THE HAGUE/BALKANS: International judges in The Hague yesterday ordered a cardiology report to determine whether former Yugoslav president Mr Slobodan Milosevic is too sick to run his own defence against war crimes charges. Chris Stephen reports from the Hague
If he is found to be seriously ill, the judges say they may appoint a defence lawyer to take over the case, whether the 62-year-old president likes it or not. But they appear to have ended speculation that the trial will collapse owing to Mr Milosevic's failing health, ordering the trial to resume next Wednesday when he can begin his defence against charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Yesterday's ruling comes with the trial, already into its third year, facing a mounting crisis as Mr Milosevic's health continues to fail.
The former president insists on running his own defence, refusing to take a lawyer, and the trial has already lost 66 days due to his bouts of flu and high blood pressure.
Mr Milosevic was due to have begun his defence case this week, after a four-month break, but on Monday he appeared in the dock beetroot-faced, claiming he had been brought to court against medical advice.
The three-strong panel of judges have heeded that advice, in giving him the rest of the week off, but have put off, for the moment, the momentous decision of whether to deny him the right to defend himself. There are good reasons for caution. One of the bedrocks of international law is that an accused person is entitled to defend themselves, rather than trust a lawyer to do it for them.
Another principle is that a defendant cannot be held responsible for their failing health - one reason why, despite his many ailments, judges have in past months refused to consider imposing a lawyer.
However, yesterday's judg- ment said that circumstances are so serious they may have to take action "in the interests of justice". It is an unhappy decision for the judges to take, because it walks a legal tightrope.
In a closely-argued decision, they write that "the right to defend oneself in person is not absolute" and that at some point a case, even a war crimes trial of a former president, must be saved from dragging on indefinitely.
"There is no evidence that the accused is not fit to stand trial at all, but there is evidence that the health of the accused is such that he may not be fit to continue to represent himself," said the judgment.
This is a decision with far reaching implications. The judges appear to feel that Mr Milosevic, in refusing to take a lawyer, is obstructing justice because by being constantly ill he is preventing his case from continuing.
Forcing a lawyer on him will be a tough move for the judges, because Mr Milosevic, who refuses to recognise this court, has indicated he will not co-operate with that lawyer.
This may leave a court-appointed counsel floundering, and end up with a judgment that ignores defence arguments - hardly the ideal result for a trial that, more than any other, is likely to determine the future of war crimes justice.
Even if the new medical report echoes the first one, judges are unlikely to force a lawyer on Mr Milosevic immediately. Instead, they will appoint a so-called "Standby Counsel" who can shadow Mr Milosevic's case, stepping in if the former president's health dips once again.
Mr Steven Kay, a court appointed independent counsel, argued on Monday that the judges should consider abandoning the case because of Mr Milosevic's health - a decision that would cause uproar in the Balkans if the former strongman was to be set free.
Mr Milosevic was famous, while Yugoslav president, for confounding western statesmen trying to bring peace to the Balkans in the 1990s.
Now he appears, inadvertently, to be doing the same thing even from behind the bars of his jail cell.
The crisis over Mr Milosevic's health has also focused attention on why the prosecutors chose to charge him with such a mountain of crimes, stretching over three separate wars, when a slimmed-down case, with perhaps a third of the accusations, would probably have proved enough to send him to jail for the rest of his life.