SESELJ RAISES A SERIES OF OBJECTIONS TO HAGUE TRIBUNAL'S WORK

ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Oct 29 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday discussed the introduction of new evidence in the case of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj and addressed extensive objections raised by the accused. #L# Speaking at a status conference in the Seselj case, Judge Carmel Agius agreed that 80 books written by Seselj would be introduced into the case file as evidence. Seselj claims that the books, which contain all his speeches, lectures, interviews and court trials, will help refute the charges against him. According to the rules of the tribunal, all evidence must be translated into English and French as the tribunal's working languages. A large part of the conference was devoted to Seselj's refusal to accept Aleksandar Lazarevic as his stand-by attorney appointed by the tribunal. In his lengthy speech, Seselj developed a conspiracy theory, saying that the tribunal wanted to impose on him the defence counsel he did not want, while at the same time rejecting his defence advisers. Seselj had decided to defend himself on his own. He spoke of a series of "conflicts of interest" between him and attorney Lazarevic. Seselj accused tribunal registrar Hans Holthuis of splitting the money intended for the defence of the accused with some lawyers. The tribunal will decide on Seselj's request for the appointment of defence counsel at a later date. Judge Agius criticised Seselj for the length of his written motions. The tribunal rules limit the length of most of written motions to up to ten pages, while Seselj's latest motion was 300 pages long. Seselj argued that from the legal point of view no one could limit the length of an objection to an indictment. During the status conference, Seselj made a series of accusations against the tribunal, saying: "You maltreat me this way and that." "You find every Serb suspicious, just as you do anyone else who doesn't want to split the money of the Hague tribunal." The tribunal indicted Seselj on February 14, 2002 for persecutions and war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and for the ethnic cleansing of Croats in the Vojvodina region of northern Serbia. Seselj had been previously cited in the indictment against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic as a participant in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at expelling non-Serbs and annexing a third of Croatia and a large part of Bosnia-Herzegovina to a so- called Greater Serbia. Seselj advocated the creation of a Greater Serbia in his public statements. Ten days after his indictment was made public, Seselj voluntarily surrendered to the Hague tribunal, pleading not guilty to the charges. (hina) vm sb