ICDSM:
INTERVENTION AT THE HAGUE.
On
Tuesday 30th September 2003 The Hague Tribunal heard a submission
from the Prosecution that if accepted would mean the imposition of Defence
Counsel on President Milosevic against his will, and would enable the trial to
proceed without the presence of the accused.
This basic denial of the right of the accused to conduct his own defence
is yet further proof of the political nature of the ICTY.
The arguments for the Prosecution, presented by Mr Nice, would be
comical if they were not so tragic. To an outbreak of derisory laughter from
the public gallery, Nice tried to suggest that the President’s health
problems would be eliminated if he gave up smoking cigarettes! He further
proposed that on his ‘rest days’ Mr Milosevic could study Court documents
and watch hours of witness videos to save time and expedite the trial
proceedings. Moreover, according to Mr Nice, the accused brought his ill
health upon himself because he would insist on cross-examining the
Prosecution’s witnesses. How very inconsiderate of Mr Milosevic!
In contrast to the Prosecution’s absurd arguments, which follow the
equally absurd ruling that Mr Milosevic provide the Court and the Prosecution
with his defence details and list of defence witnesses within six weeks, Mr
Milosevic has proposed that their be a two-year recess in the trial in order
to prepare his defence and that he be released from custody where his medical
condition can be treated by doctors of his own choice.
It was these two key demands that gained an interest from journalists at
Tuesday’s hearing when members and supporters of the ICDSM distributed their
Press Release and gave interviews outside the Tribunal building. Such was the
impact of the ICDSM intervention that the Tribunal’s security staff felt
obliged to harass the journalists and demand to see their passports and
credentials. It was to the credit of the ICDSM supporters that all copies of
the Committee’s literature were distributed even in the face of such
intimidation.
The only ruling given by the Court on the day was that from next Monday
(6th October), following the advice of the Court appointed doctors,
Mr Milosevic should attend trial for three days and rest for the next four.
A decision regarding the Prosecution’s latest submission would be
announced shortly, though it is worth noting that to accept this submission
would mean yet a further rewriting of the Tribunal’s existing rules.
Objective observers of the ‘trial’ cannot fail to note the sheer
desperation of both the Court and Prosecution at their inability to break the
resistance of President Milosevic and their inability to prevent the
development and growth of his Defence Committee.
ICDSM. The Hague. 30th September 2003.
Copy of Press Release below.
The
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic
The Hague, September 30, 2003, 11
a.m.
PRESS RELEASE
TWO YEARS
FREEDOM FOR SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
TO
PROTECT HIS LIFE, HISTORICAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE BALKANS!
· ICTY JUDGES AS NATO DEFENSE COUNSELS!
ICTY
put the life of President Milosevic at stake. Why?
Already
at the beginning of the Hague process, President Milosevic announced that he
will demand that people such as Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Wesley
Clark appear as witnesses.
The logical and legitimate course of his presentation is to prove the
guilt of those who were killing Yugoslavia and its people by endorsing
separatists, terrorists, paramilitaries and traffickers, by imposing genocidal
sanctions, by bombings, by regime change and finally by imposing a pro-NATO
dictatorship which is associated with the mafia. If their obvious guilt is
shown, Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbian people are innocent!
After the Prosecution
failed to prove the NATO propaganda fabrications, due to President
Milosevic’s magnificent struggle, the ICTY Judges have appeared and are
assisting NATO.
They decided that the ill and imprisoned President Milosevic should
provide them and the Prosecution (!) with all details of his defense within
six weeks! After that the Judges will decide what can and what cannot be
included! Certainly not Bill Clinton and his buddy Wesley Clark. Certainly not
the children that died under the bombs. Apparently they are irrelevant!
This
way, after being deprived of medical care, President Milosevic is deprived of
his right to defense.
As
an additional guarantee that the truth will be silenced, torture is being used
against President Milosevic. He cannot meet his family. He cannot meet his
friends. Hundreds of thousands of members of the Socialist Party of Serbia and
of Freedom Association are banned from visiting their president. He cannot
meet his doctors from Belgrade. Furthermore, even the ICTY doctors admitted
that the magnitude of the proceedings and the prison conditions threaten his
life. Confined in his prison cell he has to confront everything that took the
whole tribunal apparatus ten years to elaborate. (Only in the “Milosevic
trial” does the tribunal put everything!) With its 1248 employees and a UN
budget of 694828400 dollars, the ICTY has spent 75% of that sum, half a
billion dollars, in the last five years alone, since the NATO aggression and
the first indictment against President Milosevic. Moreover they have been
assisted by Western governments and their secret services, and recently by the
Belgrade puppets as well. In contrast to that, to prepare his defense
President Milosevic will have only three months, or more precisely six weeks,
in his prison cell, assisted only by a small group of volunteers, with no
funds, no infrastructure and no access to the state archives. Is this a way to
treat a person in a life-threatening situation? Yes, if he is a leader of the
people that opposed NATO.
The
ICDSM accuses ICTY of criminal misconduct and criminal compliance with NATO.
Today’s
attempt to impose a counsel for President Milosevic against his will and to
conduct the trial in the absence of the ill President is further proof of
that. The
ICTY violates international norms of judiciary and of human rights protection.
The ICTY violates its own Statute.
Two
years in freedom, requested by President Milosevic, is a minimum guarantee
that his life will be protected and that the truth will be heard. It is a generous, gentleman’s proposal. The response of
the ICTY is an outrage.
The
Russian Duma requested action from the Russian Government to protect
International Law and to prevent this outrage and crime.
Ten medical doctors from Germany have sent a petition to the ICTY
stating that President Milosevic’s illness requires his release. The ICDSM
is receiving support from doctors of other countries, who condemn the
treatment of President Milosevic and express their readiness to take part in
his examination and therapy.
President
Milosevic has to be released immediately!
Many
parties and organizations from different countries endorse our position. The
ICDSM and its national branches in Russia, USA, Germany, Canada, Italy,
Britain, Ireland and other countries have launched a campaign aimed towards
responsible UN bodies and member states governments in order to stop the
dangerous farce at The Hague. The international demonstrations on November 8,
called by a committee of Diaspora Serbs and endorsed by the ICDSM shall be a
peak of the campaign.
The
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic
DELIVERED BY
Mr. IAN JOHNSON,
Member of
the Board of ICDSM and Coordinator of the British Section of ICDSM
After delivery,
Mr. Johnson will answer questions from the press.
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