From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

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Milosevic Says U.N. Court Like a 'Retarded Child'
October 30, 2001 8:00 am EST

By Paul Gallagher and Abigail Levene

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic told the U.N. war crimes court
on Tuesday it was a farce that operated at the level of a "retarded
seven-year-old child" and accused it of inciting "terrorism" against
Serbs. 


Milosevic, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity in Croatia
and Kosovo and is expected to face charges of genocide in Bosnia,
accused the court during his fourth pre-trial appearance of persecuting
him and the Serb people.


"Please go and read out the judgements you are instructed to read and
don't bother me and make me listen for hours on end to texts that are at
the intellectual level of a seven-year-old child," he said after
listening to the indictments on Monday.


"Or rather let me correct myself -- a retarded seven-year- old child,"
the 60-year-old ousted Yugoslav president said in a highly charged
display of contempt for a court he has branded an illegal tool of his
NATO enemies. 


On Monday, Milosevic refused to plead to charges of spearheading "ethnic
cleansing" in Kosovo in 1999 and in Croatia in 1991-92. In 1999, NATO
launched a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia after a Serb crackdown
against Kosovo Albanians.


"This trial has direct implications on inciting terrorism in southern
Serbia. In the past few days and months, Albanian terrorists in southern
Serbia have been slaughtering, killing, plundering, burning and doing
everything as they did it before," he said. "They have been given
wings." 


Serbia has blamed ethnic Albanians for what it calls terrorist acts
along the border with Kosovo, which has a majority Albanian population.


Two Serb policemen were killed and two wounded in a village near the
Kosovo border in August. Last month, two Serb policemen were slightly
wounded when their jeep exploded. Serb police blamed former guerrillas,
but they denied responsibility.


Milosevic referred to the U.S.-led war on terrorism launched in
retaliation for the September 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and
Washington. The Bush administration blames Saudi-born militant Osama bin
Laden. 


"Unlike the previous administration, this one has proclaimed war on
terrorism. The previous administration knew bin Laden was in Albania two
years after their embassies were attacked, and they discussed that fact
with me," he said, referring to attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and
Dar es Salaam in August 1998.


SUICIDE 


Milosevic, who has been accused by prosecutors of orchestrating ethnic
cleansing to ensure Serb dominance in the Balkans after the break up of
the former Yugoslavia, could face life behind bars if convicted.

 
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His trial for alleged crimes in Kosovo is set to start on February 12,
judges said on Tuesday. Prosecutors are assembling their Croatia case
and preparing an indictment for Bosnia, but hope to hold a single trial
for all three indictments.


The communist functionary turned Serb nationalist hero, who has a family
history of suicide, asked the tribunal to end its round-the-clock
observation of him in his cell at the U.N. detention center that has
been his jail for four months.


"I would never commit suicide because I must struggle here to topple
this tribunal and this farce of a trial and the masterminds who are
using it against the people who are fighting for freedom in the world,"
a fiery Milosevic told the court.


Milosevic, ousted in an uprising last October, brandished a gun and
threatened to shoot himself in April rather than be imprisoned by his
domestic rivals in Belgrade on local corruption charges stemming from
his 13 years in power.


There have been reports of bouts of depression and he was treated for
high blood pressure after his arrest in April.


One Serb suspect has already hanged himself at The Hague.


The Nuremberg trials of Germany's Nazi leaders were marred by the prison
suicides of detainees, including Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering, who
cheated the hangman by taking cyanide.


Serbia and Croatia fought a war in 1991 after the break-up of
Yugoslavia. An ethnic conflict involving Serbs, Muslims and Croats raged
in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995.


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