Real History and a rigged war crimes tribunal

Posted Thursday, November 1, 2001

[Chief Prosecutor] Mrs. Del Ponte reacts visibly when [Milosevic] has the floor, sometimes rolling her eyes, at times leaning back in her chair, showing contempt with her laughter. Her reactions have drawn comments from some conservative European lawyers, not used to courtroom antics who have called her gestures inappropriate for this tribunal.

Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Milosevic Calls Tribunal Unfair, Infantile and 'a Farce'

By MARLISE SIMONS

THE HAGUE, Oct. 30 - If there had been any doubts about the warlike strategy Slobodan Milosevic had in mind for the international tribunal that will try him, then he dispelled them today in court.

The former Yugoslav president, who directed battles for almost a decade in the Balkans and faces a range of charges, including genocide, told the judges today that he would fight until the tribunal was overthrown.

His remarks came at the end of a long planning session in which the court said that his trial might begin as early as February.

Invited to speak on his "mental or physical condition" as it might affect the trial, Mr. Milosevic snapped out of his feigned indifference, leaned forward in his chair and dismissed the entire procedure.

Mr. Milosevic was evidently still annoyed by Monday's session, when the judges forced him to listen for almost four hours to the full texts of his two indictments, containing long lists of atrocities and war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia and against Albanians in Kosovo, which were read aloud to him in Serbo-Croatian to ensure that he understood them.

He told the panel of three judges that they might as well save him the long trial and deliver their verdicts now. "This has been a farce already," he scoffed at the bench. "And don't bother me and make me listen for hours on end to the reading of text written at the intellectual level of a 7-year-old child, or rather, let me correct myself, a retarded 7-year-old."

Mr. Milosevic turned some of his remarks toward terrorism, claiming that his trial was stimulating attacks by Albanians against Serbs, and that the Clinton administration "knew that bin Laden was in Albania two years after their embassies were attacked, and they discussed that fact with me."

He was referring to attacks on American Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. American diplomats and Albanian authorities have denied reports of a bin Laden visit to Albania. The State Department today called the claims far- fetched.

Mr. Milosevic said the chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, should be disqualified because she failed to include in her charges NATO's aerial bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. "We are not even talking about partiality or bias, because that would be a mild term," he said. "Even this court, which is an illegal one, must consider those facts.

"What we heard here is worse than what we heard from the enemy, that is, from the NATO spokesman. So this is complete partiality."

Speaking in Serbo-Croatian, but sometimes slipping into English, he further demanded that the surveillance camera be turned off in his cell in the United Nations prison here.

The reason he gave threw further light on his current state of mind.

"I hear you plan to take some three years," with this trial, he said. "So will you please remove the cameras from my cell," he continued. "Because the explanations given for the cameras are nonsense. Apparently they are monitoring me so that I should not commit suicide."

Stiffening his back, his voice now ringing even louder, he added: "I say here in this courtroom that I would never commit suicide. First of all, because I do not wish to do that to my family and my children. Second, I would never commit suicide because I must struggle here to topple this tribunal and this farce of a trial and the mastermind behind it."

The reference to suicide was not accidental. Both of Mr. Milosevic's parents took their own lives. And politicians in Yugoslavia had argued that Mr. Milosevic would kill himself rather than face the humiliation of a trial.

Yet lawyers for one of the five prisoners who are on the same floor with him said that the former strongman has been in good spirits and that he has been combative in all four of his court appearances so far, even seeming to relish the confrontations.

A judge with several decades of courtroom experience but who is not part of Mr. Milosevic's case said today that he was evidently very focused on his fight. "An intense focus like that keeps people alive; it can certainly keep them going," the judge said.

Court officials said that Mr. Milosevic reportedly had suffered some bouts of depression and high blood pressure soon after his arrival in The Hague in late June. But since he began to mix with other prisoners after one month of isolation, his mood apparently improved.

Mr. Milosevic's body language in the courtroom has been eloquent - he often sits with his back to the bench, avoids looking at the prosecutor at all costs and frequently turns toward the glass wall partition of the public gallery.

The posture of his opponent is also telling. Mrs. Del Ponte reacts visibly when her most famous suspect has the floor, sometimes rolling her eyes, at times leaning back in her chair, showing contempt with her laughter. Her reactions have drawn comments from some conservative European lawyers, not used to courtroom antics who have called her gestures inappropriate for this tribunal.

At today's planning meeting, Mrs. del Ponte offered a taste of the enormously lengthy and complex trial ahead. She is expected to ask the presiding judge to join the three indictments on which she wants Mr. Milosevic tried.

The first two involve alleged war crimes linked to the Kosovo war in 1999 and the war in Croatia in 1991. The third, involving charges of genocide and other crimes in Bosnia, will be issued next week, according to her office.

If Mr. Milosevic is to be tried separately for each case, the proceedings are likely to last up to three years, her office said. If she is allowed to join the indictments, then Mrs. del Ponte estimates they may take two to two and a half years.

She told the court today that the prosecution would take 170 days to make its case on each indictment. For Kosovo alone, she had lined up 228 witnesses, and 255 more for Croatia, she informed the court. She would also produce thousands of pages of documents, including maps and reports from military, police, financial and forensic experts.

Mr. Milosevic, who almost had the last word in court today, requested the judges' help in allowing him to meet alone with family members, without the presence of prison staff.

"As for monitoring my telephone conversations, that's up to you," he said. But he complained of discrimination because of the cameras in his cell and the surveillance of family visits.

"Mr. Milosevic, you are not the subject of discrimination at all, as you know very well yourself," said Judge Richard May, cutting the microphone and ending the proceedings. He said Mr. Milosevic's next court appearance would be on Nov. 28.