Global Policy Forum

Tony Blair and former US president Bill Clinton top the list of more than 1,600 witnesses called by Slobodan Milosevic for his war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The former Yugoslavian president has refused to enter a plea in his ongoing trial, or even recognise the validity of the court trying him, but has compiled a witness list of 1,631 people he wants to question when his defence begins on June 8. Also on the list are the former British foreign secretary Robin Cook, and Madeleine Albright, secretary of state under Mr Clinton.

Mr Milosevic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Whether or not such high profile witnesses appear in The Hague is another matter - the court will have the final say on which witnesses are deemed relevant and should be called. And the tally of 1,631 called by Mr Milosevic is already five times that called by the prosecution during the two years of the trial so far.

The trial has already been delayed several times due to the ill health of Mr Milosevic, who has heart problems, and the also the resignation of the presiding judge, Richard May, also on health grounds. But the spokesman for the tribunal, Jim Landale, stressed that not all those witnesses called by Mr Milosevic would necessarily appear in The Hague.

He told Reuters news agency: "The mere fact that he submitted all these names doesn't necessarily mean that all of these witnesses appear. "All we've got at the moment is a submission by the accused of witnesses he would like to call." Mr Milosevic is a former lawyer himself, and has rigorously cross-examined several witnesses so far.