Nationalist leader in the dock

last updated 8 January 2015

Belgrade

Vojislav Seselj, the leader of Serbia’s nationalists, voluntarily flew to The Hague this week to face charges of crimes against humanity. Seselj is said to have recruited, financed, and directed the volunteer paramilitary units that swept through Bosnia and Croatia on sprees of ethnic cleansing in the early 1990s. But he is relatively popular in Serbia, where he came in second in last year’s presidential election. Some 10,000 supporters turned out this week to wish him well in his trial. “I am going to defend the Serbian state,” Seselj told them. He said his indictment was a sham, part of a U.S.-led plot to remove him from Serbia, where he poses a threat to pro-Western leaders.