Clark testifies against Milosevic at UN tribunal

Wesley Clark, the retired US general, yesterday began two days of testimony against the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, their first meeting since Nato aircraft bombed Serbia in 1999.

The testimony was not directly disclosed for security reasons and will be broadcast on Friday after it has been vetted by the US State Department. Mr Milosevic faces 66 charges of war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Sources said General Clark's testimony will be based on his book Waging Modern Warfare. It describes in detail the 78 days of the Nato campaign General Clark led against Serbia in 1999. It ended Mr Milosevic's reign.

The general, now a Democratic contender for the US presidency, and Mr Milosevich had 100 hours of talks, in the mid-Nineties and just before the Nato campaign.

General Clark was director of strategy, plans and policy for the joint chiefs of staff when the US was trying to negotiate an end to the Bosnian war, and influence Bosnian Serbs through Mr Milosevic. The general also met the Bosnian Serb general, Ratko Mladic, wanted by the tribunal for the massacre of 7,000 men and boys in Srebrenica.