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Milosevic – his gradual, prolonged and protracted murder 16.03.2006 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/77338-Milosevic-0 Callous irresponsibility of the International Penal Court amounts to wanton murder and a gradual and purposeful process of torture, which eventually cost Slobodan Milosevic his life. The International Penal Court at The Hague is in serious trouble, having breached international law on the human rights of prisoners and the legally afforded processes for sick persons in its control. However, in today's world, where rules and conventions and agreements and laws and charters can be broken capriciously, where any common rules of decency from yesteryear are swept away by a clique of elitist barons who pull the world's economic strings, what to expect? What to expect from a "Court" whose chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, stated publicly that Slobodan Milosevic was guilty before the case had even started? What to expect from a "Court" which held Slobodan Milosevic in a state of illegal imprisonment after he had been kidnapped against the laws of Serbia and Yugoslavia ? What to expect from a "Court" which denied Slobodan Milosevic the right to conditions and treatment which would have saved his life? Denying him this right is tantamount to protracted torture and eventually, murder. The law At the First UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, Annex 1A, Rule 22(2) it is stated that "Sick prisoners who require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialised institutions or to civil hospitals". The case Nico Varkevisser, the Vice President of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, applied to the IPC for "the specialised medical care he requires (and)…an additional adjournment for the complete recovery of the defendant". This was on 5th November, 2002. The reason was because Slobodan Milosevic was physically at risk, suffering from chronic malignant hypertension and angina pectoris, as pronounced by a council of medical experts, conditions made worse by stress. The condition is so serious that untreated, 75% of patients die within one year. Yet what conditions did the IPC apportion to him? He was forced to opt between taking a breath of fresh air or eating a sandwich in the basement for nourishment; The chief prosecutor had years to prepare her case, giving her an unfair advantage since Mr. Milosevic had far less time to prepare and present his defence even though the Statute of the Tribunal provides for adequate time and facilities for the preparation of the defence. Mr. Milosevic was not apportioned these (she callously stuck over 100.000 pages of documents and 600 video cassettes before Milosevic for him to defend himself); Slobodan Milosevic was pursuing his fundamental right under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights to defend himself, yet the IPC did not give him equal conditions under fair legal practice to do so; The IPC Unit did not provide an adequate custodial setting for Slobodan Milosevic to conduct his defence fairly and worse than this, provided a stimulus for an increase in dangerous levels of stress, since the conditions were not consistent with what would be reasonably expected for an adequate defence at such a massive trial, at which he was fighting alone against massive resources which he did not have and which he was denied; The IPC was aware of this since both Mr. Milosevic's personal physician, Zdravko Mijailovic, MD, PhD and other medical experts had warned the authorities as to the precarious and dangerous state of health suffered by the defendant; Mr. Milosevic was not allowed to travel to Russia for specialised medical treatment which would have saved his life. Mr. Milosevic's last message Mr. Milosevic's last written message was delivered to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 8th March. It was a request for help. In the letter he claims: "I think that the persistence, with which the medical treatment in Russia was denied, in the first place is motivated by the fear that through careful examination it would be discovered, that there were active, wilful steps taken, to destroy my health…" "On January 12th (i.e. two months ago) an extremely strong drug was found in my blood, which is used, as they themselves say, for the treatment of tuberculosis and leprosy, although I never used any kind of antibiotic during this five years that I'm in their prison". Why did it take two months to report this? Why was it kept a secret? Who treated Mr. Milosevic with this drug (which we now discover was to counter the effects of his treatment)? In his last letter, Mr. Milosevic spoke of "those who have an interest to silence me". Whether or not they managed to silence Mr. Milosevic depends on the members of the international community, those who defend the state of law, those who believe in justice and fairness and those who stand for a world ruled by right and reason, not bullying, belligerence and the bullet. The death of Slobodan Milosevic was part of the cabal which has seen criminal actions of state terrorism become the norm, along with a callous disregard for common decency and human rights, based upon a unilateralist Anglo-Saxon Alliance of self-righteousness and sheer arrogance. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smo031506.htm DEBUNKING THE CONSPIRACY THEORY: MILOSEVIC COULD NOT HAVE ESCAPED BY GOING TO THE MEDICAL CENTER IN MOSCOW www.slobodan-milosevic.org - March 15, 2006 Written by: Andy Wilcoxson On the occasion of Slobodan Milosevic's death, the Hague Tribunal and the Western media have concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory in an apparent effort to absolve the tribunal of responsibility. According to this conspiracy theory, Milosevic secretly took a drug called Rifampicin to block the effectiveness of his high blood pressure medicine, which in turn created a fake medical condition that he used to justify his request to go to Moscow under the pretext of obtaining medical treatment, however obtaining medical treatment wasn't Milosevic's real objective that was just a ruse so that he could make his escape. Dr. Donald Uges, a professor of clinical and forensic toxicology at the University of Groningen, was the first to advance this theory in the media. He told the New York Times "It's like a James Bond story", and on that score he's absolutely correct it's exactly like a James Bond story – it's fiction. Dr. Uges told the New York Times: "There was one escape for Milosevic out of prison, and that was to Moscow where his wife and son, and friends were. He wanted to go to Moscow on a one-way trip." Moscow was never an avenue of escape for Milosevic. On January 18th the Russian Government gave the Hague Tribunal assurances that it would guarantee "Milosevic's personal security during his time in Russia and his return to The Hague within the timeframe specified by the Tribunal." Milosevic would have been under armed-guard the whole time he was in Russia. There was absolutely no chance that he could escape by getting medical treatment Moscow. Dr. Uges was all over the media, acting more like a politician than a doctor, he told the Irish Times that Milosevic "took Rifampicin himself, not for suicide, only for his trip to Moscow." Of course Dr. Uges is a toxicologist, and not a mind reader. He can't possibly know what was going on in Milosevic's thoughts, but he didn't let that get in his way. Rifampicin is odorless and tasteless, and as such could have been mixed into Milosevic's food without his knowledge. He was administered all of his medicine by guards at the prison dispensary. He took the medicine that they gave him. The drug could have easily been added into one of his medicine capsules. Clearly, Dr. Uges can't know whether Milosevic took the drug knowingly or not, but we can find a clue in the letter that Milosevic wrote to the Russian Foreign Ministry on March 8th: "I think that the persistence, with which the medical treatment in Russia was denied, in the first place is motivated by the fear that through careful examination it would be discovered, that there were active, willful steps taken, to destroy my health, throughout the proceedings of the trial, which could not be hidden from Russian specialists." "In order to verify my allegations, I'm presenting you a simple example, which you can find in the attachment. This document, which I received on March 7, shows that on January 12th (i.e. two months ago), an extremely strong drug was found in my blood, which is used, as they themselves say, for the treatment of tuberculosis and leprosy, although I never used any kind of antibiotic during this 5 years that I'm in their prison." "Throughout this whole period, neither have I had any kind of infectious illness (apart from flu)." "Also the fact that doctors needed 2 months (to report to me), can't have any other explanation than we are facing manipulation. In any case, those who foist on me a drug against leprosy surely can't treat my illness; likewise those from which I defended my country in times of war and who have an interest to silence me." In his interview with the New York Times Dr. Urges confirmed that March 7th was indeed the day that Milosevic learned the drug had been found in his blood. Clearly, the detection of the drug is what motivated Milosevic to write the letter. As the text of the letter makes plain Milosevic was not knowingly taking the drug. The letter raises some serious questions: Why did it take the tribunal's medical staff two months to tell him that the drug had been found in his blood? If they knew in January, then why wasn't an investigation launched immediately to determine how the drug was getting into his system? Why was this information concealed from him for two months? The conspiracy theory being advanced in the media by Dr. Uges and certain "unnamed sources" at the Hague Tribunal just doesn't hold water. The conspiracy would have to involve: Milosevic, the Russian Government, the doctors at the Bakulev Medical Center in Moscow, the person who was procuring the drug and sneaking it in to him, the doctor who was advising him on how to take it, etc…. It's all just too far-fetched to be true. The fact that the tribunal is floating such a stupid story tells you right off the bat that they're guilty as sin for Milosevic's death. Milosevic had no motive to sabotage his own health. A trip to Moscow for medical treatment would not have allowed him to escape. The Russian Government guaranteed all the way back in January that it would return him within the timetable set by the tribunal. If Milosevic had been sabotaging his health he would have been running the risk of handing his defense over to Mr. Kay. Anybody who followed the trial proceedings knows that he would have never done that. The trial was not going well for the prosecution. They had not presented a stitch of evidence to show that he ordered or condoned the commission of a single crime. The prosecution spent a great deal of time trying to prove that crimes were committed, but they never made a link between any of the alleged crimes and Milosevic. At the end of the trial the judges were going to have to write a judgment based on the evidence presented in court. Writing a credible judgment convicting Milosevic on the evidence would have been impossible, because the prosecution never managed to link him to a crime. The Milosevic trial was an embarrassment for a lot of very powerful people, which is why the media very rarely covered the proceedings. He was using the trial as a platform to expose the crimes committed in Yugoslavia by various Western governments and political officials. Milosevic had an extremely long list of enemies. A person would have to be an fool to think that nobody wanted to kill him. It is a well-known fact that MI6 was plotting his assassination in 1992. It isn't hard to believe that one of his many enemies wanted to shut him up so badly that they poisoned him. Maybe they didn't want to kill him outright; maybe they just wanted him to be sick enough that Mr. Kay could take over his defense. At any rate, it's a lot easier to believe that a foreign intelligence agency, or a corrupt tribunal official, was able to infiltrate one guy into the prison who mixed the drug into Milosevic's food or into some of his other medicines. Whatever their intentions might have been, Milosevic is dead, and those responsible must be held legally accountable. Clearly, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Kwon, and Mr. Bonomy bear the most responsibility because it was their decision that denied him the medical care he urgently needed in Moscow. The doctors who knew that the Rifampicin was in his blood, but didn't tell him for two months must also be held accountable, and the prison officials who allowed the drug to be smuggled into the prison must also be held responsible. If nothing else they were negligent in their duty to keep non-prescribed drugs out of the prison. Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
