MILOSEVIC SEEKS TO BE RELEASED

THE HAGUE, Jan 30 (Hina) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic called on the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague on Wednesday to release him instead of holding him in custody "in inadequate conditions." "I have no intention of escaping from this battle for my people," Milosevic told the tribunal's appellate chamber which discussed the prosecution's appeal to a trial chamber of first instance decision on holding two trials against Milosevic, one for Kosovo starting Feb. 12 and another for Croatia and Bosnia to follow after the first one. The prosecution demands combining the three cases into a single trial. Tribunal president Claude Jorda, who chairs the five-member appellate chamber, said at the end of the session he would reach a decision as soon as possible. Chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said the trial chamber of first instance had been wrong in its assessment that the three cases were not part of the same transaction. The cases refer to one plan and one strategy and the three indictments are linked by a thin red line, namely the notion of a forced expulsion of the non-Serb population from Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo with the aim to establish a state under Belgrade's domination, i.e. the notion of a Greater Serbia, said del Ponte. According to Milosevic, "the combination of three lies doesn't produce the truth but augments the lie." He said the thin red line linking the three cases was a "crime against Yugoslavia and its people," with the Hague tribunal being an instrument in a war forced on Serbia by western powers. The judges in this trial are not those wearing judges' robes but those who bombed Yugoslavia, he asserted. Milosevic denied the existence of the notion of a Greater Serbia which should have been effected through the expulsion of the population. He said the crime against his people was still being committed, under the auspices of the United Nations. Milosevic asserted that 350,000 non-Albanians had been expelled from Kosovo since the arrival of the peace troops, dozens of thousands of houses set on fire, and more than 100 churches demolished. Milosevic reiterated his theory that Serbia was the victim and not the culprit for the war on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and that with this trial the world powers were abusing their power to "accuse for Yugoslavia's break-up the side which fought for its preservation, while amnestying those who advocated secession, separatism and terrorism." Milosevic dismissed claims that the talks in Dayton should have included Kosovo, which he said was an internal issue. He explained the Kosovo conflict with the West's attempt to establish control over Yugoslavia by destabilising the southern province. After Milosevic's half-hour political monologue, tribunal president Jorda elicited laughter in the courtroom by commending the fact that the former Yugoslav head of state had strictly adhered to the 30 minutes allocated him to answer to the prosecution's demand for combining the three cases into one trial. In the event of the appellate chamber's deciding in favour of a single trial, del Ponte said the prosecution would have evidence for Croatia and Bosnia prepared by July 1. British prosecutor Geoffrey Nice said the prosecution could be ready for a single trial as early as Feb. 12, the start of the main hearing for Kosovo, provided that evidence was not presented chronologically, starting with Croatia, then Bosnia, and finally Kosovo, but starting with Kosovo. Witnesses who will be called in all three cases will be interrogated about circumstances relevant for all three indictments. (hina) ha sb