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Ramsey Clark Slams Hague 'Tribunal'
Introduction by Nico Varkevisser [2 August 2001]

[Nico Varkevisser is Editor-in-Chief of the monthly newspaper, 'Targets.' Mr. Varkevisser is Vice-Chairman of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM) and its Coordinator in The Netherlands.]

Yesterday the ICDSM held another press conference in Amsterdam.

The press was addressed by Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the USA and Co-Chairman of the ICDSM. Mr. Clark had spent the better part of three days meeting with President Slobodan Milosevic, imprisoned in The Hague.

Posted below is a surprisingly accurate 'Reuters' dispatch covering the press conference. I say 'surprisingly accurate' because three days ago 'Reuters' declared, as if repeating an accepted fact, that Milosevic:

"...remains in solitary confinement at his own request." ('Reuters,' 31 July 2001)

Contradicting this lie, Attorney Clark most strongly protested the fact that the Tribunal has kept Mr. Milosevic in solitary confinement going into the second month, thus violating even the 'Tribunal's' own rules and procedures. Milosevic wants very much to be with the other 'prisoners' but 'Tribunal' officials have refused. In addition, said Clark, Milosevic is especially outraged about the insulting and inhumane conditions under which his wife, Mira Markovic, is forced to meet with him.

Reporters became somewhat hostile at this point, demanding to know why the 'Tribunal' would possibly want to cause problems for the President and his wife. Clark answered that, obviously, this was intended to break Milosevic. "I have seen this in many countries," said Clark. "The authorities try to disorient and weaken a political prisoner, especially in the first stages of an arrest."

Clark noted that despite these attempts to break Slobodan Milosevic, he remains strong, has an excellent spirit, is very sharp, and wants to argue his case to expose NATO's aggression aimed at breaking up and Yugoslavia, to defend the sovereignty of Yugoslavia and to defend the people of his country against US and European plans to take over and devastate the economy.

Said Clark: "Milosevic says, 'OK, I didn't choose to be here, but I am here. So apparently it is my destiny to use this prison as a platform to help our people.'"

-- NV

Ramsey Clark: Milosevic To Defend Himself With Legal Help

THE HAGUE, August 2, 2001 (Reuters) -

Slobodan Milosevic will mount his own ''very powerful defense'' against war crimes charges in The Hague but wants lawyers to assist him in court, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark said on Wednesday.

``He is a person who is used to speaking for himself and he will speak for himself, but he wants to have the assistance of counsel, Clark said after visiting the detained former Yugoslav president for a third consecutive day in The Hague.

Milosevic, in a show of contempt for a court he has branded an ``illegal instrument of his NATO enemies, made his first appearance in court last month alone after opting not to appoint a defense lawyer.

Milosevic's unorthodox wish to have lawyers assisting him both in court and in the U.N. detention unit while declining to follow the standard practice of granting power of attorney has proved a headache for tribunal officials.

``There is no precedence for this. Any proposals like that would have to be looked at by the judges and the court registry, U.N. tribunal spokesman Jim Landale said.

If he indeed represents himself during the trial, expected to start next year, he would be the first defendant at The Hague tribunal to do so. Legal experts have suggested such a strategy would be foolish.

But lawyers supporting Milosevic, including Clark, have said he wants to seek expert legal advice without actually granting power of attorney.

``He will not be represented...He will have the advice of counsel on a whole range of things...He is going to mount a very powerful defense, said Clark, a member of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic.

Milosevic, accused of atrocities in Kosovo in 1999, was whisked out of Serbia in late June to face war crimes charges at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

Milosevic is being held in isolation from The Hague's other 39 detainees. The U.N. court said the former leader wanted to be kept apart from other detainees, but Clark said Milosevic did want to mix with other detainees.

Clark, 73, a campaigner for causes often at odds with U.S. authorities, served as attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson in the late 1960s. He condemned the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the conflict over Kosovo.

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