Milosevic's wife to visit him privately at UN war crimes tribunal

The wife of indicted suspect Slobodan Milosevic will visit him in detention at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, according to a spokesman for the court, who declined to give details of the trip, citing security concerns.

Speaking to reporters at The Hague today, spokesman Jim Landale said that Mira Markovic would be in that city "between Thursday and Saturday."

"We will not be releasing precise details of her visit to the detention unit ahead of time for obvious security reasons, and the visit itself will be dealt with as strictly private matter," he said.

Pressed for more information, Mr. Landale emphasized that every individual had the right to privacy on the details of such visits, and the Tribunal would respect that right.

The indictment against Mr. Milosevic charges him and four others with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war during a "systematic attack directed against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)."

Among other criminal acts committed under Mr. Milosevic's leadership, the forces of the FRY and Serbia "forcibly expelled and internally displaced hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes across the entire province of Kosovo" by using threats and violence to create an atmosphere of fear and oppression, according to the indictment.

Mr. Milosevic has refused legal counsel, so the court entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.