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Seselj gives long-winded opening speech at trial

Vojislav Seselj addresses his supporters in Belgrade on Feb. 23, 2003. PHOTO: AFP

On the second day of his war crimes trial, Vojislav Seselj, a radical nationalist who is still an influential and popular politician in Serbia, had the chance to demonstrate some of his legendary speechmaking prowess. And so he did.

For four hours, the maximum time allowed for his opening statement, Seselj lectured the court on Serbian linguistics and history, told his judges they were paid not to think, was scathing about Slobodan Milosevic, the US, Germany and the Vatican, quoted from Tolstoy and dissected the legal aspects of the notion of "hate speech," of which he stands accused.

But for melodrama, nothing could match his oratorical drumroll near the end of a long morning on Thursday. Evidently addressing his television audience at home, Seselj said he was especially grateful to the court and the prosecution "for allowing me to suffer for my ideology," that of Serbian nationalism.

However, his greatest regret, he said, was that the founders of the tribunal had not envisaged the death penalty, "so that proudly, with dignity, my head upright like my friend Saddam Hussein, I could die and put the final seal on my ideology. It would become immortal. I have lived long enough."

Reporters from Belgrade, Serbia, following the proceedings, described the address, not given under oath, as a "vintage Seselj speech."

It has been almost five years since Seselj, 53, a sociologist and former warlord who commanded his own violent militia, voluntarily arrived at the UN detention center in the Hague.

He is still the leader of the Radical Party in Serbia, and the indictment says he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

He has awaited his turn amid others -- Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims -- facing charges of crimes from the 1990s wars of the former Yugoslavia.

Seselj has been indicted for inciting crimes against humanity and war crimes, which, prosecutors argue, are the result of years of his delivering fanatical and war-mongering speeches and the orders he gave to his own militia operating both in Croatia and Bosnia as they terrorized, robbed and killed civilians to drive them from what he regarded as Serbian lands.

His case has been delayed by the court's slow pace and heavy workload, as well as by multiple obstructions set by Seselj himself.

Last year, as soon as his trial began, he went on a 28-day hunger strike over various demands.

Acting as his own lawyer, Seselj earlier demanded that thousands of documents disclosed by the prosecution be translated into Serbian and delivered in print. Seselj has returned all materials that the prosecution provided electronically.

The Seselj trial is under way in the same glass-enclosed courtroom where former president Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia faced his judges until his death last year, shortly before the trial's end.

The two men, variously rivals and allies, knew each other but were never friends.

Seselj said Thursday that he, not Milosevic, was the creator of the ideal of "Greater Serbia." Seselj also said that Greater Serbia would encompass all lands outside Serbia where, he said, the "true Serbian language," or the Stokavian dialect, was spoken.

As was Milosevic's custom, Seselj berated the judges on Thursday, called the court illegal, and working according to the dictates of the US. Its task, he said, was "to prosecute Serbs." Its judges, he said, "are paid not to think.
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