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International Committee to Defend
Slobodan Milosevic
=======================================
"I Deserve Credit for Peace,
not War!" - Milosevic
Appearance at the ICTY in The Hague, 11 December 2001
[Posted 17 December 2001]
English translation by Branislav Popovic and Jared Israel
http://www.icdsm.org/more/peace.htm
=======================================
· Those who have been breaking up Yugoslavia
are guilty for war.
· This "trial" is a punishment for our
resistance to the worst tyranny that has ever threatened
mankind.
· Using false accusations they try to hide the fact that
they have allied with terrorists.
· We have been defending the freedom and equality of all
individuals and all peoples.
PATRIOTS WILL SOON, ONCE AGAIN, RULE SERBIA!
Slobodan Milosevic
[After the reading of the "indictment"
for Bosnia and Herzegovina]
I want to tell you that what we have heard here, this
miserable text, is the ultimate absurdity. I deserve
credit for the peace in Bosnia, not the war. The
responsibility for the war lies with the powers that have
been breaking up Yugoslavia and with their agents in
Yugoslavia, not with Serbia, not with the Serbian people
and not with Serbian policy. This is an attempt…
[Here the mike was turned off]
DEBATE ON UNIFYING THE 'INDICTMENTS'
Slobodan Milosevic
All that we have heard today from the so-called
prosecution only confirms that the focus here entirely
misses the point, but so as to not have the mike turned
off again, I will stick to arguments that respond to your
question.
It is entirely clear to me why this false prosecution
insists on "unifying." It is because of
September 11th. They want to divert attention from the
accusations against me concerning Kosovo since those
accusations inevitably open the question of the Clinton
administration's collaboration with terrorists in Kosovo,
including bin Laden's organization.
Second, regarding what we have heard today, they are
conscious that, if they focus on Kosovo, they cannot,
regardless of the illegality of this court, avoid having
the main perpetrators of the crimes committed against my
country and my people, starting from Clinton, Albright
and Clark and then also the others, appear before this
body, nor could they avoid the appearance here of many
peace brokers whose activities and cooperation in
searching for peace deny the accusations - I would say,
monstrous accusations - that have been made here.
So, their reasons for attempting to "unify" are
totally pragmatic and aimed at the protection of those
who have committed crimes against my country, and are
not, as they claim, intended to ensure an efficient trial
since they certainly do not care if I get tired out or
not. I have told you before what I think about that.
As for their crowning argument, the accusation that we
were motivated by the aim of creating a "Greater
Serbia," that argument can be very easily disproved
and I think that no reasonable person should dare to use
that argument, which they have put forward as the
mythical basis for all crimes. Nobody should try any
longer to impute, to impose, or to abuse that argument in
any way.
Here are irrefutable facts: On April 28, 1992 the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. On April 28, 1992,
that is, before the conflicts began, before the civil war
broke out, that Constitutional Assembly declared, in its
official document, our position: that the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia has no territorial pretensions
regarding any of the former Yugoslav republics. This is
absolutely enough evidence to totally reject the nonsense
that they are trying to impute.
I would remind you as well, that at the very beginning,
in May 1993, with our maximum efforts, the Vance-Owen
Plan was accepted and was then signed in Athens,
including by Serbian representatives. The acceptance of
that plan clearly shows that we regarded peace as the
greatest goal and highest value for all Yugoslav peoples
and refutes this mythical idea.
Finally, during those ten years in Yugoslavia, life
itself has entirely disproved these accusations of
national or religious discrimination, since the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia remained the only part of the old
Yugoslavia to preserve its multinational character and in
which there was no discrimination on national or
religious grounds. Those ten years confirm that. The same
goes for Kosovo. Maybe you do not know, but the
government of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and
Metohia in 1998 and 1999 - that is, during the war, until
those who committed aggression installed their
mercenaries in power - was formed of Serbs, Albanians,
Moslems, Turks, Goranies, Roma and Egyptians. Serbs were
a minority in that government. How can the notion that
there was national discrimination be reconciled with that
fact?
Our delegation in Rambouillet was comprised of
representatives of all these nationalities as well. How
does that jibe with this monstrous imputing of national
discrimination?! Do you know that in 1998, after ten
years of total peace in Kosovo - ten years when no one
got killed, ten years when no one got arrested, when tens
of daily papers printed in Albanian could be purchased on
every corner, when education in primary and secondary
schools was in Albanian - when, after ten years,
terrorism broke out, organized by foreign secret services
out of the outcasts of the Albanian Mafia all over
Europe, we formed local Police forces in Albanian
villages, where citizens chose their policemen. They
carried weapons. All of them were ethnic Albanians. These
Albanian policemen, and also Albanian mailmen, Albanian
foremen, and other Albanians within the State apparatus,
were all targets of threats, attempted murders,
assassinations and outright butchery, all committed by
Albanian terrorists.
In 1998 Albanian terrorists killed more Albanians than
Serbs. It is truly remarkable that in all of our state
structures, and in our Socialist Party as well,
membership corresponded to the ethnic composition of our
citizens - there were Serbs, Albanians, Turks,
Hungarians, Ruthenians, Romanians, Bulgarians and all the
others. Which one of these groups would ever go along
with a program of national, religious, or racial
discrimination, such as has here been imputed?
These two "indictments," for Croatia and
Bosnia, were expressly launched for one purpose only: to
drown the "indictment" concerning Kosovo
because talking about Kosovo opens up the whole issue of
terrorism - this apart from the fact that it is clear
that in Croatia and Bosnia we worked for peace, not war.
We have assisted our people in order to help them survive
rather than becoming, as they did in World War II, a
victim of genocide. Many times we have said publicly, and
I have said this myself, that we want our people to be
free and equal in the territories where it has lived for
centuries. But at the same time, this should not be at
the expense of any other people.
The example of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its
very good interethnic relations during the whole period
of conflicts demonstrates this best. During the conflict
in Bosnia no Moslem was expelled from Serbia. During the
conflict in Croatia no Croat was expelled from Serbia.
More than that, during the conflict in Bosnia - look at
the records at UNHCR - over 70.000 Moslem refugees found
shelter in Serbia. What nation, what tens of thousands of
people, would seek shelter among those who had committed
aggression against them?
Do you know that more Moslems live in Serbia than in
Bosnia and Herzegovina? The Moslems in Bosnia and
Herzegovina were pushed into that disaster, into that
war, so that those outside forces, appearing as
supporters of Muslims, could hide their responsibility
for the deaths of many times more - millions of Moslems -
in accordance with their interests of enslaving the World
and a new colonialism.
Especially, I cannot understand that someone could dare
to speak here about Kosovo implicitly as if it were
something outside Serbia. Kosovo is Serbia and Kosovo
will remain Serbia but the terrible situation in Kosovo
and Metohia will continue as long as it is subject to
illegal occupation. Illegal because it was made possible
based on an abuse of the UN and of Security Council
Resolution 1244. This Resolution does envisage the
presence of UN security forces; however, the forces in
Kosovo have violated their UN authorization, including by
allowing further savageries by the Albanian terrorists.
Thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanian residents of
Kosovo have been killed and kidnapped, tens of thousands
of Serb homes have been burned down, more than a hundred
churches have been destroyed and burned down, all under
the auspices of the international forces that came there
to guarantee safety for all.
And today, after these cartoon-like elections, those fine
Serbian MPs come by plane from Belgrade to do their job
as deputies and under military escort get into that
so-called parliament. This situation will last as long as
the occupation. A similar situation under Turkish
occupation lasted for all of 500 years. This one won't
last that long, and in the very moment it ends, Kosovo
will again be completely under Serbian control, and here
we are talking not only about Kosovo, but of Serbia as
well, since Serbia too will be ruled again and soon by
patriots. Patriots will rule in other countries as well,
instead of this scheme of new colonialism and the
establishing of various puppet governments.
I think that all we heard here today, which is in total
contradiction to the truth, has shown how failed these
"indictments" are. I can only understand them
as a statement of anger and revenge for the fiasco that
NATO has suffered in the attempt to militarily occupy
Yugoslavia. I can tell you that I am proud that I
commanded the armed forces of Yugoslavia that have
stopped NATO, since this has shown that a country, even a
small one, having a strong will to defend its freedom and
defend the idea of freedom and equality of nations and
peoples, can succeed. I am here as a punishment for our
standing up against the danger of the biggest tyranny
that has threatened mankind.
What of substance can be scraped from these accusations
is nothing more than the mud and dregs of a decade-long
media war aimed at demonizing both Serbia and the Serbian
people, as well as the Serb leadership, and myself, and
even my family. Because the media war preceded the real
one and had as its goal convincing public opinion in the
West that we are villains, regardless of the fact that we
never provided any grounds for that.
You have read here today how on April 6, 1992, the
European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina. This
was done under the influence of the then foreign affairs
minister of Germany, Hans Dietrich Genscher, because
April 6, 1941 was the day when Hitler started the attack
on Yugoslavia and bombed Belgrade. There was a wish, in
this way, to communicate that the outcome of World War II
had been changed. I would never blame such a desire on
the German people, but some politicians have held onto
the evil, which we fought against together. In this way,
these politicians realized a revenge in greater measure,
for they have succeeded in killing us using the hands of
our Allies, the Americans, English and French, with whom
we fought together in two world wars, against that very
same evil.
(………..)
I have already told you about my relation to this court;
no matter that Judge Robinson says my relation to it is
of no consequences for you. Therefore, what you are going
to do is your business, and I can only tell you that
every argument used here to support "unifying"
is not true, does not stand, is not correct, and cannot
be justified in any way. So, the arguments are false, as
the indictment is false; and you will do what you please,
and that is your problem.
We have heard many arguments against the idea raised by
the prosecution. Everything they bring up, and this will
become more apparent as they go on, shows that their
entire case stands on glass legs and is taken from the
dregs of the media war, not from real facts, especially
not from facts that could have some legal weight. The
vocabulary and structure of all their arguments entirely
matches what we have heard in political pamphlets or the
media, which only shows that it was all cooked in the
same kitchen, nothing else.
If I were you, I would, personally, regardless of your
status, to which I object, a fact which is not unknown to
you, reject such ideas. They want to put aside Kosovo
only because it opens the matter of collaboration with
the terrorists, which does not correspond with current
policies. At this moment they are falsifying historical
facts for the sake of daily policies, and that is
something that even this illegal tribunal should not
allow.
(…………)
I have been informed, in the meantime, that without my
knowledge you have nominated some legal advisers whom I
have not requested, interpreting my agreement to receive
the visits of some people as a request to nominate legal
advisors. I have answered the Registry, stating that I do
not consider that whoever visits me, and has a Law
Faculty degree, must first be nominated by me as legal
advisor. And I consider that it would be inadmissible to
have limitations to visits by people who wish to visit
me, according to the rules you have set, and on the basis
of no discrimination, since others who are in this prison
have the possibility of receiving such visits.
Second…
(………...)
I have only said that I wish that people who want to
visit me should be allowed to do it and that is all.
Second, I have heard that you have an infrared camera in
my cell. The prison authorities informed me that the
reason they finally turned off the regular light in my
cell was that they had turned off their camera, but I
have not been informed that this one, which your
representative referred to publicly, has also been turned
off. I ask that this one be turned off as well.
***
The URL for this article is http://www.icdsm.org/more/peace.htm
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic
www.icdsm.org
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