NETHERLANDS: Slobodan Milosevic launched a fiery defence of his actions in the Balkan wars yesterday, branding the UN war crimes charges against him as a "treacherous distortion of history", writes Chris Stephen in The Hague
In a four-hour diatribe opening his defence in The Hague, the 63-year-old former Yugoslav president said the real culprits for a decade of war in the Balkans were America, Britain, Germany, NATO, Islamic fundamentalists, international drug cartels and the Pope.
"Accusations levelled against me are an unscrupulous lie and also a tireless distortion of history," he told the UN war crimes court. "Everything has been presented in a lopsided manner in order to protect those who are truly responsible."
His defence, in what is the most high-profile war crimes case since the Nuremberg trials after the second World War, ignored the 66 charges he faces, and instead focused on crimes he said had been committed against the Serb people of former Yugoslavia.
Milosevic, resplendent in a tailored dark grey suit and red and blue silk tie, gave no hint of the bouts of high blood pressure that have seen the case delayed five times this summer.
Prosecutors say he was the strongman who unleashed Serb forces on murderous campaigns of ethnic cleansing in Croatia, Bosnia and then Kosovo throughout the 1990s.
These wars saw Serb forces carve out ethnically pure areas in Croatia and Bosnia, driving millions of non-Serbs from their homes, setting up prison camps and laying siege to Sarajevo.
But Milosevic insisted that he was the injured party, blaming these wars on an international conspiracy to destroy the Serb people.
He said the Clinton administration in the US had aided "Islamic fundamentalists" in the guise of Kosovo Albanian rebels, and he branded NATO's bombing of his country as "the gravest international crime". In a speech taking in crimes committed against Serbs by the Austro-Hungarian empire and Nazi troops, he accused the Vatican of secretly aiding Roman Catholic Croatia in its fight against Christian Orthodox Serbia in 1991.
Taking off his reading glasses and stabbing them towards the judges for emphasis, he said NATO's bombing of Kosovo also had a sinister ecological dimension, intended to destroy Serbian "organic farmers" who were trying to sell their produce to western Europe.
"Depleted uranium was used mostly in Kosovo, because Kosovo is where there are sources of rivers (that flow) throughout Europe, so it was obvious that they were chosen to spread pollution," he told the court. "With the bombing, many impermissible chemicals were introduced, thus jeopardizing the long-term production of this health food."
The three red-robed judges and the white-haired chief prosecutor, Ms Carla Del Ponte, looked glum as they watched his performance.
At one point, chief judge Patrick Robinson asked him to stick to the charges levelled at him, saying: "It is questionable whether a lot of what you are saying is relevant to the case." Nevertheless, the judges have given him extra time today over and above the four hours he was allotted to outline his defence case.
Today will also see judges wrestle with the most controversial decision of all - whether to force Milosevic to take a defence lawyer. His continued bouts of illness, which have seen many months of the court's time lost, culminated in medical reports in June stating that his blood pressure rises to dangerous levels each time he is in court.
If the judges allow Milosevic to continue conducting his own defence, his high blood pressure may mean many more delays, undermining the credibility of the UN court and its ability to hold trials within reasonable periods of time.
But if they impose a defence lawyer, they will face allegations of interference in the bedrock principle that a man can run his own defence.
Milosevic's legal adviser, Mr Zdenko Tomanovic, said his client would refuse to co-operate with a court-imposed lawyer, severely restricting what such an official could accomplish.
"If the tribunal decides to impose a lawyer Mr Milosevic will not co-operate with that lawyer," he told The Irish Times.
"Mr Milosevic intents to defend himself. He is in good health. He was in good mood because he waited more than two years for this moment."
Already prosecutors are facing the possibility that they have failed to prove the most serious charge, that of genocide, with the embarrassment that it may well be dropped.
The case has also been bedevilled by the failure of anyone from Milosevic's inner circle to give evidence against him, with the result that some other charges may also be dropped.
While some parts of the case remain strong, notably charges related to the Kosovo war, prosecutors found out yesterday that for the rest of the case, Milosevic will be fighting them every step of the way.