TWO LETTERS BY MICHAEL PARENTI

Dear Friends

The question of a court-imposed counsel for Slobodan Milosevic is an important one to be sure, but there is an even more compelling issue: Given President Milosevic's health, the trial should be suspended and he should be allowed to return to private care.

We might recall that General Pinochet of Chile evaded prosecution in Spain because he was deemed "too ill to stand trial" by British authorities. Upon returning to Chile, he had a miraculous cure--as some of us predicted--and showed himself to be in fine health. Later on, when unexpectedly indicted by the Chileans, he was then judged "mentally unfit" to stand trial.

If my memory serves me, William Z. Forster, then-head of the Communist Party USA was released from Smith Act prosecution in the late 1940s because of serious illness.

So with any number of defendants who are honestly too ill to go on with legal proceedings (or faking it, as in Pinochet's case), there is no pursuit of prosecution out of recognition that continuation can amount to judicial murder.

The demise of the presiding judge at Milosevic's trial is itself an indication of the taxing nature of these proceedings upon one's health, including one who was thought to be of adequate health. And the judge was nowhere under the same stress that Mr. Milosevic is facing in the miserable and life-draining confinement that he must endure, the stress of countering a massive prosecutory effort, and the separation from his loved ones.

President Milosevic has been certifiably found to be suffering a severe heart condition. Instead of ending the trial--an action for which there are many precedents--the court chooses to continue to put his life at risk.

While we argue about the question of a counsel, we should also demand that the ICTY release Mr. Milosevic and allow him to be placed in private care.

Michael Parenti,
Chair, ICDSM-US                                                          29 July 2004

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Dear Friends at ICDSM Italia and other interested parties:

I wish to reiterate and amplify a point I made in an earlier
correspondence to you:

If President Milosevic is too ill to carry out his own defense and needs
to have a court appointed lawyer, as the Hague ICTY insists, then he is
too ill to continue to stand trial.

One right of any defendant is to be able to participate in the
preparation of his own case. Indeed, it is not only a right but an
essential consideration for the defense. Even if the ICTY appoints a
lawyer--whose political awareness and legal competence may leave much to
be desired--President Milosevic would still be obliged to play a
strenuously active preparatory role.

And he would have the additional difficulty of not only confronting the
Court but wrestling with the court appointed lawyer whose ability and
determination to make the strongest case is not assured. In other words,
the appointment of a lawyer will not ease Milosevic's burden but only
add to it--which may be one reason the ICTY is pushing for such an
appointment.

The converse is also true. If President Milosevic is well enough to
stand trial and take on the additional burden of tutoring a court
appointed lawyer, then he is obviously well enough to argue his own
case.

Given the time constraints imposed on Milosevic, it would be easier for
him to make his own defense (as he has been doing with much brilliant
success) than to attempt to guide and tutor a court appointed lawyer
regarding the many particulars of the case, even a lawyer who might be
willing to make a sincere effort.

In sum, the court cannot have it both ways: they cannot say that
President Milosevic is too sick to plead his own case yet well enough to
continue to be subjected to the grueling challenge of a public trial.

Solidarietà

Michael Parenti
ICDSM USA                                                27 August 2004