to become leader of party," said Jayalalitha Jay-(
aram, leader of a powerful southern party allied with the BJP.
"Could an Indian become the prime minister of Italy, or France or Britain? With 980 million people in this country, we can come up with a good capable Indian as a prime minister."
As party leader, Mrs Gandhi would be the logical choice for prime minister in the unlikely event Congress would form a government.
At the height of its power 12 years ago, Congress had 452 seats in the 545 member lower house of parliament. This time the party won 141 seats, marginally better than at its low ebb in 1996 when it won 138.
Over the weekend, the Communists said they would rather sit in opposition than support a Congress-led government. Important components of the United Front Party, which ruled until Congress withdrew support in December, also refused to join Congress.
The BJP and its allies control 258 seats, 15 seats short of a majority and are negotiating with other parties for support.

Fans say some film stars suffer from over-exposure

by Anthony Barnes
FILM buffs have warned screen stars who shed their clothes too often: "Please keep your kit on".
And users of the movie magazine Empire's web site have listed the stars they do not want to see naked in a new poll.
Persistent offenders Helen Mirren, Greta Scacchi and Demi Moore head the list of women who readers say should stay clothed, although organisers of the poll stressed there were only a few votes cast in the female category. Among the men Harvey Keitel, Alan Bates and Marlon Brando top the list of those who should keep themselves under wraps.
At the other extreme, stars that cinema-goers would like to see naked include Kate Winslet, who disrobed for both Jude and Titanic, Cameron Diaz and Michelle Pfeiffer. The male stars who fans most want to see naked include Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. Most popular was Colin Firth, although fans preferred to see the Pride And Prejudice version of the star, rather than the dishevelled Fever Pitch variety.
Readers were also asked about which films had the most gratuitous sex scenes.
"Betty Blue, Short Cuts, Starship Troopers and Pret A Porter are four where you'd have trouble justifying the nudity," said Matt Stone, editor of Empire Web.
"From all the responses we received, eroticism is a major factor in the movies. However, our users proved the brain to be biggest the sex organ by their refusal to accept sex for the sake of it.
"It's got to be justified by the plot.''
Emanuelle Beart and Uma Thurman were named sexiest actresses, while Keanu Reeves and George Clooney were the sexiest males.

Nanny waits for appeal court's decision

by Paul Peachey
THE fate of Louise Woodward tonight rests with seven Massachusetts judges who could decide if she can go home or return to prison for 15 years.
The 20-year-old and her family face weeks of anxious waiting after legal teams argued for 55 minutes over the manslaughter conviction for the killing of baby Matthew Eappen at the State Supreme Judicial Court, Boston.
Woodward's team wants her to be acquitted, claiming "there was no murder" and that vital medical evidence had been overlooked before the trial started.
But the prosecution wants the second degree murder conviction handed down by the jury at the original trial last year to stand so she would be sent to prison for life with no possibility of parole for at least 15 years.
The au pair, accompanied by her parents Gary and Sue, arrived 10 minutes late because of traffic problems for the appeal, in which the seven justices heard 25 minutes of submissions and questioning from both legal teams.
Woodward, of Elton, Cheshire, dressed in a black suit, remained impassive as defence lawyer Andrew Good complained that vital evidence about baby Matthew's skull and brain injuries had been hidden by the prosecution.
The defence claims the injuries happened before the alleged blow on February 4.
Following medical argument, Mr Good said any injury on February 4 was "simply a scientific impossibility."
While pressing for an acquittal, the defence team also argued that the trial judge acted within his powers when he reduced her conviction to involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her to 279 days in prison, or time served.
The prosecution argued that the baby had been "perfectly healthy" before February 4 of last year.
Assistant district attorney Sabita Singh said a defence expert at first told the court the baby had been injured three weeks before death then changed it to one week.
She pleaded: "If a judge can get rid of everything it (the jury) has done, then it is wrong because it gets rid of our jury system altogether.
"How can any judge come to the conclusion that they were overly harsh… there were no other lesser choices they could have made."
The decision by Judge Zobel last year to bring the case to a "compassionate conclusion" left Woodward floundering in a legal limbo.
Her visa has expired and the court is holding her passport, pending the result of the present appeal.
The State's highest court also has options including backing the judge but increasing the sentence, acquittal or ordering a retrial.
Written evidence was submitted to the justices before today's hearing by the defence and prosecution teams involved in the case.
The events today were watched by more than 60 of Louise Woodward's supporters at the Rigger pub in her home village.
The defence team echoed the optimism of supporters in Britain after the hearing.
Defence lawyer Barry Scheck told reporters on the court steps that they would have to decide carefully what to do if there was a retrial.
Despite the high cost of a possible retrial, he said: "We are practically working for free at the moment.
"We would represent her in any new trial."
Mr Good said the team would not have lost if a retrial was ordered.
He said: "We would have an unconvicted client, and that would not be a loss."
Asked about Woodward, he said: "Obviously anyone in this position would be concerned about the outcome but she has borne up right along and she is OK."
The dead baby's parents, Sunil and Deborah Eappen, were not in court but Deborah's brother, Paul Spellman, vowed not to drop the case.
He said: "We will never leave this because Louise Woodward took Matthew away from us."
At the original trial, the prosecution claimed that the eight-month-old baby had been killed by Woodward shaking him and striking his head on a hard surface with the force equivalent to a fall from a second floor window.
A group of about 14 pro-Woodward supporters from Boston and San Francisco were demonstrating outside the court while the hearing was in session.
Court officials were today unclear about how long it would be before a decision was taken but they said that it would be unlikely to be less than a one month wait.
They are currently investigating if the court decision can be posted on the Internet.
A similar plan, after Judge Zobel's decision last year, created widespread problems when the Internet system could not cope with the interest generated by the verdict.

Research could produce a DNA 'photofit' of criminals

by Rachael Crofts
SCIENTISTS carrying out research into DNA could soon produce a detailed 'photofit' of a suspect from one small sample such as a strand of hair or a drop of blood left at the scene of a crime, it was revealed today.
The ground-breaking research, which will revolutionise crime fighting, has already developed techniques to predict physical characteristics of an offender including sex, ethnic origin and hair colour.
In the future the experts hope the new techniques will also enable them to identify other characteristics such as eye colour, facial features and height.
West Midlands Police Force, working in partnership with the Forensic Science Service, have pioneered the new techniques, and results of the research are due to be released in the next three months.
Detective Inspector Richard Leary said: "This technique will give police vital information about the person responsible for the crime from part of their genetic identity — a genetic fingerprint — which they leave behind at the scene of a crime.
"DNA gives people a genetic identity which is unique to them. Samples taken from the scene of a crime can be fed into the national DNA database and by using computer software we can predict part of the offender's genetic make-up.
The research is also focusing on the development of a super-sensitive recovery system able to recover the smallest possible amount of material from a scene for use in DNA profiling to identify the donor.
Det Insp Leary added: "Criminals cannot help but leave a part of themselves at the scene of a crime, although it may be a very small part indeed.
"We want to develop systems to help recover these amounts of microscopic material for use in DNA profiling. The research undertaken to date has shown that this is possible, even down to the recovery and profiling of a single human cell."
Director of Research at the Forensic Science Service David Werritt said: "We are very pleased to be undertaking joint research with West Midlands Police and the efforts of both organisations show promise for the future."

Boy turns against sweetheart at trial

A STUDENT has agreed to testify against his girlfriend who faces the death sentence if convicted of murdering their new born son.
In return, Delaware prosecutors have agreed to drop murder charges against teenager Brian Peterson. Instead he is admitting manslaughter which carries a maximum ten year sentence.
Peterson and his former high school sweetheart Amy Grossberg, both 19, were both accused of murdering their son in a motel near the University of Delaware, where Grossberg was an art student.
The baby was found wrapped in plastic in a motel rubbish bin.
The case, involving teenagers from a wealthy New Jersey suburb, sparked debates and controversy throughout the US over the morals of American youth as well as the differences between infanticide and abortion.
"Brian has explained at great length the infant didn't show any signs of life," said his lawyer, Russell Gioiella. "He believed the baby was dead. ... Brian had no intent to harm the baby in any way."
Gioiella said Grossberg was saying, "Get rid of it. Get rid of it."
Grossberg has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and murder by abuse or neglect charges.
Her lawyers had already been distancing themselves from Peterson, requesting separate trials and saying she believed the child was stillborn and played no role in disposing of the body.

Bosnian Serb admits raping Muslim women

A BOSNIAN Serb yesterday admitted he raped four Muslim women in an east Bosnian town in 1992, handing the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal its first rape conviction.
Dragoljub Kunarac pleaded guilty to a single crime against humanity charge stemming from the rapes in Foca in 1992, described by prosecutors in The Hague as part of a systematic Serb campaign of sexual assault.
In one incident, Kunarac and another Serb raped a woman and then told her that "she would now give birth to Serb babies."
The 37-year-old denied three other related charges and the UN court immediately adjourned until tomorrow to let prosecutors discuss what to do about those.
Kunarac, unshaven and wearing a dark suit and tie in court, apparently took the tribunal by surprise by pleading guilty to the rape charge and is only the second person to enter a guilty plea at the court, which is working to bring to justice those accused of atrocities in the former Yugoslavia.
He turned himself in to the tribunal last Wednesday, the fourth Serb to surrender in recent weeks after years of defiance and non co-operation with the tribunal by Serb authorities.
He is charged with commanding a paramilitary unit made up mainly of Montenegrins who repeatedly gang raped and tortured Muslim women captured after rebel Serbs took control of Foca in 1992.
According to his indictment, Kunarac personally raped four women at his unit's headquarters in the town and is one of eight Serbs named in a 23-page indictment charged with raping and torturing women at Foca.
The indictment is the only one issued by the tribunal dealing exclusively with systematic rape as a war crime.
According to the charges, Serbs took over the town between April and July 1992. After gaining control, Serb soldiers separated men from women and children.
After being imprisoned in houses, motels, schools and a sports hall, many women were repeatedly raped, tortured and beaten by Serb forces.
The prisoners, some as young as 12 years old, were subjected to "humiliating and degrading conditions of life, to brutal beatings and to sexual assaults, including rapes," the indictment states.
Kunarac is the 24th person in tribunal custody out of more than 75 indicted.
The court's two most-wanted suspects, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime military chief General Ratko Mladic, remain free.
The tribunal has convicted one Bosnian Croat, who pleaded guilty to taking part in a massacre of Muslims in 1995 in Srebrenica, and a Bosnian Serb found guilty of beating and killing Muslims in 1992.
There are currently four trials under way in the court's single chamber.