World

Milosevic Charges British Bias

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 9, 2002 / 8:37 AM EST / CBS

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic clashed with U.N. war crimes judges Wednesday, branding them biased and again accusing NATO of atrocities in Kosovo.

At a procedural hearing a month before his trial for alleged atrocities in Kosovo, Milosevic said the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal had based allegations that he masterminded a brutal campaign in the province purely on British intelligence reports.

Yawning and checking his watch frequently at his last Kosovo pre-trial hearing, the former Yugoslav leader looked calm and nonchalant as court officials discussed the nuts and bolts of the proceedings set to begin on February 12.

But he sprang to life when British presiding judge Richard May finally gave him the floor, insisting once again that NATO — which bombed Serbia in 1999 after a Serb crackdown on Kosovo Albanians — and not Belgrade was the true villain.

"An operation is under way to reverse the scene and the culprit...All this is geared towards a construed justification for the crimes committed during the NATO aggression on my nation," Milosevic, 60, said slowly but firmly in Serbian.

"Quite obviously the intention is to (portray) those who defended their families, children, thresholds, homes and country as criminals and evil people," he told the court.

"Whereas those who traveled thousands of kilometers to destroy their houses in the night and kill innocent people and destroy maternity wards, hospitals...are in cooperation with the Albanian terrorists responsible for the vast number of victims."

Hinting that the court is politically motivated, Milosevic said the trial chamber was also led by a British judge, Richard May.

In a repeat of previous run-ins between the pair, May then turned off Milosevic's microphone, told him he would have his chance to make his case during the trial and closed the hearing.

"This is not the time for speeches," he said, tossing his headphones onto his desk and marching out of court. "We have listened to you patiently."

Milosevic is accused of responsibility along with four other senior Serbs for the murder of 900 Kosovo Albanians and expulsion of 800,000 civilians from their homes. He faces a separate trial on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Croatia in 1991 and in Bosnia in 1992-95.

Prosecutors will open their case Feb. 12 at the start of the Kosovo trial. He faces a later trial on charges of genocide for alleged crimes in Bosnia and Croatia.

At his five appearances before the tribunal — which has held him in custody since Serb reformers sent him to the Hague in June — the former strongman has repeatedly lambasted the court as an illegal tool of his Western foes in streams of invective before being silenced by Judge May.

When asked to comment Wednesday on what he had heard, Milosevic instead accused NATO and "Albanian terrorists" of war crimes including killing civilians and bombing maternity wards, hospitals, bridges and railway.

Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice said his team wanted to call 110 witnesses to testify against him, but May said he would allow 90 given "the size and complexity of the case."

May advised Milosevic to reconsider his decision not to appoint legal counsel and offered him a court investigator to help prepare his defense.

The court has entered not guilty pleas to all indictments and appointed three prominent international lawyers as "amici curiae" ("friends of the court") to ensure a fair trial.

In his final broadside before Judge May cut him off and adjourned the session, Milosevic took a fresh tack in his allegations of tribunal bias.

"Look at this court. Courts should be impartial. The indictment has been raised according to what the British intelligence service has said. The judge is an Englishman. The amicus curiae is..." he said.

Briton Steven Kay is one of the "amici curiae," along with Serb Branislav Tapuskovic and Dutchman Michail Wladimiroff.

Prosecutors asked the three-judge panel to consider withholding from Milosevic the identities of witnesses slated to testify anonymously, saying he should not have the right to know the names because he refuses to recognize the tribunal's authority.

Authorities fear that if Milosevic is given witness identities ahead of their appearance in court, he may be able to intimidate them.

Jamaican Judge Patrick Robinson described Nice's request as "wholly inappropriate" and said it would jeopardize preparation of Milosevic's case.

"We have to make sure he gets a fair trial — that is our fundamental obligation," Robinson said.

Milosevic's trial is unprecedented in international law and his rejection of the tribunal's authority creates problems for both prosecutors and judges.

"It will make it more difficult if he continues to be obstructive," said Richard Dicker, head of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.

The Milosevic case is crucial because the "independence and impartiality" of the tribunal may be brought into question if the former head of state doesn't receive a fair trial, Dicker said.

The biggest challenge for prosecutors will be to link the widespread persecution and murder of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to Milosevic and his policies. They will call witnesses, including former Serb government officials awaiting their trials in The Hague, to connect his government to the crimes.

Judge May indicated the prosecution's case should finish before the court's summer recess in August.