Milosevic attacks motives of UN War Crimes Tribunal

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has accused the United Nations of conducting an "evil and hostile attack" against him by charging him with crimes against humanity in the country he once ruled.

Milosevic said the goal of his actions during the Balkan Wars was to protect Serbs in breakaway republics and to find peace as quickly as possible. He described the charges against him as "abnormal and nonsensical" and said his humiliation before the UN War Crimes Tribunal is designed to justify crimes committed against Serbs. Putting him on trial was "an attempt to turn the victim into the culprit", he said.

Today was the first time Mr Milosevic was allowed to speak openly at the War Crimes Tribunal, which has charged him with 66 alleged war crimes committed by Serb forces in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.

In previous hearings, British judges have switched off Milosevic’s microphone when he attempted to speak, but the panel overseeing today’s hearing ruled that he is entitled to give his side of the story.

The former Yugoslav President has already refused to recognise the legitimacy of the tribunal, describing it as an illegally appointed tool of NATO, which bombed Serbia and Kosovo in 1999 following Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.