NETHERLANDS: Serbia wants hunger-striking ultranationalist leader returned home from war crimes tribunal as his health fades.

Serbia asked the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Tuesday (December 5) to transfer Serbian ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, whose health is failing due to a hunger strike, to a hospital in Belgrade. Seselj surrendered to The Hague tribunal in 2003 to answer charges of war crimes against non-Serbs in the 1990s and plotting crimes with ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who died in March months before his trial was expected to end. He pleaded not guilty and routinely disrupted pre-trial proceedings, insulting judges and calling his assigned lawyers "spies" and "actors posing as lawyers". His trial was adjourned indefinitely on Friday. "Having in mind that this is a case of life or death for Vojislav Seselj, it would be good if the tribunal decided for Seselj to be transferred to Belgrade to be hospitalised," said the Serbian ambassador to the Netherlands, Radoslav Stojanovic. The ambassador was speaking after a meeting with the president of the U.N. war crimes tribunal, Fausto Pocar. The tribunal in The Hague had no immediate comment. A group of Serbian, French and Russian doctors on Tuesday examined Seselj, who has been on hunger strike for 25 days, refusing food and medication but drinking water. French doctor Patrick Barriot told Serbian news agency Tanjug before the examination the doctors would propose treating Seselj outside the Netherlands if his life were in danger. Seselj was transferred to a prison hospital for monitoring last week. About 30,000 Serbs protested in front of the United States embassy in Belgrade on Saturday in defence of the Radical Party leader, accusing Washington and the United Nations of seeking to kill Seselj, in detention for nearly four years awaiting trial. Seselj, 52, has lost 19 kg (42 lb) since he began his hunger strike, according to Serbian media reports. The Radicals, Serbia's strongest party, say he is close to death. The Radical Party says the U.N. tribunal is biased against Serbs and acts on U.S. instructions. Serbian war crime tribunal negotiator Rasim Ljajic said the country's "action plan" to catch suspected war criminal Ratko Mladic would still go ahead despite Seselj's case. Mladic was Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's army chief during the conflict. "Officially, Seselj's case is not in the jurisdiction of the prosecutor's office, we are going to talk about it with the president of the Tribunal, and with the chief prosecutor we talked about realization of our "action plan". I told her about measures we are now undertaking and I stressed we will continue with operational activities despite the election campaign and I believe this "action plan" will bear fruit eventually," said Ljajic. "Of course, we expect to continue negotiations without Mladic, but under two conditions: first to show a clear political will to arrest Mladic, and second for operational activities to bring some results. However, we can't sign a stabilization pact without Mladic. We can continue negotiations, but we cannot sign anything without Mladic in The Hague."

ITN Source | December 6, 2006

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