To: robnhood who wrote (131855 ) 10/30/2001 10:32:47 AM From: robnhood Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 436258 <<<-- DJ Milosevic Calls UN Judges NATO Agents; Kosovo Trial Set -- THE HAGUE (AP)--Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president charged with atrocities in the Balkans, described U.N. war crimes judges as agents of NATO and called for the removal of his "biased" prosecutors. The ousted Yugoslav leader again tussled with U.N. judges at a hearing Tuesday at which a tentative date of Feb. 12 was set for the trial over alleged war crimes in Kosovo. The date could be delayed, however, if the court agrees to a prosecution request to combine the Kosovo trial with an existing indictment for crimes in Croatia and an anticipated indictment for Bosnia, including the most serious of war crimes, genocide. Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she expected to call hundreds of witnesses and present thousands of documents to prove Milosevic oversaw widespread murder and plunder in the wars that resulted from the break-up of Yugoslavia. Allowed a brief opportunity to speak, Milosevic asked the judge to "disqualify the prosecutor" for bias, alleging she was a tool of the NATO Western alliance. On Monday, Milosevic refused to enter pleas to new charges in Croatia and an expanded Kosovo indictment. It was his third appearance before the tribunal since his extradition from Belgrade June 28. The court entered pleas of innocent to 32 counts of war crimes in Croatia and one additional charge in Kosovo, taking the total to 37 counts of crimes against humanity, grave breeches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war. "If the court ignores falsehoods brought by the prosecutor, and if you are really a part of that machinery, then please read out those judgments that you have been instructed to read," Milosevic barked out in Serbian. "Don't bother me and make me listen for hours on end to the reading of texts written at the intellectual level of a 7-year-old child - rather, I correct myself - a retarded 7-year-old child," he said. (END) DOW JONES NEWS 10-30-01>>> 10:30 AM- - 10 30 AM EST 10-30-01