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Posted on 10/30/2001 6:17:13 AM PST by vooch

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic told the U.N. war crimes court on Tuesday it was a farce that operated at the level of a "retarded seven-year-old child" and accused it of inciting "terrorism" against Serbs.

Milosevic, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo and is expected to face charges of genocide in Bosnia, accused the court during his fourth pre-trial appearance of persecuting him and the Serb people.

"Please go and read out the judgements you are instructed to read and don't bother me and make me listen for hours on end to texts that are at the intellectual level of a seven-year-old child," he said after listening to the indictments on Monday.

"Or rather let me correct myself -- a retarded seven-year- old child," the 60-year-old ousted Yugoslav president said in a highly charged display of contempt for a court he has branded an illegal tool of his NATO enemies.

On Monday, Milosevic refused to plead to charges of spearheading "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo in 1999 and in Croatia in 1991-92. In 1999, NATO launched a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

"This trial has direct implications on inciting terrorism in southern Serbia. In the past few days and months, Albanian terrorists in southern Serbia have been slaughtering, killing, plundering, burning and doing everything as they did it before," he said. "They have been given wings."

Serbia has blamed the KLA for what it calls terrorist acts along the border with Kosovo. Two policemen were killed and two wounded in a village near the Kosovo border in August. Last month, two policemen were slightly wounded when their jeep exploded. Police blamed former guerrillas, but they denied responsibility.

Milosevic referred to the U.S.-led war on terrorism launched in retaliation for the September 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington. The Bush administration blames Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

"Unlike the previous administration, this one has proclaimed war on terrorism. The previous administration knew bin Laden was in Albania two years after their embassies were attacked, and they discussed that fact with me," he said, referring to attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998.

SUICIDE

Milosevic, who has been accused by prosecutors of orchestrating ethnic cleansing to ensure Serb dominance in the Balkans after the break up of the former Yugoslavia, could face life behind bars if convicted.

His trial for alleged crimes in Kosovo is set to start on February 12, judges said on Tuesday. Prosecutors are assembling their Croatia case and preparing an indictment for Bosnia, but hope to hold a single trial for all three indictments.

The functionary turned hero, who has a family history of suicide, asked the tribunal to end its round-the-clock observation of him in his cell at the U.N. detention center that has been his jail for four months.

"I would never commit suicide because I must struggle here to topple this tribunal and this farce of a trial and the masterminds who are using it against the people who are fighting for freedom in the world," a fiery Milosevic told the court.

Milosevic, ousted in an uprising last October,was treated for high blood pressure after his arrest in April. One suspect has already hanged himself at The Hague. The Nuremberg trials of Germany's Nazi leaders were marred by the prison suicides of detainees, including Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering, who cheated the hangman by taking cyanide.

Yugoslavia and Croatia fought a war in 1991 after the sudden succession of Croatia. An ethnic conflict involving Serbs, Muslims and Croats raged in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995.

08:02 10-30-01

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