The Milosevic defense

last updated 8 January 2015

The Hague, Netherlands

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic opened his defense in his war crimes trial this week with elaborate allegations against Western and Arab states. Milosevic, who is representing himself, is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, which killed more than 150,000 people. In his opening statement to the international tribunal, he said he had merely been protecting the Serbs against various dark plots, including a U.S. and European plan to break up Yugoslavia, a Croatian campaign to eliminate the Serbs in Croatia, and a Saudi-financed plot to turn Bosnia into a radical Islamic state.