In the two weeks since his trial began in The Hague, the image of Slobodan Milosevic has been transformed from a caricature of a ruthless Communist autocrat about whom little was known to that of a more complex individual, single-mindedly devoted to putting the West on trial.
Acting as his own lawyer in his trial before the United Nations tribunal, which is trying him on 66 counts of war crimes and genocide, the former Yugoslav leader has emerged as a shrewd, witty and at times eloquent legal tactician, lecturing prosecutors on small points of international law. He has also shown himself to be a devoted husband and father, concerned about his family's negative portrayal in the Western media.
But he is ever the bully, relentlessly questioning prosecution witnesses, many of whom have provided harrowing testimony to some of the worst atrocities committed in the heart of Europe since the Second World War.
For his supporters around the world, Mr. Milosevic's performance is nothing short of brilliant. Neatly dressed every day in a sombre suit, crisply ironed shirt and striped tie featuring the red, white and blue of the Serbian flag, he is challenging the court's legitimacy by attempting to put NATO countries on trial for their bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
"Milosevic is giving them a run for their money," said Harold Pinter, the British dramatist and one of Mr. Milosevic's most outspoken and high-profile supporters through his membership in the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic.
"This is nothing more than victors' justice, and he is showing the world that the real war criminals are [Tony] Blair, [Bill] Clinton and the whole NATO apparatus that bombed Yugoslavia," said Mr. Pinter in a recent interview from his home in London.
Indeed, for someone who stated so emphatically only a few months ago he would not defend himself before the UN tribunal, which he has said he does not recognize, Mr. Milosevic seems to have plunged wholeheartedly into the job of proving his innocence and the West's complicity in breaking apart the former Yugoslavia.
"[NATO] went back to do the job properly and destroy everything," said Mr. Milosevic during his opening arguments, referring to the bombing of what he called mostly civilian targets in Yugoslavia in 1999.
Although he studied law at the University of Belgrade, graduating in 1964, he has never worked as a lawyer. However, he acts like a well-trained and combative criminal attorney in the courtroom.
He takes copious notes during trial proceedings and vehemently waves his wire-rimmed spectacles back and forth when he wants to make a point. He has challenged presiding judge Richard May on the minutiae of international law, arguing on several occasions that Judge May has not taken his requests to challenge the legitimacy of the tribunal seriously. He has also argued he should be granted a bail hearing and be set free in order to be on an equal footing with the prosecutors.
This courtroom style has won him some important points. He scored a huge legal victory in the second week of proceedings when Judge May dismissed one of the prosecution's key witnesses, war crimes investigator Kevin Curtis. The judge ruled Mr. Curtis's testimony on atrocities allegedly committed by Serb forces against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo was hearsay evidence.
Moreover, Mr. Milosevic has called all the prosecution witnesses false witnesses, and regularly badgers them during his sometimes-intimidating cross-examinations.
One ethnic Albanian, who lost his entire family in a massacre in Kosovo, could not bring himself to look at Mr. Milosevic and was later dismissed by Judge May because he was too sick to testify.
While questioning Halil Morina, a retired farmer from the village of Landovica in Kosovo, the defendant tried to get him to admit soldiers from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had killed four Serb soldiers before Serb forces burned about three-quarters of his village in March, 1999. Mr. Morina, who has lived in Landovica all his life, denied any knowledge of the KLA, even though a monument was erected in the village to the guerrilla fighters after the bombing.
"How could a monument be built for dead soldiers of the KLA if there weren't any there in the first place?" Mr. Milosevic said.
The former Yugoslav president has proved to be something of a pedant, enthusiastically pointing out small errors made by the prosecution. During the first week of proceedings, prosecutor Geoffrey Nice referred to Kosovo as a neighbour of Serbia.
"Kosovo is in Serbia," said Mr. Milosevic, with defiance. "It does not border with Serbia. It's like saying that The Hague borders with the Netherlands."
He has also used dark humour to express some of his points. During his opening arguments, he provided an exhaustive account of NATO targets in Yugoslavia. On the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which NATO forces said was targeted by mistake because the military was using outdated maps, Mr. Milosevic had some of those sitting in the public gallery breaking into laughter.
"Western diplomats and journalists were always going to the embassy," he said. "They could tell you about what they had to eat, and they could describe the teacups and saucers. But they didn't seem to know where the embassy was."
Outside court, Mr. Milosevic reportedly spends much of his time in his three- by five- metre cell in Scheveningen, a seaside suburb of The Hague, reading legal texts and meeting lawyers from around the world, who are advising him on his defence strategy. They include notorious French criminal lawyer Jacques Verges, who has made his career defending terrorists and Nazi Klaus Barbie.
During the trial, Mr. Milosevic has repeatedly said he is at a disadvantage in defending himself. He does not have a team of legal assistants and can only use the public telephone in the jail for short periods. (Under the rules of the UN detention centre, prisoners are allowed to use the telephone for seven minutes a day, and must pay for calls from the stipend they are paid at the jail.) He once complained to Judge May he could not possibly go through the large number of documents produced by the prosecution team because there was simply too much for one person to read.
In addition to preparing his defence, which he has been doing since he arrived at The Hague last June, Mr. Milosevic reads novels by Ernest Hemingway and John Updike, and listens to music by Frank Sinatra and C�line Dion, according to his jailer. Tim McFadden, head of the UN detention centre in Scheveningen, told the Irish Times Mr. Milosevic also watches Serb television programs broadcast by satellite, and regularly plays chess with his next-door neighbour, a Bosnian Muslim general.
"As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Milosevic is a gentleman," Mr. McFadden said.
In his opening statements, Mr. Milosevic said he also spends a great deal of time reading the fan mail he gets from around the world, most of it from "soldiers ashamed of what their countries have done" in bombing Yugoslavia.
"I get lots of mail," he told the tribunal. "I'm sure it gives you lots of work to read my letters." He was referring to UN censors who screen his correspondence.
The tight control the United Nations exercises on Mr. Milosevic is reminiscent of his autocratic style of government in Yugoslavia.
In wiretaps released by Croatian intelligence sources just before the trial began, Mr. Milosevic appears as a cunning politician, controlling all aspects of life, including the press, to legitimize his rule. In a telephone conversation in the mid-1990s with the editor of Politika, one of Belgrade's main dailies, Mr. Milosevic admonishes him for printing a negative article about then-U.S. president Clinton.
"For Christ's sake! You can't let them do as they please," says the Yugoslav leader in a transcript of the conversation with Dragan Antic. "Politika is considered the mouthpiece of the government and there you go and slag off Clinton."
Talking with his daughter Marija, who owned a television station in Belgrade, he tells her to stop reporting stories about him.
"I am sick and tired of seeing myself ... tell them it's enough," he says. "God and the people are sick and tired of me. I am too."
The transcripts also show him to be a devoted father, ruling over a rather dysfunctional family. In another telephone conversation, his son Marko tells him he wants to have plastic surgery to correct his protruding ears.
"You're awfully skinny," Mr. Milosevic replies. "Every guy your age looks that way. As soon as you fill out everything will fall into place. I looked even worse when I was thin."
Mr. Milosevic has used his appearances in The Hague to condemn Western journalists for what he says have been negative articles about his family.
"Leave my family out of this," he said last week. "They have nothing to do with anything."
