Slobodan Milosevic was not "fundamentally racist" but should have used his power over Bosnian Serbs to halt bloodshed in the Balkans, a former mediator told the ex-Serbian leader's trial today.
Lord David Owen of Britain, who negotiated withMilosevic over Croatia and Bosnia, said the accused was apragmatist rather than an "ethnic purist" but could have helped stop the Bosnian war two years before it in fact ended.
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The co-author of the failed 1993 Vance-Owen peace plan forBosnia said Milosevic - charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes - erred by not cutting off vital supplies Bosnian Serbs needed to wage war.
Lord Owen told Milosevic directly at the UN war crimes tribunal that he should have forced Bosnian Serbs to lift the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, where Muslims and Croats were holed up.
"It is my view Milosevic is not fundamentally racist. Ithink he is a nationalist but even that he wears very lightly," Lord Owen said.
To convict Milosevic over Bosnia and Croatia, prosecutorsmust link him with atrocities committed there when he waspresident of Serbia, an office he held from 1990 to 1997 before being elected Yugoslav leader.
Lord Owen said Milosevic had expressed fears in spring 1993 of a "bloodbath" or "massacre" if Bosnian Serbs entered the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. When Serbs did take Srebrenica in 1995, they carried out the worst massacre since World War Two.