Former Yugoslav president Mr Slobodan Milosevic acts like a "stubborn, capricious child" during questioning at the UN war crimes tribunal, chief prosecutor Ms Carla Del Ponte said today.
Mr Milosevic, who is currently awaiting trial on war crimes charges, is refusing to recognize the UN tribunal and claims his rights are being violated while in detention in The Hague.
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During questioning, Mr Milosevic acted like a "stubborn, capricious child who can't look me in the face because he's sulking", Ms Del Ponte said in the interview to the Swiss daily
Le Temps
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Mr Milosevic today lost a bid in the Dutch courts to challenge the legality of his arrest and detention by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The 60-year-old Serb is in custody facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the 1998-99 Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Ms Del Ponte announced earlier this week that she planned to also charge him with genocide for his role in the war in Bosnia and with war crimes for alleged atrocities committed in Croatia.
During his second appearance before the ICTY Thursday, Mr Milosevic remained defiant, saying it was a "false tribunal" and complaining of serious violations of his rights.
At his first appearance in July, he refused to enter a plea and challenged the court's legitimacy to try him.
The tribunal has charged Mr Milosevic with responsibility for the killing of more than 900 ethnic Albanians and the deportation of 740,000 civilians in Kosovo during the Serb crackdown in 1999. The former-Yugoslav president, who made his second defiant appearance at the tribunal yesterday, is also to be charged with genocide for atrocities in Bosnia. The formal trial is not expected to begin before the second half of 2002.
AFP