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Serb hardliner refuses to plead
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj has declined to plead at The Hague to war crimes charges, echoing the defiance of his former ally Slobodan Milosevic. Seselj, a burly nationalist who came second in last December's Serbian presidential election, said he wanted to exercise his right to delay his plea by up to 30 days to allow clarification of terms in the indictment that he said he did not understand. "I'm not at all in a hurry in these proceedings," the former paramilitary commander told the U.N. war crimes tribunal after insisting that the lengthy indictment be read in its entirety, including a long list of victims allegedly killed by troops under his authority in Croatia and Bosnia. In his initial appearance before the court, Seselj displayed his trademark defiance, refusing to stand up while addressing the court. "I have decided to defend myself ... and exclusively in the Serbian language." Seselj, 48, who has dismissed the 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia between 1991-93 against him as "fake," has followed in former Yugoslav president Milosevic's footsteps by opting to defend himself. If convicted, he would be jailed for life. Judge Wolfgang Schomburg, of Germany, said he would enter a "not guilty" plea for him if Seselj continued to refuse to enter a plea to the charges. As the indictment was read out in court, Seselj objected to the use of Croatian terms, claiming he did not understand them, even though the Serbian and Croatian languages are virtually identical. "I don't understand this language," Seselj claimed, in an apparent grandstand display for Serb nationalists at home. Proceedings of the tribunal are televised in Serbia. Seselj flew from Belgrade on a commercial flight Monday and surrendered to the court. Before boarding his plane in Belgrade, he told hundreds cheering him at the airport: "I'll blast them to pieces. I will come back from The Hague victorious." The ultranationalist is a former ally of Milosevic, who also is defending himself against war crimes charges stemming from a decade of fratricidal bloodshed. The Milosevic trial has been under way for more than a year. Seselj, known for his fierce temper and scathing anti-Western remarks, is charged with responsibility for atrocities committed by his paramilitary troops in Croatia, Bosnia and in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina between August 1991 and September 1993. The indictment accused Seselj of responsibility for the murder or forcible removal of Croats and Muslims from about one-third of Croatia, large parts of Bosnia and from parts of Vojvodina "in order to make these areas part of a new Serbian-dominated state." Although not personally charged with atrocities, his forces, known as the "Chetniks," or "Seselj's men," were accused of "murders, extermination, torture, expulsion, imprisonment and cruel treatment" of non-Serbs from the regions of the former Yugoslavia. Among the worst incidents in the indictment was the removal of about 400 people sheltering in the hospital of the Croatian town of Vukovar in November 1991. More than 250 of them were taken to a nearby pig farm, executed and buried in a mass grave. Seselj, who caused a stir by visiting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2001, has said he surrendered "in order to destroy the evil tribunal, an American instrument against the Serbs." Yugoslavia was abolished earlier this month and was replaced by Serbia and Montenegro, a loose coalition of its two remaining states. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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