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Milosevic in "good mood" ahead of court showdown
( 2001-08-30 09:55 ) (7 )

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (C) is flanked by two United Nations security officers during his initial appearance at the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague on July 3. Milosevic refused to plead to the war crimes charges against him at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia on Tuesday.

Slobodan Milosevic is due to make his second appearance before a war crimes tribunal on Thursday, after whiling away weeks behind bars playing board games, exercising and ignoring the indictment against him.

Charged with "crimes against humanity", Milosevic remains defiant in the face of a court he brands an illegal enemy of the Serb people.

The ex-Yugoslav president staged a spirited performance during his Hague court debut on July 3, scorning legal representation, refusing to plead on the grave charges facing him and forcing judges to enter not guilty pleas for him.

Milosevic, who turned 60 earlier this month, appears unfazed by the prospect of another bout with his adversaries under the glare of the world's media.

"He's not going to change his stance. He is not recognising the court," lawyer Dragoslav Ognjanovic said after visiting Milosevic at the UN's detention centre on Wednesday.

"He is very patient. He's in a good mood, feels good peacefully thinking about the future," Ognjanovic said.

Thursday's hearing is a so-called status conference, the first of a series of routine pre-trial meetings between judges, lawyers and the accused to review progress in the case. The session is due to start at 0800 GMT.

Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said Milosevic's insistence that the tribunal was holding him illegally meant there could be fireworks at the hearing.

"I think it's going to be quite ugly, nasty and combative," Dicker told reporters.

PLAYING GAMES

Milosevic was relaxed and mixing with other "war crimes suspects", said Canadian attorney Christopher Black after a recent visit.

"He told me he was playing a (board) game with one of the Croatians recently brought in," said Black, head of a team of legal experts of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic.

Milosevic's decision not to appoint defence counsel is unprecedented at the eight-year-old tribunal. He will face the prosecution across the courtroom as a solitary figure for a second time, flanked only by blue-shirted UN guards.

The former Serb strongman, who says he was illegally handed over to the court by the reformists who ousted him in elections last year, appears set to continue frustrating the court by refusing to appoint a defence lawyer.

Supporters say Milosevic does not want to appoint lawyers because that would recognise the tribunal's legitimacy. He regards himself as a "prisoner of war" and is confident he will be released, they say.

"He doesn't even read the indictment. He doesn't care about it," said Black.

On Friday, a Dutch district court in The Hague will rule on a challenge he has mounted to his detention.

But tribunal prosecutors dismiss his objections and are busy preparing further indictments against Milosevic for his role in the Bosnian and Croatian wars, which could include the tribunal's gravest charge, genocide.

They say those indictments should be ready within weeks.