BBC News
February 23, 2002
Serb PM attacks Milosevic trial
The Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, has
condemned the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic as an expensive "circus".
Mr Djindjic's government decided last June to hand Mr
Milosevic over to the international tribunal in The
Hague. His trial began on 12 February.
Speaking in an interview with the Germany weekly Der
Spiegel, Mr Djindjic also ruled out any Serbian police operation to
capture Ratko Mladic, a top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect.
Mr Djindjic said the court in The Hague was "allowing
Milosevic to behave like a demagogue and to control
the trial".
'Insignificant witnesses'
"I am speechless when I see how much money has gone up
in smoke to allow the court to take five years to
unearth such insignificant witnesses.
"This circus has left both myself and my government
facing an awkward dilemma," he said, arguing that the
trial made it hard to justify further extraditions.
Many Serbs believe that in court Mr Milosevic has
exposed Nato as the guilty party in the 1999 Kosovo
conflict, Mr Djindjic said.
"What arguments can I now use to convince other people
to push for greater co-operation with the court?" he
said.
Mr Milosevic is accused of crimes against humanity,
war crimes and genocide in connection with atrocities
committed by Serb forces in Kosovo in 1999, Croatia
between 1991 and 1992 and Bosnia-Hercegovina between
1992 and 1995.
No hunt for Mladic
Mr Djindjic said the price of trying to arrest the
Bosnian Serb wartime military commander, Ratko Mladic,
would be "too high".
"What would happen if his arrest unleashed a civil
war? We have 200,000 Bosnian refugees in Serbia, many
of whom possess weapons," he said.
The chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal,
Carla del Ponte, says Mr Mladic is living in
Yugoslavia protected by the Yugoslav army - a charge
denied by the military.
The Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, has also
criticised the Milosevic trial and has accused the
tribunal of an anti-Serb bias.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
