BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Slobodan Milosevic plans to tell the U.N. war crimes tribunal when he appears before it this week that he is being put on a show trial, the victim of NATO revenge because he refused to give up Kosovo, his lawyers said Sunday. (Read photo caption below)
Milosevic is to appear Tuesday before the tribunal for an initial hearing after he was extradited Thursday to The Hague, Netherlands. He has been indicted for alleged involvement in Kosovo atrocities during the crackdown he ordered in 1998 on the Serbian province's ethnic Albanian majority.
Asked about strategy, lawyer Branimir Gugl told Associated Press Television News: ``We have not been working on the defense ... (because) Mr. Milosevic does not recognize the tribunal.''
Before his extradition, Milosevic had been awaiting trial for alleged corruption and abuse of power in a Belgrade prison, and domestic investigations had recently widened to his alleged links to covering up Kosovo atrocities. Although he was extradited before any domestic trial, his lawyers claimed Sunday that they had proven their client innocent and the same defense team would be representing him at The Hague proceedings.
An estimated 10,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed during Milosevic's 18-month crackdown against the rebellious Serbian province.
PHOTO CAPTION:

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, spending a third day in UN custody at The Hague, will meet his Yugoslav defense lawyers on July 2, 2001 to prepare to confront his accusers at the international war crimes tribunal for the first time. Milosevic waves to supporters in this September 20, 2000 file photo. (Petar Kujundzic/Reuters)