War crimes tribunal rules against Blair subpoena request

The UN war crimes tribunal hearing the Slobodan Milosevic case today decided against issuing subpoenas to Prime Minister Tony Blair and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The former Yugoslav leader has repeated sought to call the Blair, Schroeder and other heads of government to testify about the 1999 Nato bombing campaign against Serbia designed to end the Serbian army action in Kosovo.

The three-judge panel in The Hague, Netherlands, rejected a motion by two appointed lawyers for Milosevic, saying it “finds that the issuance of a subpoena is not warranted in relation to either Mr Blair or Mr Schroeder”.

Milosevic is defending himself against 66 counts of war crimes in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia during the 1990s.

Two British lawyers assigned by the court to represent him often make formal submissions on his behalf.

Milosevic contends that the war in Kosovo was an anti-terrorist operation. Prosecutors have charged him with murder, persecution and the unlawful eviction of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.