Serbian General: From Kosovo I left crying

The Serbian general has also talked about the Kosovo battle, in which Serbian military forces suffered major losses.

He considers the charge to be ridiculous, for the use of about a million Albanians from Kosovo.

If that's true and that's attributed to me as a sin, why am I not the commander of the Pristina Corps to blame for the expulsion of 150 .000 Serbs from Kosovo? More Serbs than Albanians left Kosovo, but that's not the case”, the Serbian general told the Serbian newspaper “Alo”, Telegraphed.

He says the Corps he headed has not exercised violence in Kosovo and that Milosevic had not ordered the use of force in Kosovo, but had not even communicated with it.

“Milloshe never ordered anything contrary to what we did. I've never talked to him in the war. He communicated with Pavkovqi (Serbian Army Commander)”.

The Serbian general, speaking of the Kostare Battle, says that on 9 April the breach of the border and the entry of KLA troops into Kosovo from Albania took place.

“Sulmi was terrible, and the enemy was very, very well armed, with good air support and NATO's best instructors... was a miniature Vietnam. It was not just the battle of the Kohara Caracol, it was a front of 15 miles [15 km]”, it broadcasts Telegragraphy.

“All links to front lines were broken. I received report from my command bridge. Apart from the detailed description of this chaos, he said: We'll protect the border at any cost, with letters highlighted. I was thrilled to read those words and answered: Hold it, protect Serbia. We're coming, and I'm gonna remember that as long as I'm alive. We went to the front line of combat. At the time, General Pavkovic was also close to me, who welcomed my words and ordered our so-called counterpart on our side”.

The Serbian general speaks with pain when he remembers withdrawing the Serbian Army from Kosovo.

I had other problems right then. I had to pull people and equipment without experiencing a debachle. From a military point of view, I know the goal was to kill 20 to 25 Serbian soldiers in Kosovo and level everything on the ground... We prevented the occupation of the state and its destruction. On the other hand, abandoning Kosovo has hit me the most, because I saw that the Serbian people were left at the mercy of the aggressor. I even cried. I have to say, I haven't personally had faith in all that was written in the Kumanovo deal, and according to Resolution 1244. I've left Kosovo”, he said.

Retired Serbian General Vladimir Lazarevic was sentenced by The Hague Tribunal to 14 years in prison for command responsibility for war crimes in Kosovo.

He has surrendered to The Hague on 3 February 2005. It has been condemned according to command responsibility, since in the 1998-99 war in Kosovo it has been the commander of Pristina's Third Corps, and then commander of the Yugoslav Army's Third Army.

Serbia has recently named the convicted general for war crimes at the helm of the Military Academy, which has prompted strong reactions to the international factor as well. /Telegraphy/