U.S./NATO Charged with Criminal Negligence in Death of Pres.
Slobodan Milosevic
In this email:
1) Press Release from the International Action Center "U.S./NATO Charged
with Criminal Negligence in Death of President Slobodan Milos(evic"
2) Letter from the The International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milos(evic to the UN Security Council
3) Statement from the International Action Center on the Death of
Slobodan Milos(evic, President of Yugoslavia
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International Action Center
39 West 14th St, #206, New York, NY, 10011
www.iacenter.org
<https://mail.action-mail.org/Redirect/www.iacenter.org> -
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<http://us.f600.mail.yahoo.com/ym/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Press Contact: John Catalinotto, Sara Flounders, Dustin Langley -
212-633-6646
March 11, 2006
U.S./NATO Charged with Criminal Negligence in Death of
President Slobodan Milosevic
Upon learning of the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic in prison in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 12, the
International Action Center in the United States joined organizations
and individuals around the world in condemning the court, prison
authorities and the forces behind them with criminal negligence in
ignoring the prisoner's medical care.
The IAC also condemned the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) for holding a "fraudulent trial for the last four
years in an attempt to blame President Milosevic and Yugoslavia for
NATO's criminal war in the Balkans."
IAC co-director Sara Flounders said, "The full responsibility for the
death of President Slobodan Milosevic lies directly with the fraudulent
court created by the U.S. and NATO governments at The Hague - the ICTY.
Ever since the illegal kidnapping of President Milosevic from Serbia in
June 2001 and his forcible detention at Scheveningen prison on
fraudulent war crimes charges, the court has consistently denied
adequate medical care."
Flounders cited the last action of the International Committee for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM) continuing efforts to save the
life of the seriously ill defendant. The Defense Committee appealed on
March 8 to the 15 ambassadors of the members of the United Nations
Security Council. Their letter signed by prominent supporters urged that
Milosevic be transferred to Russia under secure guarantees for his
return, for emergency medical care, given his critical medical
condition, after the ICTY had refused this treatment. The IAC delivered
the letters to the UN Security Council members.
"During this trial, now over four years old," said Flounders, "the
prosecution failed to present a coherent case against President
Milosevic. In addition, his vigorous defense exposed step by step the
crimes of the imperialist powers, especially the U.S. and Germany, in
conspiring to destroy the Yugoslav Socialist Federation through
subversion and direct military assault. As the case was drawing to a
close this presented a terrible dilemma for the court."
Flounders traveled with international human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark
to Yugoslavia during the U.S.-NATO bombing in the spring of 1999. Based
on that trip Flounders met with President Milosevic in Scheveningen
prison at The Hague and was on the schedule to be a witness at the trial
for the defense on the impact of the NATO bombing.
The UN Security Council established the ICTY in 1993, at the insistence
of Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Its role from the beginning was
restricted to prosecuting solely people from the Yugoslav Federation.
Almost all the cases were directed against Serbs and all of the cases
served to deflect responsibility from the U.S. and NATO. The ICTY
rejected attempts by a group of international attorneys to bring war
crimes charges against the United States for the 78 days of bombing
primarily civilian targets in Yugoslavia.
Ramsey Clark has often described the ICTY's establishment as "an
explicit violation of the UN Charter and a political court used as an
instrument of war against the Yugoslav peoples."
The Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter also described the court. "The
U.S./NATO court trying Slobodan Milosevic was always totally
illegitimate. It could never be taken seriously as a court of justice.
Milosevic defense is powerful, convincing, persuasive and impossible to
dismiss."
The ICTY received its financing from the U.S. and other NATO powers and
from international financial organizations such as those connected with
billionaire George Soros, an enemy of socialism in Eastern Europe.
Although there was an extremely unequal financing of the ICTY's
prosecution compared with Milosevic's defense effort, NATO governments
still interfered with all attempts to collect funds from human rights
organizations to support the Yugoslav president's effort to make his
case. The German and Austrian governments closed the Defense Committee's
bank accounts in both countries in the last few months before
Milosevic's death.
Despite having no permanent staff and relatively little legal assistance
to respond to 500,000 pages of prosecution documents, Milosevic
politically countered every charge against him while discrediting the
prosecution witnesses. During the defense part of the trial, he was able
to present a damning case against the U.S. and NATO. Though the NATO
powers first announced the Milosevic case as the "trial of the century"
and planned a show trial, when Milosevic turned the table on the
prosecution and counter-charged NATO with war crimes almost all coverage
of the trial ended.
In two major statements, answering the charges against him in 2001 at
the opening of the trial and in 2004 at the opening of his defense,
Milosevic makes the historical record. The 2001 statement is published
in the 2002 book, "Hidden Agenda - The U.S./NATO Takeover of
Yugoslavia," and his 2004 statement in the book, "The Defense Speaks -
For History and the Future." Both books are published by the IAC.
In a statement released by the International Committee to Defend
Slobodan Milosevic - www.icdsm.org the committee called the courts
action: "tantamount to the murder of a man who stood as a symbol of
resistance to the New World Order and a symbol of and fighter for the
independence and sovereignty of the peoples of Yugoslavia and for social
justice in the world. This was his only crime."
The Defense Committee demanded: "that there be an international,
independent enquiry into the circumstances and cause of his death and
that his family, his party and his supporters be party to that enquiry.
We also demand the right of his wife and family to attend his funeral
without fear of persecution, arrest or any other impediment to their
right to honor their beloved husband, comrade and father."
In a statement made Nov. 29, 2005, exposing the duplicity of the court
regarding the inadequate health care provided him; Milosevic made it
clear to British judge Ian Bonomy what he thought of the tribunal: "This
entire court was envisaged as an instrument of war against my country.
It was founded illegally on the basis of an illegal decision and carried
through by the forces that waged war against my country. There is just
one thing that is true here: It is true that there is a joint criminal
enterprise, but not in Belgrade, not with Yugoslavia as its center, but
those, who, in a war that was waged in Yugoslavia from 1991 onwards,
destroyed Yugoslavia."
- 30 -
President Milosevic opening statement as the Trial opened is printed in
full in the IAC book Hidden Agenda: The U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia
<http://www.iacenter.org/folder02/hidden_toc.htm> .His statement to the
court 2 years later as the defense finally began its rebuttal is printed
in full
in the IAC book The Defense Speaks - For History and the Future
<http://www.allbookstores.com/book/0974752126/Defense_Speaks.html> .
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The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milos(evic I C D S M
Sofia-New York-Moscow-Belgrade
www.icdsm.org
Founded 25 March 2001 in Berlin
New York, 8 March 2006
Phone/Fax +381 11 630 549
Letter to the 15 Members of the UN Security Council
Dear Ambassador,
We are dismayed and deeply distressed at the cavalier and dilatory
dismissal by the ICTY Trial Chamber of former President Slobodan
Milosevic's request that, as recommended by the internationally
respected Bakoulev Center for Cardiovascular Surgery in Moscow, he be
transferred there for further testing and possible treatment for a life
threatening cardiovascular condition. The Trial Chambers opinion is
attached. Based on medical examinations of President Milosevic by three
doctors on November 4, 2005, including Dr. M.V. Shumilina, an
angiologist from the Bakoulev Center, Dr. L.A. Bockeria, Director and
Chairman of the Bakoulev Center found President Milosevic condition to
be "critical". The Trial Chamber received these medical evaluations on
November 15, 2005. Most dismaying and distressing is the total failure
of the Trial Chamber to address and acknowledge the medical condition of
President Milosevic and order needed testing and medical treatment as is
the right of every prisoner.
International law--and in particular, the International Covenant for
Civil and Political Rights-- prescribes, and the ICTY's own Rules of
detention guarantee, the rights of prisoners to be "treated with
humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person".
Throughout the course of legal proceedings, accused are presumed
innocent, and those deprived of their liberty are to be treated in a
manner "appropriate to their status as unconvicted persons".
President Milosevic remains untreated in the face of Dr. Shumilina's
conclusion that his medical treatment at the United Nations Detention
Unit is "inadequate". Incredibly, despite his history of heart problems
and high blood pressure, no vascular diagnoses had been made before
November 4, 2004. Yet President Milosevic's health has been a major
concern in the proceedings for the past three years. The stress of the
proceedings, the inadequate medical care and the prison conditions have
severely worsened his prior health problems endangering his life. The
Trial Chamber has taken no action to protect the life of a prisoner
whose physical condition has been found to be critical. Instead it has
trivialized its duty to assure adequate and necessary medical care for a
person being tried before it. Detainees who require special treatment,
as does President Milosevic, must be transferred to specialized
institutions for that treatment, as set out by the. Standard Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the First United
Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.
The Trial Chamber astonishingly proclaims:
1. "That neither Dr. Shumilina nor Dr. Bockeria states that the Bakoulev
Center is the only possible location for appropriate diagnosis and
treatment of the accused's condition." What conceit could lead them to
such a boast? They doubtless believe their Center is the best and such a
conclusion is justified. No confidence can be placed in the medical
choices of the Court authorities after their years of neglect and
selection in December 2005 of Dr. Aarts, a Dutch neurological
radiologist, who found no pathological condition in President Milosevic
and made no recommendations for treatment.
2. That it "...accepts the submission of the Prosecution that if the
Accused wishes to be treated by specialists who are not from the
Netherlands, such physicians may come here to treat him." Rich and
famous people travel from all parts of the world to leading medical
centers like Bakoulev, often when their very travel is a risk. No one
believes the same quality service could be provided by roving medical
teams of the world's best doctors and if it could be, the number of
patients they serve would be drastically reduced. Both propositions are
absurd in a proceeding where life and fundamental rights are at stake.
And how does the panel explain it's authorizing Pavle Strugar to be
repeatedly released to travel to Montenegro, an entity which is not a UN
member, for hip replacement surgery, a relatively safe, simple and a
minor procedure? Prosecutor v. Pavle Strugar, IT-01-42-A, 3 December
2001, 16 December 2005. The final conclusion of the Trial Chamber
proclaims that it is "not satisfied ... that it is more likely than not
that the Accused, if released, would return for the continuation of his
trial". Why it has more trust in the government of Montenegro or interim
administration of Kosovo than the Russian Federation, which has given
its word to return President Milosevic, is not explained, but the insult
to a permanent member of the Security Council is inescapable. The Trial
Chamber's reliance in denying President Milosevic needed medical care,
on the proceedings being in "its latter stages ... at the end of which
... he may face the possibility of life imprisonment" is irrational at
best. Does it mean under such circumstances, a prisoner may just have to
die? Is it too late for urgently needed medical treatment? Does it mean
"the possibility of life imprisonment is greater in the latter stages of
a trial than in the beginning? Then it is commenting on the weight of
the evidence which it will judge. Would a defendant who believes he
would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison wait until the latter
stages of proceedings to seek a means of escape? Would an impartial
Court obligated to hear all the evidence before reaching a decision
believe in the latter stages of a trial it was hearing that the
defendant was more likely to flee then than he was at the beginning,
unless the Court believed the evidence supported a severe sentence? Has
the Court revealed its bias by its bizarre reliance on a presumed fear
of a life sentence by the accused in the latter stages of these
proceedings? The decision of the Trial Chamber is unsupportable in fact
and in law. It exposes the Court's strategy of feeble excuses to support
its prejudice and reveals its own failures to protect the health of this
prisoner. The decision is so unreasonable and plainly unjust as to
demonstrate the appearance and the fact of judicial prejudice. The Court
has determined that President Milosevic must face the possibility of
death because it sees the possibility of a life sentence as the cause
for his seeking emergency medical care. The decision alone, affirmed by
the Appeals Chamber, will do great injury to the ICTY and international
humanitarian law. The death or serious impairment of President Milosevic
for want of medical care will impose the same sentence on the ICTY and
international law as a means to peace. We urge you to direct the ICTY to
order the immediate transfer of President Milosevic to the Bakoulev
Center for testing and treatment under the conditions proposed.
Respectfully submitted,
Ramsey Clark, Former US Attorney General, USA
Professor Velko Valkanov, doctor of law, President of the Bulgarian
Committee for Human Rights, former MP, Bulgaria
Professor Alexander Zinoviev, philosopher, writer, Russian Federation
Professor Sergei Baburin, doctor of law, Vice-Chairman of the State Duma
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russian Federation
Judr Vojte(ch Filip, Vice-Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the
Parliament of the Czech Republic Thanassis Pafilis, Member of the
European Parliament, General Secretary of the World Peace Council, Greece
Tiphaine Dickson, international criminal lawyer, Quebec
Professor Aldo Bernardini, doctor of international law, Italy
Christopher Black, international criminal lawyer, Canada
Klaus Hartmann, Vice-Chairman of the World Union of Freethinkers, Germany
Sara Flounders, Co Director of the International Action Center
Attachment: Decision of the ICTY Trial Chamber
<http://www.un.org/icty/milosevic/trialc/decision-e/060224.htm>
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*
IAC STATEMENT ON THE DEATH IN PRISON OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, PRESIDENT OF
YUGOSLAVIA*
The International Action Center would like to send its sincere
condolences to the family, friends and comrades of President Slobodan
Milosevic of Yugoslavia and to the peoples of the Balkans who mourn his
death at the hands of the court and prison authorities in The Hague. We
join with others around the world to condemn the International Criminal
Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for this crime. The full
responsibility for the death of President Slobodan Milosevic lies
directly with the fraudulent court created by the U.S. and NATO
governments at The Hague - the ICTY. We join the also the demands for an
independent investigation of the circumstances of President Milosevic's
death.
Since the illegal kidnapping of President Milosevic from Serbia in June
2001 and his forcible detention at Scheveningen prison on fraudulent war
crimes charges, the court has consistently denied adequate medical care.
The ICTY has held a fraudulent trial for the last four years in an
attempt to blame Milosevic and Yugoslavia for NATO's criminal war in the
Balkans.
During this trial, now over four years old, the prosecution has failed
to present anything like a case against Milosevic. In addition, his
vigorous defense has exposed the crimes of the imperialist powers,
especially the U.S. and Germany, in conspiring to destroy the Yugoslav
Socialist Federation through subversion and direct military assault.
In the days before President Milosevic's death, the IAC joined the
efforts of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan
Milosevic (ICDSM), sending to the 15 ambassadors of the members of the
United Nations Security Council a request that President Milosevic be
transferred to Russia for medical care, given his critical medical
condition. This court has now--at the very least--allowed him to die
rather than exposing its own inability to build a case against this
Yugoslav and Serb political leader. The ICTY was responsible for his
care and is guilty in the very least of criminal neglect.
The NATO leaders--with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder
topping the list--should have been the ones on trial for war crimes.
>From the day of his kidnapping, President Milosevic waged a heroic
defense of his own actions to defend Yugoslavia. He equally exposed the
crimes of these leaders of the great powers to the world. For this the
peoples of the Balkans and of the world will be indebted to him.
Sara Flounders,
Co-coordination, International Action Center
March 11, 2006
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