Milosevic I Ends and Milosevic II Starts

On September 11, 2002, the prosecutors rested the first phase of their case against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for atrocities committed in Kosovo. On September 26 and 27, 2002, Trial Chamber III convened to hear the first week of the prosecution case regarding Croatia and Bosnia and Herzgovina. The first phase ended after 95 days of testimony focusing on proving that Milosevic in his role as commander in chief had to have known that his forces were committing atrocities in Kosovo. Prosecutors introduced 300 exhibits and 124 witnesses, but no direct evidence that Mr. Milosevic ordered killings or mass expulsions of civilians during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo. A number of trial-watchers believe that a compelling case was made that Milosevic was both ware of a high-level campaign to ?ethnically cleanse? Kosovo and participated in a coverup. The Kosovo prosecution was easier because the events occurred comparatively recently compared to the events in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. In addition, prosecutors and investigators learned a lot from their efforts to document the prior conflict. On September 26, 2002, Mr. Milosevic presented his opening statement. He siad the people really responsible for the mass killings, such as the 7,000 unarmed Muslim men and boys killed in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995, were the French intelligence operatives, Muslim officials from Bosnia and Mercenaries. A major issue will be whether Milosevic?s medical condition will enable him to endure the trial. His heart condition and his insistence of representing himself has forced the tribunal to cutback on the trial.