Video opens Milosevic case

THE HAGUE, Netherland -- Slobodan Milosevic began his defence against war crimes allegations by showing a video of a German television documentary which said NATO had violated international law by

bombing Yugoslavia in 1999.

"I hope and assume according to the rules you explained to me I won't be interrupted. I would like to show a video first and then start speaking after that," the former Yugoslav leader said at the start of the third day of his trial.

The documentary included interviews with people who said the killings of Kosovo Albanians at Racak early in 1999 -- referred to by prosecutors in their opening remarks -- had been used as a pretext for NATO bombing.

The programme, called "Monitor," was broadcast by German regional station WDR.

"NATO strikes were against international law. There was no mandate of this nature," Heinz Loquai, an official of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said in an interview with the German broadcaster.

"What really happened in Kosovo was used to deceive German public opinion," the presenter of the documentary said.

Milosevic has said the West used Serb operations in Kosovo as a pretext to gain greater influence in the Balkans.

Before the hearing on Thursday, Zdenko Tomanovic, one of Milosevic's Belgrade lawyers, said the video "will be material already broadcast everywhere, made by two foreign (non-Yugoslav) reporters, that gives an opposite view of some of the events covered by the Kosovo indictment."