Slobodan Milosevic

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has urged the Hague Tribunal to release him pending trial. He promised to return to attend any hearings.

The former Yugoslav leader told a tribunal appeals panel he will not flee. Instead, he stressed readiness to appear in court and called the hearings a battle he would not miss. It was the first time the tribunal allowed Mr. Milosevic to make a longer statement without cutting him off. In his comments, the former Yugoslav leader called the charges against him an effort to justify war crimes against his country. Mr. Milosevic, who had previously rejected the court's legitimacy, called the proceedings an attempt to turn the victim into a culprit.

The former Yugoslav leader made his comments as a tribunal panel heard an appeal by prosecutors seeking a single trial for the former Yugoslav president. An earlier decision ordered two trials for Mr. Milosevic. That ruling set one trial to begin February 12, focusing on his role during the 1999 Kosovo crisis. A second trial will concern charges arising from the conflicts in the early 1990's in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The former Yugoslav leader is accused of responsibility for the massacres of thousands of non-Serbs.

The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has sought the single trial, saying Mr. Milosevic's alleged actions point to a single design - to create a "Greater Serbia." The appeals panel concluded Wednesday's hearing without a decision promising a ruling as soon as possible.

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.

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