Associated Press

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic appeared Monday before the U.N. war crimes tribunal for a third time to face new charges for murder and persecution in Croatia and for more deaths in Kosovo.

Already indicted for war crimes in Kosovo in 1999, Milosevic was scheduled to plead to a long list of accusations in Croatia dating to 1991, near the beginning of the Balkan wars that resulted from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

In a new turn of events more charges are being brought against Milosevic, holding him responsible for the deaths of nearly 900 Kosovar Albanians, the deportations of 800,000 people and sexual assault by Yugoslav army troops.

In Croatia, prosecutors say, Yugoslav troops looted, murdered and tortured hundreds of civilians in a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at emptying the region of non-Serbs and creating a greater Serb state.

The prosecution was to bring new charges resulting from the recent discovery of mass graves in Serbia of victims from Kosovo. The judges will then rule on whether to confirm the new charges.

A court clerk later was to read out the fresh indictment on Croatia that was confirmed just three weeks ago and which was also incited by the aforementioned discovery of mass graves.

The new charges are significant because they ``hold Mr. Milosevic accountable for crimes that happened long before Kosovo'' and cover a much broader scope of the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, said Richard Dicker, head of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.

Milosevic flared up Tuesday, at a hearing to schedule his trials for war crimes in Kosovo and Croatia. The Kosovo trial was tentatively set for Feb. 12, but could be delayed if the court agrees to a prosecution request to combine the Kosovo indictment with another for alleged crimes in Croatia against ethnic Albanians living in the area.

Prosecutors also plan to indict Milosevic next week for war crimes in Bosnia, including the most serious charge, genocide.

Milosevic dismissed the indictments as documents saying ``Don't bother me and make me listen for hours on end to the reading of texts written at the intellectual level of a 7-year-old child - rather, I correct myself - a retarded 7-year-old child.''

Milosevic, who was extradited by Yugoslavia last June, claimed that U.S. officials last year sought his help in tracking down alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden.

He said the U.S. government had turned to him for help in tracking down bin Laden, who was believed to be behind the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

``The previous American administration knew that bin Laden was in Albania two years after he blew up their embassies and they discussed these facts with me and my associates,'' Milosevic told the judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Albanian authorities have repeatedly denied foreign media reports that Osama bin Laden had visited in recent years. On Sept. 21, Joseph Limprecht, U.S. ambassador to Albania, said the U.S. government had no such reports and he commended Albania for expelling Islamic extremists.

Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she expected to call hundreds of witnesses and present thousands of documents to prove Milosevic oversaw widespread murder and plunder in the wars that resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia.

If all three indictments are tried separately, Milosevic could be in court for three years. Del Ponte said she will request that the three trials be combined.

The Swiss prosecutor estimated she would need 170 days to present the Kosovo case and about the same amount of time to present the Croatia case. At Tuesday's hearing, Del Ponte said 228 witnesses were lined up to testify on Kosovo alone. She also would present 500 documents, 167 videos, 775 photographs, 30 maps and hundreds of forensic reports.

On Croatia, she said 255 witnesses may be summoned, including archeologists, historians, military experts and pathologists. The prosecution would need up to five months to prepare for that trial.

Allowed an opportunity to speak, Milosevic asked British presiding judge Richard May to ``disqualify the prosecutor'' for bias, alleging she was a tool of NATO.

``We are not talking only about partiality or bias because those would be mild terms. What we heard is worse than what we could hear from the enemy, that is from the NATO spokesman,'' Milosevic said in Serbian.

Appearing for the first time were three lawyers called friends of the court, assigned to ensure that Milosevic's interests are protected.

British barrister Steven Kay asked the court to review Milosevic's claims that the court was prejudiced against him, and that putting him on trial for actions as a head of state was a violation of the principle of state sovereignty.

It was clear that Milosevic believes ``this tribunal is incapable of giving him a fair trial,'' said Kay. ``Pressure on this tribunal from external sources makes the whole culture of the tribunal unfair and biased against him,'' argued Kay.

An example of partiality, Kay said, was the court's order forbidding Milosevic from giving media interviews, while the prosecution faces no such restriction.

Though Milosevic has reportedly refused to cooperate with the lawyers arguing on his behalf, he sat quietly and listened intently to their arguments. Milosevic's refusal to hire an attorney led to the appointment of the friends of the court.

The tribunal, established in 1993 to bring to justice those responsible for atrocities in the Balkans , has indicted more than 100 individuals. Sixty-one have appeared before the court while thirty-one are still at large.