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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Boba Borojevic's letter to the Ottawa Sun, re. Margolis' "Crime and > Punishment" > > To the editor of the OTTAWA SUN > Re: Crime and Punishment, by Eric Margolis > > Sir, > Reading Eric Margolis' article (Crime and Punishment, July 9, 2001), I can > not but think of Goebels . Had Goebels been alive today he would complain to > the ICTY in the Hague for the death penalty he had received during the > Nuernberg Trail . He would also request it to be dismissed, for there is no > difference between Margolis' and Goebels' hate-propaganda. It is sad that > the Ottawa Sun allows this kind of articles full of racist, anti-Serb, > unsubstantiated and distorted facts to be printed. It is even tragic that > Margolis acts as the Sun's foreign affairs analyst. > > Boba Borojevic > 30 Walgate Ave. > Nepean, On., Canada > > 613/ 225-2321 > > 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]
