The Editor,
Letters to the Times,
The New York Times,
229 West 43rd Street,
New York, N.Y. 10036-3959
30.6.01
In reference to �Milosevic and the Beginning of Honesty,� I applaud the
part of Peter
Maass� Op-Ed essay where he recommends that Serb judges be included and
that Serb
journalists be helped to report on the Hague tribunal�s proceedings in order
to make the
verdict convincing to the Serbs. I do so because Carla del Ponte has
already condemned
Milosevic in public for life in prison without a trial, with additional
charges beyond
Kosovo. Under such a circumstance she needs to recuse herself from
prosecuting the man
she has already sentenced and a new prosecutor is in order. It is not only
that
Milosevic is on trial but, also, the Tribunal itself. It has so far been
unable to
provide absolute public evidence of a single fair and impartial trial. An
open trial,
with full defense rights and with a new prosecutor would provide the
needed
environment for a verdict that all can accept. Otherwise the Rule of
Law.
which the International Community has sought to promote in the Balkans,
will have no
future. This is already evident in the way that Milosevic was delivered to
the Hague
in an RAF plane in clear violation of the Rule of Law in Belgrade itself.
Where I disagree with Mr. Maass is on the subject of the need to �cure� the
Serbs of
their �victim mythology.� His text allows for no Serb victims and that is
the problem
when the Victor imposes his version of History. Between August 1991 and
February 1992,
some 40,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed out of Western Slavonia. Their
Churches were
systematically destroyed, their properties were looted and taken over and
many of their
elderly were simply executed. It was the ethnic cleansing that started it
all. No Serb
victims? Four years later, in August 1995, some 250,000 Serbs were
ethnically cleansed
from Krajina, with more properties looted and torched and more of the dead
elderly who
could not flee. No Serb victims? Between 28 March and 6 June 1999, after
eleven weeks of
relentless bombing by NATO (Mainly U.S. and Britain), some 3,000 Serbs were
dead and
about three times that number were wounded No Serb victims? The
infrastructue of Serbia
was �taken out.� This did not victimize the Serbs? Since the NATO/UN
advent in
Kosovo, over 250,000 Serbs have been ethnically cleansed by the so-called
�Kosovo
Liberation Army.� More than a thousand Serbs have been kidnapped and
mudered
piecemeal. It is still going on. Clearly , the �Biginning of Honesty� must
start here at
home. Otherwise, we only dishonor ourselves while lecturing others.
Raymond K. Kent, Emeritus
History Department, U. of California,
Berkeley, CA. 94720 (Tel 510/642-1971)
Serbian News Network - SNN
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