Serbs squabble over atrocities

Relations between the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian police are set to explode as each side blames the other for the cover-up of war crimes in Kosovo.

The widening rift between these two pillars of power is threatening the unity of the ruling DOS coalition that toppled Slobodan Milosevic from power last October.

The discovery of a deep freezer truck in the river Danube last month, filled with the bodies of murdered women and children ­ victims of Kosovo war crimes ­ has seen each side blaming the other for organising a cover-up.

Throughout last week army officials and the Serbian police publicly argued over the events behind the freezer truck case, and responsibility for war crimes in Kosovo. In fact, analysts say, the police are to blame for the overwhelming majority of atrocities committed during the war.

On Tuesday, the army chief of staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic said the police were "trying to smear the army" with allegations of covering up war crimes. He flatly rejected police claims that the army had been involved in removing Albanian bodies from Kosovo during the Nato air campaign in 1999.

Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic responded on Wednesday by accusing General Pavkovic of "making up lies" about atrocities committed in Kosovo.

General Pavkovic's words were countered when army faxes that had ordered a "clearing of the battlefield" in Kosovo were aired in the Serbian press. The orders carried the signatures of top army brass.

The police investigation of the freezer truck case had linked Mr Milosevic and his police chiefs to the orders for cover-up operations.

"Why is Pavkovic claiming he has no knowledge of what was going on in Kosovo?" Mr Mihajlovic said. "Why is Pavkovic making up lies?"

At the time of the Nato air campaign, General Pavkovic was the army commander in Kosovo. Mr Milosevic promoted him to the rank of general and later appointed him chief of staff.

He is now loyal to the new Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, who is the constitutional head of the army. But Mr Kostunica becomes visibly irritated whenever questions about General Pavkovic are asked. At a press conference on Thursday he avoided comment on the dispute between the army and the police. But later that day he clearly showed his sympathies.

He dismissed General Ninoslav Krstic from his post of commander of the joint security forces in southern Serbia, acting on General Pavkovic's recommendation.

The move was criticised by Nebojsa Covic, a top Serb official who helped bring peace to the area. He expressed deep concern regarding open confrontations between the army and the police.

"We could enter a very dangerous and uncertain period with this confrontation," Mr Covic warned. "I'm very worried about the dangerous verbal skirmishes between the army and the police."