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Milosevic: The Legal Battle Ahead - International Justice - Global Policy Forum Milosevic: The Legal Battle Ahead
Milosevic may not recognise the tribunal in The Hague
By Tarik Kafala
BBC
July 2, 2001The trial of Slobodan Milosevic is expected to be an epic legal battle that could run for months, if not years. The case against Mr Milosevic looks like a strong one, but proving it in a court is another matter. And despite what many see as Mr Milosevic's demonisation in the West, he is still innocent until proven guilty.
There are questions about the strength of the evidence against Mr Milosevic. Legal analysts say the crux of the case is likely to be whether or not the prosecution can establish Mr Milosevic's "command responsibility" for the war crimes in Kosovo.
There are also several unknown elements that surround the case. New evidence of possible atrocities committed in Kosovo continues to be uncovered, and the tribunal is expected to bring further charges relating to crimes allegedly committed in Croatia and Bosnia.
The prosecution's case would be greatly strengthened if a senior official in the Milosevic government, perhaps one of his co-accused, were to give himself up to the tribunal and testify against the former president. The president of the tribunal, Claude Jorda, has said the trial will not begin for another eight to 12 months, and is likely to last for more than a year.
Tactics
It is not yet clear what tactics Mr Milosevic's defence team, the same team that had been preparing his defence in Belgrade against charges of corruption, is likely to adopt. From his prison in The Hague, Mr Milosevic has indicated that he will not recognise the international tribunal and has rejected his trial as being "politically motivated".
Geoffrey Robertson, a well-known British human rights lawyer, told the BBC that Mr Milosevic's defence team may question the competence of the court and its judges. "I think his lawyers' first step when he appears in court to have the charges read will be to object to him being tried by any judge from a Nato country. He'll want a Russian or a Chinese judge," Mr Robertson told the BBC.
Officials from the tribunal have made it clear that they will be preparing additional indictments against Mr Milosevic for crimes in Croatia and Bosnia, as well as the current indictments to do with crimes in Kosovo. Tribunal officials hope that there will be a single trial at which the former president will face all the charges the tribunal wants to bring at the same time.
Test of international justice
The ability of the tribunal to try such an important figure as Mr Milosevic in a way that is perceived to be transparent and fair is very important for the process of international justice. "I think the trial is going to be more the trial of the idea of international justice than, perhaps, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, because international justice has never been tested," Geoffrey Robertson says. "It will be a real test to see if the judges that have been appointed to this international criminal body can rise above the politics of their own countries and deliver justice."
'Command responsibility'
Currently, Mr Milosevic is charged with "command responsibility" for the expulsion of thousands of Kosovan Albanians from their towns and villages and specific massacres in Racak, Velika Krusa, and Bela Crvka. The Hague prosecutors will have to prove that Mr Milosevic knew and approved of the killings and ethnic cleansing, or that he knew about them but did not take steps to stop them. Prosecutors are expected to rely on documentary evidence, the testimony of witnesses, and communication intercepts - probably provided by Nato - to secure their case.
Tribunal investigators interviewed thousands of survivors and refugees from the 1999 fighting in Kosovo. Their testimony, corroborated by other witnesses, is expected to be one of the pillars of the prosecution case. Prosecutors will also be seeking to establish two other principles of authority to prove Mr Milosevic's guilt. The first is Mr Milosevic's "de jure", or legal responsibility as president of Yugoslavia for the actions of the army.
The prosecution will also be attempting to demonstrate Mr Milosevic's "de facto" responsibility - that he was in reality, or practically, the final authority at the top of Yugoslavia's military and security apparatus.
'Clear conscience'
Defenders of Mr Milosevic argue that the evidence against him is flimsy. Christopher Black, a Canadian criminal lawyer and member of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, told the BBC: "There is no convincing evidence whatsoever that he is guilty of any crime or atrocity whatsoever. UN estimates now of all the bodies found in Kosovo is less than 1000 - half of which are Serbs. You have more than that in Northern Ireland. We should be arresting British leaders if we apply the same standard," he said.
In a recent meeting, Mr Milosevic apparently told Mr Black that he had a clear conscience. "There is no evidence going to be found against him unless they concoct it. I looked the man right in the eye, a man I have never met before, and he looked me straight in the eye and did not blink.
"Yes I believe him. I have been a criminal lawyer for 25 years and I have spoken to a lot of witnesses - I know when a man is telling the truth," Mr Black said. Mass graves However the evidence is building up against Mr Milosevic. Investigators from the tribunal have, despite Christopher Black's assertion, exhumed 4,000 victims of the conflict in Kosovo. There is also evidence that Serbian special forces burnt hundreds of corpses in an attempt to hide evidence of killings. Serbian police are investigating Mr Milosevic's role in this alleged cover-up operation. And in the days before his extradition to The Hague, Serbian public opinion moved increasingly against the former president because of media reports alleging the mass transport of corpses from Kosovo to Serbia.
On the same day that Mr Milosevic was extradited to The Hague, Yugoslav investigators exhumed 36 bodies from a mass grave near the capital Belgrade.
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