See no evil

Instead of defending himself against the 66 charges of war crimes that U.N. prosecutors have leveled against him, Milosevic, who has refused to appoint a defense lawyer and insisted upon defending himself, has signaled that he plans to attempt to try NATO and the West in his trial.

Zdendko Tomanovic, a Serbian legal advisor to Milosevic, told journalists after the proceedings today that the accused war criminal would open his defense tomorrow by playing a videotape "showing what really happened in Yugoslavia for the past 10 years." Milosevic and his supporters contend that he is being persecuted by the international community because he attempted to defend Yugoslavia from Western aggression and attempts to break up and overrun the country.

While Serbs overthrew Milosevic in October 2000 after he refused to accept his loss in presidential elections, many in his homeland agree with his claim that the West and the war crimes tribunal are biased against the Serbs, and that the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 was a war crime in itself. Many of Milosevic's statements to date seem intended to win sympathy from Serbs back home, rather than to advance his legal defense.

Milosevic also has drawn defenders to his trial here from the West, including a group associated with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy; Jacques Verges, the French former lawyer for the accused Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie; and Canadian attorney Christopher Black. The motley group has held a series of press conferences in this sleepy Dutch city, claiming some of the video footage the prosecution has shown, such as pictures of emaciated Bosnian Muslim men allegedly held by Bosnian Serb troops at Trnopolje concentration camp in 1992, are fakes.

But human rights groups attending the trial claim Milosevic's refusal to acknowledge the charges laid against him could backfire.

"Milosevic's tirades will grow tiresome in the face of the evidence," said Richard Dicker, director of international justice programs for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization. Dicker is in The Hague observing the trial. "If all Milosevic can do is say, 'I am here illegally and I am a victim of NATO,' if he can't do any better than that in the face of this horrific evidence of human carnage, then I think that will boomerang on him. Because at the end of the day, people are going to be asking, 'Why doesn't this guy have anything to say about the evidence being presented against him?'"

Dicker also says there is no substance to Milosevic's allegation that the U.N. war crimes court is illegitimate. "This court was established by the United Nations Security Council in 1993. It is clearly part of the Security Council's authority to maintain international peace and security -- and establish this kind of court. Under international law, the authorities of Yugoslavia, as a member state of the United Nations, had an overriding obligation to cooperate with this court."

"I think part of the picture Milosevic is trying to paint --- that here he is in the courtroom, all by himself, with this team of four prosecutors all focusing on him, and, my gosh, he's the poor David to this Goliath -- nothing could be further from reality," Dicker added. "He's in there by himself because he made the decision he did not want legal counsel. He chose to represent himself because he realized that he might convey a more sympathetic image to public opinion in Belgrade."

Political analysts in Belgrade have long observed that Milosevic is a brilliant tactician, but a disastrous strategist. In this case too, as in previous wars, Milosevic seems intent on winning some early public relations battles, but doing little to contribute to his long-term defense. Like the Balkans wars he's accused of inciting, Milosevic seems determined to take on the international institutions he decries as illegitimate, only to ultimately concede no contest.

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