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Milosevic – his gradual, prolonged and protracted murder
16.03.2006
Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/77338-Milosevic-0
Callous irresponsibility of the International Penal Court amounts to
wanton murder and a gradual and purposeful process of torture, which
eventually cost Slobodan Milosevic his life.
The International Penal Court at The Hague is in serious trouble,
having breached international law on the human rights of prisoners and
the legally afforded processes for sick persons in its control.
However, in today's world, where rules and conventions and agreements
and laws and charters can be broken capriciously, where any common
rules of decency from yesteryear are swept away by a clique of elitist
barons who pull the world's economic strings, what to expect?
What to expect from a "Court" whose chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte,
stated publicly that Slobodan Milosevic was guilty before the case had
even started? What to expect from a "Court" which held Slobodan
Milosevic in a state of illegal imprisonment after he had been
kidnapped against the laws of Serbia and Yugoslavia ?
What to expect from a "Court" which denied Slobodan Milosevic the
right to conditions and treatment which would have saved his life?
Denying him this right is tantamount to protracted torture and
eventually, murder.
The law
At the First UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of
Offenders, Annex 1A, Rule 22(2) it is stated that "Sick prisoners who
require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialised
institutions or to civil hospitals".
The case
Nico Varkevisser, the Vice President of the International Committee to
Defend Slobodan Milosevic, applied to the IPC for "the specialised
medical care he requires (and)…an additional adjournment for the
complete recovery of the defendant". This was on 5th November, 2002.
The reason was because Slobodan Milosevic was physically at risk,
suffering from chronic malignant hypertension and angina pectoris, as
pronounced by a council of medical experts, conditions made worse by
stress. The condition is so serious that untreated, 75% of patients
die within one year.
Yet what conditions did the IPC apportion to him?
He was forced to opt between taking a breath of fresh air or eating a
sandwich in the basement for nourishment;
The chief prosecutor had years to prepare her case, giving her an
unfair advantage since Mr. Milosevic had far less time to prepare and
present his defence even though the Statute of the Tribunal provides
for adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defence.
Mr. Milosevic was not apportioned these (she callously stuck over
100.000 pages of documents and 600 video cassettes before Milosevic
for him to defend himself);
Slobodan Milosevic was pursuing his fundamental right under the
International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights to defend
himself, yet the IPC did not give him equal conditions under fair
legal practice to do so;
The IPC Unit did not provide an adequate custodial setting for
Slobodan Milosevic to conduct his defence fairly and worse than this,
provided a stimulus for an increase in dangerous levels of stress,
since the conditions were not consistent with what would be reasonably
expected for an adequate defence at such a massive trial, at which he
was fighting alone against massive resources which he did not have and
which he was denied;
The IPC was aware of this since both Mr. Milosevic's personal
physician, Zdravko Mijailovic, MD, PhD and other medical experts had
warned the authorities as to the precarious and dangerous state of
health suffered by the defendant;
Mr. Milosevic was not allowed to travel to Russia for specialised
medical treatment which would have saved his life.
Mr. Milosevic's last message
Mr. Milosevic's last written message was delivered to the Russian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 8th March. It was a request for help.
In the letter he claims:
"I think that the persistence, with which the medical treatment in
Russia was denied, in the first place is motivated by the fear that
through careful examination it would be discovered, that there were
active, wilful steps taken, to destroy my health…"
"On January 12th (i.e. two months ago) an extremely strong drug was
found in my blood, which is used, as they themselves say, for the
treatment of tuberculosis and leprosy, although I never used any kind
of antibiotic during this five years that I'm in their prison".
Why did it take two months to report this? Why was it kept a secret?
Who treated Mr. Milosevic with this drug (which we now discover was to
counter the effects of his treatment)?
In his last letter, Mr. Milosevic spoke of "those who have an interest
to silence me".
Whether or not they managed to silence Mr. Milosevic depends on the
members of the international community, those who defend the state of
law, those who believe in justice and fairness and those who stand for
a world ruled by right and reason, not bullying, belligerence and the
bullet.
The death of Slobodan Milosevic was part of the cabal which has seen
criminal actions of state terrorism become the norm, along with a
callous disregard for common decency and human rights, based upon a
unilateralist Anglo-Saxon Alliance of self-righteousness and sheer
arrogance.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smo031506.htm
DEBUNKING THE CONSPIRACY THEORY: MILOSEVIC COULD NOT HAVE ESCAPED BY
GOING TO THE MEDICAL CENTER IN MOSCOW
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - March 15, 2006
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
On the occasion of Slobodan Milosevic's death, the Hague Tribunal and
the Western media have concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory in an
apparent effort to absolve the tribunal of responsibility.
According to this conspiracy theory, Milosevic secretly took a drug
called Rifampicin to block the effectiveness of his high blood
pressure medicine, which in turn created a fake medical condition that
he used to justify his request to go to Moscow under the pretext of
obtaining medical treatment, however obtaining medical treatment
wasn't Milosevic's real objective that was just a ruse so that he
could make his escape.
Dr. Donald Uges, a professor of clinical and forensic toxicology at
the University of Groningen, was the first to advance this theory in
the media. He told the New York Times "It's like a James Bond story",
and on that score he's absolutely correct it's exactly like a James
Bond story – it's fiction.
Dr. Uges told the New York Times: "There was one escape for Milosevic
out of prison, and that was to Moscow where his wife and son, and
friends were. He wanted to go to Moscow on a one-way trip."
Moscow was never an avenue of escape for Milosevic. On January 18th
the Russian Government gave the Hague Tribunal assurances that it
would guarantee "Milosevic's personal security during his time in
Russia and his return to The Hague within the timeframe specified by
the Tribunal." Milosevic would have been under armed-guard the whole
time he was in Russia. There was absolutely no chance that he could
escape by getting medical treatment Moscow.
Dr. Uges was all over the media, acting more like a politician than a
doctor, he told the Irish Times that Milosevic "took Rifampicin
himself, not for suicide, only for his trip to Moscow." Of course Dr.
Uges is a toxicologist, and not a mind reader. He can't possibly know
what was going on in Milosevic's thoughts, but he didn't let that get
in his way.
Rifampicin is odorless and tasteless, and as such could have been
mixed into Milosevic's food without his knowledge. He was administered
all of his medicine by guards at the prison dispensary. He took the
medicine that they gave him. The drug could have easily been added
into one of his medicine capsules.
Clearly, Dr. Uges can't know whether Milosevic took the drug knowingly
or not, but we can find a clue in the letter that Milosevic wrote to
the Russian Foreign Ministry on March 8th:
"I think that the persistence, with which the medical treatment in
Russia was denied, in the first place is motivated by the fear that
through careful examination it would be discovered, that there were
active, willful steps taken, to destroy my health, throughout the
proceedings of the trial, which could not be hidden from Russian
specialists."
"In order to verify my allegations, I'm presenting you a simple
example, which you can find in the attachment. This document, which I
received on March 7, shows that on January 12th (i.e. two months ago),
an extremely strong drug was found in my blood, which is used, as they
themselves say, for the treatment of tuberculosis and leprosy,
although I never used any kind of antibiotic during this 5 years that
I'm in their prison."
"Throughout this whole period, neither have I had any kind of
infectious illness (apart from flu)."
"Also the fact that doctors needed 2 months (to report to me), can't
have any other explanation than we are facing manipulation. In any
case, those who foist on me a drug against leprosy surely can't treat
my illness; likewise those from which I defended my country in times
of war and who have an interest to silence me."
In his interview with the New York Times Dr. Urges confirmed that
March 7th was indeed the day that Milosevic learned the drug had been
found in his blood.
Clearly, the detection of the drug is what motivated Milosevic to
write the letter. As the text of the letter makes plain Milosevic was
not knowingly taking the drug.
The letter raises some serious questions: Why did it take the
tribunal's medical staff two months to tell him that the drug had been
found in his blood? If they knew in January, then why wasn't an
investigation launched immediately to determine how the drug was
getting into his system? Why was this information concealed from him
for two months?
The conspiracy theory being advanced in the media by Dr. Uges and
certain "unnamed sources" at the Hague Tribunal just doesn't hold
water. The conspiracy would have to involve: Milosevic, the Russian
Government, the doctors at the Bakulev Medical Center in Moscow, the
person who was procuring the drug and sneaking it in to him, the
doctor who was advising him on how to take it, etc…. It's all just too
far-fetched to be true.
The fact that the tribunal is floating such a stupid story tells you
right off the bat that they're guilty as sin for Milosevic's death.
Milosevic had no motive to sabotage his own health. A trip to Moscow
for medical treatment would not have allowed him to escape. The
Russian Government guaranteed all the way back in January that it
would return him within the timetable set by the tribunal.
If Milosevic had been sabotaging his health he would have been running
the risk of handing his defense over to Mr. Kay. Anybody who followed
the trial proceedings knows that he would have never done that.
The trial was not going well for the prosecution. They had not
presented a stitch of evidence to show that he ordered or condoned the
commission of a single crime. The prosecution spent a great deal of
time trying to prove that crimes were committed, but they never made a
link between any of the alleged crimes and Milosevic.
At the end of the trial the judges were going to have to write a
judgment based on the evidence presented in court. Writing a credible
judgment convicting Milosevic on the evidence would have been
impossible, because the prosecution never managed to link him to a
crime.
The Milosevic trial was an embarrassment for a lot of very powerful
people, which is why the media very rarely covered the proceedings. He
was using the trial as a platform to expose the crimes committed in
Yugoslavia by various Western governments and political officials.
Milosevic had an extremely long list of enemies. A person would have
to be an fool to think that nobody wanted to kill him. It is a
well-known fact that MI6 was plotting his assassination in 1992.
It isn't hard to believe that one of his many enemies wanted to shut
him up so badly that they poisoned him. Maybe they didn't want to kill
him outright; maybe they just wanted him to be sick enough that Mr.
Kay could take over his defense.
At any rate, it's a lot easier to believe that a foreign intelligence
agency, or a corrupt tribunal official, was able to infiltrate one guy
into the prison who mixed the drug into Milosevic's food or into some
of his other medicines.
Whatever their intentions might have been, Milosevic is dead, and
those responsible must be held legally accountable. Clearly, Mr.
Robinson, Mr. Kwon, and Mr. Bonomy bear the most responsibility
because it was their decision that denied him the medical care he
urgently needed in Moscow.
The doctors who knew that the Rifampicin was in his blood, but didn't
tell him for two months must also be held accountable, and the prison
officials who allowed the drug to be smuggled into the prison must
also be held responsible. If nothing else they were negligent in their
duty to keep non-prescribed drugs out of the prison.
Serbian News Network - SNN
news@antic.org
http://www.antic.org/
Dutch television reports that forensic experts will examine the body at the Dutch Forensic Institute in The Hague on March 12. A Serb doctor despatched by the Serbian government will reportedly attend the autopsy.
The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague says that there are no indications that Milosevic committed suicide and believes that he died of natural causes. Milosevic suffered chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure.
However, Milosevic's lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, said that his client had feared that he might be poisoned, comments that will fuel speculation in Serbia and Montenegro about the death of the country's former president. The deputy head of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, Milorad Vucelic, has already blamed the tribunal for Milosevic's death, saying its decision to reject his request for treatment in Russia had killed him.
The Milosevic family has said it does not trust the UN tribunal to conduct the autopsy impartially.
Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she regretted Milosevic's death because she believed she would have won his conviction.
"I regret deeply what happened, first of all, because after more than three years of trials, we are reaching the end of the trials by the beginning of this summer, and I think that it is regrettable for all witnesses, for all survivors, for all victims, [who] are expecting justice, but we must expect now the result of the autopsy to see what is the cause of death," Del Ponte said.
Milosevic had been on trial since February 2002, defending himself against 66 counts of crimes, including genocide, in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He was the first sitting head of state ever to be indicted for such crimes.
Supporters in Milosevic's homeland declared his death a "huge loss," while citizens of Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo said his death brought some justice to his victims.
The European Union, which has been urging Serbia and Montenegro to do more to capture the fugitive wartime leaders of the Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, said that Milosevic's death does not relieve Serbia of its responsibility to continue to hand over war crimes suspects.
The U.S. administration called Milosevic "the principal figure responsible for the violent dismemberment of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, including the outbreak of two horrific wars in Bosnia and Kosovo," and said that it continues to support the work of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.
(compiled from news agencies)
