THE HAGUE, 11 February — War crimes prosecutors may have found a key “insider” to testify against the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic whose trial opens tomorrow here.

Unconfirmed reports from Belgrade suggest that a high-ranking former officer in the Serb police may give evidence to the UN tribunal, which embarks this week on the biggest war crimes prosecution since the Nuremberg trials.

Milosevic is the first former head of state to be held to account for war crimes and faces a life sentence if convicted on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the conflicts in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia.

The three hearings against him are expected to take up to two years to conduct, and the prosecution alone could take as long as 18 months to outline its case.

In Belgrade there is considerable pressure on potential witnesses not to give evidence to a tribunal which is seen as anti-Serb, and the prosecution has struggled to secure the witnesses it wants to help link Milosevic to specific crimes.

But it seems that Vlastimir Djordjevic (53), a senior officer in the Serb police force during Milosevic’s rule may be willing to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Djordjevic resigned after the downfall of Milosevic in October 2000 and left Belgrade abruptly for Moscow last May.

He may be able to provide key testimony. He attended a key meeting in Milosevic’s office in March 1999, as NATO air raids began. That discussion was dedicated to the strategy of eliminating the footprints of Serb “ethnic cleansers” in Kosovo.

Last May, Serbian officials revealed the gruesome methods agreed by Milosevic and his aides at the meeting. Bodies of ethnic Albanians were dug up and transported by freezer trucks into Serbia proper.

At least one truck was dumped in the Danube River, hundreds of miles away from Kosovo.

Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the UN Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, has not made public her list of witnesses, which the court has limited by the judges to 90 for the Kosovo trial. Under the tribunal’s rules the defendant has to be notified.

However, Milosevic refuses to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court and has not appointed a defense counsel and officials are unsure whether or not he is reading the hundreds of pages of documentation which are being presented to him by the prosecutor. (The Independent)