http://www.nolanchart.com/article6904.html
Confessions of an Ethnic Cleanser
KARADZIC: JUSTICE DENIED
A former officer of The Office of the Prosecutor in the Hague, ICTY,
exposes how and why the UN is denying justice to war crimes suspect, Radovan
Karadzic.
by James Luko
(centrist)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) Office of the Prosecutor (disclosure: I worked for the
ICTY Prosecutor's Office for seven years and met Karadzic in Pale in 1996
while accompanying the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Elisabeth
Rehn) was in the middle of an incredibly long, and by many accounts
including mine, an incompetent prosecution of former Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic, when the accused dropped dead in the ICTY's detention
center of a heart attack. Now, with Radovan Karadzic, the Prosecution is out
for revenge, as Milosevic, Karadzic and General Mladic were/are the "Big
Three" war crime suspects that the ICTY Prosecution has spent hundreds of
millions of dollars of public money investigating and prosecuting.
The ongoing problem over the past few years has been first;
Milosevic died on them, and I can reveal that some in the Prosecutor's
Office were quite happy with that as they realized their preparation was
poor, disorganized and generally incompetent.
Second; they (ICTY and the Serbian Government) haven't been able
to capture General Mladic, who is without a doubt, according to my previous
interactions with the Serbian Ministry of Justice, closely guarded and
protected by a dominant faction of the shadowy parallel government security
forces whom even the Serbian government fears.
Third; Karadzic (aka the amazing healer, Dr. Dragan David Dabic-
his alias while in hiding) has been on the run since his indictment for war
crimes, including genocide, by ICTY in 1996. Dr. Karadzic was the President
of Republika Srpska (the Serbian controlled part of Bosnia) from 1992 until
1996, when, under pressure of the United States, he agreed to resign and
depart from the public eye in return for "political" immunity. This public
caveat at the time, did not include, any immunity from any future criminal
prosecutions, although, Karadzic claims that the U.S. did make assurances of
his criminal immunity. On this point, I would tend to believe his claim- as
there is a fair amount of solid circumstantial evidence, aside of which I
myself, was involved in an operation in cooperation with British Forces in
Banja Luka Bosnia in 1997 which was on the verge of capturing Karadzic when
in consultation with London the operation was canceled. (see a brief account
of this incident covered by the UK Telegraph newspaper)[link edited for
length]
Hiding in Belgrade Serbia under the alias of Dr. Dabic,
Karadzic was arrested last year and transferred to the Hague's (ICTY)
custody. The trial is now set to begin, after numerous delays, October 19,
2009, and a few days ago the ICTY Chambers (the Court) asked the Prosecution
to "trim" the 11 count indictment, in light of the previous trial of
Milosevic which was a multi-year fiasco. The Prosecution has declined to
"trim" the number of counts in the indictment, "claiming" a reduction in
charges will prevent the case from encompassing the full scope of his
[alleged] crimes. I do not believe this is a "sincere" answer to the
Chambers, as its quite common to abridge trials in order to serve a larger
justice of achieving some objectives rather than creating a massive,
disorganized circus that completely violates the right of a speedy trial.
The main point here is that there are two main reasons why now
the Prosecution does not wish to abridge the indictment count. The first
reason is almost a type of "revenge" for the inability to prosecute
Milosevic, the first big fish, and the inability to capture and prosecute
the other big fish, General Mladic. So, Karadzic is the one the Prosecution
can "crucify" in place of the other two. The Prosecution needs to nail
Karadzic to the cross on as many charges as possible, especially genocide in
Srebrenica to justify its very existence. The primary purpose of the ICTY,
its raison d'etre, is to prosecute those at the highest levels of
responsibility in order to serve as an example to others around the world
lest they repeat the same crimes thinking that as leaders of a sovereign
nation they are untouchable. (In such concepts of command responsibility for
crimes committed during the war in Bosnia , note the absence of indictments
against Franjo Tudjman- former strongman leader of Croatia, now dead, and
Alija Izetbegovic- former President of Bosnia, also now dead – this is the
West's concept of "selective" justice).
The second reason the Prosecution does not wish to reduce the
charges is trial strategy, knowing in advance, and in my person opinion, a
very weak prosecutorial structure (disorganized- inconsistent) as well as
immense lack of professionalism in some aspects of the investigation, the
Prosecution has created a gross inequality of arms, another substantial
violation of judicial rights for the accused. This strategy, to compensate
for the Prosecutors shortcomings mentioned above, is to "overwhelm" the
accused with a massive case for which the meager resources of Karadzic (he
is defending himself and has some assistance from various lawyers including
the talented American lawyer Peter Robinson) cannot but hope to deal with
the thousands of pages submitted and the number of witnesses the Prosecution
will present.
In such a precedent setting case, of monumental historical
significance, it's incredulous how unequal the resources are, in budgets and
manpower, it would be virtually impossible, guilty or not guilty, to
professionally and competently defend on all counts. In my professional
opinion, the indictments should be abridged to make a case which can be
completed within a years time.
As it is now, the accused's fundamental rights to a fair trial
are being violated by a gross inequality of arms and lack of a speedy trial.
A point to make clear, I worked sincerely on the efforts to
investigate and prosecute Karadzic, and, if guilty due to chain of command
responsibility and/or direct orders, I am the first to demand justice for
the war crimes- extra-judicial killings, mass murder, expulsions, ethnic
cleansing (although I disagree with the charge of genocide in Srebrenica- it
was not genocide). However, as our core belief in working for the ICTY was
and is "justice" it's a mockery of our efforts, a slap in our face, for the
people in the Hague, who didn't even serve in the field taking the risks
during and after the war as many of us did, to now prosecute and convict
Karadzic using tactics which are major violations of UN, International and
European laws, (right of speedy trial and equality of arms). Justice, can
NOT be attained via unfair trials using illegal methods and at this time,
this is what the UN ICTY Prosecution is doing, this is Justice Denied.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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