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26 January 2002 22:18 GMT
Home > News > World > Europe
Milosevic war crimes case faces collapse
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade
26 January 2002
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo is on the
verge of collapse because former aides have refused to testify
against him.
The case hinges on evidence collected by Western intelligence
officers rather than the UN's own investigators, and some of the 90
witnesses who provided testimony against the former Yugoslav
president have died.
Three weeks before it is due to open, Europe's most important war crimes trial since
Nuremberg is reported to be in such disarray that prosecutors travelled to Belgrade
earlier this week to try to shore up the case. But d
espite visiting several of Mr Milosevic's allies in their jail cells and homes, the
team led by the British barrister Geoffrey Nice came away empty-handed, according to
sources in Belgrade.
Mr Nice flew to Belgrade on the same flight as Mr Milosevic's wife, Mira, who had been
visiting her husband in his cell in Scheveningen in the Netherlands.
Mr Milosevic is accused of the murder of 900 Kosovo Albanians and the forced eviction
of 800,000 civilians from their homes in 1999.
The UN tribunal was adamant yesterday that it was "ready" to try Mr Milosevic for
crimes against humanity in Kosovo. But Florence Hartmann, a spokeswoman for the UN
chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said the court may de
cide next week to postpone the case, which is due to begin on 12 February.
Prosecutors want judges to join the Kosovo trial with indictments against Mr Milosevic
for war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, for which there is said to be abundant evidence.
Judgesare due to discuss unifying the indictmen
ts at a hearing on Wednesday. If they do, they would have to postpone the trial to
allow more time for preparation of the Bosnian and Croatian cases against Mr Milosevic.
Ms Hartmann denied that the Kosovo case was collapsing: "We are ready. We don't have
any problem with the Kosovo case," she said.
But the case has a fundamental weakness in that the testimonies it relies on are
exclusively from Western officials based in Kosovo before Nato air raids began in
March 1999, and from ethnic Albanian victims. The credibil
ity of some of these testimonies is in doubt because they were gathered by
intelligence officers, and not by the tribunal's own investigators.
Members of Mr Milosevic's inner circle could provide the missing pieces of the puzzle,
but it is unlikely that any regime insiders, who share Mr Milosevic's Serb nationalist
views, would travel to The Hague to testify aga
inst the so-called "Butcher of the Balkans".
His supporters still describe the armed ethnic Albanian rebellion in Kosovo as
"terrorism", and view the trial against Mr Milosevic as a Western conspiracy against
freedom-loving Serbs. They fear being branded "traitors o
f the Serb nation" if they testify.
Serb authorities are still balking at Mr Nice's request for two top Milosevic aides be
handed over. Nikola Sainovic and Vlajko Stoiljkovic were respectively the official in
charge of the security forces in Kosovo and the
Interior Minister. The pair, along with their boss, were indicted for war crimes in
Kosovo in 1999.
The UN team interrogated Rade Markovic, chief of the secret service under Mr
Milosevic, in his Belgrade prison cell three times. Mr Markovic is on trial for his
alleged role in an assassination attempt against the former
opposition leader Vuk Draskovic.
Mr Markovic's lawyer, Dusan Masic, said his client was willing to go to The Hague, but
analysts doubt that his testimony would benefit the prosecution.
Also from the Europe section.
How Alexander caused a great Babylon inflation
Berlin Stories
Berlusconi digs in over EU convention
Leaders decry use of religion to justify violence
Greeks try to cover up news expos�s
End<{{{
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