THE HARTWIG TESTIMONY
AT THE HAGUE
AND THE POSTPONEMENT
OF SLOBODAN
MILOSEVIC's TRIAL
DUE TO "ILLNESS."
R.K.Kent
This short piece is written without footnotes and those who
require footnotes to feel reassured about "documented accuracy"
should simply disregard the ensuing text.
News just came over a TV broadcast that the trial of the
former Yugoslav President Milosevic has been postponed due to his
"illness." This "diagnosis" comes virtually on the heels of a
testimony given to the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia
(ICTY) by Dietmer Hartwig, head of European Union's monitoring teams
at Kosovo PRIOR to the bombing of both Kosovo and Serbia by NATO.
In a LENGHTY and DETAILED testimony , Dietmar Hartwig, an officer
of the German Army, underscored the HUGE GAP between reality on the
ground at Kosovo and what the Western European( and U.S.)
Governments reported to their respective publics, with full media
support. .This was all the more so because there is a PAPER TRAIL
of his DAILY, WEEKLY and MONTHLY reports to various European Capitals
.Briefly, these reports revealed that "the Serbs" were not guilty of
ANY real and sustainable crimes against the Albanian civilians at
Kosovo. Much of the violence before NATO's intervention took place
either through deliberate ambushes of Serb police units by the
"clandestine" (read terrorist) "Kosovo Liberation Army" (UCK)
and the unavoidable police ripostes. Moreover, a great deal of
violence came as a combination of clan rivalries and a draconic
Albanian moral code that requires vengeance for real or imagined
"insults" from rival clans.
Hartwig concluded his testimony by reiterating that "there was no
reason" to bomb the Serbs. Indeed, just prior to the start of NATO's
"humanitarian" intervention (who ever invented "humanitarian" bombs?),
there was a massive and accurate report about the REAL situation at
Kosovo. It contained factual information, compiled between November
1998 and late March 1999. The report was, however, suppressed by the
various Governments taking part in NATO's "humanitarian intervention."
The kidnapping of Milosevic and the never-ending trial at the
Hague, now in its FOURTH YEAR, are aberrations of a type of power
accountable to no one. For the kidnapping, Milosevic's replacement,
Djindjic, paid with his life. But, such a "retribution." cannot
affect those in "the West" who have convinced themselves either by
propaganda or by donations of moneys from Albanian lobbies that
Albanians at Kosovo were the perennial "victims " of the Serb
"aggressors," without bothering to look at the last 64 years of
REAL local history without reading biased and bogus would-be
"historical" productions by overnight "authorities on the subject."
(2)
As an actor in a French play put it, "Histoire? Ca fatigue la
memoire."? Bernard Kouchner, France's most vocal Serb-hater, who
became the UN's top official at Kosovo,
called the mayhem against the Kosovo Serbs during his administration
"justifiable retribution" but the Hartwig reports would make it
imperative for this "moral" voice to recant. Equally, these reports
demand that charges against Milosevic in respect to Kosovo be
dropped. Instead, the tragi-comic assemblage, called the "ICTY," is
ducking-out by first proclaiming Milosevic to be "incapable of
defending himself" and when this did not work against general outcry ,
Milosevic is now "too ill" to proceed with a trial in which the ACTUAL
CULPRIT is NATO. It could be that he was SLOWLY poisoned or just worn
down by a bizarre and over-lengthy trial. It is possible on both
counts but this tough Serb (whatever his political leanings and/or
sins) is no quitter.
In the end, he will be convicted because he has already been found
guilty in the media worldwide. But, his kidnapping for delivery to
the ICTY; his ordeal over an inordinate period of time (remember the
US stricture against interminable trials?); the rigged "procedures" at
ICTY and such attempts as denials of basic legal rights (like
self-defense) are stripping the mask off ICTY. It's main and
over-riding if unstated aim is to do everything possible to exculpate
NATO and its leaders from having committed an aggression, for having
used cluster bombs, depleted uranium in shells, and the deliberaste
terror bombing of civilian targets in Serbia and Kosovo.
Lest any reader think that the present writer is somehow
"pro-Milosevic," permit him a biographical note. Milosevic is a
successor of the Communist regime which expelled this writer as a
young boy of 15 from all schools in Yugslavia for a period of seven
years. His crime? During a school break, he was alone in a classroom
when the Director walked in and saw on the black-board "Long Live the
King, down with TITO." As the present writer would not reveal the name
of a classmate who actually put the slogan on the blackboard, the
price had to be paid. Since it could not be my way, I took the
highway to Trieste in 1945..Be that as it may, Milosevic stands for
this writer as a metaphor for all "the Serbs" turned into would-be
"neo-Nazis" for failing to master International Public Relations,
saps for believing that truth not bribes will win in the end.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
