Posted on 12/11/2006 2:15:31 PM PST by kronos77
- Serbian newspapers have hailed nationalist leader and war crimes indictee Seselj’s interruption of a 28-day hunger strike in the Hague jail as a great victory against the United Nations' Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. "Seselj checkmates the Hague," said daily Glas javnosti in a front page article. ;Victory against the Hague and hunger,; said daily Kurir. Other media gave great publicity to Seselj’s decision to break off his hunger strike late on Friday, after the UN tribunal fulfilled most of his demands which prompted him to strike.
Seselj, the leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party - Serbia's largest party - who is accused of war crimes against non-Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia and Serbia during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, began a hunger strike on November 10 in protest over being denied the right to defend himself and over restrictions on his wifes visits.
Known for unruly behavior, Seselj has on several occasions disrupted the trial and insulted its judges, after which the court assigned him a stand-by British defence lawyer David Hooper. Seselj has said the tribunal judges are idots if they thought he would attend the trial without being allowed to act as his own defence counsel.
Although he never actually participated in any military action, prosecutors have held Seselj, responsible for the alleged persecution, extermination, murder and torture of non-Serb civilians committed by paramilitary groups organised by his party.
After refusing food for 28 days and in view of dramatic weight loss and rapidly deterioating health, the tribunal's appeals panel ruled that Seselj should be allowed to defend himself, receive the court documents in the Serbian language and have restrictions lifted on his wife’s visits. Seselj also demanded that the panel of judges presided over by Dutch judge Alphons Orie be dismissed, but this demand was ignored.
(Excerpt) Read more at adnki.com ...
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