The following are key excerpts from the indictment by the UN war crimes court in The Hague against the former Yugoslav president, Mr Slobodan Milo sevic, and four associates.
The court charged Mr Milosevic and the four others with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, accusing forces under their command of atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Mr Milosevic and his aides, who all occupied high state positions at the time the indictment was issued, are accused of deporting 740,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and of murdering 340 Albanians identified before May 24th, 1999, when the indictment was confirmed by a judge, during NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
"Beginning in January 1999 and continuing to the date of this indictment, Slobodan Milo sevic, Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic and Vlajko Stojiljkovic planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in a campaign of terror and violence directed at Kosovo Albanian civilians living in Kosovo in the FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).
"The operations targeting the Kosovo Albanians were undertaken with the objective of removing a substantial portion of the Kosovo Albanian population from Kosovo in an effort to ensure continued Serbian control over the province.
"The forces of the FRY and Serbia have, in a systematic manner, forcibly expelled and internally displaced hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes across the entire province of Kosovo.
"Beginning on or about January 1st, 1999, and continuing until the date of this indictment, forces of the FRY and Serbia, acting at the direction, with the encouragement or with the support of [the indicted] have murdered hundreds of Kosovo Albanian civilians.
"These killings have occurred in a widespread or systematic manner throughout the province of Kosovo and have resulted in the deaths of numerous men, women and children."
The indictment lists several cases of alleged mass killings, for example, in the villages of Velika Krusa and Mali Krusa, "on or about March 25th, 1999".
It charges Mr Milosevic and former senior government officials on the following counts:
Count 1: Deportation, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5 (d) of the Statute of the Tribunal.
Count 2: Murder, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5 (a) of the Statute of the Tribunal.
Count 3: Murder, a violation of the laws or customs of war, punishable under Article 3 of the Statute of the Tribunal and recognised by Article 3 (1) (a) (murder) of the Geneva Conventions.
Count 4: Persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, a crime against humanity, punishable under Article 5 (h) of the Statute of the Tribunal.