The former dictator of Yugoslavia, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, is to face charges of genocide.
The chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal says she will file the charges against the former president in Bosnia and Croatia.
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Mr Milosevic before the UN
war crimes tribunal today |
Ms Carla Del Ponte said she expects the genocide cases to be combined with the indictment against Mr Milosevic for crimes against humanity in Kosovo.
The prosecutor added Milosevic will go to trial in the autumn of 2002.
Ms Del Ponte had said previously she was investigating Mr Milosevic for genocide, but it is the first time she has confirmed the most serious war crimes charge would be included in the indictment, which she said she would filed on October 1st with the UN tribunal.
This morning, Mr Milosevic appeared for the second time before the panel of judges since he was transferred from Yugoslavia on June 28th to answer the indictment on alleged crimes in Kosovo in 1999.
He dismissed the court again as illegal and said his conditions of detention were a "massive violation" of his rights, claiming he had been kept in "total isolation" in jail.
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Mr Milosevic again refused to be represented before the tribunal, arguing the court was illegal under international law because it was not set up by a vote of the UN General Assembly.
Presiding Judge Richard May said he would appoint a representative for him - not as a defence counsel but to assist the court in future hearings.
During his first appearance on July 3rd, Milosevic refused to enter a plea and challenged the court's legitimacy to try him on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes for role in the 1998-99 Serb crackdown on Kosovo.
Dozens of Serb police and army officers have been indicted for the persecution of Muslims and Croats during the Balkan wars in the early 1990s, ended by the Dayton peace accord in 1995 that Milosevic signed.
Only one, Radislav Krstic, has been convicted of genocide. He was sentenced to 46 years imprisonment.
AFP