Witness Says Milosevic Told of Refugee ‘Picnic’

Slobodan Milosevic shrugged off accusations of “ethnic cleansing” by Serbs in 1999 by telling a peace negotiator that ethnic Albanian refugees from the Yugoslav province of Kosovo had simply gone on a picnic, his war crimes trial heard.

The ex-Yugoslav president dismissed reports of atrocities in the province as “nonsense,” former Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek told the Hague court.

Refugees spilled into Macedonia and Albania with their meager possessions loaded on tractors.

“When I confronted Mr. Milosevic with that, he said they were just picnicking, so I shouldn’t be concerned. They were just on a trip having a picnic,” Vollebaek said.