U.N. prosecutor to present 'crucial' evidence against Milosevic

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- With time running out to conclude her case, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor said Wednesday she will begin focusing on the genocide charges against Slobodan Milosevic, and the next few months will be critical.\nThe prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said crucial evidence will soon be presented to the tribunal regarding the former Yugoslav president's involvement with the massacre in Srebrenica and the months-long bombardment of Sarajevo. She said she was confident it would lead to convictions for genocide -- the most serious of the 66 charges Milosevic faces.\nThe prosecution has until the end of the year to complete its case in the trial. Milosevic, 61, who is representing himself, will then have equal time -- nearly two years -- to present his defense.\nMilosevic, who has been on trial since February 2002, has serious heart trouble and illness that has repeatedly delayed hearings.\nIn verdicts in other cases, the Yugoslav tribunal has set stiff standards for genocide convictions, demanding the prosecution demonstrate that a prior intent to destroy a race or ethnic group was the motive for the crime.\nIn the tribunal's 10-year existence, one person has been convicted of genocide. Two other defendants were acquitted but were convicted of crimes against humanity and received long prison terms. Prosecutors have dropped genocide charges in several other cases when they believed the evidence was inadequate.\nIn an Associated Press interview, Del Ponte said the prosecution's case against Milosevic is going well, but they haven't yet proved the genocide charges.\n"So far it's going OK, but let's see. It will be in September-October that will be the most crucial moment for this count of genocide," she said.\nDel Ponte said she expected to hand down the last indictments against war crimes suspects in the former Yugoslavia and conclude all the investigations on schedule by the end of next year.\nThe tribunal, created in 1993 by the U.N. Security Council to prosecute crimes in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, will disband when the last trials are completed -- in 2010 at the latest.\nKeeping an eye on a television monitor showing the Milosevic trial one floor below her office, Del Ponte said she hoped senior political and military figures during his 13 years in power, who are under indictment themselves, will testify against their former leader.\nShe has been buoyed in the last month by the decision of two former Yugoslav army officers to change their innocent pleas to guilty and to issue lengthy statements implicating co-defendants -- but not Milosevic himself -- in the killings at Srebrenica in July 1995.\nBosnian Serbs slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslims in one week in the enclave, which had been declared a U.N. protected zone. It was the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II.\nDel Ponte held out hope that Biljana Plavsic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who pleaded guilty and the most senior political figure to be convicted so far, would change her mind and testify against Milosevic. Plavsic is serving an 11-year sentence in Sweden.\n"If Biljana Plavsic would agree to testify in court, it would be much easier," Del Ponte said. "But it's not only Plavsic. We have others." In her plea bargain last year, Plavsic made it clear she had no intention to be a witness in other trials.\n"Until now, I am optimistic," Del Ponte said about persuading suspects to testify against Milosevic. "But you know it can change from day to day, because sometimes witnesses are hesitant for other reasons -- threats, a political situation"