Yugoslavia's Ex-Leader Tells Hague Tribunal Clinton Should Testify
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 16, 2002; Page A20
THE HAGUE, Feb. 15 -- Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic sought to
open a de facto parallel war crimes trial today, saying he would call former
president Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and
other prominent Americans to respond to his allegations that the United States
carried out policies of genocide in the Balkans. "I shall indeed avail myself of my right to examine and cross-examine
witnesses," Milosevic said during the second day of his opening statement in his
trial for alleged war crimes. He then ticked off names of potential witnesses
that read like a who's who of world leaders from the 1990s. In addition to Clinton and Albright, Milosevic said he would seek to call
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, former senator Bob Dole (R-Kan.), former
German chancellor Helmut Kohl and the entire U.S. negotiating team at the 1995
Bosnian peace talks in Dayton, Ohio. It is uncertain whether his tactic will succeed. A previous ruling by the
court, the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, held
that sitting world leaders cannot be compelled to testify. But that would not
necessarily apply to such former office holders as Clinton, Albright and
Dole. And Milosevic would first have to convince the tribunal's presiding judge,
Richard May, that the witnesses he wants are relevant to his defense. Milosevic
has clashed repeatedly with May since being turned over to the tribunal in June
by the Serbian government. The tribunal has no power to enforce a subpoena, but legal experts said
big-name witnesses would come under tremendous moral pressure to appear. "The theory is that states should cooperate with the tribunal," said one
defense lawyer involved in cases before the court. "Any witness who doesn't want
to turn up is going to look bad. It reinforces Milosevic's message that this
whole thing is a NATO stitch-up." He added, "I think some of them will make
quite interesting witnesses -- dirty deeds were done." Acting as his own defense attorney, Milosevic spoke for 4 1/2 hours in a
rambling discourse that was part history lecture and part political speech.
Judges and prosecutors sat stone-faced as Milosevic dominated the courtroom for
the entire day. His words offered a preview of how he might try to tie the tribunal in knots,
while shining light on some of the more controversial aspects of the United
States' Balkans policy, notably civilian casualties during the NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia in 1999 and lawlessness in Kosovo after an international peacekeeping
force occupied the province that year. Milosevic said the peacekeeping force in Kosovo was allowing the province's
ethnic Albanian majority to massacre Serbs and permitting the destruction of
Serb property and religious sites. Using the very words leveled against him in his indictment for war crimes and
genocide, Milosevic accused the United States, NATO and the Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA) of being part of a broad "criminal enterprise" that included drug
trafficking and gunrunning by a "mafia" of ethnic Albanian insurgents. "Kosovo today is the main center in Europe for drugs, white slavery, arms
trading," Milosevic said. "Once Europe comes to its senses and realizes what is
going on there, it will be too late, too late to put things right." The U.N. administration in Kosovo has acknowledged recurrent problems of
prostitution, gunrunning and attacks on Serbs, but says it is doing everything
possible to establish rule of law in the province. Milosevic said Albright, the former NATO commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, and
other former top officials "should be arrested immediately" because "they had
deep-rooted connections with terrorists," meaning the U.S. involvement with the
KLA. He displayed a photograph of Clark shaking hands with ethnic Albanian
leaders. Milosevic referred repeatedly to the United States' global war against
terrorism, saying that Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden had used Kosovo,
where most people are Muslim, as a base for his al Qaeda terrorist network. The
United States was exercising a "double standard," he said, referring to some
militants as "terrorists" while calling KLA members "armed Albanians." U.S. officials have said that al Qaeda may have operations in the Balkans and
that they are trying to root it out. Last month, U.S. forces in Bosnia took into
custody six Arabs accused of involvement in a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy
there. Milosevic implicitly acknowledged that some mass killings took place during
the Balkans wars. "Aren't there horrific crimes in your own countries?" he
asked. "In a civil war, everyone is armed." He said the way to stop the killing
was "by an effort to stop the war, to stop the madness." "I can look anyone in the eye," he said. "I defended my country honorably and
chivalrously." Milosevic today revisited one of the most controversial events of the
U.S.-led air war against Yugoslavia, the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in
Belgrade. The United States has said the bombing was an accident. Today Milosevic scoffed at that explanation. "Many Western diplomats
and spies would attend receptions and various ceremonies held in the Chinese
Embassy, and they would take back reports about what they were given to eat for
dinner, and what the furniture looked like in the embassy, and what the teacups
look like," he said. "And then they say they didn't know where the embassy
was."
