Serb soldier's notebook on horrific killings at center of controversy surr

[Judi Lynn]

Serb soldier's notebook on horrific killings at center of controversy surrounding U.S. reporter

KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer Monday, January 26, 2004



(01-26) 05:15 PST BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) --

A Serbian human rights activist on Monday questioned whether USA Today reporter Jack Kelley, who resigned under scrutiny for his reporting of the Kosovo conflict, actually saw a key document he cited as a source.

Kelley stepped down earlier this month amid questions over his claims that he was shown an order by the army of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for a killing spree in a Kosovo village.

Forty four ethnic Albanians were killed or burned alive in Cusk village by Serb troops May 14, 1999. The massacre came at the peak of Milosevic's crackdown against Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians. A month later, NATO's bombing ended the crackdown and expelled Serb troops from the province.

Kelley, according to news reports in the United States, claimed he saw a typed order from army headquarters in Belgrade to "cleanse" the village, printed on official stationery as part of a black-bound notebook belonging to a Yugoslav officer.
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