SERBIA Will Milosevic Get His? He refuses to accept it, but he is in the dock at last, accused of atrocities far worse than those of

By JOHANNA MCGEARY former President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It will be up to the three hen case it-02-54 finally opens at judges, who also constitute the jury—Britain’s brisk, the International War Crimes Tribunal outspoken May, Jamaica’s scholarly Patrick Robin- in the Hague this week, it will mark a son and South Korea’s quiet O-Gon Kwon—to make moment many despaired would never sure the whole thing doesn’t descend into farce. W come. The Serb strongman and former President of Yugoslavia who presided over a decade THE CHARGES of mass murder and mayhem across the Balkans It’s worth remembering that for all his destruc- seemed untouchable for so long, and then became tive desires, Osama bin Laden hasn’t accomplished almost forgotten as the world’s attention fixed on a crimes anywhere near as dastardly as those of new global villain. Yet Slobodan Milosevic will now which Milosevic is accused. From Sept. 21, 1991, have to sit each day in a well-lit U.N. courtroom, when Serb paramilitary shot 11 Croat civilians in flanked by two guards, to answer to charges of Dalj and buried their bodies in a mass grave, to crimes against humanity. May 25, 1999, when, during the forced evacua- Normal trials follow a prescribed, orderly path. tion of the village of Dubrava, Serb forces But no one knows what to expect in this one on the killed eight ethnic Albanians, the former Presi- last great crimes of the 20th century—a test case for dent is charged with responsibility for crimes that international justice, the first trial of a head of resulted in the deaths of 300,000 non-Serbs and the state. The prosecution must convict Milosevic not expulsion of millions from their homelands. just in the eyes of three sitting judges but in the In the legal terms of the three indictments, that court of world opinion. Yet never has the Hague adds up to 66 counts of genocide, crimes against tried a defendant so uncooperative. Milosevic humanity, violations of the rules of war and grave seems determined to make the proceedings a spec- breaches of the Convention during the tacle of courtroom subversion, refusing to recognize decade of wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The the tribunal, refusing to enter a plea, refusing to 159 pages of charges catalog a shattering litany of select defense lawyers, refusing even to wear persecution, extermination, murder, torture, in- headphones to hear the proceedings in Serbian. humane acts, wanton destruction, deportation In every pretrial appearance, Milosevic has and forcible transfer. The indictments accuse responded with political diatribes. He has labeled the charges against him “absurd” and “monstrous,” THE TRIBUNAL Established by a U.N. Security Council the prosecutor a mouthpiece, the court a vote in 1993, this is the first international body for the “retarded 7-year-old.” He has called himself a prosecution of war crimes since World War II nato peacemaker who is on trial to cover up π All U.N. members are obliged to cooperate fully. There is aggression against a sovereign country. The rants no trial in absentia and no death penalty. Maximum sentence have led the presiding judge, Richard May, to cut is life in prison. off Milosevic’s microphone. Milosevic has dropped π So far, 44 indicted suspects are in detention at the Hague; hints that he might stage a grand scene by calling 30 are still at large. Trials have produced 26 guilty verdicts a parade of Western leaders to testify, starting with and 5 acquittals.

time, february 18, 2002 17 SERBIA

Milosevic of orchestrating a “joint criminal en- investigators complain they got more obstruction terprise” to cleanse non-Serbs from vast swaths of than cooperation, no one could cover up one in- territory to leave an ethnically pure nation. criminating new find: the bodies of Kosovo Al- There is only one formal count of genocide—in banian victims listed in one indictment were un- Bosnia: it’s the gravest offense on the war-crimes earthed in mass graves near Belgrade last year. books but the hardest to prove. Prosecutors must The prosecuting team also has the Swiss-born show that Milosevic knowingly intended to wipe Del Ponte, who is one tough lawyer. The Cosa out ethnic or religious groups—Bosnia’s Croats and Nostra mobsters whom Del Ponte, as ’s Muslims. “Unless you’ve got an accused saying, attorney general, pursued on money-laundering ‘Yes, I had the intent, and I had the ability to do it,’” charges tried to blow her up; the banker gnomes in says deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt, “you can Zurich whose secrecy she penetrated trembled only submit evidence that will enable the judges to before her. infer that’s what was in the accused’s mind.” Most The trick is to prove the leader of a nation is the of the charges fit under the less demanding “crimes intellectual author of crimes even if he did not lit- against humanity” statutes. The maximum sen- erally have blood on his hands. The testimony tence is the same for all the charges: life in prison. from some 50 victims is likely to be compelling. But Originally, the jurists in Trial Chamber III want- the most damning words may well come from the ed to try Milosevic first on the Kosovo campaign “insiders”: an estimated 20 high-level political and and later for Bosnia and Croatia. But an appeals security bosses with firsthand knowledge of what court two weeks ago accepted chief prosecutor Milosevic said and did. What Del Ponte needs to Carla Del Ponte’s argument that all three were prove is Milosevic’s “superior authority”: that he ex- part of “one strategy, one scheme” and that wit- ercised control over the perpetrators of atrocities, nesses, once revealed, might be intimidated not to knew or had reason to know crimes were being appear again. So there will be one trial, expected to committed and did nothing to stop them. conclude within two years. THE DEFENSE’S STRATEGY THE PROSECUTORS’ STRATEGY If past appearances offer any clue, Milosevic will Years of investigation have turned up hundreds claim he was just defending his country, just fight- of witnesses and loads of exhibits that go far beyond ing terrorists like the U.S. is now, just suffering circumstantial constructs. Investigators were able from nato aggression. If the Serb leader presents to fish for more after Milosevic’s regime fell in no legal defense, prosecutors believe they can October 2000 and the new government let them make a swift case for conviction that is able to inside Yugoslavia for the first time. Though the withstand appeal. But that would present its own problem. “It will be difficult to explain the lack of adversarial picture that people ex- pect in court,” says Dicker. “For that reason, it poses a real challenge to the judges: that the trial be fair to Mr. Milosevic and be seen as being fair.” For the credibility of the tribunal, that is key. More than anything, the trial and its verdict need to convince the world’s victims and villains alike that in the end, justice can be done.

Questions 1. Of what crimes is Milosevic accused? 2. How has he responded to these charges?

18 time, february 18, 2002