Milosevic trial defense delayed
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The U.N. war crimes tribunal has delayed opening defense statements by former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic due to concerns about his health.
A judge will make a decision about when the trial will resume "in the coming days."
Doctors for the 62-year-old former Yugoslav president had warned that he needed rest, and discussed details of his medical troubles in open session.
Milosevic, a former lawyer, was to have been given four hours Monday to make his opening statements to 66 war crimes charges, including genocide, during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s filed against him.
But Steven Kay, one of the independent lawyers assigned to ensure a fair trial for Milosevic, said new medical evidence put the continuation of the case in question, The Associated Press reported.
"It's quite clear over the past five months that his health had been gradually declining," Kay told the panel of three judges.
Based on new medical reports, "he is plainly not fit enough this week," to appear in court.
His fragile health has repeatedly delayed the trial since it began in February 2002.
Prior to Monday's court appearance, Milosevic said he would call hundreds of witnesses in his defense.
The prosecution, which wrapped up its case in February after testimony from nearly 300 witnesses, has tried to link Milosevic directly to the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s that left more than 200,000 people dead.
Milosevic has pleaded innocent and insists on defending himself despite his poor health.
He has demanded that former U.S. President Bill Clinton and over 1,600 others appear as defense witnesses, but Milosevic has only 150 days to present his case.
The court has also said that he must provide good reason as to why any witness should appear.
 Milosevic's physical appearance Monday was in contrast to that earlier in the trial (above). |  |
But the former Serb strongman also refuses to recognize the legality of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and observers say he could run into procedural difficulties while conducting his own defense.
In his opening statement Monday, Milosevic is expected to criticize Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and other NATO country leaders.
His first witness is set to take the stand Tuesday.
Milosevic has argued in the past that a 1999 crackdown he ordered on ethnic Albanian Muslims in Kosovo was intended to protect the Serbian minority there.
He also says NATO's 78-day bombing campaign, which forced out his troops from the region, caused civilian deaths.
Additionally, Milosevic has said that when he was president of a crumbling Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, he did not have control over Serb troops in neighboring Croatia and Bosnia.
Presiding over Monday's hearing is a three-judge panel led by Jamaican Patrick Robinson.
Robinson took over from former lead judge Richard May who quit the court in February due to illness.
He died last week.
Hearings in Milosevic's case are limited to three days a week at the request of his doctors.
Milosevic has a weak heart and high blood pressure, forcing his trial to be delayed for months because of ill health.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
