0:00:00 > 0:00:02Now on BBC News it's time for HARDtalk.
0:00:07 > 0:00:12Slobdan Milosevic is in The Hague, facing the most serious charge
0:00:12 > 0:00:14on the planet, genocide.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Here in Belgrade, his wife protests his innocence.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Who does she think was responsible for the thousands of forced
0:00:21 > 0:00:24deportations and the mass murders, and does she expect her husband one
0:00:24 > 0:00:27day to come home?
0:00:31 > 0:00:35Mira Markovic, welcome to the programme.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38When you saw your husband recently, in the Hague,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41and you celebrated his birthday, did you tell him that everything
0:00:41 > 0:00:45was going to be OK in the end?
0:00:47 > 0:00:48What did you tell him?
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Has he accepted his fate?
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Whatever the international criminal court decides it to be,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05will he accept it?
0:01:34 > 0:01:37But he is going to be tried by the tribunal, isn't he?
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Whatever public opinion has to say about it.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56But you would accept that the court has been set up with the authority
0:01:56 > 0:01:59of the UN Security Council, and your husband accepted that under
0:01:59 > 0:02:01the Dayton Agreement, which he signed in 1995.
0:02:02 > 0:02:03Why does he now say that the court is illegal?
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Mrs Markovic, why is that a lie?
0:02:29 > 0:02:33What he actually signed up to, which is in the Dayton Agreement,
0:02:33 > 0:02:40is that the parties agreed to co-operate fully with all
0:02:40 > 0:02:43entities, including those authorised by the UN Security Council,
0:02:43 > 0:02:45in investigating and prosecuting war crimes and other violations
0:02:45 > 0:02:46of international humanitarian law.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48He signed a document which included that provision.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52So why is the court, I ask you, illegal?
0:02:54 > 0:02:56I am puzzled by your answers.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15I am puzzled by your answers.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29I understood that you wanted to do this interview and you wished
0:03:29 > 0:03:32to reply to the questions that we, in the name of the BBC,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35are putting towards you, am I not right in that understanding?
0:04:02 > 0:04:08Can we go back to the time in March, when your husband was arrested.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12How worried were you for his safety when he was arrested?
0:05:15 > 0:05:19He had a gun with him at the time, were you afraid that he would use
0:05:19 > 0:05:20it on himself?
0:05:25 > 0:05:28And he's quoted as saying things like, "You will think differently
0:05:28 > 0:05:30of me after I'm gone".
0:05:30 > 0:05:32There was no danger that he was going to commit suicide?
0:05:39 > 0:05:42How much did you influence your husband politically?
0:05:52 > 0:05:56Dusan Mitevic said that you were the one with ambition,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59you inspired him, he only wanted to be great in your eyes,
0:05:59 > 0:06:00is that true?
0:06:01 > 0:06:04It's not true at all?
0:06:11 > 0:06:15No, but these are friends.
0:06:24 > 0:06:30General Stefan Markovic, he said that you write the speeches,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34and that your husband memorises and repeats them.
0:06:34 > 0:06:35Is that true or not?
0:06:41 > 0:06:45Let me ask you about a quote that was attributed
0:06:45 > 0:06:49to you in the magazine Globus, saying you were angry
0:06:50 > 0:06:52with your husband at the elections - he should have asked
0:06:53 > 0:06:53for guarantees of safety.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56Slobodan didn't ask for anything, it seems.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Did you say that, were you angry with him that he didn't ask
0:06:59 > 0:07:02for guarantees after the election?
0:07:02 > 0:07:04This is a quote in Globus magazine, attributed to you.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20So you don't recognise any of these statements at all?
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Tell me, Mrs Markovic, was your husband under
0:07:40 > 0:07:44the impression that he had made a deal with Richard Holbrooke,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46he would not be prosecuted by the international tribunal?
0:08:45 > 0:08:56And he never shared his impressions of any of these statesmen with you?
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Not even when he met Clinton, at the signing of the Dayton
0:09:00 > 0:09:01Agreement?
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Did he always believe that it was possible to make a deal
0:09:14 > 0:09:19with western countries, and avoid the bombing of Yugoslavia?
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Not his policy of having a greater Serbia at any cost,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30which is what the west says about him?
0:10:33 > 0:10:35That is how his policy was seen in the West, wasn't it?
0:10:45 > 0:10:47But he started off by supporting Radovan Karadzic
0:10:47 > 0:10:49and Ratko Mladic, didn't he?
0:10:49 > 0:10:51He supported them and he helped them with funds.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55He has admitted to that.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12So why did he fall out with Karadzic and Mladic?
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Why did he stop supporting them?
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Mrs Markovic, what do you say to those people who don't
0:11:29 > 0:11:33accept your truth?
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Who look at the trail of blood across the Balkans over the last few
0:11:36 > 0:11:39years, look at the mass murders, the forced deportations,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41the rape, the torture and don't believe you,
0:11:41 > 0:11:47what do you say to those people who don't believe you?
0:12:10 > 0:12:13The West is responsible for all the bodies, Mrs Markovic -
0:12:13 > 0:12:15no, isn't the west responsible?
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Mrs Markovic, don't you accept any responsibility?
0:12:37 > 0:12:38Mrs Markovic, don't you accept any responsibility?
0:13:05 > 0:13:07So the west is responsible for the mass graves,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10the the west is responsible for the places of internment
0:13:10 > 0:13:12and torture, the west is responsible for the rape,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15the west is responsible for the forced deportations of tens
0:13:15 > 0:13:22of thousands of people across the Balkans?
0:13:22 > 0:13:25People are not going to believe you, Mrs Markovic.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26People are not going to believe you.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29They have seen the pictures.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31They have seen the forced deportations of people,
0:13:31 > 0:13:40for the first time since the Second World War.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Didn't those pictures touch you, as a human being?
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Did they touch you?
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Serbian investigators themselves are talking about the discovery
0:14:28 > 0:14:31of more than a thousand bodies shipped to Serbia in refrigerated
0:14:31 > 0:14:32trucks, from Kosovo.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38These are not bodies that go back a long way.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40These are fresh bodies, victims of the war in Kosovo,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43whose existence was meant to be covered up.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45These are being investigated now, by Serbian investigators.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48So why are mass graves turning up in Batajnica,
0:14:48 > 0:14:55a suburb of Belgrade, of Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia?
0:15:21 > 0:15:24If this is all manufactured, why are these graves
0:15:24 > 0:15:26turning up here now?
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Mrs Milosevic, these are vital questions.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Even the President says he is ashamed of some of the things
0:15:58 > 0:16:02that Serbs have done.
0:16:02 > 0:16:08You don't share his shame?
0:17:03 > 0:17:03Your husband...
0:17:03 > 0:17:15Mrs Markovic...
0:17:15 > 0:17:18Your husband, Mrs Milosevic, faces some of the most serious
0:17:18 > 0:17:20charges on the planet, the charges of genocide.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Why are there no members of the United Nations
0:17:23 > 0:17:26who are protesting at these charges, no members of the Security Council,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28Russia is not protesting, nobody is protesting
0:17:28 > 0:17:30that he is held illegally?
0:17:30 > 0:17:32Only you and your husband.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Why is that?
0:17:51 > 0:17:53The Serbian Prime Minister, Mrs Markovic, says that you too
0:17:54 > 0:17:57are under investigation, and it is possible that you may be
0:17:57 > 0:17:59arrested at some point.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01What would you say to that?
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Some people are suggesting that instead of denying everything,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26history would look more kindly on your husband if he was to accept
0:18:26 > 0:18:29some responsibility for the trail of blood that started
0:18:29 > 0:18:31across the Balkans, the trail of blood that left hundreds
0:18:31 > 0:18:34of thousands of people without their homes, left people
0:18:34 > 0:18:37raped and tortured and murdered, that history would look more kindly,
0:18:37 > 0:18:57if he accepted at least some responsibility for that.
0:18:57 > 0:18:58What would you say to those people?
0:19:55 > 0:20:00You think he'll prove his innocence at the Hague?
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Do you not also realise that he is regarded as evil by many,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50many people around the world, who blame him for the trail of blood
0:20:50 > 0:20:51that led across the Balkans?
0:20:51 > 0:20:59Are you not aware of that?
0:20:59 > 0:21:02People who have seen the pictures of the forced deportations,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04of the mass murders and the rapes.
0:21:04 > 0:21:12These people are not going to believe what you say.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Do you believe he will come home from the Hague one day?
0:21:39 > 0:21:40Why not?
0:22:05 > 0:22:05Thank you very much indeed for being with us on the programme.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20No, I'm asking questions that are of interest to the public.
0:23:26 > 0:23:27Hello there.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Good morning.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33We saw some big contrast across the UK on Sunday.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37The southern half of the UK has seen some cloud and some rain.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40This is the view from one of our Weather Watchers