REHABILITATION AT THE HAGUE:

Star Power in Serbia: Slobodan Milosevic's performance at his war-crimes trial has won him increased popularity at home (ANDREW PURVIS, Sep. 30, 2002, TIME)

For Slobodan Milosevic, old habits die hard. He has been away from home for more than a year now, held by the United Nations at its war-crimes tribunal in the Hague. But each morning he returns to Serbia via the airwaves, the familiar pink cheeks and silvery hair reclaiming their place on TV sets across the former Yugoslavia. For the president of the National Committee for the Liberation of Slobodan Milosevic, an organization of hard-liners, it's a welcome sight. "I am proud of our President," says Bogoljub Bjelica. "He is superior in every way."

That view is widely shared in Serbia. Approval of the ex-President, not long ago in the single digits, doubled in the first week of his trial earlier this year to 20% and stayed there. Approval of the international tribunal conversely continues to drop: now even the NATO alliance that bombed Belgrade, polls say, is held in higher public esteem.

The Serb nationalism that Milosevic rode to power, meanwhile, is enjoying a modest revival. Ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj, Milosevic's own pick for President in elections at the end of this month, now claims 12% support, up from 4% in May. Those who hoped that the spectacle of the former President in the dock would shock Serbs into recognizing the crimes done in their name are having to rethink. And worse may lie ahead. This week prosecutors begin the second part of their case against Milosevic — for his responsibility in the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia and Croatia. In this phase of the trial, he is expected to dwell heavily on how Serbs are victims, not perpetrators, of the Balkan wars, a popular refrain at home. "Milosevic was politically dead before he was transferred to the Hague," says Dragoljub Zarkovic, a leading Belgrade editor. "The tribunal has given him the kiss of life."

We've long maintained that he should be on trial for his domestic communism, not for his over-rough actions on the border of the clash of civilizations. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 26, 2002 7:51 AM