Milosevic faces Hague trial ruling

Milosevic has remained defiant at previous hearings

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CNN) -- War crime prosecutors have argued their case for combining the allegations against Slobodan Milosevic into one trial.

Chief U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte asked the appellate bench sitting in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday to reconsider the war crimes tribunal's refusal to hold a single trial on three indictments.

Currently Milosevic is facing two trials -- one for alleged war crimes including mass killings and expulsions in Kosovo in 1998-1999 and one for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide in Croatia in 1991 and Bosnia in 1992-1995.

She said Milosevic's plan to create a greater Serbia lay at the heart of all his alleged crimes during the Balkan wars.

"They are one strategy, one scheme" to create a greater Serbia by "forced and violent expulsion of the non-Serbian population," Del Ponte said.

RESOURCES In-Depth: Case against Milosevic

She said the prosecution would be ready to begin the trial as scheduled in two weeks, starting with allegations against Milosevic relating to Kosovo and later focusing on crimes in Croatia and Bosnia.

The prosecution said it plans to call several figures from the Milosevic regime, and argued that some would not be able to return to The Hague to testify more once if the trials were held separately.

"Typically, they are high-level witnesses who can give direct evidence of what he was doing," said deputy prosecutor Geoffrey Nice.

The trial on five counts of alleged war crimes carried out in Kosovo is currently scheduled to begin on February 12. The court adjourned on Wednesday, with a decision on the prosecutor's appeal due before the trial begins.

Milosevic is expected to represent himself in court

Dozens of witnesses are expected to be called in a trial forecast to last about a year.

Lawyers working with Milosevic have said the defendant intends to announce his witness list, and that he plans to call leaders of NATO countries during the Kosovo conflict.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook are among those Milosevic intends to call to testify.

Charges against Milosevic for Bosnia and Croatia are due to immediately follow the Kosovo trial.

Milosevic, 60, has said he will represent himself in court and has refused to enter pleas. The court has entered pleas of innocent on his behalf to all counts.

On Wednesday he defended his actions during the Balkan wars and asked to be freed, promising he would return to face trial.

After Judge Claude Jorda, heading Wednesday's five-man appellate panel, ruled that Milosevic should be allowed to speak, the former Yugoslav president spoke for nearly the full 30 minutes allocated to the defence.

During earlier appearances in The Hague, Judge Richard May repeatedly turned off Milosevic's microphone when the defendant refused to be quiet.

Milosevic did not address the motion before the court on Wednesday, instead criticising the charges against him as "abnormal and nonsensical," and saying his goal had been to protect Serbs and bring peace to the republics of Yugoslavia.

"I would call this an evil and hostile attack aimed at justifying the crimes committed against my country," he said of the indictments against him. Putting him on trial was "an attempt to turn the victim into the culprit."

Milosevic faces a total of 66 charges of war crimes after being ousted from power in Yugoslavia in 2000 and brought to The Hague for trial last June. He could face life imprisonment if found guilty of any charge.

He was accused of 32 counts of war crimes in Croatia and five in Kosovo, but the Bosnia indictment is the only one to include genocide, the most serious war crime in the statute books.