| -Caveat Lector-
----- Original Message -----
From: Vladimir Krsljanin
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 11:34 AM
Subject: Ramsey Clark: Milosevic has the truth on his
side ”Milosevic has the
truth on his side” Junge Welt, June 18,
2003 http://www.jungewelt.de/beilage/index.php?b_id=12 Cathrin Sch�tz spoke to former US attorney
general Mr. Ramsy Clark about his support for former Yugoslav president Slobodan
Milosevic, who is indicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia in The Hague Mr. Clark, when former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic was being extradited to The Hague in June 2000, you
rushed to Belgrade to try to stop this from happening. As a political activist,
what were your arguments for supporting Mr. Milosevic? First you have to go back 10 years, long
before his illegal extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Yugoslavia was a country that the United
States and the great powers of Europe intended to destroy. Mr. Milosevic was its
president and led its heroic defense. The idea of Yugoslavia was to create
a federation of Slavic peoples in Southern Europe, in the Balkans, to prevent
and avoid what had been centuries of violence and war. I’ve always believed this
was one of the most hopeful opportunities humanity has had to create stable
conditions and peace. Following World War II this idea
held together with a very high level of unity and a history of independence that
was unparalleled in the borderline states between the USSR and the NATO forces.
Yugoslavia was able to maintain its independence from both the USSR and the USA
and defy them both. It was able to provide conditions 90 percent of the trade of
its six republics was within those republics. The big powers wanted to destroy
Yugoslavia to more easily permit the exploitation of a proud and defiant people.
First Slovenia, the richest republic, separated to satisfy the selfish economic
interests of neighboring states. Then Croatia split with Germany’s strong
support for its separation from Yugoslavia. Then Bosnia demanded to separate—and
the Western powers came up with plans to split Bosnia itself up into different
enclaves with the Vance-Owen checkerboard peace plan. Bosnia could only be
viable if integrated with neighboring republics. Then finally there was Kosovo, in
Serbia itself, under attack in 1999. To carry out this foreign aggression
against Yugoslavia required the demonization of its leadership. I defend that
leadership as part of defending Yugoslavia against foreign aggression. If you
want peace on earth you have to protect countries that stand up to the U.S. and
other world powers. Besides being a political activist
you are an attorney. You have charged that the ICTY is illegitimate. What do you
mean by that? First of all, the ICTY was not
lawfully created. To create a criminal tribunal, the UN Security Council had to
usurp powers not given by the UN Charter. No person aware of the history of the
UN’s founding, let alone any serious historian, would believe for a minute the
five dominant powers that became the permanent Security Council members would
have allowed the UN to begin if they had the slightest belief it could create a
criminal court that could prosecute them for Nuremberg-type war
crimes. And yet Madeleine Albright
introduced the ICTY and pressured the Security Council to suddenly seize this
power and create the court. The ICTY’s purpose was to pressure U.S. enemies and
their leadership by determining that genocide occurred in Yugoslavia. The
charges focused on Serbs, the most populous group in the federal republic, and
thus were based not on equal justice under the law. It could only prosecute for
acts in Yugoslavia. Because the court appears to be neutral, and almost
exclusively charges Serbs with alleged war crimes, it becomes a way to carry out
war by other means. The U.S. always insists it is above
the law and can’t be prosecuted, not even by and International Criminal Court.
The ICC is at least created in accord with law. Ninety countries have ratified
the ICC, and 130 approved, while ICTY and others like it are illegitimate in
conception. Washington identifies enemies in Liberia, in Cambodia, in Iraq, and
tries to use the court to remove them from the scene. Besides the illegality of the court,
there is the ridiculous way it made charges against Pres. Milosevic. In the
middle of the 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, when the U.S. is trying
to negotiate with him, to make him surrender, the court brings charges relating
to Kosovo, saying that Milosevic has forced a migration. Meanwhile NATO is
bombing all over Kosovo as well as Serbia, killing hundreds of people and
driving hundreds of thousands out of their homes, and foreign interests are
arming enemies of Yugoslavia within Kosovo. The court brought in charges
regarding Bosnia and Croatia much later, long after the civil war in Bosnia,
long after hundreds of thousands of Serbs were driven out of the Crayina region,
and with the knowledge that Mr. Milosevic had no direct control over what
happened there. This is contemptible. Mr. Clark, why have you endorsed the
demonstration set for June 28 at The Hague in solidarity with Mr.
Milosevic? I support the June 28 demonstration
because the court should be recognized as illegitimate in its conception, and
because it is important to let the world know what is happening in The Hague. We
want to live by rule of law and not by political power that can demonize
people. Mr. Clark, the
majority of the population in the West, including big parts of the left,
considers the Serbs in general and Slobodan Milosevic in particular as among the
world’s biggest war criminals, responsible for all bloody conflicts during the
break-up of the country. How do you confront a position like
that? There’s a sad phenomenon we have to
be concerned about. People who care deeply about peace, human rights, justice,
can also be manipulated by the mass media. This media machine, controlled by
concentrated wealth, has the ability to not only reach everybody with its
propaganda but to block out other messages and debates. In the 1990s it
saturated people with the idea that Milosevic had committed such
crimes. Yet the same forces that accused
Milosevic of these crimes were themselves responsible for the bloodshed and
warfare in Yugoslavia, as I explained before. This happened also with regard to
Iraq. The U.S. led sanctions that killed 1.5 million people, a half-million of
them children under the age of 5. Yet the media all blamed Saddam Hussein for
deaths of Iraqis during sanctions, but the U.S.-led sanctions prevented food and
medicine from getting into Iraq. People who really want peace can’t
be taken in by propaganda that makes them think that by hating the demonized
person you can find peace and human rights. You’ll instead find war, injustice
and indignity. Mr. Clark, you have met with Mr. Milosevic at
Scheveningen and know of his defense strategy. How do you see its
impact? The court has tried to stop Mr.
Milosevic from defending himself effectively. He is confined. When I visited him
the court manipulated the rules so he couldn’t really have private visitors. His
visitors were monitored visitors. This makes it hard to plan a defense. It gives
away the strategy. You can’t really talk. The Yugoslav lawyers were treated
miserably. He decided to defend himself. At some real sacrifice of his health
he has worked incredibly hard to prepare and defend himself. Having lived though
the experience, and with a remarkable memory and comprehensive knowledge about
people and events he has been able to wage a tremendous defense. His advantage
was only that in a real sense he had truth and right on his side. He didn’t have
to be cunning and make things up. He made a strong opening statement,
more than a lawyer can make as he had the knowledge and authenticity from being
in the political leadership. His cross-examinations have also been strong, as he
knows the personalities of witnesses and could destroy their testimony. He has
gotten some help, as he has the right to represent himself and still have
assistance of council. I think his self-defense has been a remarkable testament
to his strength, dignity and honor and history will record it as a heroic
effort. One thing you can see is the staggering problem the prosecution has. It has the power and wealth to go anywhere but still can’t put on a convincing case. They’ve had to ask for extensions and more time - another 100 days recently - because they haven’t been able to make the case. It doesn’t’ mean it can continue. The court is now trying to cut him off from documentation from Yugoslavia, which is illegal. Still, the defense will finally be put on and will be powerful.
JOIN THE EUROPEAN SERBS AT THE JUNE 28 HAGUE DEMOS FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY FOR SERBIA! FREEDOM FOR SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC! READ MORE AT: http://www.sloboda.org.yu/engleski/demonstration-1.htm
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association) http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan Milosevic) http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council) http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM) http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center) http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/ (an independent web site) Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om |
