Military

DATE=10/21/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=WAR CRIMES / MILOSEVIC (LO)

NUMBER=2-319819

BYLINE=LAUREN COMITEAU

DATELINE=AMSTERDAM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Appeals Chamber Hears Milosevic Arguments

INTRO: Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic asked an appeals court in The Hague Thursday to allow him to continue defending himself. The judges hearing his war crimes case are trying to force him to accept court-appointed lawyers due to his poor health. Lauren Comiteau has been following the day's hearing from Amsterdam and filed this report.

TEXT: From the first day Mr. Milosevic stepped into court three years ago, he insisted on defending himself. The court let him, until medical reports earlier this year showed that his heart problems and high blood pressure are chronic and recurring conditions that will continue to hinder the proceedings. The trial judges then assigned lawyer Steven Kay to the case, a decision Mr. Kay says was based more on their desire to finish the case than any concern about having it properly tried.

On Thursday, speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Milosevic told appeals judges the decision to impose lawyers on him was solely political.

///ACT MILOSEVIC///

This was not prompted by health reasons or legal reasons but by political reasons. Health reasons were taken exclusively as an excuse or pretext. There was a campaign conducted not to permit me to speak.

///END ACT///

In fact, Mr. Milsoevic said, it was the court-imposed deadlines and judges' unreasonable expectations that caused his health to suffer. He demanded what he called his fundamental right to defend himself.

The former Yugoslav and Serbian leader is accused of a variety of war crimes, including genocide.

But prosecutors say such arguments only prove that Mr. Milosevic is not capable of running a legitimate defense. They say he in fact wants to take control of the court proceedings and they urged judges not to be threatened by the former leader or to yield to his pressure.

In court on Thursday, Mr. Milosevic's reluctant court-appointed lawyer referred to his work as "valueless" and "unproductive." In arguing that Mr. Milosevic be allowed to defend himself, he told the appeals judges that it is a fiction to think he can put forward the case of a defendant who won't even speak to him, with defense witnesses who refuse to appear in court, out of sympathy for the former leader's demands.

///ACT KAY///

I feel there is such a conflict between the accused and myself and my team that we are ineffective in this trial and we are unable to say that we are acting in the best interests of justice.

///END ACT///

Mr. Kay said history would judge this trial as more fair if he were taken off the case. He urged the appeals judges to let the accused -- a former president who is used to running his own affairs -- do so again now. (Signed)

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