Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is due to launch his much-delayed war crimes trial defence tomorrow. He is accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war in the Balkans in the 1990s. He has declined to enter a plea to the charges and not guilty pleas have been entered by the court.

The Bosnia indictment contains 29 counts, including two for the tribunal’s gravest charges of genocide and complicity in genocide. Milosevic is charged with extermination, persecution, murder, imprisonment, torture, deportation and inhumane acts against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The indictment includes 10 counts of crimes against humanity, eight counts of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and nine counts of violations of the laws or customs of war.

The Croatia indictment charges that between August 1991 and June 1992, Milosevic participated in the removal of the majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from about one third of the Republic of Croatia. During the campaign, which aimed to make this area part of a new Serb-dominated state, hundreds of Croat and other non-Serb civilians were killed, at least 170,000 were deported and thousands more imprisoned. It contains 10 counts of crimes against humanity and nine counts of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

The Kosovo indictment charges that from January to June 1999, Serbian forces, with Milosevic’s support, executed a campaign of terror and violence against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Milosevic is accused of complicity in the expulsion of about 800,000 Kosovo Albanians from the province. It charges Milosevic with four counts of crimes against humanity and one count of violations of the laws or customs of war.