MILOSEVIC ACCUSES NATO COUNTRIES OF GENOCIDE

THE HAGUE, Feb 14 (Hina) - Responding to accusations by the UN war crimes tribunal that he was responsible for genocide in Bosnia and crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday accused NATO countries of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the aggression on his country in 1999. Presenting arguments which backed Yugoslavia's lawsuit against NATO countries before the International Court of Justice, Milosevic enumerated the conventions and other international acts the international community violated by launching the NATO attacks on Serbia, without the consent of the UN Security Council and in order to prevent a humanitarian disaster of the Kosovo Albanian population. Milosevic backed his accusations with data and photographs of the suffering of civilians during the NATO bombing. He dismissed the West's claims that this represented collateral damage, stating NATO deliberately targeted civilians as the attempts of Albanian civilians to return to their homes ran counter to the West's concept of shifting the responsibility for people leaving homes to the Serbs. Recalling the break-out of conflicts in some former Yugoslav states, Milosevic said the Bosnian conflict started with the murder of the father of a bride at a Serbian wedding in Sarajevo. The same happened in Croatia, where the war was started by Croatian provocation in Borovo Selo and Plitvice, he asserted. Milosevic dismissed the prosecution's claim that he divided Bosnia with former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman at a meeting in Karadjordjevo. Such ideas did exist, Milosevic said, but added they did not originate with him and that he never accepted them. As for the prosecution's claim that he was responsible for the break-out of the Croatian conflict, Milosevic asked how should he have stopped or could stop the conflict between the "Croatian paramilitary" and the JNA (ex-Yugoslavia's federal army), which he said was expelled from towns and bases in Croatia "in which it had been stationed for 50 years and to which it did not come from Serbia." Milosevic countered many of the prosecution's claims of the last two days by asking, "What exactly are you proving with this?" and treating the evidence ironically. When the prosecution showed photographs of him, he asked about the point of doing this and why they did not show photographs of him with the U.S. secretary of state and the UN secretary general. Milosevic also quoted a speech he made in Gazimestan in 1989, when he said armed clashes in the ex-Yugoslavia were possible. He accused the prosecution of malevolently taking out of context his words about the battles which had to be waged for Yugoslavia's prosperity. Milosevic's statement that the Gazimestan speech had been "excellent" and that he would not change a thing were he making it today elicited laughter in the courtroom. As for claims in the indictment about the concentration of troops in southern Serbia, alongside the border with Albania, Milosevic asked where else should troops have been deployed when a land attack during the NATO bombing was expected via Albania. In connection with concentration camps in Bosnia, beating the table with his fist, Milosevic said he had been deluded with explanations that they were detention camps from which prisoners were exchanged. He said it was only during his custody at The Hague that he met the people who worked in those camps. Responding to accusations that Serbia had armed Serbs in Kosovo, Milosevic said, "Everybody knew that everybody in Kosovo was armed." He again called on the tribunal to release him so that he could "actively handle" the proceedings. He said that he had only a "public telephone booth" on his side, whereas the prosecution had a huge machinery assisted by the media, which he said were in the service of relaying the truth of only one side. (hina) ha