STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Sopranos fanatics, this one is for you. Tony Soprano's autographed Suburban is available for purchase on eBayTM. James Gandolfini has personally signed the vehicle. Find this and over 800 other Sopranos items for sale on eBay. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > My letter to the Ottawa Sun, re. Eric Margolis' editorial "Crime and > Punishment" > > From: "Nancy A. Hey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Eric Margolis Ottawa Sun, July 9, 2001 > > To the Editor: > > I find it disturbing that the Ottawa Sun continues to print the anti-Serb > editorials of Mr. Eric Margolis. His editorials would be offensive to anyone > of Slavic background, including the large ethnic Serb community in Canada. > > The latest example of Mr. Margolis' bigotry was his July 9, 2001 editorial > "Crime and Punishment". In it, Mr. Margolis mentions the "steady discovery > of mass graves of murdered Albanians hidden in Serbia", as if this is an > uncontestable fact. Mr. Margolis would have us believe that all of the NATO > forces allegations should be accepted at face value. I would like to remind > him that the alleged "massacre" in Racak in 1999 was later discovered to be > not a massacre of civilians, as was claimed by NATO, but rather KLA fighters > killed in combat. This was described in Peter Worthington's Toronto Sun > article of April 1, 2001 "The hoax that started a war, How the U.S., NATO > and the western media were conned in Kosovo". If US President Bill Clinton > and leaders of other NATO nations could fabricate a story of a massacre in > Racak in 1999 to justify going to war against Serbia, what reason do we have > to believe their current claims of newly found mass graves of dead Albanians > in Serbia? How do they know that these bodies are Albanian? If they are, > how are they so certain that they were killed by Serbs, and not by rival KLA > factions, or by NATO's bombs? > > A critical reader might find the timing of these revelations of mass graves > mighty suspicious, coming on the heels of Mr. Milosevic's extradition, when > NATO leaders are so gung ho to convict him of some kind of crime. > > Mr. Margolis is obviously very happy to see Mr. Milosevic on trial. > However, since he supported NATO's 78 day bombing of Serbia in 1999, Mr. > Margolis has no desire to see NATO leaders tried for their much greater > crimes of using such weapons of mass destruction as cluster bombs and > depleted uranium against innocent people in Serbia. These weapons will > undoubtedly contaminate the environment of Serbia for generations to come, > causing many deaths in addition to the over 2,000 civilians killed initially > during the 78 days of bombing. Slobodan Milosevic couldn't have committed a > crime of that magnitude even > if he had wanted to. > > With the perpetrators of the NATO aggression not having a ghost of a chance > of being tried for their crimes at the Hague, is it any wonder that Mr. > Milosevic views the court as illegitimate, and a tool of NATO? Many people > around the world, Serbs and non-Serbs alike, agree with him on that score. > > Finally, I would like to call your attention to what Ms. Diana Johnstone, > said on the subject of crime and punishment. In her essay "HUMANITARIAN WAR: > MAKING THE CRIME FIT THE PUNISHMENT" published > on www.emperors-clothes.com on June 23, 2000, Ms. Johnstone states: > > "On March 24, 1999, the NATO forces led by the United States began an > eleven-week-long punishment of Yugoslavia's President, Slobodan Milosevic, > which amounted to capital punishment for an undetermined number of citizens > of that unfortunate country. Two months later, on May 27, the U.S.-backed > International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia issued an indictment > of Milosevic for "crimes against humanity" having occurred after the > punishment began. Then, in late June, the Clinton administration dispatched > 56 forensic experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Kosovo to > gather material evidence of the crimes for which Milosevic and five of his > colleagues had already been indicted and for which his country had already > been severely and durably punished." > > The trial of Mr. Milosevic is not about punishing him for crimes he has > committed. Rather, it is about finding crimes, real or imagined, to charge > him with to justify NATO's collective punishment of the Serbian people, a > punishment which is, in fact, unjustifiable. > > Sincerely, > Nancy Hey > Hyattsville, MD > USA > (301) 927-7991 > > CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Eric Margolis > Ottawa Sun, July 9, 2001 > > The Hague, Netherlands - It seems absolutely surreal that Serbia's > deposed > despot, Slobodan Milosevic, is now lodged here at a convertible UN > prison > in The Hague, just miles from the heart of swinging, boisterous > Amsterdam. > My feelings about Milosevic's arrest are mixed. Way back in 1989, this > column began warning of Milosevic's toxic combination of virulent Serb > nationalism, Pan-Slavic, anti-Muslim racism and totalitarian methods. I > was > denounced in 1089 at special meeting at University of Belgrade. Over the > ensuring years, as I kept writing that Milosevic intended to launch a > Balkan > bloodbath, I became the target of vitriolic hate mail from Serbs and a > steady stream of death threats. > Milosevic originated four Balkan Wars that killed 250.000 people and > left > 3,4 million homeless. It's time he is behind bars. I am waiting for > Milosevic's trial to demonstrate the Serb despot's personal involvement > in, > or at least knowledge of, orders to commit atrocities and crimes against > humanity against Croats, Muslim Bosnians and Catholic and Muslim > Albanian > Kosovars. I long to see punished the 68 other senior Serb war criminals, > notably Bosnian Serb leaders Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, who > organised and conducted the most abominable crimes in Europe since World > War > II and Stalin's era. Though UN chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte will > keep up > pressure to extradite Serb war criminals remaining at large. > But I am also troubled by the spectacle of a man sold out by his country > and > put on trial by a massive, faceless international bureaucratic machine > that > represents today's great powers. I am unhappy that the western powers > had to > pay Serbia $1 billion US to get Milosevic delivered like Fed-Ex > package. > Money is homogenized form of power. Power is what got the Serb strong > man to > Holland. But I would have preferred to see Britain's SAS or US Delta > Force > commandos go grab Milosevic and bring him to justice. > I believe Milosevic and his fellows deserve the maximum punishment - > including his wife, Mila. The UN tribunal should also prosecute other > as-yet-unindicted Serb war criminals, notably those academics and > leaders > of the Orthodox Church who concocted a farrago of > racist-historical-religious lies that provided Serb extremists and > political > gangsters the intellectual and religious justifications to massacre or > "purify the nation"of Bosnian and Kosovar "untermensch." > But I still cannot help feeling some sympathy for this lonely prisoner > in a > Dutch jail. A I have a certain grudging respect for Milosevic, who is > refusing to co-operate with the UN tribunal or rejects the legitimacy of > the > trial, showing the pride, stubbornness and courage for which Serbs are > noted. > Milosevic and his supporters are now hoping to turn his trial, which > could > take a year or more, into a political circus in which NATO finds itself > the > defendant. But the steady discovery of mass graves of murdered Albanians > hidden in Serbia is fast undermining Milosevic's strategy. > The former head of Serb secret police recently revealed that remains of > thousands of Albanian civilians - mostly women and children murdered in > Kosovo by Serb forces in 1999 prior to the NATO bombing campaign- were > still > secreted across Serbia. Many bodies had been dumped into the Danube, > buried > in forests or deep mine shafts, buried, or dissolved in acid. Thousands > of > Bosnian Muslims remain missing after six years. > Serbs are now learning for the first time of the atrocities committed by > their former regime. These gruesome revelations helped Serbia's, capable > prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, deliver Milosevic to The Hague. But the > scores of secret graves being uncovered seem to have done nothing to > change > the opinions of die-hard Milosevic backers, notably in North America, > including some at the Toronto Sun. > The most important lesson to be drown from Milosevic's arrest is that > other > demagogues around the world should think twice before inciting racism > and > religious hatred, or concocting distorted histories and fake nationalist > mythologies, to inflame their followers and advance their political > ambitions. > This is also a warning to embattled Macedonia, which appears to follow > Milosevic's murderous course by launching full-scale war against its > mistreated and now rebellious Albanian minorities. > ==== > Eric Margolis is the Sun's foreign affairs analyst. > _______________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
