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Milosevic Meets With Wife In Jail
THE HAGUE, July 19 (News Agencies) - Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mira Markovic discussed "many, many things" during their visit of almost six hours in the prison of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague "but nothing very special", a lawyer accompanying Markovic told AFP Thursday.
"They have two kids, they have a grandson, they have big families both of them," Dragoslav Ognjanovic said. "They didn't see each other for a very, very long time."
The couple also talked about the conditions in the detention center of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) where Milosevic is being held on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1998-99 Serbian crackdown on ethnic Muslim Albanians in Kosovo.
Markovic is widely regarded as her husband's most important political adviser. Unconfirmed reports have said that Milosevic's strategy of refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the court was her idea.
At his initial appearance before the tribunal three weeks ago, the former Yugoslav hardliner refused legal representation, maintaining that the U.N. court was biased against his country and was controlled by the United States and its NATO allies.
Ognjanovic insisted however that Markovic did not discuss legal strategy with her husband. "They didn't talk about it," he said.
Milosevic has been very firm in his position and "I don't think she's going to change his mind", the lawyer added.
Milosevic's wife stepped off a scheduled flight from Belgrade at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Thursday morning and was whisked away in a black BMW under military police escort.
The car, with tinted windows, drove through the gates of the U.N. detention center one hour later at around 11pm (0900 GMT). The tribunal has refused to give any details of her itinerary, calling it "a private matter".
Markovic left the jail around 5 pm (1500 GMT). It was the couple's first time together since Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to face trial on June 28th.
The couple did not have any private moments. "There was always somebody present during the meeting," Ognjanovic said.
According to tribunal rules, all visits to the prison must take place "within the sight of the staff" of the complex "save in exceptional circumstances" such as conjugal visits in the so-called family room.
The former president has been kept separate from the other detainees since his arrival in The Hague and is kept under constant surveillance to avoid possible suicide attempts. Both his parents took their own lives.
Under prison rules, Markovic can visit with Milosevic from 9 am to 4.45 pm, tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told AFP. She was given a three-day visa for the Netherlands on Monday, under strict conditions.
Milosevic's immediate family is banned from traveling to EU countries under a sanctions regime targeting the allies of the former president.
Markovic will see her husband again Friday, possibly in the company of Ognjanovic, who is waiting for permission from the tribunal to see the former president.
Ognjanovic was a lawyer for Milosevic before the Belgrade district court, but said he did not know if he or one of his colleagues would represent him before the ICTY. "I honestly don't know," he said.
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