NEWSMAKER-Seselj 'ready to die' in name of Serbia
06 Dec 2006 17:41:52 GMT06 Dec 2006 17:41:52 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Reuters
By Ellie Tzortzi
BELGRADE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Firebrand Serb nationalist Vojislav Seselj says he is determined to take his defiance of the Hague war crimes tribunal to the bitter end by starving himself to death in detention....
The bespectacled, burly former politics lecturer has been an explosive figure in Serbian politics for over two decades.
He served two years in prison for anti-communist dissident activities in old socialist Yugoslavia in the 1980s, and went on hunger strike for 48 days.
In 1990 he was jailed twice, for organising volunteers to go fight with the rebel Serb minority in Croatia, and for selling books on the Chetniks, a World War Two Serb resistance group.
A prolific author of among others "The ideology of Serbian nationalism" and "Devil's apprentice: the criminal Roman Pope John Paul II", Seselj is known for passionate speeches, a short temper and aphorisms such as threatening Serb enemies he would "gouge out their eyes with rusty spoons".
He once brandished a gun threateningly outside Serbia's parliament, and spat on the speaker. He was expelled from Montenegro in 1994 for insulting its government, and had to be physically carried onto the plane back to Belgrade.
Seselj was close to the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. Before Milosevic's death in detention at the Hague this March, the two men were frequent chess partners, and consulted each other on how to conduct their defence.
VOLUNTARY SURRENDER
Seselj voluntarily flew to the United Nations tribunal in 2003 to face charges of war crimes during the 1990s Balkan wars....
He stopped eating on Nov. 10 after the court assigned him a defence lawyer against his wishes. He has taken only water since and is now wasting away, confined to his prison bed.
At the weekend, he issued an edict to his Radical party in the form of a "last will and testament", ordering it to uphold the dream of "Greater Serbia" on Bosnian and Croatian land.
"I demand that you never give up our strong national ideology, and fight for the union of all Serb lands," he wrote.
"You should continue to vehemently oppose globalisation and all attempts to bring Serbia into NATO and the European Union, because all of Serbia's traditional enemies are gathered there."
His party, which bases its campaign for January elections on Seselj's plight, has said its leader would either beat the tribunal and defend himself, or fast to death.
Seselj later said he wanted no more visits, from friends or doctors, and was determined to fast to death in prison unless his demand to represent himself in court was recognised.
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