Milosevic death adds new "unknown" in EU equation

 

Milosevic death adds new "unknown" in EU equation
Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:21 AM ET

By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The death of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic adds a potentially dangerous new "unknown" into the European Union's complex ties with membership hopeful Serbia, analysts said on Monday.

EU officials are quietly relieved that the death of the war crimes indictee in a United Nations tribunal cell has not so far stirred up a wave of nationalist sentiment in Serbia that could turn popular opinion against the bloc.

But they recognize it could complicate efforts to get other indictees such as Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic to the Hague tribunal, and could harm efforts to convince Serbs that the EU seriously sees a future for them within the bloc.

"We are all hoping that this shows Serbia has moved on. But it is a bit of a dangerous situation given all the other factors," said Gergana Noutcheva at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

Noutcheva said Milosevic's death was a complicating factor at a time of high pressure for Belgrade, embroiled in talks on the status of the Kosovo province and facing a referendum in its state union partner Montenegro on possible independence.

Apart from a weekend vigil by 100 diehard and mostly elderly supporters at the Socialist Party office, there has been little outpouring of emotion for Milosevic, who led Serbia into war, poverty and international pariah status.

"The reaction has been mixed. We suspect it could be closed quite quickly. It could even be cathartic," said one EU official, saying Brussels hoped it would enable Serbs to turn the page more quickly on the Bosnian wars of the 1990s.

"We must hope Milosevic will be quietly forgotten," echoed Croatia's pro-EU daily Jutarnji List, fearing that Milosevic's death might stir up unwelcome memories in the region.

WORST-CASE SCENARIO

EU foreign ministers meeting in the Austrian city of Salzburg on Saturday insisted Milosevic's death did not alter their demand that Belgrade arrest and hand over Mladic by the end of this month or risk derailing talks on closer EU ties.

Many said Milosevic's death before the end of his trial had cheated the families of Bosnian war victims of the satisfaction of seeing justice done, making it more urgent to bring Mladic and wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to trial.

But some EU officials acknowledged that Milosevic's prison death could make Mladic -- believed to be enjoying protection from loyalists in the security services -- more reluctant to hand himself in to the very same tribunal.

News of Milosevic's death upstaged what the EU intended as a message of reassurance from Salzburg, confirming that EU entry was the "ultimate goal" for the states of the former Yugoslavia.

Noutcheva said the worst-case scenario would be nationalist politicians using Milosevic's death to drum up sentiment against the West and the EU.

While Mladic's transfer to the Hague remains vital for any progress on Serbia's ties with the EU, analysts say it is time for the bloc to give more encouragement.

"If this really is the decisive year for the Balkans, the carrots offered by the EU are extremely thin," said Aleksandar Mitic, an analyst on south-east Europe and the EU.

Mitic, who also works for Serbian state news agency Tanjug, said the Salzburg statement would disappoint many in Serbia with its insistence on the EU's ability to absorb future members as a proviso to further enlargement.

The European Stability Initiative think-tank agreed. "This (Salzburg meeting) was an opportunity to reassure the region that its European prospects are not slipping into the distant future. This opportunity was missed," it said in a report.

Financial help and promises to make it easier for Serbs to obtain visas to travel to the EU had had little impact on public opinion so far, Mitic added.

Noutcheva also said it was time for the EU to reach out to Serbs more, suggesting it was vital that preliminary talks on a so-called "stabilization and accession agreement" -- a key rung on the ladder to entry -- were concluded this year.

"That would be a big boost (for the pro-EU camp in Serbia) and it could be done," she said.

-- by Mark John, Reuters

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Milosevic's demise a death sentence to Hague Tribunal

15:34 | 13/ 03/ 2006

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Romanov.) - The death of Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, is a death sentence to the Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Milosevic was the main culprit for the prosecution team led by Carla del Ponte and it based its strategy accordingly.

They needed to pass a verdict of "guilty" on him to prove that he alone is to blame for the barbarous bombings of Serbia and to whitewash the Western "peacekeepers" in Kosovo, who had changed the pole of violence to its opposite. Before their deployment, Serbs were killing Kosovo Albanians; after it, the situation was reversed. And lastly, the West needed to put the blame on Milosevic so as to convince many Serbs that he is not a national hero but a ruthless dictator.

But the West and Carla del Ponte have lost this battle, which is not surprising. She used all of her cases for personal promotion rather than for the pursuit of truth. The whole of Western jurisdiction has lost a battle to one man. Opinions of Milosevic may differ, but he was a brilliant lawyer who spoke in court not as a defendant but as a prosecutor. Many of his arguments were more respectable than the words of Ms. del Ponte.

The Hague Tribunal has also suffered a moral defeat. Its reputation has been damaged by several suspected suicides and the death of the main defendant, who had asked for medical assistance many times. Moreover, all of the deceased were Serbs. The official cause of Milosevic's death has not been made public yet, but two of the aired possibilities sound as a death sentence.

If the version of poisoning is confirmed, it may be used as a reason for a serious investigation, especially because there was a motive. The trial had reached a blind alley, and quite a few people wanted Milosevic dead. The legal adviser of the deceased showed journalists a letter dated March 10, the day before Milosevic was found dead in his cell. In it the former Serbian leader claimed he was poisoned.

If the conclusion is a heart attack, the guilt of the Tribunal will be apparent. Milosevic regularly complained about feeling unwell and asked to be allowed to undergo medical treatment in Moscow.

Professor Dr. Leo Bokeria, chief cardiac surgeon of the Russian Health Ministry, who saw the medical case of Milosevic kept by the court medics, said it was confusing and the doctors' recommendations were not suited to the gravity of the defendant's disease. The Russian doctor said Milosevic had needed an emergency operation, and Russia was ready to perform it, though not because it loved the Serbian prisoner. Russia would have done it for humanitarian considerations and returned Milosevic to The Hague after a proper rehabilitation period.

The Tribunal rejected the offer and questioned the qualifications of Russian doctors and the intentions of the Russian government, thus publicly offending a permanent member of the UN Security Council. When Carla del Ponte was asked if she was sorry she had not allowed Milosevic to undergo medical treatment in Moscow, she replied: "Why should I be? There was a possibility that he would not return to The Hague for the trial. I have nothing to be sorry about."

Milosevic's conscience was not very clean, but the conscience of Western politics is not lilywhite either. There was a reason for putting Slobodan Milosevic on trial. But many Western officials should have been tried together with him for deliberately dismembering Yugoslavia and destroying and humiliating Serbs.

Likewise, Saddam Hussein should be tried together with those who launched the Iraqi war, used the prohibited chemical weapons to bomb Fallujah, kept prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely, and turned the Abu Ghraib prison into inquisition cells, just as Saddam Hussein had done in his time.

A fair court carefully analyzes all circumstances of a case before formulating the verdict and charges everyone who is to blame irrespective of political considerations and rank. Otherwise it is not a fair trial but a kangaroo court.

The Hague Tribunal has died as a court one can trust.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060313/44237921.html

Claims Of Poisoning Raise Stakes Of Milosevic Autopsy

 

Claims Of Poisoning Raise Stakes Of Milosevic Autopsy

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (file photo)

(epa)

PRAGUE, March 11, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- An autopsy has been ordered on former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called "butcher of the Balkans" being tried for war crimes, after he was found dead today in his prison cell. He was 64.

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)

Shortcut to: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/03/ca06a7c5-1d4b-4677-a125-cb1d6d32f5c2.html

Text of Milosevic Letter Sent to Russia

Text of Milosevic Letter Sent to Russia By The Associated Press ASSOCIATED PRESS

The text of a handwritten letter dated March 8, 2006, written by Slobodan Milosevic to Russia asking for its help. It was provided in an English translation by his lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic:

To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

With my acknowledgment for the solidarity and understanding which you expressed by accepting to receive me to come for medical treatment and by giving guarantees, I would like to inform you about the following:

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.

Dear Sirs, it is known to you that Russian physicians, who rank among the most respected physicians in the world, came to the conclusion that the examination and treatment of the vascular problems in my head are inevitable and urgent. I know very well that this is true, as I feel very bad.

I'm addressing you in expectation that you help me defend my health from the criminal activities in this institution, working under the sign of the U.N., and that I be enabled as soon as possible to get adequate treatment in your hospital, in whose physicians, as well as in Russia, I have absolute confidence.

Yours sincerely,

Slobodan Milosevic

Milosevic to be buried in Belgrade

 

 

Milosevic may be buried in Belgrade

The Associated Press

MONDAY, MARCH 13, 2006

Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Milosevic Can't Talk Anymore

 

Jeremy Scahill

 

http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/huffingtonpost/TheBlog?m=195

Slobodan Milosevic is characterized in the obituaries as the "Butcher of the Balkans." If that is the story you want to read about, please go to almost any other media outlet and read it again and again. Some are now suggesting that death is Milosevic's final revenge, that he "ended up cheating history" by dying before judgment was passed. But the world has already passed judgment on Milosevic and what is being cheated by his death is history itself.

What the corporate media overwhelmingly ignores in Milosevic's death is what they ignored in his life as well--his intimate knowledge of US war crimes in Yugoslavia. While Milosevic was undoubtedly a war criminal who deserved to be tried for his crimes, he was also the only man in the unique position of being able to expose and detail the full extent of the US role in the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In fact, that is precisely what he was fighting to do at his war crimes trial when he died.

Because of the rule of victors' justice in the ad hoc tribunal system (a poor and unfair substitute for a true international court), Milosevic's case would have been the only international trial to potentially expose the details of the illegal, US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia for 78 days in 1999. While the US-backed court consistently tried to limit Milosevic's right to speak, stripping him of his right to self-representation, Milosevic battled regularly to raise US war crimes. Sadly, with Milosevic will likely die the last hope the victims of these crimes in Yugoslavia had of getting their day (if it could even be called that) in court--a tragic and unjust reality to begin with--that speaks volumes about the twisted state of international justice.

Milosevic's cause, regardless of what one thinks of it, was a casualty of 9/11--an event that relegated him and his trial to the annals of history before it was even over. Most people in the world--with the exception of those in the Balkans where the proceedings were broadcast live, daily--probably didn't even know Milosevic was still on trial in the Hague. It became an obscure sideshow to the blood and gore unfolding constantly on the international stage.

Milosevic's death means that those who bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days beginning 7 years ago this month, killing thousands, will be, once and for all protected from any public scrutiny for their crimes. However opportunistic Milosevic may have been, he would have been one of the few people to appear at the Hague that could have--and would have--laid out these crimes in great detail. Now, there is almost certain to be no condemnation of the US bombing of Radio Television Serbia, killing 16 media workers, the cluster bombing of the Nis marketplace, shredding human beings into meat, the use of depleted uranium munitions and the targeting of petrochemical plants causing toxic and chemical waste to pour into the Danube River. There will be no condemnation of the bombing of Albanian refugees by the US or the deliberate targeting of a civilian passenger train or the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Milosevic also would have discussed how the US supports a regime in Kosovo that has systematically expelled Serbs, Romas and other ethnic minorities from their homes and burnt down scores of churches. He would have discussed the role of the US in funding and arming the Kosovo Liberation Army, which operates like a death squad and how the new prime minister of Kosovo, Agim Ceku, is a US-trained war criminal who gained infamy in both the Bosnian war and the 1999 Kosovo conflict. And Milosevic would have talked of the US interference in the Yugoslav elections in 2000 and the ultimate neoliberal takeover that was the aim of Clinton's sanctions and 78 days of bombing. In reality, it would have fallen on deaf ears, but it would have been stated for the record.

It is ironic that Milosevic's last legal battle was an attempt to compel his old friend turned nemesis Bill Clinton to testify at his trial. If successful, Milosevic would have grilled the man who was US president through the entire Yugoslav war in what would have been a fiery direct examination. Clinton and Milosevic were once pals who talked collective strategy in the 1990s. Milosevic had many damning stories to tell and, without a doubt, uncomfortable questions to ask Clinton. The judges in Milosevic's case clearly worked to keep those moments from ever happening and the US government made clear its forceful opposition to such subpoenas of US officials, even considering invading a country that would put a US official on trial. With or without Clinton, Milosevic's defense would have brought to light some serious documentation of US war crimes and he died, muzzled, before he really got started.

Little attention, therefore, has been paid to Milosevic's long-term efforts--which predated 9/11, the 1999 NATO bombing and his own trial--to expose the presence of al Qaeda in the Balkans--from Bosnia to Kosovo. With 9/11, Milosevic's talk of al Qaeda was easily dismissed as laughable, pathetic opportunism. But those who followed Milosevic's career and more importantly the events of the 1990s in Yugoslavia know it was none of those. Those allegations were based on true events the US does not want discussed in an international court. Following the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, many Mujahadeen eventually turned their sights on Yugoslavia where they went to fight alongside the Bosnian Muslims against the Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. Once again, the US and bin Laden were on the same team. To this day there are reports of training camps in Bosnia, which remains under occupation. It is also a likely training ground for future blowback.

In his opening statement, Milosevic alluded to some of the information he would introduce during his defense. "In 1998 when [Clinton envoy Richard] Holbrooke visited us in Belgrade, we told him the information we had at our disposal, that in Northern Albania the KLA is being aided by Osama bin Laden, that he was arming, training, and preparing the members of this terrorist organisation in Albania. However, they decided to cooperate with the KLA and indirectly, therefore, with bin Laden, although before that he had bombed the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania [and] had already declared war." Milosevic concluded that "one day all this will have to come to light, these links."

That, however, is unlikely and more so now that Milosevic is dead.

To be sure, there will never be indictments of these US war criminals at the Hague: Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Jamie Rubin, William Cohen, Sandy Berger, Richard Holbrooke and Wesley Clark. For many of Serbia's victims of US war crimes, Milosevic's trial was a "Hail Mary" pass, as awful of an historical irony as that is, aimed at someone recognizing their forgotten suffering.

It is a sad testimony to the state of international jurisprudence that after many attempts to find justice, the only hope for US victims in the Yugoslavia wars was the trial defense of a man many of those same victims despised. If there was an independent international court that was recognized and respected by the US, those responsible for bombing Yugoslavia would have been alongside Slobodan Milosevic in the docks these past years instead of having their responsibility being buried with him.

Related...

H.E. JAMES BISSETT ON HIS LAST MEETING

To be published in the Voice of Canadian Serbs:

H.E. JAMES BISSETT ON HIS LAST MEETING
WITH THE FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODNA MILOSEVIC

March 11, 2006 - Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic has died in captivity, in his cell in The Hague on March 11.  H.E. James Bissett, former Canada's Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1992, took the stand at the ICTY in The Hague, on February 23 - 24, as a defense witness in the trial of the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.
Bissett was the last high-ranking Western diplomat to meet and speak with president Milosevic. In his interview to CKCU's "Monday's Encounter", Bissett talks about his reaction to the news on Milosevic's death and about their last meeting.

"I was shocked and very sorry to hear the news on Milosevic's death," said Bissett. "It means that he will not be able to continue with his testimony and therefore the historical record that he would like very much to have set down during his trial will be incomplete. I am sorry that he died before he could get all the evidence out. Unfortunately now we are not going to hear the Milosevic's story. Anything that is said in his favor we don't hear about. The consequence of that we will only have the legacy that we hear today on BBC or through the Associated Press. The legacy that the US led NATO countries would like to have us believe was the legacy of the beast of the Balkans. We have had a news blackout on all of the evidence in his favor that has been disclosed at The Hague."

Bissett described the former Yugoslav president as quite relaxed and absorbed with his trial, when he last saw Milosevic at The Hague. .

"When I went to see him in the penitentiary in The Hague, said Bissett, "Milosevic was dressed very causally. When I walked into the open area of the prison he was mingling with other prisoners and they were joking and laughing. Actually Seselj was there. His wife and children were visiting him at this time. Milosevic broke away from that group and we carried out our interview in a private room. He was dressed in a simple white tee shirt covered by a plaid shirt, wearing soft slacks, a pair of slippers. He was perfectly relaxed and seemed to be in a good health. In fact during the visit a nurse came in to take his blood pressure. He took his blood pressure and it was 140 over 85. So there was no indication at the first meeting that he was suffering from ill health. He looked good. He had good color. He was relaxed. He had a sense of humor. He was obviously busy trying to prepare for my testimony and he struck me as being reasonable content with the way the trial was going. The following day, however, it was in the afternoon around five o'clock after 2 or 3 hours with him, he suddenly became flushed in the face and clasped his hands to his head. I was startled and asked if he was all right. He answered that he was O.K. and explained that he suffered from a loud ringing sound in his ears that seemed as though he was speaking into an empty pail. He told me that although his blood pressure was under control he had this constant ringing and echoing sounds in his head.
This was caused, he said, by a problem with an artery in his ear. He complained about it before to the Dutch doctors who simply said it was psychological. But after increasing demands they gave him a MRI test and found that indeed he was right there was a problem with the artery in his ear. Artery had a "loop' in it and to correct it  surgery would be necessary. That is why he wanted to go to Moscow to a clinic that specializes in this type of operation. But, as you probably know, the Tribunal refused to allow that," said Bissett.
 
Bissett added that Milosevic "seemed quite relaxed and absorbed with his trial. He told me that he never had to do any of his cocking in the prison or make his own bed or press his cloths because when he would come back from the Tribunal hearings all of that would have been done for him by his fellow prisoners. So it seemed to me that even in prison he commanded a good deal of respect from his fellow prisoners. He certainly did not seem to me in a depressed mood and was in full command in all of his facilities. He was working very hard to set the historical record down in such a way that he would not be made a scapegoat for everything that had gone wrong in the Balkans in the 90's," Bissett said.

Mr. Milosevic chose to defend himself because he did not recognize the authority of the Hague Tribunal.

"Milosevic never referred to judge Robinson as "Your Honor" he always referred to him as Mr. Robinson. His decision to defend himself was based on the fact that he did have legal training and was very intelligent man," said Bissett. "He felt that if he accepted a defense council in the form of a lawyer that he could not really get across the message that he wanted to convey without expressing it personally.  He knew his material. He has done a very good job of cross-examining the prosecution witnesses and destroying many of them who appeared before the Tribunal. He has discounted much of the case against him but the public hears none of this because there seems to be a deliberate news blackout on anything recorded before the Tribunal in his favor. On the other hand I believe it was probably a mistake for him to handle his own defense. He was a politician and not a lawyer and I think that in the court setting he might have been better to have had a first class criminal lawyer represent him. A lawyer who would know all the tricks of cross-examination and the experience of court procedures," opinioned Bissett.

"On the first day he asked me good and short questions, but in the second day, as the day went on, I could see that he was tiring. He was beginning to ask leading and quite long rambling questions. This irritated the judge and he cut him off very often. The Judges accused Milosevic of wasting time and of asking leading questions and not getting to the heart of the matter.'"
said Bissett.


Mr. Bissett met with former president Milosevic in Belgrade several times in his capacity as Ambassador of Canada to Yugoslavia from 1990  -1992. Bisset was of the opinion that Milosevic was a very intelligent and shrewd politician.

"I have described him as someone who was not interested in "Greater Serbia", Bissett continues. "That [the notion that Milosvic worked on creating "Greater Serbia"]  is a complete fantasy. He was not even particularly interested in the welfare of the Serbian people. He was a politician, an old apparatchik, and a communist party boss who had grown up during that period of Yugoslav history, when Tito was in power. He wanted to maintain his power, his prestige and his privileges for himself and his family. He was a very typical soviet- block, Eastern-European communist boss. The politics of those times were rough and not very democratic. There was lot of intrigue, a lot of back room maneuvering and a lot of corruption among the party faithful. Controlling the press and the media was taken for granted.
Milosevic was a product of his time and place. He was an opportunist but in my view certainly not a strong Serb nationalist- not as nearly as much as some of his political opponents. Not nearly as much as Vuk Draskovic was at that time. He was a communist apparatchik, making the reluctant and painful attempt at transition from a communist system to a more democratic form of socialism," said Bissett.

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic worked hand in hand with Holbrook, Albright and other Western politicians in brokering peace deals in the war torn former Yugoslav republics. Bissett believes that Milosevic had no desire to see Yugoslavia break apart and got caught up in circumstances.

"Once Slovenia seceded and Croatia started to break away and violence erupted, the federal army was sent in to try in put the rebellion down.
Milosevic who was the president of Serbia at the time was kind of caught in the middle. He did not have a control of the federal Army in those early days. He had some influence, but he had no control over it. It was a federal institution," said Bissett.  "The Army itself was very pro-Yugoslav and did not want to see Yugoslavia break up. It was the federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia who happened to be a Croatian who ordered the army into Slovenia and Croatia When the republics of Slovenia and Croatia did break away and Bosnia and Macedonia left the federation, Milosevic was left in the position as the leader of Serbia, of having to support the cause of the Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia. With the legacy that those people had experienced during the Second World War the genocide of the Serbs in Croatia particularly but also massacres of Serbs in Bosnia by Croat and Muslim fascist forces, Milosevic had no choice. In the final analysis, however, there are many Serbs who feel that Milosevic let them down and betrayed them," said Bissett.

Milosevic, right from the very beginning, was the key person in the former Yugoslavia who was striving for a peaceful solution to the problems there.

Bissett stated that "Milosevic fully supported the EU initiative to intervene to protect the Serbs in Croatia and to stop the fighting that was going on there. When Milan Babic, who committed suicide just couple a weeks ago, reneged on the agreement to let the EU in, Milosevic disowned him and published a front page article in Politika condemning Babic and in effect forcing him to sign the agreement permitting the EU forces to separate the two sides and to bring the fighting to an end in Croatia. Milosevic was key figure in the negotiation of Vance-Owen plan, the Vance - Stoltenberg plan, and finally the peace agreement at Dayton. Part of the reason for much of the confusion about Milosevic's role is because Holbrook and Americans refused to negotiate directly with the Bosnian or the Croatian Serbs. This forced Milosevic to be interlocutor for those Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
This has caused many people to the feel that it was Milosevic who started the war and was responsible for the actions of the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs," said Bissett.

Former Canada's Ambassador to Yugoslavia expressed his dissatisfaction with mainstream media and their reporting about the war in the Balkans.

"When you read Associated Press report on his [Milosevic's] death, it is full of factual errors," continued Bissett. "They say for example that Milosevic sent tanks into Slovenia to secure the borders. He did not. It was Croatian federal PM Ante Markovic, who ordered it. The AP said that Serbs in Croatia were encouraged by Milosevic to take up arms. That is absolute nonsense. He did everything to stop the Serbs in Croatia from fighting with the Croatian forces. The AP said Milosevic responded by sending the Yugoslav army to intervene in Croatia, which was not in accordance with the facts.
Some reports say that he took away Kosovo independence but of course Kosovo never was independent. Many of the media representatives no longer do any research nor do they bother checking the facts. Most of them simply repeat what was said in the past and assume it was true," Bissett said.

At the end the West betrayed Milosevic.

"Holbrook and Albright championed him as the man of peace in 1995,"
continues Bissett. "There was no indictment against Milosevic until the bombing started over Kosovo (in 1999). I do not believe there was any intent to indict Milosevic, Tudgman or Izetbegovic for crimes committed in Bosnia.
When the bombing of Yugoslavia started and public opinion in some of the European countries began to turn against the bombing. The people realized that the whole infrastructure of Yugoslavia was being destroyed. Cluster bombs were dropped over the market place in the city of Nis, cigarette and automobile factories were destroyed, the electrical grid was knocked out, TV stations and passenger trains were targeted, the bridges on the Danube blown down. Public opinion, especially in Germany, began to turn away from the NATO bombing. The leaders of the NATO countries were desperate in trying to find the means of getting the public support back. That was why they persuaded Louse Arbour, the chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal to suddenly indict Milosevic for genocide in Kosovo and then later for crimes in Bosnia. It was a convenient thing to do because who could blame NATO for the bombing a country whose leader was a war criminal," Bissett said.

There is a sense of relief in Molosevic's death at The Hague, "because the Tribunal was having a very hard time bringing forth any hard evidence to prove that there was genocide in Kosovo or that Milosevic entered into the criminal conspiracy with Karadzic and Boban to establish a "Greater Serbia, " said Bissett.  " Nevertheless they would have found him guilty of something you may be sure. He was under no illusion that the Tribunal would find him guilty but he wanted to put the facts on the historical record.
Unfortunately this is no longer possible and so it will be  NATO's interpretation of events that the world will have."
"Milosevic will leave a mixed legacy. A lot of Serbs feel that he was the cause of lot of their misery. Whether he made mistakes or not, the people who are paying for those mistakes are indeed the Serbian people," concluded Bissett.

Interviewer BOBA BOROJEVIC
E-mail: ckcuboba@yahoo.ca
=========

UN war crimes tribunal finds itself in dock over Milosevic death

UN war crimes tribunal finds itself in dock over Milosevic death

The UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia has found itself in the dock over the death of Slobodan Milosevic, coming under a barrage of criticism from his family and supporters.

But the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) rejected responsiblity for the former Yugoslav President's death, the fourth detainee to die in custody and the key figure in all the Balkan's conflicts.

"The Hague tribunal has killed my husband," Milosevic's wife Mirjana Markovic was quoted as saying by CNN from Moscow.

The court's judges denied in February a request from the 64-year-old Milosevic, who was suffering from high blood pressure and heart problems, to undergo medical treatment in Moscow.

Despite guarantees from the Russian government that Milosevic would return to stand trial, the judges said there was a risk he would flee and said they saw no reason why Russian doctors could not treat him in the Netherlands.

Milosevic's brother Borislav said the tribunal's judges bore "full responsibility" for his death, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

The ICTY "is totally discredited, judicially and morally," he said on Russian television.

Zdenko Tomanovic, a legal adviser of Milosevic, said the former Yugoslav president claimed to have been the target of an attempted poisoning.

"Mr Milosevic said there were attempts to poison him in the prison," he told journalists in The Hague.

The ICTY said Serbian experts were to participate in the autopsy Sunday, and Tomanovic said later that the court had approved a request from Milosevic's family for a Russian expert to be present as well.

The court denied it had any responsibility in his death and had neglected to give him adequate care.

"The tribunal has nothing to be blamed for," tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier told AFP.

"The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) takes the utmost care of its indictees and of (Milosevic) in particular," he said.

"We cannot be blamed for negligence."

Milosevic had repeatedly complained the tribunal was trying to kill him, saying the court's doctors did not take good care of him.

His mammoth trial on more than 60 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s Balkan wars had been interrupted over a dozen times since it started in February 2002 because Milosevic fell ill.

The ICTY had come under steady criticism for allowing the trial, in which Milosevic defended himself, to drag on for so long and analysts said his death was a huge blow for the court's other cases.

"According to the indictment, Milosevic held the key to all the conflicts in the Balkans," Ana Uzelac of watchdog organisation Impunity Watch, who followed the Milosevic trial closely, told AFP.

Milosevic's death followed an embarrassment earlier in the week when it was announced that former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic had committed suicide in the detention centre.

Two other detainees have died in custody: one committed suicide in 1998 and another died of natural causes.

Milosevic's supporters blamed the UN court for his death.

"He was systematically killed by all the years he spent in The Hague and this is a great loss for Serbia, the Serbian people and the Socialist Party of Serbia," said Ivica Dacic, the current leader of Milosevic's Socialist Party.

Serbian newspapers lashed out Sunday, blaming the tribunal for the "murder" of Milosevic.

"The Hague killed Milosevic," said the front pages of both Press and Glas Javnosti, against black backgrounds bearing large pictures of the former Serbian strongman.

"Murdered," said Kurir, another of the Balkan state's lurid dailies.

A senior Russian lawmaker called on the ICTY's judges to resign.

"Those who refused Milosevic permission to come here for treatment should resign," Lyobov Sliska, a leading figure in the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, and a deupty speaker of parliament, was quoted as saying by the Ria-Novosti news agency.

Copyright © 2006 AFP

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The Death of Slobodan Milosevic

Submitted by David Peterson on Sat, 2006-03-11 16:13.

   Today, Saturday 11 March 2006, Slobodan Milosevic was found lifeless on his bed in his cell at the United Nations Detention Unit in Scheveningen.
   The guard immediately alerted the Detention Unit Officer in command and the Medical Officer. The latter confirmed that Slobodan Milosevic was dead.

I would have posted more....But....Right now, the nature of what's available from the English-language news sources to which we all have ready access in this Internet age is so predictably biased and, indeed, systematically distorted (e.g., Reuters quotes the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to the effect that "Milosevic conceived and planned" everything), I'm afraid to touch it, without also putting on a pair of gloves before doing so.  Or a toxic waste disposal suit. 

Just to give you one example of what I mean: Milosevic's corpse can't be more than a few hours cold, and the American Senator, leading light of the Democratic Party, and ranking Minority Member of the Senate International Relations Committee, Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, already has taken to the American airwaves to recapitulate the statement he issued way back on June 28, 2001---the day when certain Belgrade officials shipped Milosevic to the same Scheveningen Detention Unit where he just died.

Said Biden then: "We are witnessing one of the most significant events in postwar European history, where a nation has voluntarily turned over to an international tribunal for trial one of the most dangerous and maniacal European leaders since Hitler."  Now.  Tack on the French Foreign Minister's line about Milosevic having "conceived and planned" everything, and we have a pretty good foretaste of tomorrow's headlines.

Over the next several days, be on the lookout for statesmen and commentators and above all professional victims whose point of view will be indistinguishable from that of the Office of the Prosecutor at the Tribunal where Milosevic just died.  Modern Hitler + Conceived and Planned Everything are the order of the day.  The purpose of such historical engineering and revisionism-before-the-fact---indeed, the most egregious reaches as far back as 1990-1991---it's always best to stake-out one's claim to the record as early as possible---is, and always has been, to use the West's institutional machinery to impose an account of the breakup of Yugoslavia that hews to these revealed Truths. 

As Michael P. Scharf, an American professor of international law and, as Michael Mandel tell us in his invaluable book, How America Gets Away With Murder (Pluto Press, 2004, p. 117ff), a "self-described 'insider' who was actively involved in the formulation of US war crimes policy, and who had a big hand in drafting the law governing the tribunal," wrote in the months following the U.S.-led war over Kosovo in 1999 ("Indicted For War Crimes, Then What?" Washington Post, Oct. 3, 1999):

From the beginning, the Security Council's motives in creating the tribunal were questionable. During the negotiations to establish the court--talks in which I participated on behalf of the U.S. government--it became clear that several of the Security Council's permanent members considered the tribunal a potential impediment to a negotiated peace settlement. Russia, in particular, worked behind the scenes to try to ensure that the tribunal would be no more than a Potemkin court.

The United States's motives were also less than pure. America's chief Balkans negotiator at the time, Richard Holbrooke, has acknowledged that the tribunal was widely perceived within the government as little more than a public relations device and as a potentially useful policy tool. The thinking in Washington was that even if only low-level perpetrators in the Balkans were tried, the tribunal's existence and its indictments would deflect criticism that the major powers did not do enough to halt the bloodshed there. Indictments also would serve to isolate offending leaders diplomatically, strengthen the hand of their domestic rivals and fortify the international political will to employ economic sanctions or use force. Indeed, while the United States and Britain initially thought an indictment of Milosevic might interfere with the prospects of peace, it later became a useful tool in their efforts to demonize the Serbian leader and maintain public support for NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia, which was still underway when the indictment was handed down.

Five years later, at the time Milosevic was scheduled (finally) to begin his defense, the master cynic returned to this theme ("Making A Spectacle of Himself," Michael P. Scharf, Washington Post, Aug. 29, 2004): 

In creating the Yugoslavia tribunal statute, the U.N. Security Council set three objectives: first, to educate the Serbian people, who were long misled by Milosevic's propaganda, about the acts of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his regime; second, to facilitate national reconciliation by pinning prime responsibility on Milosevic and other top leaders and disclosing the ways in which the Milosevic regime had induced ordinary Serbs to commit atrocities; and third, to promote political catharsis while enabling Serbia's newly elected leaders to distance themselves from the repressive policies of the past. [Trial Judge Richard] May's decision to allow Milosevic to represent himself has seriously undercut these aims.         

Confronted with material such as this, I'm afraid that we can but repeat the same response only so many times before turning blue in the face.  Either one reads a Michael Scharf and instinctively recoils from the shameless commitment to Big Lying.  Or one doesn't.  For every person who has recoiled over the past 15 years, a thousand have applauded.

With Milosevic's death, we lose the opportunity that his trial provided us to hijack the institutional machinery of the Tribunal in the faint hope of countering the historical-engineers and party-liners and cynics-without-peer who populate World-NATO like so many busy little bees.   

Decision on Assigned Counsel Request for Provisional Release (IT-02-54-T),  Judge Patrick Robinson, Presiding, ICTY, February 23, 2006 

"Slobodan Milosevic Found Dead in His Cell at the Detention Unit" (CC/MOW/1050ef), Press Release, ICTY, March 11, 2006
"Statement by the ICTY Prosecutor" (FH/OTP/1051e), Press Release, ICTY, March 11, 2006 
"Milosevic dies in jail: UN Tribunal," Nicola Leske, Reuters, March 11, 2006 

How America Gets Away With Murder: Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity, Michael Mandel (Pluto Press, 2004)
The New York Times on the Yugoslavia Tribunal: A Study in Total Propaganda Service, Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, ColdType, 2004 
"A Premature Death," George Kenney, ElectricPolitics.com, March 11, 2006

"The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic VI," ZNet, February 11, 2006
"The Death of Slobodan Milosevic," ZNet, March 11, 2006

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This was murder

Submitted by Dimitri Oram on Sat, 2006-03-11 19:06.

 The ICTY killed Milosevic, pure and simple. He suffered from high blood pressure and a heart condition. The ICTY refused to allow him to go to Russia for treatment despite his complaints of diziness and a roaring pressure in his ears recently. The ICTY pushed on at a breakneck pace and adopted tactics that would raise anyone's blood pressure. From the large number of outright liars and NATOcrats testifying for the prosecution to the endless documents given Milosevic at the last moment to the judges cutting off his microphone, placing arbitrary limits on his examinations and cross-examinations, the many outrageous restrictions placed on him and so much more the ICTY's ways would drive anyone crazy. I really believe most people in that position would have given up or gone much sooner. This death conveniently saves the ICTY the trouble of fabricating a guilty verdict which they had NO evidence for. None. Although the trial did see lots of evidence against NATO, the KLA, Croat and Bosniak forces, and even the various "democratic opposition" leaders and their paramilitaries(so beloved by the West and even the Left),
folks like Djindjic and Draskovic. 

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the Left didn't follow the trial

Submitted by Dimitri Oram on Sat, 2006-03-11 19:33.

The tragedy is that so few people followed the trial or understand what went on at all. Instead most leftists and activists continue to rely on and parrot the same grossly compromised, unreliable and hysterical sources that made the NATO bombing possible. Take for instance, the "ethnic cleansing" of kosovo. Ms. Prentice's testimony simply confirms once again that there was no Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Albanians. When will people accept that the Yugoslav government did not launch a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Albanians in Kosovo? Given not only the testimony of Prentice but also 1) The large exodus of Serbs, Roma and others from Kosovo during NATO's bombing campaign (pecentage wise more Serbs than Albanians left Kosovo) 2) the presence of tens of thousands of Albanians in Belgrade itself throughout the war and even today 3) the testimony of key defense witnesses and the exhibition of hundreds even thousands of documents to the effect that the VJ issued orders to respect international law and that there was a policy of punishing and prosecuting those soldiers who did commit war crimes 4)the glaring inconsistencies and outright lies exposed in the testimony of Albanian witnesses (indeed for so many prosecution witnesses quite regardless of ethnicity) for the ICTY prosecution 5) the testimony of both defense and prosecution witnesses including documentation that the KLA was planning to stage an exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo (and that the KLA and Albanians criminals were even engaging in massive pressure against fellow ethnic Albanians to force them to comply) 6) the outrageous campaign of lying, deception and pro-NATO bombing propaganda that the press engaged in and continues to engage in on nearly all matters concerning Yugoslavia 7) the fact that OSCE, German and British documents show no sign of a plan to ethnically cleanse Kosovo etc., given all that why (apart from ignorance, fear or indoctrination) do so many on the left (including some Znet contributors) continue to claim the FRY government launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovar Albanians? This has nothing to do with liking Milosevic or hating him. It's just a question of information and honesty.

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The "Left" Led the Cheers for the Trial

Submitted by David Peterson on Sat, 2006-03-11 22:11.

Dimitri:

As at least one of the principals behind the International Committee To Defend Slobodan Milosevic described Milosevic's death in custody today, the Tribunal's refusal to permit Milosevic to seek the medical care he had been requesting since last December at Moscow's Bakoulev Scientific Center for Cardiovascular Surgery was "tantamount to murder."  (About which, see "Decision on Assigned Counsel Request for Provisional Release," February 23, 2006.  "[T]he Chamber notes that the Accused is currently in the latter stages of a very lengthy trial, in which he is charged with many serious crimes, and at the end of which, if convicted, he may face the possibility of life imprisonment. In these circumstances, and notwithstanding the guarantees of the Russian Federation and the personal undertaking of the Accused, the Trial Chamber is not satisfied that the first prong of the test has been met—that is, that it is more likely than not that the Accused, if released, would return for the continuation of his trial" (par. 18).  So Milosevic didn't get to travel to Moscow for medical care.  And some 16 days later, he wound up dead.  The wreckage of the ICTY's prosecution of its star defendant notwithstanding, the ICTY outlives its star defendant.  With the ICTY's help.) 

I agree with your assessment overall ("The Left didn't follow the trial," March 11).  And not only didn't the Left follow the Milosevic trial.  Or even familiarize itself with the fundamental injustices of the entire ICTY apparatus.  But, disgracefully, the Left (if usage of the term has any merit at all) frequently led the cheers for ICTY-type injustices, having spent the past 15 years propagating accounts of the breakup of Yugoslavia that often read as if they had come straight from the Office of the Prosecutor's press kit.  

By the way, you mention "many on the left (including some Znet contributors)...." 

Pray tell: Which ZNet contributors do you have in mind?  

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Not the first ICTY death in custody either

Submitted by Dimitri Oram on Sat, 2006-03-11 22:19.

 Milosevic's death follows the recent and rather mysterious "suicide" of  former Republika Srpska Krajina leader Milan Babic. Neither of these were the first deaths in ICTY custody.   Milan Kovacevic and Djordje Djukic died after being denied medical treatment and Slavko Dokmanovic  also died in his cell, another alleged "suicide". All Serbs, all dead in ICTY custody. Then there are the various "indicted war criminals" and/or their "supporters" who were shot by NATO troops while "resisting arrest" (according to NATO troops and their spokesmen). As far as I know all Serbs also. That the ICTY has not been denounced by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and various other so-called human rights groups speaks volumes about the cooptation of such human rights groups and the role they play in legitimating various kinds of imperial violence (even while denouncing other kinds of imperial violence) and helping construct the official narrative.
 

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Deaths While in ICTY Custody

Submitted by David Peterson on Sun, 2006-03-12 00:22.

Dimitri:

At least according to Associated Press, here is an answer to your query ("Not the first ICTY death in custody either," March 11):

Associated Press Worldstream
March 11, 2006 Saturday 8:07 PM GMT
HEADLINE: 11 war crimes suspects indicted by U.N. tribunal have died
BYLINE: By The Associated Press
DATELINE: BELGRADE Serbia-Montenegro

Eleven war crimes suspects indicted by the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have died:

March 11, 2006: Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his bed at the U.N. prison near The Hague.

March 2006: Milan Babic, 50, a Croatian Serb convicted of war crimes during a Serb rebellion against Croatia's independence, was found dead in his prison cell after an apparent suicide.

May 2003: Momir Talic, a Bosnian Serb general charged with genocide, died at the age of 61, following his release from the U.N. detention facility after doctors diagnosed him with cancer.

March 2003: Mehmed Alagic, a Bosnian Muslim general indicted for war crimes against Serbs and Croats during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, died of a heart attack at home during a temporary release from the U.N. custody.

August 1998: Milan Kovacevic, a Bosnian Serb charged with crimes against humanity, died in the U.N. court's detention facility at the age of 57. His family claimed he was denied medical assistance and died painfully from a ruptured aorta.

June 1998: Slavko Dokmanovic, a Croatian Serb indicted for war crimes during the Croatian war, hanged himself in his cell at the U.N. detention facility.

April 1997: Djordje Djukic, Bosnian Serb general charged for his role in the shelling of Sarajevo, died shortly after being released from the U.N. detention center as terminally ill from pancreatic cancer.

Four other Serb war crimes suspects died before they were extradited to The Hague:

April 2002: Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Serbia's former police chief who served under Slobodan Milosevic, shot himself in the head in front of the parliament building in the capital, Belgrade, saying in a suicide note he did it because of his refusal to be handed to The Hague. The tribunal sought him for crimes during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict.

October 2000: Janko Janjic, a Bosnian Serb wanted for alleged rape during the Bosnian war, committed suicide and wounded four German soldiers with a hand grenade while resisting arrest by NATO troops in Bosnia.

January 1999: Dragan Gagovic, a Bosnian Serb accused of raping and torturing Muslim women, was shot to death by French NATO troops in eastern Bosnia while resisting arrest on war crimes charges.

July 1997: Simo Drljaca, a Bosnian Serb suspect, was killed by British commandos trying to arrest him.

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With Milosevic Dead, West Will Blame Serbians Collectively

http://regnum.ru/english/604047.html


Regnum (Russia)
March 12, 2006


Milosevic’s death “will let to preserve accusations against Serbians”


“Slobodan Milosevic’s death will cease the investigation of many episodes of ethnic clashes in the Balkans in the framework of the International Tribunal on former Yugoslavia, as the only accused in it was Milosevic,” prominent Serbian historian and columnist Miroslav Jovanovic.

According to Jovanovic, most charges against Milosevic had no solid evincive basis.

However, now, Serbia’s opponents can repeat these accusations once and again, and there will be no prosecution on these accusations.

By the way, as Jovanovic stressed, the accusations presented against Milosevic were mostly accusations against Serbians, and conviction of Milosevic were intended by many as conviction of Serbians as a whole.
....
Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his cell in prison of the International Tribunal on former Yugoslavia on March 11.
------------------------------------------------------
http://regnum.ru/english/604078.html


Regnum (Russia)
March 12, 2006


Milosevic wrote a letter to Russian foreign minister before death


Before his death, ex-President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic wrote a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

As Lenta.ru reports, legal assistant of the former Yugoslavian president Branko Rakic informed about it on March 11.

According to Rakic, on March 10, Milosevic sent a letter to Lavrov, in which he shared his concern that a campaign is held against his health.

“This last message of Milosevic was sent to Moscow, which demonstrates how strongly Milosevic believed in Russia and its officials,” says Branko Rakic.

According to the spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry Mikhail Kamynin, the ministry has received no letter yet.

Earlier, lawyer of the former Yugoslavian leader Zdenko Tomanovic announced that Milosevic could have been poisoned.

Milosevic was found dead in his cell of the Hague prison.

Milosevic suffered from high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems; however, he was not allowed to undergo medical treatment.

The reason of Slobodan Milosevic’s death has not been found.

George Kenney's comment on SM death

 

A Premature Death

For five hours in mid-August 2004, I met with Slobodan Milosevic in a cramped, improvised office, cluttered with papers and books, in a UN detention area within the huge Dutch prison at Scheveningen, a seaside suburb of the Hague. Outside, spotless townhouses provide normality; cyclists blithely cruise the flats past the prison's gates. Always known for posh mansions, a favorite of foreign diplomats, today Scheveningen's boardwalk and casinos are its big draws, elbowing aside the glittering sea.

I'd told you in the wrap-up of my March 9 podcast conversation with Linda Schade that I was standing by to return to the Hague imminently, to be a witness for the defense in Milosevic's trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). With his death this morning in his cell that's not going to happen. So here are a few ramblings:

Casual, somewhat rumpled, Milosevic talked more than I did, chain smoking the entire time. Since he'd battled indictments for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for over two years I'd expected a chastened, worn out man but found him full of vinegar, determined to turn the tables on the court. "I will ruin them!" he told me.

When Milosevic's team asked me to be a defense witness I was of two minds. On the one hand I figured he should probably be in jail in Serbia (and I told him so), on the other the prosecution at the ICTY had never been able to provide a 'smoking gun' implicating Milosevic in any particular crime. Indeed, the prosecution saw ordinary grounds for dismissal as a plus: it cleared away facts and gave the court a chance to convict on a theory of history, thereby fulfilling its informal mandate to legitimize Nato's interventions in Yugoslavia's collapse. The prosecution alleged Milosevic had 'command responsibility' in a 'joint criminal enterprise' to start a civil war, wreck the Yugoslav state, and create a 'greater Serbia' from the rubble. Conviction would have applied in principle to Serbia as a whole, making its policy stance during the civil war illegal after the fact.

At least up through 1995—whether we liked him or not—Milosevic had been an indispensable partner in negotiating a settlement and indeed was a signatory to the Dayton agreement that ended the war. Setting the later Kosovo indictments aside (which I was not in a position to testify about), to chase after Milosevic for pre-Dayton activities seems to me illogical and would, in some substantive way, make all the negotiating partners complicit in the alleged crimes. Moreover, if the ICTY wanted to go after Milosevic in such a manner then fairness dictates that leaders from the top echalons on all sides should be indicted for similar 'command responsibility' for identical crimes. They were not.

Milosevic asked me, "Why did the US and Nato do this to us?" He was genuinely puzzled. I have thought a lot about the "whys" and ventured that in post-Cold War Europe no place remained for a large, independent-minded, socialist state that resisted globalization. He'd had such ideas too, and fell silent, slowly nodding his head with a wry smile. "We were too good," he said, and after a pause, "and too independent." I offered one further insight: How could it be that western elites coalesced so early, so easily, upon a narrative for Yugoslavia's civil war so at variance with known facts, and so impermeable to correction? The elite's ability to get things wrong still does not speak clearly for itself. A predisposition existed, I told him, that ascribes infallibility to claims of genocide if they were repeated often and loudly enough. Milosevic slouched over, listening, staring at the desk. When I finished he shook his head, 'no.' Perish the thought he should have added to his troubles yet for me it remains a worthy question.

The ICTY's maximum penalty is a life sentence. We didn't talk about the difficulties of coping with prison but I sensed he walked a fine line. "I am not a nationalist," he explained, in a digression that took over an hour. Or, on the subject of why Serbia kept paying Serbs fighting outside Serbia, "It was natural," "an obligation," and only "a minor matter." As the trial moved forward the drama of those conflicting priorities only partially played out.

Ex post facto justice never makes sense. Milosevic may have been guilty of something—indeed, he probably was—but it wasn't genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Nor can any court determine the true history of a civil war, no matter its power. With such intellectual fallacies we make a poor exchange, replacing rational human relationships with arbitrary authority—something, in all its guises, genuinely to be feared.

The decent thing would have been to give Milosevic back to Serbia. The prudent thing now would be to pull the plug on the ICTY, before its tainted processes do permanent damage to our sense of justice.

Posted by George Kenney on March 11, 2006 08:56 AM

http://www.electricpolitics.com/2006/03/a_premature_death.html

PRAVDA: The Hague tries to conceal reasons of Slobodan Milosevic's death

 

Slobodan Milosevic found dead in his prison cell

The Hague tries to conceal reasons of Slobodan Milosevic's death 03/11/2006 [article] / Opinion / Columnists Mr. Milosevic was found lying dead on his bed by a guard at the IPC detention centre, where he was taken after being illegally kidnapped by NATO forces in 2001 and where upon arrival, his prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, declared he was guilty even before the trial had begun

More... / Discuss / E-mail

Slobodan Milosevic’s death in his prison cell triggers rumours of murder 03/11/2006 [article] / World / Europe For more than a decade as Yugoslavia broke to pieces, Slobodan Milosevic was more than just another political leader. He both voiced and moulded the rise of Serbian nationalism and used the Yugoslav national army to carve out a ‘Greater Serbia’.

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Kosovo: Where the West got it fundamentally wrong 03/06/2006 [article] / Opinion / Columnists As usual, the West is incapable of looking beyond its nose and as usual, as with the case of Iraq, the West has got it fundamentally wrong. If Kosovo gains independent status, what happens elsewhere and what will the effects of this be in South Ossetia, Chechnya, Daguestan, Ingushetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Abkhazia in the Caucasus? Or Republika Srpska and the Albanian enclaves throughout the Balkans in Greece, in Serbia, in Montenegro, in Macedonia?

 

http://english.pravda.ru/topic/Milosevic-58/

THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC�S DEATH

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg031106.htm

THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC’S DEATH
www.slobodan-milosevic.org

 March 11, 2006

Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

On several occasions prior to his death Milosevic, who suffered from high blood pressure and a heart condition, complained of severe headaches, intense pressure behind his eyes and ears, and ringing in his ears.

In late November 2005 doctors from the Bakulev Medical Center in Moscow traveled to The Hague and examined him. They determined that his condition could be treated, but only if they could administer treatment at their facility in Moscow.

On December 12, 2005 Milosevic asked the tribunal to allow him to receive medical treatment at the Bakulev Medical Center in Moscow.

The tribunal denied his request. They told him that the request was not made properly, and would not be considered unless they received guarantees that he would return to complete his trial.

On January 18, 2006 the Russian Government gave guarantees that Milosevic would be returned to The Hague to complete his trial if he were allowed to be given medical treatment in Moscow.

In spite of the guarantees of the Russian Government, and in spite of Milosevic’s own guarantee that he would return, on February 23, 2006 the trial chamber handed down a ruling denying Milosevic’s request to receive medical treatment in Moscow.

On February 24, 2006 Milosevic announced that he would appeal the tribunal’s decision.

Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to bring the issue before the appeals chamber. On March 11, 2006, Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his cell at the UN Detention Unit in The Hague.

Responsibility for President Milosevic’s death can most likely be attributed to Mr. Patrick Robinson, Mr. O-Gon Kwon, and Mr. Iain Bonomy. If they had they not prevented him from receiving the medical treatment he needed, then he would probably still be alive.

It was a generally known fact that Milosevic could die without proper medical treatment. In the February 24th trial report I warned that “Denying Milosevic the medical treatment he needs could kill him.â€

Reacting to the tribunal’s decision in a February 24th interview to the Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy Radio, Milosevic’s brother Borislav said, “I do not know whether or not they will poison him but I do not rule this out altogether. I do not rule out that he might be even secretly liquidated. As far as his medical treatment is concerned, their moves do not give any grounds to believe that he is being treated in a fair and humane way. Their decision is negative. Incidentally, as I see the reasons behind the decision, I believe that it is not just inhumane, it simply violates human rights. At issue is an ailing man, a man aged 65. Despite the immaculate validity of the various components of this appeal, of this request, they turned it down.â€

Kwon, Bonomy, and Robinson knew that denying Milosevic medical treatment could cost him his life. Armed with that knowledge, they made a conscious decision that denied him the opportunity to receive the medical treatment he needed -- and now he’s dead.

 

 

Milosevic's death casts shadow on war-crimes tribunal

Milosevic's death casts shadow on war-crimes tribunal

Dusan Stojanovic | Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro 



11 March 2006 06:32

The stock of Slobodan Milosevic had already been rising among Serbs who watched his feisty performances at his war-crimes trial at The Hague.

His death now makes him a martyr -- and brings into serious question Belgrade's future cooperation with the war-crimes tribunal.

A groundswell of emotion in Serbia for the fallen leader known in the West as the "Butcher of Belgrade" would create a political obstacle to handing former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, and five other fugitive suspects, over to the tribunal -- just weeks before the deadline for extradition.

Milosevic's death and the suicide last week in prison of convicted former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, a star witness in the Milosevic trial, have created the impression in Belgrade of The Hague as a gallows for Serb nationalists -- a place where the West lets them rot away.

"How are they now going to explain to the Serbian public that Milosevic was not severely ill, as he had claimed, and that the Hague jail is safe for the Serbs?" asked political analyst Brace Grubacic.

Milosevic, who suffered from heart problems and high blood pressure, had recently demanded to be temporarily released to go to Moscow for treatment.

But presiding Judge Patrick Robinson refused, ruling that even with Russian guarantees to send him back, the court was "not satisfied ... that the accused, if released, would return for the continuation of his trial".

Ivica Dacic, the caretaker president of Milosevic's Socialist Party, echoed the views of many in Belgrade on Saturday when he said: "Milosevic did not die in The Hague; he was killed in The Hague."

He added that before dying, Milosevic "managed to defend the national and state interests of Serbia and the Serb people, and everybody should be grateful to him for that".

Toma Fila, Milosevic's family lawyer, said: "Milosevic's death will tear to shreds the tribunal's credibility, which has seriously been tarnished already. He is the sixth Serb to die at the hands of this court."

Former Czech foreign minister Jiri Dienstbier, who served as UN special envoy for human rights in Yugoslavia from 1998-2001, said: "I am afraid that his death will be misused by extremists [in Serbia] who will proclaim [Milosevic] a national hero."

Those fears took little time to materialise. The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, staunch Milosevic's wartime allies, said in a statement that "after Milosevic's death, nothing will be the same in Serbia".

"The Radical Party promises to the citizens of Serbia that it will no longer tolerate the harassment of the Serbian patriots and their families," citing alleged "harassment" by Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic and Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic.

Many observers both in Serbia and the West called into question the validity of the Hague war-crimes tribunal for other reasons -- suggesting the chance for a historical reckoning had been lost because the trial was allowed to drag on for years.

Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, who served as the UN special envoy to the Balkans between 1999 and 2001, called Milosevic's death "seriously damaging to The Hague tribunal".

In a written statement to Swedish news agency TT, Bildt said that "despite years of trials we will never have a verdict, and thereby a conclusion regarding important questions of guilt".

Natasa Kandic, a leading human rights activist in Serbia who has provided evidence to the UN war-crimes prosecutors, said Milosevic's death before the end of the trial has caused "historic damage". -- Sapa-AP

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