Milosevic facing genocide charge

Milosevic has refused to appoint a legal team

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (CNN) -- Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been indicted on genocide charges.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal has agreed to hear the charge against Milosevic -- and of other atrocities during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war -- prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann told CNN.

Judge Richard May confirmed an indictment against Milosevic, charged with 29 counts for crimes committed between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Genocide is the third and most serious indictment against the ousted hardline leader who took Yugoslavia through four Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Milosevic, extradited from Belgrade on June 28, has already been charged for alleged war crimes in Kosovo and Croatia.

A tribunal statement said Milosevic "participated in a joint criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was the 'forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs ... from large areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.' " The enterprise was conducted during a series of offensives by "Serb forces" against the non-Serb population.

"It is alleged that during the take-over of territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina, thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats were killed and thousands more were imprisoned in over 50 detention facilities under inhumane conditions.

"Many more were forcibly transferred and deported from their homes. The total number of people expelled or imprisoned during the above period is estimated at over a quarter of a million."

The indictment also charges Milosevic with the execution of several thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.

The tribunal says victims were executed at their place of capture or at spots where they were taken for execution.

Hartmann said that the indictment included "persecution including sexual violence, torture, deportation, inhuman acts, confinement in camps, and imprisonment and many things.

"He is indicted for his superior authority and his responsibility for crimes committed by subordinates in Bosnia."

She said that named in the "joint criminal enterprise" with Milosevic were all the former top Serb leaders including Bosnial Serb General Ratko Mladic and political leader Radovan Karadzic.

The statement from the tribunal said he was accused of "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 involving willful killing, unlawful confinement, torture, wilfully causing great suffering, unlawful deportation or transfer, and extensive destruction and appropriation of property."

Also listed were "violations of the laws or customs of war involving inter alia attacks on civilians, unlawful destruction, plunder of property and cruel treatment."

Milosevic has been defiant in his three appearences before the court since he was transferred to the U.N. detention unit in a Dutch prison outside The Hague.

He has refused to appoint a lawyer to defend himself in what he calls an illegitimate and biased court.

Last week, the court agreed to allow a former U.S. attorney general to be his legal adviser, but he will not be allowed to defend the former president in court. Prosecutors planned to merge all three indictments against Milosevic into one trial to shorten his time in court and eliminate overlapping testimony.

An initial trial date has been set for February 12, 2002, but that would be delayed by several months if tribunal judges agree to hold just the one trial.