[ALBSA-Info] Milosevic to make defiant lone stand at Hague

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Milosevic to make defiant lone stand at Hague

By Alastair Macdonald

  
THE HAGUE, July 3 (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic is set to face the UN war 
crimes tribunal at The Hague for the first time on Tuesday, defiantly alone 
after dispensing with legal counsel in a show of contempt for the accusers he 
refuses to recognise. 

"The Butcher of Belgrade" to his enemies, a hero of the Serb nation to his 
dwindling admirers, the former Yugoslav president is due to be arraigned at 
10 a.m. (0800 GMT) for crimes against humanity committed during ethnic 
cleansing in Kosovo in 1999. 

History will be made when British judge Richard May has the four counts read 
out in Court No.1 at the International Criminal Tribunal and asks Milosevic 
how he pleads. He is the first head of state ever indicted for war crimes 
while still in office and could spend the rest of his life behind bars if 
convicted. 

Yet, five days after he was spirited out of Belgrade Central prison by the 
Serbian reformists who toppled him from power last October, Milosevic seems 
unwilling meekly to go along with the set pattern of proceedings that have 
brought dozens of others to book for a decade of genocide and blood-letting 
in the Balkans. 

A Yugoslav lawyer who defended him on the corruption charges on which he was 
detained in Belgrade in April said Milosevic had decided not to be 
represented by counsel at Tuesday's hearing. 

And he might even decide to conduct his own defence once a trial starts -- 
which is unlikely to happen before next year. 

"Due to the fact that he does not recognise the tribunal, he is not going to 
call any lawyers to appear before the tribunal," Zdenko Tomanovic told a news 
conference after meeting Milosevic at the UN remand centre in The Hague's 
Scheveningen jail, where he has been kept in isolation since the early hours 
of Friday. 

"The tribunal is part of the mechanism to conduct genocide of the Serb 
people," Tomanovic said. Milosevic has said that it is not he but Western 
NATO leaders who bombed Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war of 1999 who should 
be answering for war crimes. 

WIFE ON WAY? 

At least it appeared that the 59-year-old, who graduated in law from Belgrade 
University nearly 40 years ago, would actually appear to hear the charges 
against him. There had been speculation he might refuse to leave his cell, 
forcing the judge to consider whether to have him brought to the court by 
force. 

It was not clear how exactly he would plead but it was likely he would either 
say "not guilty" or stay silent. Either way, the case against the man whose 
13-year rule oversaw the break-up of Yugoslavia was expected to continue. The 
court would just assume a "not guilty" plea if he said nothing for 30 days. 

The lawyer said Milosevic had seen no one but himself in person and had 
spoken to no one by telephone since his transfer but his wife, the 
strong-willed and influential Mira Markovic. 

Although she, like the rest of Milosevic's immediate family, is barred from 
entering the European Union, diplomats said Markovic was likely to be able to 
secure a Dutch visa in order to visit her husband, as the remand centre's 
rules allow. 

Despite massive evidence of atrocities in Kosovo, where three-quarters of a 
million people were forced from their homes and the names of nearly 600 
identified dead are listed on Milosevic's indictment for murder, actually 
proving the man at the top was fully responsible will be far from 
straightforward. 

It will be a key issue for chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who has vowed to 
bring more suspects to The Hague and may also charge Milosevic with crimes 
committed in Bosnia and Croatia. 

The feisty 54-year-old Swiss attorney is expected to relish coming face to 
face at last on Tuesday with her prize quarry. 

There is speculation, however, that his testimony could embarrass enemies at 
home and in the West. Critics of NATO's war on Yugoslavia note the bulk of 
crimes for which Milosevic is indicted were committed only after Western 
bombing raids began.