Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- From: Nicholas Camerota -------------------- Wily Milosevic seeks to put UN tribunal on trial -------------------- Defense opposes court's legitimacy By Tom Hundley Tribune foreign correspondent September 10, 2001 BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- After two courtroom appearances, Slobodan Milosevic has made his defense strategy clear: The United Nations international war crimes tribunal will be put on trial. The former Yugoslav leader is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1998-99 campaign of violence and terror directed against the ethnic Albanian minority in Kosovo. Sometime next month, Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, is expected to expand the indictment to cover crimes committed during the ethnic wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in the early '90s. In the new indictment, Milosevic likely will be charged with the most heinous of all crimes: genocide. Milosevic has responded to all of this with unbridled contempt. He has ridiculed The Hague tribunal as a "false court" and a "NATO court." He has refused to be served with the indictment or to have it read in court. He has refused to hire a lawyer. Some international law experts say this might not be a bad tactic. "In a sense, the tribunal is always on trial. It's a new institution. Its jurisdiction, which is a bit shady, was born in an odd way--by a UN Security Council resolution," said Anthony D'Amato, a law professor at Northwestern University who has had a case before the tribunal. The tribunal itself acknowledged as much in one of its first decisions when it declared that the true test of its jurisdiction would be measured in the perceived fairness of its procedures. Courtroom showdown While D'Amato and other legal experts agree that the tribunal has done a good job establishing its legitimacy and credibility, the Milosevic case will be its ultimate test, and Milosevic, a skilled tactician, will be a formidable foe. In his court appearance Aug. 30, it appeared to some that he nearly succeeded in putting Presiding Judge Richard May on the defensive. "Can I speak or are you going to turn off the microphone?" was Milosevic's challenge when May asked if he had anything to say. It was reference to Milosevic's first courtroom appearance when May cut off Milosevic's microphone to stop a political tirade. "We have to communicate as civilized persons, not switching off microphones," continued Milosevic in a patronizing tone. The former Yugoslav president then launched into a litany of complaints about his treatment: Why had he been kept in isolation? Why was he being denied access to the media? Why did prison authorities feel the need to monitor his conversations with his 2-year-old grandson? "If there is on one side all the machinery you represent, all the secret services, military machinery, media machinery and everything else, and on my side is only the truth, then it is clear [the tribunal] is completely discriminatory. You cannot even mention evenhandedness," he said. May interrupted to warn Milosevic that a preliminary hearing was not the time for political speeches, but Milosevic ignored him. Finally, May switched off Milosevic's microphone in mid-sentence, and Milosevic waved his arm in a gesture of contempt. The court's immediate problem is Milosevic's refusal to hire a lawyer. Milosevic has insisted on representing himself, and the court cannot impose a lawyer on him. It did appoint an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, whose role is to assist the judges in making sure that none of Milosevic's rights are violated. The amicus curiae, however, cannot mount an active defense. "The court is going to have to make the proceedings against Milosevic appear to be fair no matter how obstructionist he is," D'Amato said in a telephone interview. "It can't let the prosecutors slip something past him that he wouldn't notice. The judges will have to act as Milosevic's counsel." D'Amato and other international law experts agree that if Milosevic chose to hire an experienced lawyer, he could probably mount an effective defense. Given Milosevic's penchant for secrecy and his distaste for putting his intentions in writing, it is unlikely that there is a paper trail connecting him to war crimes committed in Kosovo, Bosnia or Croatia. More likely, Milosevic created a bogus paper trail proving his innocence: directives forbidding the commission of war crimes. Hague prosecutors have plenty of victims who can attest to how Milosevic's police and paramilitaries went about their business, but do they have someone from within Milosevic's inner circle who can testify as to who made policy and who gave orders? By expanding the case to include Bosnia and Croatia, the prosecutors invite problematic questions about the West's dubious involvement with the Yugoslav dictator. If, at Dayton in 1995, Milosevic was hailed as the guarantor of peace in Bosnia, what transformed him into a war criminal four years later? In theory, Milosevic could subpoena former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark to answer that question. "I think he's got a good defense," said D'Amato. "International law in a war crimes case really operates in favor of the defense." Milosevic's tactics thus far suggest he feels the legal deck is stacked against him. That appears to be the reason why he wants to politicize the case and put the tribunal on trial. Striking a demeanor that is at once belligerent and self-pitying, he is posing as the defender of the Serbs, whom he portrays as the blameless victims of NATO "aggression." Few in Serbia now care Normally this plays well in Serbia, which still nurses a grudge against the world and has yet to own up to its responsibility for the ethnic wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia. But these days, few people in Serbia are paying much attention to Milosevic. "People are tired of him and his problems. They want to move on," said Pedrag Markovic, a political analyst in Belgrade. If the purpose of the war crimes tribunal is to punish the guilty and serve as a history lesson to future generations, the Serbs are likely to prove reluctant students. Milosevic's most recent court appearance was a one-day story in Belgrade. Milan Stanic, a 28-year-old student, said he didn't follow the case. "I'm not interested in what happens to him," said Stanic. "Why do we even have to think about him at all? He's our past and he should remain there." Copyright (c) 2001, Chicago Tribune -------------------- Subscribe to the Chicago Tribune Today! Good Eating, Your Place, and TV Week -- just a few reasons to get the Chicago Tribune at home every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Subscribe by calling 1-800-TRIBUNE (1-800-874-2863) or online at chicagotribune.com/subscribe ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
