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July 4, 2001
THE OVERVIEW
At Arraignment, Milosevic Mocks His U.N. Accusers
By ROGER COHEN with MARLISE SIMONS
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 Milosevic
Rejects Court |
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Albanians Say Trying Top Leaders Isn't Enough (July 4, 2001) The Briton in Charge: Sober, Polite, and Tough (July 4, 2001) TEXT: Milosevic Brings Air of Scorn to Tribunal (July 4, 2001) Case Against Milosevic Is Not Simple to Prove (July 2, 2001) Milosevic Is Given to U.N. for Trial in War-Crime Case (June 29, 2001) |
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Join a Discussion on Instability in the Balkans |
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HE HAGUE, July 3 — Slobodan Milosevic appeared today before an
international tribunal that has accused him of crimes against humanity, and he
dismissed the court with disdain as an "illegal organ."
Jutting chin raised contemptuously, Mr. Milosevic sat flanked by two guards before seven empty chairs intended for his lawyers. The former Serbian leader, who plunged the Balkans into four brutal ethnic wars, chose to appear without counsel and to deliver his own rebuttal, in English: "I consider this tribunal false tribunal, and indictments false indictments." [Text, Page A7.]
Mr. Milosevic's isolation today, 12 years after the wave of Serbian nationalist sentiment that he had ignited swept him to power, gave added drama to the courtroom confrontation as he sat facing a black-robed prosecution team led by Carla Del Ponte. The battle between the West and its longtime Balkan nemesis was stripped to its essentials.
On one side was Mrs. Del Ponte, a Swiss lawyer who has accused Mr. Milosevic of three counts of crimes against humanity, including murder; on the other other, the bristling Serbian nationalist mocking "this so- called tribunal." Between them sat a British judge, Richard May, seeking to remind the accused of procedure.
For a long time, Mr. Milosevic bent Serbia to his whim. Today, largely rejected by a country he impoverished and led into wars that left 200,000 people dead, he stood as the first head of state indicted before an international court for crimes committed while he was in office.
Outright contempt greeted all the requests from Judge May for answers to his questions. Asked if he wanted to exercise his right to have the 54-page indictment read to him, Mr. Milosevic shot back, "That's your problem." The indictment was not read.
When asked if he would enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to the charges of crimes against humanity in Kosovo in 1999, Mr. Milosevic switched to Serbian from his heavily accented English and replied, "This trial's aim is to produce false justification for the war crimes of NATO," a reference to the bombing of Kosovo and Serbia in 1999.
After repeating the question, Judge May declared, "We treat your response as a failure to enter a plea and we shall enter a plea of not guilty on each count on your behalf."
In this way, the 12-minute proceedings, held in a small gray-carpeted room behind bulletproof glass, moved toward their conclusion. Three times, Judge May cut off Mr. Milosevic, the former president of both Yugoslavia and Serbia, its largest republic, in midsentence, once commenting, "Mr. Milosevic, this is not the time for speeches."
Today's action, while intense, seemed to frustrate the dark-suited Mr. Milosevic by its brevity. Looking at his watch as he was escorted out, he said to a guard: "Hmm, 10 minutes."
The brief arraignment set the scene for what is certain to be an intense battle between opposing views of the world: nations and groups that are determined — after what Isaiah Berlin called "the most terrible century" — to combat crimes it regards as intolerable through the extension of international law, versus a man who sees this campaign as little more than a cloak for American imperialism.
The confrontation will also bring Mr. Milosevic face to face with acts he has repeatedly disavowed. The indictment includes charges that Yugoslav or Serbian units ultimately under Mr. Milosevic's control drove 740,000 Kosovo Albanians from their homes in 1999 and killed several hundred in cold blood. He also faces one charge of breaching the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.
In addition, Mrs. Del Ponte, 54, said in an interview published today in the French daily Le Monde that she envisages bringing charges of genocide against Mr. Milosevic for Serbian crimes in the Bosnian and Croatian wars. The current indictment refers only to Kosovo; it contains no genocide charge.
Outside the court today, one young woman waved a Bosnian flag. She said that she was from Zenica, in central Bosnia, and that her family had been killed by Serbian forces, one small reminder of the ways in which Mr. Milosevic's trial may bring some comfort to thousands of anonymous bereaved.
Given the time it will take to prepare any further indictment, and the time Mr. Milosevic — with or without lawyers — will need to prepare himself to face the charges, it is almost certain that the trial itself will not begin until next year. Once under way, it is expected to last at least a year.
Mr. Milosevic's approach in court was consistent with that of a man who has always refused to admit the existence of things he does not like. Throughout the wars of Yugoslavia's destruction, he waved away the desolate villages and desperate camps where the dead mounted up, far from his remote Belgrade offices.
The Serbian concentration camps for Muslims in Bosnia in 1992 were dismissed as inventions. Serbian massacres — from Vukovar in Croatia in 1991, to Srebrenica in Bosnia in 1995, to Racak in Kosovo in 1999 — were always the fabrications of Western or NATO propaganda.
Today, in effect, Mr. Milosevic declared that he did not acknowledge the existence of the court in which he stood.
This attitude prompted a sharp reminder from Judge May, 62, who started to work at the United Nations Tribunal here in 1997 and has a reputation for keeping tight control of his courtroom. "Mr. Milosevic," he said, "you are now before this tribunal and you're within the jurisdiction of it. You will be tried by this tribunal."
That much, at least, does seem clear. With or without lawyers, Mr. Milosevic will face the prosecution's case in the court where he sat today.
Graham Blewitt, the deputy chief prosecutor, said the court would like to see Mr. Milosevic defended by the "best available legal defense there is in the world."
But, he added: "If the accused decides to stand mute and not say anything throughout the course of the trial, then it makes no difference. Because throughout the trial the prosecution bears the onus of establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt. At no time does the onus shift to the accused to prove that he is innocent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/04/world/04INDI.htmlMiroslav Antic,
http://www.antic.org/
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