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Monday, April 8, 2002
Why is America promoting Hague inquisition?
Posted: April 8, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aleksandar
Pavic
BELGRADE – Why is it in America's interest to promote injustice in the
Balkans?
We have grave-faced U.S. officials, such as Pierre Richard Prosper, the U.S.
ambassador for "war crimes," coming to Belgrade these days just to tell the
fragile Yugoslav government that it "must" cooperate with what can only be
described as the kangaroo court in The Hague, or else.
And "else" means being denied not only U.S. aid (which is not a bad thing in
itself, not because it comes from the U.S. but because no country should base
its policy on foreign handouts) but also U.S. support in international financial
institutions such as IMF and the World Bank (also not bad, except when a country
is so debt-ridden that it needs support to have a portion of its debts to these
institutions written off), as well as U.S. encouragement for much-needed foreign
investment to start coming in after almost a decade of economic sanctions.
These U.S. officials are coming into a sovereign country – although the
concept of sovereignty is fast becoming obsolete under the New Order – to demand
compliance with a "court" that could never pass muster in the United States as
long as it is still a free and democratic land. For the International Criminal
Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia is an institution that is both
judge and prosecutor, that is financed by foreign governments, that allows
anonymous witnesses, that uses NATO troops to hunt down "suspects" even in their
own countries with brutal force and that has no jury.
It is a court in which politics and what is left of international law mix. It
is a court where "justice" is micromanaged so that the context of a regional
tragedy is blurred and the small fry caught in its net can take the attention
away from the big fish that stoked the flames of war to begin with. This "court"
is the perfect example of how the law can be used as a bludgeon of political
control and foreign policy. It relativizes the very concept of law. It is the
modern version of Kafka's "Trial."
And the U.S. is throwing its substantial diplomatic and political weight
behind this institution. The question is why?
Is it because it is the model of the future that needs legitimization abroad
before it can be applied at home? If so, then Americans should take heed and
follow its proceedings. Except – it is almost impossible to do so.
For all its publicity, its richly-funded apparatus (almost $500 million since
its inception in 1993), its lofty proclamations of promoting "justice" and the
"prosecution of war criminals," it is very hard to actually follow the
tribunal's proceedings. And that is strange, considering that the working of
this court is such an important pillar of U.S. policy that countries are being
blackmailed to accept it.
It is doubly strange considering the fact that at this very moment standing
trial before this "court" – after being kidnapped by masked men from his own
country – is a man, Slobodan Milosevic, whose name filled the headlines of the
mainstream media during the previous decade. He was dubbed the "Butcher of the
Balkans" by these same media and has already been convicted by their editorial
staffs as "the biggest war criminal since Hitler," as the main "Balkan warlord,"
as the man responsible for unspeakable atrocities and crimes, "ethnic cleansing"
and other deeds too terrible to mention.
Could it be that his trial is denied proper coverage because it has exposed
all the weaknesses of the Hague tribunal? Because of the fact that most of the
"evidence" gathered by the "prosecution" has proven to be nothing more than
hearsay? Because of the fact that the "witnesses" for the "prosecution" have
been exposed as liars by Milosevic himself, who has taken to waging his own
defense rather than recognizing the tribunal by accepting the services of
lawyers on its payroll?
And yet, this is a court that the U.S. is trying to impose on the country of
Yugoslavia, in violation of its constitution. Can the cause of justice and
democracy be promoted through injustice and inquisition?
There is no mistaking the fact that Milosevic was an old-fashioned commie who
used nationalist rhetoric to promote his own agenda and secure his grip on
power. There is no mistaking the fact that, even before the international
sanctions against Yugoslavia, his economic policy of mixing old-style statist
socialism with mafia-style crony capitalism was driving his country on a course
of ruin in any case. And there is no mistaking of his complicity (along with
other Balkan – and Western – leaders) in starting a bloody and destructive civil
war that ripped the former Yugoslavia asunder.
However, old Yugoslav anti-communists, this writer included, feel that they
did not fight so that one brand of totalitarianism would be replaced by another
– either locally or globally. For, the Hague proceedings are in fact a show
trial reminiscent of the banner days of Joe Stalin.
And the question that still remains is – why is the U.S. promoting this?
Aleksandar Pavic in Belgrade covers
Yugoslavia for WorldNetDaily.com. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27138
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
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