COOPERATION BETWEEN MILOSEVIC, 'AMICI CURIAE' UNCERTAIN

BELGRADE, Sept 7 (Hina) - It is not certain if the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic will cooperate with three attorneys appointed by the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as 'amici curiae' (friends of the court), said one of the three lawyers, Belgrade attorney Branislav Tapuskovic. The International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) appointed on Thursday three experienced international law experts as amici curiae to help the ICTY judges conduct the trial of Milosevic, who does not recognise the Tribunal. "It would be normal to communicate with Milosevic but it is not certain if he will accept it," Tapuskovic told the Belgrade-based agency Beta. One of Milosevic's attorneys from Belgrade, Zdenko Tomanovic, said his client would "refuse any contact" with the three court- appointed attorneys, the state-run news agency Tanjug reported on Friday. Milosevic has warned the three attorneys that they will "face the moral responsibility of participating in retaliation against the leader of the people which stood up to NATO," Tomanovic quoted Milosevic as saying. "They will be accessories to a rigged process," Tomanovic, who spoke to Milosevic over the phone on Thursday, quoted the former Yugoslav president as saying. Tomanovic is a member of a team of attorneys in charge of Milosevic's defence in proceedings the Serbian authorities have been conducting against him for abuse of office and fraud. Milosevic has been indicted by the ICTY for crimes against humanity, committed in Kosovo during 1999. In his two appearances before the tribunal Milosevic said he considered the Tribunal illegal and his indictment a political indictment. (hina) sb rml