Milosevic trial prosecutors rest case

11.45am

THE HAGUE - Prosecutors rested their case in the two-year trial against Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday to avoid delays in proceedings dogged by the ex-Yugoslav president's ill health.

The case is Europe's most significant war crimes trial since Hitler's henchmen were tried at Nuremberg after World War 2.

Judges at The Hague war crimes tribunal agreed to a request from prosecutors to rest their case without calling any further witnesses after the two final days of their case were repeatedly postponed this month because of Milosevic's health.

Milosevic, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, has conducted his own defence since the trial opened in 2002 but has suffered bouts of high blood-pressure, influenza and exhaustion.

"We don't want any delay in the case. We want the case to be efficient. We have done our best during the case in less than 300 days," prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said, citing Milosevic's repeated illness as a reason for the move.

Judges said on Wednesday that Milosevic would be scheduled to open his defence on June 8 rather than in May as previously planned. He would have 150 days to present his case. Both the prosecution and defence will sum up at the end of the trial.

The resignation announced on Sunday of the trial's presiding judge, Richard May, for health reasons has further complicated proceedings, fuelling speculation Milosevic might demand a new trial if the hearings go ahead with a replacement judge.

Milosevic, who has described himself as a peacemaker in the Balkans and does not recognise the UN court, has dismissed the charges as politically motivated "lies" and declined to enter a plea. Pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf.

Milosevic, who studied law in his youth, has disputed evidence, cross-examined witnesses and challenged the prosecution at every stage.

Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's team has called more than 290 witnesses and presented more than 29,000 pages of evidence in a trial seen as a litmus test for international justice.

The first serving head of state to be indicted for war crimes, Milosevic is to launch his defence against 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in June.

The trial has heard evidence on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, of fighting in Croatia in 1991 and accounts of atrocities in Kosovo in 1999.

The scope of the prosecution case has been vast, drawing on tapped phone calls, videos, maps, expert reports and testimony from civilians, as well as a former secret agent, academics, journalists, generals, former presidents and ministers.

The court has heard testimony from Ex-Nato commander Wesley Clark, British Balkans envoy Paddy Ashdown, ex-rebel Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, former Kosovo Albanian refugees and an ex-secretary at the offices of notorious Serb warlord Arkan.

- REUTERS