Milosevic to continue defence at war crimes trial

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who harshly rejects United Nations allegations that he ordered murders and deportations during the Balkan wars, was today to continue presenting his own defence at the war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

During his first day of opening comments yesterday, the ousted leader blamed the West for a decade of death and destruction in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. He said ‘‘enemies’’ outside Yugoslavia had attempted to bomb his nation ‘‘back to the Stone Age’’.

Milosevic said his trial ‘‘has nothing to do with the law’’ and that the charges against him were fabricated by the court.

In his first chance to speak in length since he was transferred to the tribunal in June, Milosevic said his goal throughout his 13 years in power had been to preserve Yugoslavia and prevent civilian casualties during the wars.

Serb forces under his command did not carry out war crimes, he said, but were dispatched to fight a legitimate battle against terrorist insurgents.

During an animated presentation of about four hours, he banged his desk and waved his arms energetically while reading from notes.

Milosevic, 60, could face life imprisonment if convicted of any of 66 charges against him in what is seen as the most important war crimes trial since the Second World War.

Prosecutors say Milosevic is responsible for a decade of violence in the Balkans that accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia. They have indicted him for crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo, and for genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Milosevic is expected to complete his opening statement today. After that, prosecutors will begin calling witnesses to present the core of their case against the ousted leader.

They say up to 350 witnesses will present evidence linking the man that led Yugoslavia through four wars to the death of thousands and the deportation of around a million others. The first months of the case will focus on Kosovo, followed by Bosnia and Croatia.

Milosevic yesterday accused Western powers of criminally bombing his country in a 78-day campaign in 1999 that dislodged his forces from the Serbian province of Kosovo.

At Milosevic’s request, a court clerk displayed dozens of photographs on courtroom monitors showing charred bodies, decapitated corpses and destroyed villages and bridges.

‘‘Only Nazis could have thought of such bombing of villages. The aim of the aggression was obviously to break the whole nation, to throw Serbia back to the Stone Age,’’ he said, narrating as the gruesome images flashed one after another.

Responding to the allegations, Nato’s chief said the defendant had the right to speak his mind, but he could not escape justice by distorting the bombing campaign.

‘‘Milosevic is entitled to make any case he wants. He is after all on trial for some of the most serious offences anybody has been charged with since the Second World War,’’ Nato Secretary General Lord Robertson said during a visit to Poland.

Milosevic renewed his request to the judges to release him in order to better prepare his defence, pledging he would not try to escape. He said the odds were stacked against him.