Defender of "Balkan Napoleon"

News that General Ratko Mladic hired the Athens lawyer Akexandros Likuzeros has attracted the due but hardly serious attention of the domestic public.

In Greece, Mladic enjoys a reputation of a military leader, and, as of recently, of a "Balkan Napoleon". The Greek lawyer's move is nevertheless above all viewed as adventuresome.

Alexandors Likuzeros, the sixty-year-old idol of young lawyers (as a poll conducted at the Athens College of Law several years ago showed), is married to an actress, his picture is frequently in the newspapers, he enjoys a rich social life in Athenian salons, has connections with the former royal family... His successful defense of hopeless cases has been linked by the Athenian legal grapevine mostly to his good social contacts. In blitz interviews to the Athenian daily Ta Nea, Likuzeros claims that his attraction to the courtrooms is more based on "enjoyment" than on glory and money.

Likuzeros is famous also for his involvement in the protection of the Orthodox population, be they Greeks in Albania or Serbs in Bosnia. He is a member of the leadership of one of the numerous organizations of so-called North Epirotes in Greece, a term which "nationally sensitive Greeks" and the official Greek state use for the territory in southern Albania populated mostly by ethnic Greeks.

Mladic will not be Likuzeros' first foreign client; the famous Athenian lawyer specializing in the Criminal Code began his career by defending a foreigner, American M. Runney accused of killing two Greek seamen whose bodies were never found.

Likurezos' international experience in Greek courts hardly qualifies him to defend a general accused of war crimes. "I hope it will never come to me actually saying something to the judges", says Likuzeros, alluding to the fact that "neither Mladic nor the other leaders accused of war crimes recognize the International Tribunal in the Hague".

However, he came back from Bosnia with authorization to represent Ratko Mladic, which, he believes, "is confirmation of Greek-Serbian friendship". "Great responsibility and a difficult job" is in question, but still "a challenging and interesting" one and it represents an "exciting prospect". He will go to the Hague "as a professional and a friend of the Serbs", without no doubt in the innocence of the "warrior to whom the international media have done a lot of injustice". The second authorization, the facsimile of which the Greek media have been publishing (in fragments, without dates or signatures), has drawn much less attention, although it is coupled with the first one, judging by everything. "On behalf of the General Headquarters, I authorize Mr. Alexandros Likuzeros to gather humanitarian and financial aid necessary for the defence and salvation of the Serbian people of the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Republic of Serbian Krajina", says the facsimile. Likuzeros has already acted accordingly: he opened an account in a bank, was promised by large major companies they would provide aid and appealed to the Greek people to help, too. Greeks have been sending aid over the past few years through various channels - private, church, trade union ones or through various associations. The media has mostly concentrated on the Society of Greek -Serbian Friendship, which expounds its interpretation of the truth in Bosnia and Krajina at news conferences. However, both domestic and foreign journalists have in vain tried to find out how big the last relief shipment was, where it went exactly, who received it... The Society's founder and ex-Chairman, doctor Aris Musionis was the "liaison" that "secured" reception for two Greek Ministers in Pale in early May, when they went to release the UNPROFOR troops held hostage by the Bosnian Serbs. "What can we do, Karadzic insisted", says an official in the Greek Foreign Ministry to the question: Didn't you have any other channel? Be what may, Musionis sat in an unspecified capacity beside the Greek delegation, which no longer hides it went to Pale to win another diplomatic point which Milosevic had already lain claim to. Simultaneously, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias cited a number of times his contacts in Athens with "Radovan Karadzic's representative" but failed to name them. Musionis appeared last week as a mediator between Mladic and Likuzeros but also as the bearer of Mladic's third authorization - to organize the arrival of Greek doctors-volunteers. As Likuzeros said, he met the General on 24 June through his "friend Aris Musionis, who is continuously in contact with the Serbian leadership". At the two men's second meeting in Bosnia some six weeks later, Likuzeros was given two authorizations by Mladic. As soon as they returned to Athens, the two Greeks called a news conference on the following topic: "Defense of General Mladic and Humanitarian Aid Activities".

We are surprised by the initiative and the connection, the conservative daily Katimerini commented. "So? General Mladic's defense is placed in the framework of humanitarian aid? Let's be serious toward human misery."