Milosevic accused of thousands of murders as war crimes trial opens

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Slobodan Milosevic orchestrated the murders of thousands of people in a campaign of "savagery" with the sole goal of satisfying his all-consuming thirst for power, a prosecutor said yesterday, opening the former Yugoslav president's trial for war crimes.

Milosevic, the first head of state to face an international tribunal, listened impassively, occasionally jotting notes, as United Nations attorneys sketched a complex case spanning nearly a decade of horror in three Balkan countries.

The prosecution gave a first glimpse of a litany of agony ­ rape, torture, looting, expulsion and almost gleeful killing ­ that survivors will recount during a trial expected to last two years.

The trial is the biggest war crimes case since Hitler's henchmen were brought before a military tribunal after World War II.

Milosevic, 60, faces a total of 66 counts of genocide and other war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Each count carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In one massacre in Bosnia, said prosecutor Geoffrey Nice, Serb forces promised safety to 45 family members in a Red Cross vehicle, and instead locked them in a house and set it ablaze. "They were burnt alive, and the baby's screams were heard for two hours before it, too, succumbed," he said.

Milosevic is expected to give a spirited response today to the prosecution's six-hour statement. He has refused to recognize the tribunal or appoint a lawyer and has launched separate proceedings to fight his detention.