http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-milosevic-lawyer.html
Milosevic Lawyer Fired for 'Biased'
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By REUTERS
Filed at 1:47 p.m.
ET
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) - A lawyer appointed to help ensure a
fair trial for Slobodan Milosevic was fired Thursday for giving interviews that
judges said suggested bias against the former Yugoslav
president.
Dutchman Michail Wladimiroff, one of three amici curiae or
friends of the court at the landmark war crimes trial, had been quoted as
casting doubt on the accused's chances of acquittal.
Interviewed in a
Dutch newspaper last month, Wladimiroff was quoted as saying prosecutors had
already produced enough evidence to secure a conviction on Kosovo -- one of
three indictments against Milosevic along with Croatia and Bosnia.
And a
Bulgarian magazine quoted him as saying Milosevic's chances of being cleared
were ``negligible.''
``The statements taken as a whole would, in the
Chamber's view, give rise to a reasonable perception of bias on the part of the
amicus curiae,'' presiding Judge Richard May said.
``The Chamber will
instruct the registrar to revoke Mr. Wladimiroff's appointment as an amicus
curiae.''
Last week, Wladimiroff was hauled over the coals at the U.N.
International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia -- where Milosevic is on
trial for atrocities during the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s --
for the interviews he gave to Hague daily Haagsche Courant and Bulgarian
magazine Kultura.
Wladimiroff said then that he was misquoted, and
believed he had not endangered the trial's fairness. But Milosevic seized on the
interviews to argue that the U.N. tribunal he hates was a prejudiced kangaroo
court, and called for Wladimiroff to go.
JOURNALIST
TESTIFIES
Judges had named Wladimiroff and two others as amici for the
trial, which began in February, after Milosevic refused defense counsel. Court
officials said Wladimiroff would not be replaced.
Wladimiroff, who was
not in court, issued a short statement expressing regret at the three-judge
panel's decision.
``(He) did not intend to make any comment which could
affect the trial, but appreciates the trial chamber's concerns that an amicus
curiae is perceived to be impartial,'' the statement said.
Later, a
Belgrade-born journalist testified to links between the Yugoslav army and Serb
paramilitaries in Croatia and Bosnia, where Milosevic -- Serbian president in
1990-1997 -- allegedly orchestrated ethnic cleansing to create a Greater
Serbia.
Prosecutors say Milosevic gave military and political support to
Croatian and Bosnian Serbs who grabbed territory and ejected non-Serbs, and
exerted heavy influence over a Yugoslav army, or JNA, that became a force
fighting for Serbs.
Serbian reporter Dejan Anastasijevic spoke of JNA
support for ``excellently armed'' Serb paramilitary units in Vukovar, a Croatian
town that fell to Serb forces in November 1991.
Anastasijevic, who has
worked for news organizations including Time magazine, CNN and the New York
Times, said he witnessed much drunkenness, shooting and looting.
He
described how one drunken reservist tried to interrupt his conversation with a
Yugoslav army captain. Asked politely to leave, the reservist cocked his rifle
and reeled off insults.
The captain subsequently told Anastasijevic ``the
JNA didn't have enough men under arms and would accept anyone who was prepared
to carry a rifle.''
Serbian volunteers were recruited into Serb armies in
Bosnia and Croatia, the witness said. Bosnian Serb police and Serbian police
often did stints in each other's forces, he added.
The witness also told
how the accused tightened his grip on the media. Milosevic in turn questioned
the impartiality of Anastasijevic, who works for Belgrade-based magazine
Vreme.
``Do you know that in Yugoslavia ... people know very well that
Vreme has been an outpost of the services which worked for the dismemberment of
Yugoslavia and was involved in the media war against Yugoslavia?'' Milosevic
asked in his cross-examination.
Title: Message
