AFP. 2 February 2002. Milosevic denies issuing atrocities orders.
MOSCOW -- Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic said in an interview Saturday he never ordered his military to commit atrocities in the Balkans. Milosevic, due on trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and other charges over events in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, said his army commanders acted on their own. "Decrees are being attributed to me that I never signed, and which were carried out on specific initiatives of the military," Milosevic told the Izvestia daily. "They (the military commanders) acted on their own, while defending themselves from attacks by bandits, who were burning down homes and killing innocent civilians," he said. Izvestia said the written interview with Milosevic was conducted by a reporter with ITAR-TASS, but it failed to specify when. Milosevic also conceded to suffering from depression, and lashed out at the international warcrimes tribunal in The Hague for keeping him jailed and isolated from the outside world. "My physical and moral health is one of suspension between inertia and timid hope, which in and of itself is not enough to keep up the presence of morale," he said. "But still I am keeping a diary, to hand down to our descendants the ray of light born in a true Serb." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
