Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Will One-Time Slobodan Milosevic be Seen as Murderer or Martyr?

Aired February 11, 2002 - 07:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the big question of this hour, will one time Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic be seen as a murderer or martyr? His trial before the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague begins tomorrow. The former president of the former Yugoslavia is charged with atrocities in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia, committed by forces loyal to him. Milosevic, for his part, refuses to recognize the World Court that will determine his fate.

Christiane Amanpour now with more on Milosevic and the international case against him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just as allegations of corruption, election fraud, political killings and money laundering have brought Slobodan Milosevic to the attention of prosecutors at home, evidence of an array of war time crimes has earned him indictments by international prosecutors. In May, 1999, Louis Arbor, who was then chief prosecutor at the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, indicted Milosevic and four of his lieutenants for crimes committed during the war in Kosovo that year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS ARBOR, CHIEF PROSECUTOR, WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL: I presented an indictment for confirmation against Slobodan Milosevic and four others charging them with crimes against humanity, specifically, murder, deportation and persecutions and with violations of the laws and customs of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Milosevic made history that day, becoming the first ever sitting head of state to be indicted by an international court, the charge of crimes against humanity being the second most serious crime after genocide under international law. And in November 2001, he was charged with genocide, too.

The current chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, issued more indictments against Milosevic for crimes committed during the Bosnia and Croatia wars from 1991 to 1995.

Throughout the '90s, in the name of preserving Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic instead presided over its destruction. He led Yugoslavia into three wars that left hundreds of thousands dead, first in Croatia, then in Bosnia and finally in Kosovo. Civilians were the pry targets, a violation of the laws of war handed down in the Geneva Conventions after WWII.

The term ethnic cleansing became synonymous with Bosnia, as Serb forces there loyal to Milosevic tried to carve out a separate state by forcibly moving the non-Serb civilian population. They unleashed heavy artillery against multi-ethnic cities like Sarajevo and laid siege to towns and villages throughout the state.

Snipers targeted men, women and children. Markets full of people shopping were shelled and in scenes unknown in Europe since WWII, there were concentration camps, mass rape and the forced prostitution of women and very young girls. And almost every day, deportations, which added to the millions of refugees.

The climax came with the Bosnia-Serb assault on the tiny Moslem village of Srebrenica. To this day, the International Red Cross says that about 8,000 Muslim men and boys remain unaccounted for there. The top Bosnian Serb leaders, Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Radkom Laditch (ph), were twice indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity.

But after NATO conducted bombing raids to stop the Bosnian Serb rampage, Slobodan Milosevic became the West's partner in the peace that was forged at Dayton in November, 1995. Four years later, Milosevic launched what was to be his final military campaign, in Kosovo. NATO again went to war to stop him. Just as the West was considering a negotiated cease-fire, Milosevic was indicted by the War Crimes Tribunal.

Today, Slobodan Milosevic is no longer president. He is no one's peace partner and the tribunal says it is ready to present what it calls a solid case against him.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, the Hague.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: So what will prosecutors have to do to make the charges against Slobodan Milosevic stick? Well, ironically some of his enemies in the new Yugoslav government are reportedly considering helping Milosevic, not to save him, but to repair Serbia's tattered image.

Joining us now is Laura Silber, senior policy adviser with the Open Society Institute and co-author of the book "Yugoslavia: Death Of A Nation." Welcome. Good to see you.

LAURA SILBER, CO-AUTHOR, "YUGOSLAVIA: DEATH OF A NATION": Thank you.

ZAHN: I think we need to make it clear for starters, Milosevic has said the war tribunal process is illegal. He has refused any representation at all. What do you think will be the outcome of this trial?

SILBER: Well, I think clearly Milosevic will be found guilty of some charges, but he will do his utmost to make this a political spectacle. And I believe that he thinks he will ultimately return to power in Yugoslavia. For him, this is another political campaign.

ZAHN: Is he delusional?

SILBER: He is, to an extent, delusional, but also you can see that he is trying to manipulate the process and to use it to his own benefit and, in fact, he is gaining some popularity in Serbia, where there's no love lost for him but where there is a sense of the Hague is a political process. They're very cynical. Many people think that the authorities sold Milosevic to the Hague in exchange for some deal so that he is trying to exploit that. And one thing about the former President Milosevic is he has a real sense of how to somehow use the Serbian people to actually manipulate them.

ZAHN: The new Yugoslav government has actually created a legal team now that might participate in some level on this trial. What is it that they want?

SILBER: Well, there is a fear now in Yugoslavia amongst even people who believe that Milosevic should stay in jail for the rest of his life, a fear that because of the genocide charge that somehow Yugoslavia could be forced to pay reparations because there's a concurrent trial going on in the World Court in the Hague. So there's some fear that the genocide charge should not be allowed to stick.

Also, I think that's what the prosecutors in the Hague are worried about most. That's going to be a very difficult one to make stick.

ZAHN: You also said it is Milosevic's goal to create an international spectacle. Lawyers close to him are now saying that among others, he wants to call Bill Clinton to testify, Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Tony Blair. What are the chances of that happening?

SILBER: There's zero chance. There's zero chance that they will actually come. To get them actually to be forced to come, it would be -- not only would the defense have to ask for it, but also the judge would ultimately have to approve it, and that's not going to happen. But by doing this, he wants to have other people, other former leaders and current leaders stand trial. They should be in the dock, not President Milosevic. That's his idea.

ZAHN: So you think there's a good chance that he will be charged with something that may be short of the genocide charge?

SILBER: He already has a whole slew of charges...

ZAHN: Charges, I mean convicted?

SILBER: Right. Yes. I think there's a very good chance. They will try their utmost to make the genocide charge stick but there are a lot of other charges that would really ensure that President Milosevic does not go free in the end.

ZAHN: The final 15 seconds, what do you think we should be looking for from Mr. Milosevic?

SILBER: I think we should look for him to try to make this an amusing two days and I think one of the important things that's really important, though, is that the goal of the court is to make the people of Serbia, to promote stability in the region, so to make people understand not only that this was a man who they may see him as a victim, but who many see, obviously, as the person responsible for the death of tens of thousands of people.

ZAHN: Hard to imagine how he would make anything seem amusing over this two day period, but we will be watching closely.

Laura Silber, thank you for your insights this morning.

SILBER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com