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Hague Tribunal Illegal and False: Milosevic
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday said the international tribunal that is trying him is "illegal" and "false."
Milosevic, who was brought to The Hague to stand trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for alleged war crimes, described the tribunal as "illegal" and with an "aim to justify NATO war crimes."
Tuesday's hearing was Milosevic's first appearance in the Hague- seated tribunal, set up in 1993 by the United Nations Security Council to try those claimed to be responsible for the crimes committed during the break-up of Yugoslavia.
The former Yugoslav president refused to enter for a plea even though he has up to 30 days to consider and decide on one.
Should Milosevic keep refusing to enter a plea, the tribunal would enter on his behalf a plea of "not guilty" for each of the charges he was indicted for.
The former Yugoslav president was charged with "violations of the laws or customs of war" and "crimes against humanity."
When the presiding judge asked the former Yugoslav president to appoint his legal representatives in the court, Milosevic said that he considered the tribunal illegal. "So I have no need to have a legal representative," Milosevic said in English.
Milosevic said that the tribunal was only aiming at forced justification of NATO war crimes against Yugoslavia. "The so- called tribunal has only the aim to justify the NATO war crimes, so this is a false tribunal," Milosevic said through a Serbian interpreter later on.
The latter of the two charges claims that the former Yugoslav president was responsible for alleged deportation, murder, persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds of people of other ethnicity.
The next session of court hearing is now scheduled for later next month.
Should the tribunal find the former Yugoslav president guilty of the charges, Milosevic would have to serve up to life imprisonment in any of the United Nations member states that have expressed willingness to accommodate him.
According to tribunal sources, Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, France and Spain have so far agreed to accommodate any convicted Yugoslav by the tribunal.
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