Military

DATE=2/1/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-285936

TITLE=MILOSEVIC / WAR CRIMES (S)

BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON

DATELINE=BRUSSELS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague has announced that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will face a single war crimes trial for atrocities committed in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo during the 1990s. V-O-A correspondent Roger Wilkison reports the trial is to begin on February the 12th.

TEXT: The tribunal had originally decided to try Mr. Milosevic on war crimes charges in two separate proceedings, one for his actions in Kosovo, and a later one for genocide and other crimes in Bosnia and Croatia.

But prosecutors argued that a single trial makes more sense, and an appeals hearing Friday, found merit to that argument and ruled that the two trials be combined into one.

Prosecutors say that, as part of his plan to create a so-called "greater Serbia," Mr. Milosevic masterminded the killing and expulsion of non-Serbs from areas of Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. In their view, the three conflicts were inextricably linked.

Mr. Milosevic has called his trial politically motivated, describing it as an evil plot to blacken the memory of his rule.

The former Yugoslav strongman's trial is regarded as the most significant war crimes trial since top Nazi officials were tried in Nuremberg at the end of the Second World War. (Signed)

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