The Milosevic trial. The show goes on

Slobodan Milosevic is fit enough for trial, but maybe not to defend himself

THE first head of state since the second world war to face charges of war crimes and genocide will not escape justice - as some had feared and others, including many Serbs, had hoped. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague ruled this week that Slobodan Milosevic was fit to stand trial, despite his deteriorating health. But the three-judge panel added that he might not be fit enough to continue to represent himself. It has ordered an examination by an independent cardiologist next week; it will then decide whether to impose a defence lawyer on Mr Milosevic, over his fierce objections.

The former Yugoslav president, who is 62, was due to open his defence on July 5th, after a four-month break to give him time to prepare his case. But proceedings were adjourned after doctors said that he was suffering from extremely high blood pressure and needed a rest. The lawyer assigned to ensure a fair hearing questioned whether Mr Milosevic was fit to stand trial at all. From its outset, the two-year-long trial has been plagued by repeated interruptions due to Mr Milosevic's ill health. To allow him to continue to defend himself could cause further costly delays, the court fears.

Set up in 1993, the ICTY was the first international war-crimes tribunal to be created since the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals after the second world war. But with a budget of $120m a year, it has been criticised for being too bureaucratic, too expensive and too slow, as well as too far removed from the victims in the countries from former Yugoslavia.

The court has now streamlined proceedings, cutting the number of charges brought against defendants - Mr Milosevic is facing 66 - and conducting as many as six trials at a time. Under a “completion strategy” agreed with the UN Security Council, it has also undertaken to complete all investigations by the end of this year, all trials by the end of 2008, and all appeals by the end of 2010. But addressing the council last week, Theodor Meron, the court's president, and Carla del Ponte, its chief prosecutor, cast doubt on the court's ability to meet these deadlines unless certain “big challenges” were overcome. These included the court's “dire” financial situation, involving a total freeze on staff recruitment; its inability to transfer some less important cases to domestic courts in ex-Yugoslavia for want of sufficient guarantees that the trials would be conducted to international standards; and the lack of co-operation from Serbia and the Serb Republic in Bosnia in hunting down the 22 indictees still at large.

Mrs del Ponte has accused Belgrade of providing a “safe haven” for the fugitives. Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, the general charged with organising the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, have been on the run for almost ten years. “How long will it be tolerated that they make a parody of both justice and the repeated commitment of the Security Council to have them arrested and tried?” she demanded. She fears that protective networks in Serbia and elsewhere are trying to buy time until the 2008 deadline for the completion of trials, and has asked the council for reassurance that the court will be kept open for as long as it took to bring the fugitives to justice.

Depending on Mr Milosevic's state of health, the hearings in his case will resume on July 14th, but only for a week. The court will then adjourn until August 31st to give Mr Milosevic yet more time for his defence. Among the 1,631 witnesses he plans to call - five times as many as the prosecution - are such big shots as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroder. Contrary to normal practice, the court has decided not to restrict the list to those likely to provide relevant evidence. Instead, it will leave it up to Mr Milosevic to decide which witnesses to call - provided he completes his defence within 150 court days. Some interesting scenes could yet be played out in The Hague courtroom.

Article says that Slobodan Milosevic is fit enough for trail, but not maybe to defend himself.