TATEMENT BY Professor VELKO VALKANOV,
FOUNDER AND COCHAIRMAN OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO DEFEND
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC (ICDSM)
***************************************
CAN T H E T R U T H B E K I L L E D ?
***************************************
To the Organization of the United Nations To the International Public
Yesterday the judges of the so-called International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia demonstrated in the clearest way that for them their political tasks and goals are much more important than truth, justice and law.
In the Pre-Defense Conference for Slobodan Milosevic's defense case, which is expected to start in July this year, they were stubbornly refusing to prolong the unjustly short three month period for the preparation of the defense case, in spite of the fact that physicians had forbid President Milosevic to work more than half that time. They have refused once again without discussion the request for President Milosevic's provisional release for medical treatment, recovery and appropriate preparations for the rest of the process. For presentation of the defense case, they have allocated 150 working days in spite of the fact that for its case the Prosecution had twice as much time. The judges kept the right for themselves to refuse any defense witness as irrelevant, even during his/her testimony. They have refused to discuss the demands of President Milosevic for issuing subpoenas for the leaders of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia and for issuing orders to the intelligence services of the leading NATO countries as well as to the state of Serbia and Montenegro to disclose the relevant documents, justifying their refusals with unacceptable procedural reasons. Ignoring totally the fact that Slobodan Milosevic with his seriously damaged health conducts his own defense while being in illegal detention and deprived of any adequate material, financial or time resources, the judges have imposed or tried to impose a whole series of proc edural restrictions and obstacles relating to the order of the defense witnesses and to the information that has to be submitted on the witnesses and on the content of their testimony. Particularly irritating was the way yesterday's proceedings were conducted by the presiding judge Patrick Robinson, who has been, in the same manner as his predecessor Richard May, switching off the microphone to President Milosevic and attempting to turn the debate on the presentation of the defense case into discussion between the judges, prosecution and friends of the court, without listening to the opinions of Slobodan Milosevic about the issues of his primary concern.
Only a day earlier, the newly elected member of the Trial Chamber, judge Ian Bonomy from Britain ruled with his vote to the detriment of Slobodan Milosevic in a situation where the opinions of the other two judges were in conflict on the issue of the acquittal for the charges of genocide.
By this act Ian Bonomy confirmed that in only two months he managed to become acquainted with a million pages of relevant material - an unbelievably disgraceful example of legal malfeasance.
The Hague tribunal is attempting to kill the truth.
Nobody in the World needs such a false court, except those in NATO who are responsible for the most serious crimes against peace, against Yugoslavia and against the Serbian people.
In this moment when the whole world is rising up against aggression and terror, but also against the associated manipulations of the law, and when the people of Serbia with more and more courage enter the battle for truth led by Slobodan Milosevic, the crime against truth, law and elementary human rights being perpetrated at The Hague, must be stopped now.
ICDSM and its national sections, today, in their statements and public actions, will intensify the struggle against the Hague crimes.
Fighters for truth and freedom for Slobodan Milosevic grow in number. Recently, the Parliaments of the Russian Federation and of the Republic of Belarus appeared with powerful declarations. The same was done by the World Peace Council. On the initiative of Canadian poet Robert Dickson, the most renown international artists - Harold Pinter, Peter Handke, Alexander Zinoviev, Rolf Becker, Valentin Rasputin, Dimitri Analis, Nikolai Petev and many others are signing the petition demanding that this crime, the last, desperate phase of the NATO war against Yugoslavia be stopped, in the interest of humanity and in the interest of peace.
The truth cannot be killed.
Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic!
Freedom for Serbia!
Sofia, 18 June 2004
***************************************************************
***************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
=================
ICDSM calls upon all its members and friends to react NOW in simmilar, other appropriate or more effective way!
***************************************************************
***************************************************************
******************************************************************
TRUTH
OR SLAVERY, HUMILIATION AND DESTRUCTION OF SERBIAN NATION
http://www.icdsm.org/battle.htm
THE DECISIVE BATTLE FOR TRUTH NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW!
******************************************************************
SLOBODA urgently needs your donation.
Please find the detailed instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association) http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM) http://www.icdsm-us.org/ (US section of ICDSM) http://www.icdsmireland.org/ (ICDSM Ireland) http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council) http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)
June 18, 2004
Can The Truth Be Killed in The Hague ?
NATO Head Says Alliance Credibility on Brink
| (Page 1 of 2) |  |
LONDON (Reuters) - NATO's international credibility is at stake as its members make grand political declarations but then fail to produce the troops needed to fulfil them, the alliance's head said Friday.
"NATO's political clout is directly related to its military competence," Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a conference, lamenting how he continually had to beg countries to honor their pledges.
"I don't mind taking out my begging bowl once in a while. But as a standard operating procedure, this is simply intolerable," he said.
De Hoop Scheffer cited the alliance's role in Afghanistan as a case in point.
Currently NATO has some 6,400 troops in the country, of which all but a handful are confined to Kabul.
NATO leaders have pledged to beef up the mission so it can operate more widely, but have since been dragging their heels on actually coming up with the necessary troops.
"Missions such as Afghanistan present wholly new challenges in terms of generating forces. We have never done anything quite like this before and it should be no surprise that there are challenges," de Hoop Scheffer said.
"Whenever we enter into a political commitment to undertake an operation, we must have a clear idea beforehand as to what forces we have available to honor this commitment," he added.
He said he hoped the NATO summit in Istanbul on June 28 and 29 would not only resolve the Afghan troop problem but also push forward necessary internal reforms to the alliance.
In his most hard-hitting speech to date, de Hoop Scheffer told the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London that NATO's role was in the throes of revolution.
No longer could it simply defend its borders, it had to look far further afield to spot emerging threats to peace and security and nip them in the bud.
The demand for NATO is likely to increase, not diminish, in the future," he said. "NATO will be called upon by the international community to be peacemaker, peacekeeper, and the provider of security and stability.
"If we are serious about the need to project stability in today's volatile security environment, we must continue to make sure that our means match our ambitions," he added.
The former Dutch foreign minister said NATO's force structure also had to be reformed to meet the challenges of the new era of global insecurity.
"We need more wide-bodied aircraft and fewer tanks. We need forces that are slimmer, tougher and faster; forces that reach further and can stay in the field longer but still punch hard."
He also advocated a review of the traditional way of funding in which countries finance their own troop contingents.
This meant that those with greater means were called on disproportionately more often than their less well equipped counterparts.
"So can we deliver? The simple answer to this question is that we must deliver," he said. "We must make sure that our means match our ambitions. There simply is no other choice."
New UN governor warns against neglecting Kosovo
SKOPJE, June 17 (Reuters) - Kosovo's newly appointed United Nations governor warned on Thursday that major powers must not neglect the province, which was the cause of NATO's first major military intervention five years ago. "There is a lot of attention these days on other priorities, like Iraq and Afghanistan, but turning our back on Kosovo at this stage would be a serious mistake," Soren Jessen-Petersen told a news conference in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. NATO allies bombed Serbia in 1999 to force its army out of Kosovo and end repression of its Albanian majority. In Albanian eyes, NATO intervention legitimised demands for independence. But the big powers have shied away from deciding to back it. The Danish diplomat and European Union envoy to Macedonia was named by the United Nations in New York on Wednesday as Kosovo's fifth U.N. governor, replacing Finnish diplomat Harri Holkeri who resigned last month citing ill health. Jessen-Petersen, who aims to take up the post in early August, is expected to play a key role in guiding the international community's decision on whether Kosovo becomes independent or formally remains part of Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo's "final status" is tied to a series of benchmarks of democracy and human rights set by the U.N., with a view to assessing progress in 2005. But impatience is growing among Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians and their political leaders. Unhappy with high unemployment and lack of economic growth, they say it is time for the U.N. to reduce its presence and start handing real power to local institutions. "The mission can be successful only if it starts transferring authority," Mimoza Kusari, spokeswoman for the Kosovo government, told Reuters in response to the appointment. Discontent with the lack of progress towards independence erupted in mid-March with fierce anti-Serb riots in which 19 people died and hundreds of homes were set ablaze. The U.N. has slowly been ceding responsibility for municipal and social affairs to Kosovo's interim authorities but it retains a veto over legislation adopted in parliament. Related...
[All Headline News - Yugoslavia News and Headlines]
Milosevic: I want Clinton, Blair and Schroeder at war crimes tribunal
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic wants to force former US president Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to testify in his war crimes trial.
The three were among nearly 1,400 witnesses the former Serbian leader said that he wanted to call in his defence case, to start on July 5.
United Nations judges at the Yugoslav tribunal at The Hague, in the Netherlands, did not immediately rule on the request, but asked for justification for the subpoenas.
“In effect, you are asking us to subpoena those persons. You will have to produce, in writing, reasons for the issuance by the chamber of that subpoena,” presiding judge Patrick Robinson said.
Milosevic said he would call the Western leaders to testify about the “war waged against Yugoslavia” and pressed for a quick decision. The three headed their governments during the period of Milosevic’s indictment in the 1990s.
“Clinton has to appear here. Schroeder, Blair, others, too,” Milosevic said at a procedural hearing yesterday, appearing energetic and characteristically defiant despite his frail health.
“The reasons for which Mr Clinton should appear here are quite clear. He decided upon many matters which had to do with Yugoslavia. He uttered a series of lies as a pretext to the bombing of Yugoslavia. He gave the orders,” Milosevic said.
Clinton was president during a 78-day Nato bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999 that forced Serbia to end its crackdown on the ethnic Albanian population of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.
The court set a four-hour limit for Milosevic’s opening defence statement and reaffirmed he would have 150 trial days to present his case. The judges said they would not limit the number of witnesses Milosevic called, as long as he remained within that time limit.
The court will consider his request that the court seek intelligence service documents from Britain, Germany and the United States.
Milosevic said he has 1,631 witnesses in mind and has presented the names of nearly 1,400 of them to the court. Among other names submitted to the court were long-time West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Wesley Clark, the former Nato commander.
“The most terrible accusations have been uttered here,” Milosevic told the court. “The most flagrant lies have been spoken here as well, and the only means to fight that is to present the truth.”
Wearing a black pinstripe suit and a bright red tie, Milosevic showed no sign of the ailments that have delayed the trial by months. The 61-year-old defendant has a weak heart and high blood pressure, and has repeatedly complained of fatigue and stress.
Milosevic is representing himself against 66 charges of war crimes filed by prosecutors, including genocide, during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
He has had nearly three months to prepare his defence since prosecutors completed their case in February. He is assisted by several Belgrade lawyers.
During the prosecution case which began in February 2002, nearly 300 witnesses were called and thousands of documents were presented into evidence.
The judges rejected Milosevic’s request for an extra month to interview witnesses.
On Wednesday, the three-judge tribunal dismissed a mid-trial motion filed by three independent lawyers to drop the genocide charges. The judges dismissed the argument by the lawyers, appointed by the court to ensure fairness, that the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the charges.
Gibson tops celebrity power list
Actor Mel Gibson has been named as the world's most powerful celebrity by US business magazine Forbes.
Mel Gibson is one of Hollywood's biggest earnersThe Passion of the Christ director earned $210m (£120m) in 2003 to take top spot in The Forbes Celebrity 100.
The 48-year-old eclipsed last year's winner Jennifer Aniston, who dropped to 17th position.
Harry Potter creator JK Rowling was ranked the sixth most powerful celebrity - rocketing up from 15th position last year.
The author has sold more than 250 million copies of her five Harry Potter books.
Forbes ranks people by combining earning power and public exposure - including magazine and newspaper articles, TV and radio appearances and web hits.
Other top-ranking Brits include The Rolling Stones whose mammoth tour and DVD sales boosted them by five places to number five.
England captain David Beckham's star status has propelled him from 56th place to 22nd, despite allegations of an affair and the relatively small US interest in soccer.
Editor-in-chief Steve Forbes said Beckham's move to Real Madrid had made him a bigger international star.
"Beckham has been getting more and more coverage in America and it shows that more sports stars and athletes are becoming global phenomenons."
Welsh-born actress Catherine Zeta Jones is at number 56, while her husband Michael Douglas does not even make the list.
But reality show stars the Osbourne family are also absent, despite peaking at number 12 last year.
Other high-profile stars who have fallen out of the top 100 include Jennifer Lopez and her former fiance Ben Affleck.
Mr Forbes said: "The list changes enormously each year.
"Mel Gibson wasn't even on it last year. But The Passion of the Christ has had a huge intake of money and will probably be a record by the time the residuals come in.
"Gibson has also received huge coverage, some of it controversial, from his film."
He said of Rowling's placing: "We've seen the latest Potter movie get off to a good start in the US. Everybody expects that her name will have legs on this list."
[BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]
Putin says Iraq planned US attack
Putin says Iraq planned US attackRussian President Vladimir Putin says that after the 9/11 attacks Moscow warned Washington that Saddam Hussein was planning attacks on the US.He said Russia's secret service had information on more than one occasion that Iraq was preparing acts of terror in the US and its facilities worldwide.
Mr Putin said he had no information the Iraqi ex-leader was behind any attacks.
It came a day after US President George W Bush insisted there had been links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
He disputed the preliminary findings of a US commission investigating the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York that found no "credible evidence" of a relationship between the two.
Surprise remarks
Speaking on a visit to Kazakhstan, Mr Putin said Russia had warned the US on several occasions that Iraq was planning "terrorist attacks" on its soil.
"After the events of 11 September 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services several times received such information and passed it on to their American colleagues," he told reporters.
He said the information received by Russian intelligence suggested Iraq was planning attacks in the United States, "and beyond its borders on American military and civilian targets".
But he said it did not change Russia's opposition to the war in Iraq.
"Despite that information... Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," he said.
He added: "It is one thing to have information that (Saddam) Hussein's regime was preparing acts of terrorism - we did have this information and we handed it over.
"But we did not have information that they were involved in any terrorist acts whatsoever and, after all, these are two different things."
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says Mr Putin's remarks are a surprise - considering his vocal opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.
But they will come as a relief to President Bush, following the bi-partisan commission's report saying it had found no credible evidence of a collaboration between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
[BBC News | Europe | World Edition]
Izbor za 18.jun
Milosevic "Trial" pre-defence conference summary (by Andy Wilcoxson)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg061704.htm
Annan slams war crime exemption
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3817279.stm
-----------------------------------------------
Yawn - Serbia goes to the polls yet again
http://www.bhhrg.org/LatestNews.asp?ArticleID=40
European elections confirm polarisation between the classes (by R. Sarti & F. Weston)
http://www.marxist.com/Europe/euroelections_2004.html
Joint Statement on the Situation of Internally Displaced and Refugee Minorities from Kosovo
http://news.serbianunity.net/bydate/2004/June_17/10.html?w=p
Cypriot 'semiotics' observed
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_5503620_17/06/2004_44031
Turkey's deep state (by Costas Iordanidis)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_5503367_17/06/2004_44026
EU: You kept your word, now it's our turn (by Mehmet Ali Birand)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/birand.htm
ICG: Moldova: Regional Tensions over Transdniestria
http://www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=2811
What Is a Nation? What Is a State? (by Richard Falk)
http://www.transnational.org/forum/meet/2004/Falk_Nation_MinorityRights.html
