The Hague, July 02: The trial of Slobodan Milosevic on war crimes charges resumed in The Hague today after a two-week ajournment because the former Yugoslav president was ill. Today's hearing began with the prosecution calling Austrian diplomat Wolfgang Petritsch to the stand. Petritsch was the special European Union envoy for Kosovo at the height of the 1998-99 conflict and led the EU delegation at the February 1999 peace talks in the French town of Rambouillet. Milosevic had been ill with the flu since June 17, the second break in the trial follows a three-week hiatus between March 18 and April 9 when he was also said to be stricken by the flu. The judges have ordered the 60-year-old former president to undergo a comprehensive medical check-up.
Milosevic -- on trial for atrocities allegedly committed during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo -- has been held at the UN tribunal's detention centre in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague, for over a year.

Bureau Report