How guilty was the West over Milosevic, asks British press LONDON, June 30 (AFP) - On first learning that Slobodan Milosevic had been handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the British press unanimously hailed the move as a triumph for justice, branding the ex-Yugoslav president a "monster" and "evil tyrant". But by Saturday, some national newspapers were questioning whether Western leaders, who saw Milosevic as a stabilising force in the Balkans before 1998 and negotiated with him, now had hands "flecked with blood". Milosevic was handed over late Thursday on the decision of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and will face charges over his role in atrocities committed across the Balkans in Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II. He will be the first head of state to be tried by an international tribunal. "The current indictment issued by the war crimes tribunal links Milosevic to the atrocities committed by the Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1998," said Saturday's Daily Mail. "Why not the earlier period when Milosovic's proxies were carrying out genocide in Bosnia? "It is difficult to escape the conclusion that a widening of the charges to cover Bosnia and Croatia might embarrass NATO, given its almost friendly attitude at the time towards Milosevic." The right-wing tabloid added: "To an extent the West was a partner in crime with Milosevic... to talk about partnership in crime may sound extreme... but while Milosevic pursued his aims in Croatia and especially Bosnia through puppets like (Bosnian Serb leader) Radovan Karadzic, the West continued to do business with him." "NATO is very far from being whiter than white... How can we celebrate when our own hands are, if not stained, at least flecked with blood?" The right-wing Daily Telegraph said that extending the indictment against the former Yugoslav strongman "may well also embarrass Western statesmen who have negotiated with Milosevic over the past decade, some of whom would find that their own conduct does not stand up to scrutiny in the witness box." Meanwhile, the left-leaning Guardian pointed out that there are human rights abusers "in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Tehran and Baghdad, Beijing and Moscow, and who would declare London and Washington guiltless in the past?" The credibility of the tribunal in The Hague "depends on the possibility that, one day, agents or principals from the big, rich western nations might themselves be arraigned," the newspaper added. Email this story http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010630/1/17b3u.html Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ STOP NOVOM SVETSKOM PORETKU ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrBE8.bVKZIq Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
