Slobodan Milosevic fired off another tirade against the UN war crimes tribunal on Wednesday but is expected to play a new card when he goes on trial next month by calling NATO leaders as witnesses.
Yawning and checking his watch frequently, the former Yugoslav leader looked nonchalant at a hearing at the court in The Hague as officials discussed the nuts and bolts of his Kosovo war crimes trial set to begin on February 12.
He then sprang to life when British presiding judge Richard May gave him the floor, insisting once again that NATO -- which bombed Serbia in 1999 after a Serbian crackdown on Kosovo's Albanians -- and not Belgrade was the true villain.
"An operation is under way to reverse the scene and the culprit... All this is geared towards a construed justification for the crimes committed during the NATO aggression on my nation," Milosevic, 60, said slowly but firmly in Serbian.
A legal adviser to Milosevic said he expected the former president, who has not appointed a defence attorney and plans to conduct his own defence, to turn the tables on Western leaders by putting them in the witness box during the trial.
"I expect when Milosevic next addresses the public he will demand that leaders of NATO countries, who are able to present the truth on Kosovo, come to testify," Belgrade-based lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic told Reuters by telephone.
"Milosevic tried to say this today but he was interrupted four times (by Judge May)," added Tomanovic, speaking after he met Milosevic following the hearing.
He did not say which leaders might be called but a leader in his party was quoted last month as saying former US President Bill Clinton would be summoned. Media speculation has also mentioned British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
(China Daily January 9, 2002)
