The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic heard today that the former leader sanctioned the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians in the clearest testimony to date on his alleged responsibility for war crimes.
Mr Ratomir Tanic, who worked for Yugoslavia's secret services for much of the 1990s and has since fled the country, told the court Mr Milosevic had originally espoused a peaceful solution to unrest in Kosovo, but became more belligerent from 1997.
Mr Tanic, speaking from behind a screen, his face blurred on TV monitors, said the Serb authorities resolved to reduce the number of Albanians to "realistic" numbers through ethnic cleansing.
Mr Milosevic, detained in The Hague since June, faces charges including genocide and crimes against humanity in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s at the United Nations tribunal in Europe's most prominent war crime trial since World War Two.
Mr Tanic spent much of the 1995-1997 period building a peace deal in Kosovo with Yugoslavia's then reformist government.
Mr Milosevic had originally backed an agreement with Kosovo's Albanian population, Mr Tanic said, allowing a degree of autonomy short of independence.
"He said he would show there were fewer Albanians than one million and therefore less than 10 percent and that they could not have autonomy," Mr Tanic said in reference to a meeting between the two, adding he believed Albanians actually numbered 1.2 to 1.5 million.
Mr Tanic had contact with other countries' intelligence services and said Mr Milosevic knew the international community would have supported a Yugoslav crackdown on separatist guerrillas as long as a peace agreement was in place.
"It was explained to Mr Milosevic not once, but 100 times and explained at a very high level," Mr Tanic said.
Mr Milosevic, who is defending himself, leaned back in his seat for much of today's session, but at one point burst out: "This person, whom I do not know, has been saying untruths until now."
Mr Tanic is expected to continue testifying until the end of the week.