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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yaacov who wrote (17732)	8/25/2001 9:29:06 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Respond to of 17770

Milosevic threatened with loss of privileges after giving U.S. television interview By Anthony Deutsch, Associated Press, 8/24/2001 15:20 AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was warned Friday that he could lose jail privileges after he gave an unauthorized interview to Fox television. Fox said Milosevic initiated the interview by phoning the station from a telephone just outside his cell at the U.N. detention unit at The Hague, where he is awaiting trial for alleged war crimes against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. ''We found out that he had spoken with a journalist in violation with the rules of detention and he has been warned that if there was to be a repetition that it could result in a withdrawal of all privileges,'' said Jim Landale, spokesman for the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. ''The situation is crystal clear to him.'' Fox said in an e-mail that Milosevic was surrounded by guards during the phone call, but they did not intervene. Landale said he could not confirm the circumstances of the call. He called the incident ''regrettable'' and said Milosevic had claimed he was unaware he had broken rules by giving the interview. Landale said Milosevic could forfeit his communications privileges, except with an attorney present. Detainees are normally free to buy prepaid telephone cards at the prison store. Milosevic is known to frequently telephone family, supporters and leaders of his political party in Belgrade. According to a transcript of the interview, Milosevic again charged that the tribunal is illegitimate and denied Serb forces had systematically committed war crimes. ''There are individual crimes, but there was clear order that any crime has to be punished immediately and whoever did it have to be arrested,'' he said. As proof, ''more than 500 different individuals were arrested by the police or the army,'' he said. Crimes ''were consequences of chaotic situation created by massive bombing of NATO.'' Milosevic was transferred to the tribunal June 28 from Belgrade, where he had been arrested in April on charges of abuse of power and corruption during his 13-year rule. The former leader declined to enter a plea or appoint lawyers to defend him against the war crimes accusations, and the judges entered innocent pleas to all the charges. Asked in the interview if he regretted the tens of thousands of people killed during the Balkan wars, Milosevic said: ''All of us are sorry for the death of any person all around the world.'' Milosevic said he had always acted in the interest of a united Yugoslavia, and expressed confidence in his public support back home. ''I have very, very wide and very strong support within my people,'' he said. ''So, they understand how they have brought that puppet regime now in Belgrade with those stolen elections and they understand that that is the way to occupy Yugoslavia, and everything is now worse than it was before.'' Milosevic, who was ousted from power in October, was succeeded by President Vojislav Kostunica. boston.com