Threatens to Go On Hunger Strike
to Press for Satellite Testimony
THE HAGUE, May 6 (Reuters) — On the eve of the first trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Serb defendant has said the charges against him are based on false accusations, Dutch television said on Monday. NOS television news said it had spoken to the defendant Dusan "Dusko" Tadic by telephone and played a recording of the conversation in which he said defence witnesses would clear his name if they were allowed to testify via satellite from Bosnia.
"Absolute lies have been made about me. The prosecutor has accepted them blindly and not taken the time to investigate a single one of those accusations," Tadic said. "If the tribunal grants our request to allow my witnesses to testify by satellite from Banja Luka (in Bosnia) then I know for sure that I will go free. But if our request is not granted then I will go on (a) hunger strike on Tuesday," he said.
A tribunal spokesman was not immediately able to verify that the voice speaking Serbo-Croat was that of Tadic but confirmed that he made an outgoing call from the tribunal's detention centre on Monday.
Tadic, 40, is due to stand trial on Tuesday on charges of killing, torturing and raping Muslims and Croats in and near the notorious Omarska prison camp in Bosnia in 1992. The trial, expected to last several months, will focus on alleged atrocities committed by Serbs during the "ethnic cleansing" of the Prijedor region of northwest Bosnia. Tadic, the lone defendant, is the first person to be tried by an international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials held after World War Two.
May 6 · Friend Says Tadic was Cruel in Childhood
May 5 · War Crimes Trials Begin Tuesday
Key Facts about the War Crimes Tribunal
War Crimes Profile: Dusan Tadic
War Crimes Tribunal May Pale Compared to Nuremberg
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from the United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Reports concerning human rights abuses in Bosnia published by Intac Access
Major War Criminals/Suspects from CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia from CalTech's Bosnia Site
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