Charges Against Slobodan Milosevic: A summary

On February 18, 2002, the Prosecution began its case-in-chief against Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes and crimes against humanity arising out of his alleged campaign to rid Kosovo of its predominantly Albanian population. Milosevic has been charged with five counts of violations of international humanitarian law, as follows:

1. Deportation: The crux of the prosecution's case is that the accused, as part of a joint criminal enterprise, orchestrated a systematic campaign of terror and violence to force a substantial portion of the Albanian population to leave Kosovo forever in order to assure continued Serbian control over the province. Deportation is a crime against humanity under Article 5(d) of the Statute of the Tribunal

2. Other Inhumane Acts (Forcible Transfer): Forcible transfer is an unenumerated violation of Article 5(i) of the Tribunal's Statute. It is similar to deportation but hinges on the forced internal displacement of civilians.

3. & 4. Murder: The indictment identifies 600 Kosovar Albanians who were killed in sixteen separate incidents in the process of the mass expulsion of Albanians from the province. Based on exhumations of mass graves and the number missing, human rights groups have estimated that approximately 10,000 Kosovar Albanians were killed during the conflict. Though this number includes KLA fighters, they are not thought to be the majority. Murder has been charged under Article 5(a) of the Statute as a crime against humanity and under Article 3 as a violation of the laws or customs of war.

5. Persecutions: According to the indictment, Milosevic used mass forcible transfer and deportation, murder, sexual assault and wanton destruction or damage of Albanian religious sites 'to execute a campaign of persecution against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population based on political, racial, or religious grounds.' Persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds is a crime against humanity under Article 5(h) of the Tribunal Statute.

These charges have been brought against Slobodan Milosevic as an individual under Article 7 of the Statute of the Tribunal:

Under Article 7(1), Mr. Milosevic is charged with alleged responsibility for planning, instigating, ordering, committing or otherwise aiding and abetting in the planning, preparation or execution of the above listed crimes. Committing (for purposes of this indictment) refers to participation in a joint criminal enterprise, not to physically perpetrating any of the crimes.

Under Article 7(3), he is charged with responsibility as a superior for the acts of his subordinates, commonly referred to as 'command responsibility,' where the superior knew or had reason to know that a subordinate was about to commit violations of international humanitarian law or war crimes or had done so, and the superior failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the acts or punish the perpetrators.

The prosecution has the burden of establishing facts to prove each of the specific charges made in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, the most rigorous standard of criminal liability. For example, to prove the deportation charge under Article 5(d) of the Tribunal Statute, the prosecution must first prove the defining elements of crimes against humanity (a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population in furtherance of a policy of the state or other organized group and, as defined in the ICTY Statute, committed in armed conflict), as well as the specific elements of the crime of deportation (the forcible displacement of persons for arbitrary reasons from an area where they were lawfully living to beyond state borders). In his defense, Milosevic could offer proof as to any one of those elements and attempt to defeat the prosecution's case. For example, while it is not supported by the facts as presently known, he could argue that he was attempting to move the persons he is accused of deporting in order to protect them or, alternatively, he could argue they were not lawfully living in a particular area. To date, however, Milosevic's 'defenses' have taken the form of political rather than specific legal defenses aimed at defeating the specific legal charges against him.

In the Kosovo indictment, the Trial Chambers has directed that the prosecution conclude its case-in-chief by the end of June or early July. It will be followed by presentation of the Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina indictments beginning in September. Only after the prosecution has presented its case-in-chief will Milosevic present his defense. Therefore, the trial is expected to last two years.