His Day In Court

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The tribunal's acquittal rate so far is low. Years of investigation have turned up hundreds of witnesses and loads of exhibits that go far beyond circumstantial constructs. Investigators were able to fish for more after Milosevic's regime fell in October 2000 and the new government let them inside Yugoslavia for the first time. Though the investigators complain they got more obstruction than cooperation, especially from the military, no one could cover up one incriminating new find: the bodies of Kosovo Albanian victims listed in one indictment were unearthed near Belgrade last May.

The prosecuting team also has Del Ponte, who is one tough lawyer. The Cosa Nostra mobsters that Del Ponte, as Switzerland's attorney general, pursued on money-laundering charges tried to blow her up; the banker gnomes in Zurich whose secrecy she penetrated trembled before her. No matter what stunts Milosevic pulls, says Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, "she is not going to be sidetracked or tripped up."

The trick is to prove the leader of a nation is the intellectual author of crimes even if he did not literally have blood on his hands. The testimony from nearly 50 victims is likely to be compelling. But the most damning words may well come from the "insiders": some 20 high-level political and security bosses with first-hand knowledge of what Milosevic said and did. What Del Ponte needs to prove is Milosevic's "superior authority": that he exercised control over the perpetrators of atrocities, knew or had reason to know crimes were being committed and did nothing to stop them or punish anyone. Prosecutors won't name these key witnesses yet, to protect them and encourage their appearance.

But former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic, a lesser player who nevertheless attended key meetings, fretfully tells Time he will testify if local authorities provide him with sufficient legal and security guarantees. Principal trial attorney Geoffrey Nice was in Belgrade last month interviewing key figures whose testimony would be invaluable. They included Rade Markovic, once head of state security, now in a Belgrade prison facing murder charges: the threat of a long prison sentence might persuade him to rat on his old boss. Nice also interviewed Mihalj Kertes, former chief of the powerful customs service, and the notorious Franko "Frenki" Simatovic, the commander of the feared Red Berets, a police unit accused of spearheading ethnic cleansing from Croatia to Kosovo. Three men indicted with Milosevic — ex-Defense Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic, Serbia's former Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic and top adviser Nikola Sainovic — were also asked last week to give themselves up to the Hague. They too would have stories to tell.