Serb ultras say US, Hague killing their leader

BELGRADE, Dec 1 (Reuters) Serbia's ultranationalist Radical party has called for protests against the United States and the UN war crimes court, whom they accuse of seeking to kill their leader, now on hunger strike in prison at The Hague.

A full-page newspaper advertisement today showed a smiling Vojislav Seselj surrounded by his wife, four sons, daughter-in-law and grandson under the headline ''Stop the tyranny of The Hague''.

It accused the US of ''jeopardising Seselj's life''.

Seselj went on hunger strike 21 days ago and has reportedly lost 19 kilos (42 lb). The Radicals, Serbia's strongest party, have been campaigning for days for ''Seselj's rights in detention'' and now say he is close to death.

''They want to kill him because he is unbribable, honourable, and responsible to his people and the state. They want to kill him to try to destroy the Serbian Radical Party and take Kosovo away more easily,'' the advertisement said.

The ethnic Albanian majority in the breakaway province of Kosovo is demanding independence from Serbia, and have the sympathy of the West.

Last week the party aired a TV spot showing Seselj's wife and three younger sons waiting by the phone for a call from their father, one of them saying ''Daddy, I love you''.

This week they plastered Belgrade with posters calling people to a rally in front of the US embassy on Saturday.

The Radicals say the UN court is biased against Serbs and is acting upon US instructions. They reject accusations that their campaign aims to boost their ratings ahead of a January 21 general election.

Seselj, 52, stopped eating after the court decided to assign him a defence lawyer against his wishes. He was transferred to hospital for monitoring on Wednesday.

The court says doctors will intervene if needed, but Seselj himself has written to the court prohibiting any intervention.

The mercurial Radical leader surrendered to the Hague in 2003 to answer charges of war crimes against non-Serbs in the 1990s and plotting crimes with late President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in detention in March.

Seselj, who has pleaded not guilty, routinely disrupted pre-trial proceedings in recent months by insulting the judges and accusing assigned lawyers of being ''spies'' or ''paid actors posing as lawyers''.

As a parliamentarian, he was occasionally violent, ripping out microphone wires, throwing water in the face of an opponent, being dragged screaming from the assembly and firing a pistol on the steps of the building.

REUTERS PDM KN1837