Milosevic to Remain in Isolation for Second Month
By Paul Gallagher
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) entered a
second solitary month in a U.N. detention center on Friday after the
isolated but defiant former Serbian strongman said he wanted to be kept
apart from other war crimes suspects.
Milosevic next month will mark his 60th birthday behind bars only days
before his second appearance in The Hague (news - web sites) court he
has branded an ``illegal instrument'' of NATO (news - web sites). He has
been kept away from other detainees since he arrived last month.
``The accused himself has expressed the wish not to mingle with anyone
else and as long as we can accommodate this wish we will respect this,''
spokesman Christian Chartier told Reuters.
The court's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, had asked for Milosevic
to be isolated from other detainees for one month after he was
dispatched from Belgrade to Scheveningen prison on June 29. The order
was extended for another month on Thursday.
Milosevic was initially under around-the-clock surveillance to ensure he
was not taken ill or tried to take his own life -- as both his parents
did.
His death in custody would all too easily be declared murder by angry
Serb nationalists, elevating him to a martyrdom that would hardly ease
efforts to bring lasting stability to the ethnically divided Balkans.
Milosevic has refused defense counsel in a show of contempt for a court
preparing to try him on charges of crimes against humanity for the
murder and forced deportation of Kosovo Albanians in 1999.
He is one of 40 detainees at the U.N. facility.
MILOSEVIC VISITED BY ADORING WIFE
Although he has been kept apart from other detainees he has received
several visits.
His wife Mira Markovic, a former teenage sweetheart widely regarded as a
leading force behind his 13 years of power in the Balkans, came to see
him earlier this month, although they were separated by a glass
partition.
Milosevic has also been visited by lawyers in jail but remains adamant
that he will defend himself in court.
While Milosevic was whisked away to The Hague against his will by the
Serbian democratic reformists who toppled him from power, one of his
former Bosnian Serb allies could soon enjoy a temporary release.
Del Ponte was prepared to support a request for the release before trial
on genocide charges of former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic, 71,
as long as she remains in the Netherlands, according to the court.
The tribunal has asked the Netherlands whether it would be prepared to
host Plavsic if she is granted temporary release. Judges are set to
consider her request before the court goes into recess in early August.
Both the Bosnian Serb republic and Serbia had offered to guarantee
Plavsic's safety if released. They said they would ensure she did not
threaten potential witnesses and would return for her trial, expected to
start next year.
The only woman at the U.N.'s detention unit, Plavsic would be the fourth
detainee to be released temporarily.
Plavsic, who gave herself up in January and is cooperating with
prosecutors, is facing nine war crimes counts for allegedly
orchestrating ethnic cleansing of non-Serb civilians during the 1992-95
Bosnian war. She has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
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