A defiant Slobodan Milosevic plans to face the UN war crimes tribunal alone Tuesday, without a lawyer, when he is led in for his first appearance before the court in The Hague, his legal advisors said.

"He is not going to appoint any lawyer to appear in front of the tribunal," Belgrade lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic said after meeting with Milosevic at the tribunal's detention center.

Milosevic, who will become the first former head of state to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), feels "the tribunal is part of the mechanism to conduct genocide on the Serb people," Tomanovic said.

"Its purpose is to hide war crimes by NATO in Yugoslavia," he said. "As long as the process would last in The Hague tribunal, Milosevic will not accept representation by any lawyer," said Tomanovic.

The Belgrade lawyer, who has defended Milosevic in his home country against charges of corruption and abuse of power during his iron-fisted rule, was the former strongman's first visitor since his sudden extradition to The Hague last week following a snap decision by the reformist Serbian government in Belgrade.

The tribunal's legal affairs chief, Christian Rohde, said earlier that Milosevic "may choose to represent himself at the initial appearance," adding He said the former president, ousted by reformists and a popular uprising last year, "is proud of what he has done in defense of his country and his people."

Milosevic has depicted the ICTY as the legal arm of NATO, which he said should be tried for the 78-day bombing campaign that drove his forces out of the Serbian province of Kosovo in June 1999.

The former president has accused the Western military alliance of mounting "an illegal and criminal war" in Kosovo, revered by Serbs as the cradle of their civilization.

Milosevic will be formally charged over his role in the crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo that prompted the NATO bombing campaign, and will have 30 days to enter a plea.

He also faces future indictments over atrocities committed during in Croatia and Bosnia, where he has admitted to having bankrolled Serbs fighting Croats and Muslims in Europe's bloodiest wars since World War II.

(Chinadaily 07/03/2001)