Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
Milosevic, Calling Himself a Victim, Asks to Be Freed by Court - International Justice - Global Policy Forum Milosevic, Calling Himself a Victim,
Associated Press
Asks to Be Freed by Court
January 30, 2002Slobodan Milosevic vented his anger in war crimes court today, saying his only goal during the Balkans war had been to "achieve peace" and asking the United Nations tribunal to free him until his trial begins in two weeks.
Mr. Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, appeared before a five-member appeals panel as it heard a motion requesting that the three indictments against him be heard in a single trial. He asked the panel to order his release, promising to return for a "battle I will not miss" when prosecutors present their case against him on Feb. 12. He was allowed to rail for 30 minutes against perceived injustices.
"I would call this an evil and hostile action aimed at justifying the crimes committed against my country," said Mr. Milosevic, who stands accused of carrying out crimes against humanity during almost 10 years of rule. He also asserted that trying him was "an attempt to turn the victim into the culprit."
Prosecutors seeking the single trial said top witnesses who were once close to Mr. Milosevic might not be able to testify here more than once. The lawyers also argued that the cases should be merged because the crimes — in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia — were part of a general plan to create a greater Serbian state by clearing areas of non-Serbs.
The tribunal said it would deliver its decision at a later time, and did not respond to Mr. Milosevic's plea for freedom.
For the first time in his six tribunal appearances, Mr. Milosevic was allowed to speak at length, and he seized the opportunity to voice political opinions he had not been permitted to detail at earlier hearings by the lower court judge, Richard May.
Gesturing in anger at the prosecution and the tribunal, the former president, speaking in Serbian, dismissed the charges as absurd, saying "the only goal of Serbia in that conflict was to achieve peace."
"Serbian politics, Serbia and I myself were involved in creating peace in Bosnia and Croatia," he said. "We were not involved in making war."
Mr. Milosevic, who has refused to accept legal representation, was asked by an appellate court justice, Claude Jorda, to respond to the prosecution's motion to combine the trials, but the judge did not interrupt his tirade.
Mr. Milosevic faces a total of 66 counts for actions during the war in the Balkans, including allegations of carrying out genocide from 1992 to 1995 during the Bosnian war. Serbian authorities handed him over for trial at The Hague last June. He could be jailed for life if convicted of any of the charges.
"The grand project, the accused Milosevic's overall plan, which is already evident from 1989, was an essentially Serbian state, dominated by Belgrade," said the chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. "And the common denominator of all this criminal activity was — we must never forget — forced expulsions."
A lower court agreed in December to a single trial on the Croatia and Bosnia charges, but said the 1999 Kosovo conflict should remain a separate case.
Prosecutors said they would be ready for the Kosovo trial in February, whether or not the cases are joined. Geoffrey Nice, the deputy prosecutor, said he would call several "high-level witnesses who can give direct evidence of what he was doing."
The trial is being closely watched by the Yugoslav government, which faces the threat of a Bosnian government lawsuit for billions of dollars in war damages based on Mr. Milosevic's actions.
More Information on International Justice
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
