Serb Politician on Hunger Strike ‘Holds the Key to His Health,’ Says UN War Crimes Tribunal
New York, Dec 6 2006 7:00PM
The Serbian politician who continues to refuse food as he awaits trial before the United Nations war crimes tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia “holds the key to his health and life,” the tribunal warned today.
A spokesperson for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said Vojislav Šešelj – who faces
charges over his role in an ethnic cleansing campaign during the Balkan wars of the 1990s – has legal avenues open to
pursue any of his requests or complaints about the Tribunal.
“It is Mr. Šešelj’s decision to take this action, it is Mr. Šešelj’s decision to refuse food and medicines [and] it is
Mr. Šešelj who actually holds the key to his health and life – it is not the Tribunal,” Refik Hodžic told journalists at
the ICTY’s weekly press briefing in The Hague.
Mr. Hodžic said that “the only way for him to address the issue of self-representation is through the courtroom, through
him taking part in the court process,” noting that the 52-year-old accused began his hunger strike while he was
representing himself.
Although he continues to drink water, Mr. Šešelj has declined food and medicine since 11 November. A trio of doctors who
examined him yesterday expressed grave concern at the state of his health but added they were satisfied with the
conditions provided in the Dutch prison hospital where Mr. Šešelj has been monitored since last Wednesday.
Asked by journalists about what the Tribunal would do if Mr. Šešelj’s health deteriorates, Mr. Hodžic said “a prompt
medical intervention” will take place based upon a decision of the medical officer and the doctors in the prison
hospital.
Last week, ICTY judges assigned defence counsel to the accused, saying he had persistently obstructed the proper conduct
of the trial since resuming self-representation in late October.
“But he has also made other less publicized demands, such as that the Tribunal approach a foreign State in order to
unfreeze assets he holds in overseas bank accounts,” the statement noted.
The president of the Serbian Radical Party, Mr. Šešelj faces charges of crimes against humanity and others relating to
the persecutions of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb people and their expulsions from area of Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and the Vojvodina region of Serbia, between August 1991 and September 1993.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Šešelj participated in a joint criminal enterprise with former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, among others, that led to the extermination and expulsion of non-Serb people.
ENDS