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Milosevic Lawyer Condemns Newspaper's Threat

--- Chris Black's Letter to National Post ---

The Editor,

Your article about the appearance of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague tribunal again repeats a very dangerous statement; that Milosevic has a history of depression and is suicidal and then you reinforce this by saying one prisoner has already hanged himself. President Milosevic has never suffered from depression and is not now suffering from it. Any statement to the contrary is a lie and is setting him up to be assassinated in his cell.

We on the International Committee To Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM) have repeatedly told the press not to repeate these lies for the very reason that they constitute a cover story floated by those who know they have no case against him whatsoever and who know there will not be a trial and who have the capacity and the immorality necessary to murder him and claim it was a suicide to avoid exposing themselves for what they are, the new gestapo of the New World Order.

By repeating these false stories your paper makes itself a potential accessory to murder. Do not allow yourselves to be manipulated in this way or take part in the manipulation of the public.

Christopher Black
Chair, Legal Committee International Committee To Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
Toronto, Ontario

----- National Post Article -----

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?f=/stories/20011031/762688 .html

NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Milosevic links Albanian separatists to bin Laden

War crimes trial on Feb. 12

Reuters, with files from news services

THE HAGUE - The trial of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes has been set for Feb. 12, the United Nations' war crimes tribunal announced yesterday after the former Yugoslav president spent another day in court thumbing his nose at the proceedings.

On the second day of the preparatory hearing, Mr. Milosevic described the charges against him as the work of a "retarded seven-year-old" and claimed terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden had visited Albania.

Presiding Judge Richard May said he wanted to speed up Mr. Milosevic's trial for alleged atrocities during the 1998-99 conflict in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

"To expedite matters, the trial chamber think it right to set the date for the Kosovo indictment in any event for Feb. 12, 2002," the judge said.

The former Yugoslav strongman, who also faces charges of war crimes in Croatia during the 1991-1995 war, described the proceedings as a farce.

"Don't bother me and make me listen for hours on end to the reading of texts written at the intellectual level of a seven-year-old child," he told the court.

"Let me correct myself: a retarded seven-year-old child."

During his angry monologue, which was uninterrupted by the court, the 60-year-old also accused the "biased tribunal" of covering up NATO aggression in Kosovo by blaming Yugoslavia for the 1998-1999 Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province.

He even tried to cast his role in Kosovo in the light of the recent global anti-terrorism campaign, saying the case against him was "giving wings to Albanian terrorists in southern Serbia" and linking Albanian separatists to bin Laden.

Mr. Milosevic also referred to the U.S.-led war on terrorism launched in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"Unlike the previous administration, this one has proclaimed war on terrorism," he said.

"The previous administration knew bin Laden was in Albania two years after their embassies were attacked and they discussed that fact with me," he added, referring to attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August, 1998.

Mr. Milosevic, who has been accused by prosecutors of orchestrating ethnic cleansing to ensure Serb dominance in the Balkans after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, could face life behind bars if convicted.

The communist functionary turned Serb nationalist hero, who has a family history of suicide, asked the tribunal to end its round-the-clock observation of him in his cell at the UN detention centre in nearby Scheveningen that has been his jail for four months. "I would never commit suicide because I must struggle here to topple this tribunal and this farce of a trial and the masterminds who are using it against the people who are fighting for freedom in the world," he said.

There have been reports of bouts of depression and he was treated for high blood pressure after his arrest in April.

One Serb suspect has already hanged himself at The Hague.

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