A war crimes trial in crisis Tuesday, September 21, 2004
The seminal international attempt to con vict an ex-national leader of genocide and war crimes has accomplished something important: Slobodan Milosevic's trial has shown how not to do it. More than two years into it, the Milosevic trial is faltering as the ad hoc U.N. court manages to remind everyone just how politically rigged this effort is. In the most egregious instance, a three-judge panel decided this month to deprive Milosevic of his right to defend himself just as he was about to begin his defense. In other words, at the most crucial juncture of the trial, the court changed the rules to give the prosecution an advantage. Granted, it was only the latest in a series of suspicious procedural revisions and unilateral judicial changes - including in the very composition of the three-judge panel hearing the case without a jury. A Scottish judge was brought in cold as the deciding vote - after assuring tribunal staff he'd studied up on the case - to replace a British judge who became ill and later died. In any normal court of law, that itself would have been grounds for a mistrial. Still, the trial didn't become outright farce until the latest ruling, which effectively upends the defense. Most of the defense witnesses called so far have refused to testify, among them Canada's ex-ambassador to Belgrade, who called it a "Stalinist show trial." With Milosevic also refusing to talk to his "lawyers" and reports that more than 250 defense witnesses will refuse to appear, the trial has had to be adjourned for a month in seeming disarray. If this were all, it would be bad enough, another waste of money and black mark on international justice; despite Milosevic's many misdeeds against his countrymen and former countrymen, whatever this court adjudicates will be suspect. But the way in which the United States and other Western nations still subordinate all other aims in the Balkans to their demand for war-crimes arrests has debilitated efforts to repair the region after nearly a decade of war. Among the unwanted results: The reform political coalition that toppled Milosevic nearly four years ago is no more, while fringe ultranationalists in Serbia are gaining power. One result: A reported surge in hate crimes against minority groups. The international community remains in denial about the more than 600,000 refugees and internally displaced people in Serbia, most of them Serbs expelled from Croatia and Kosovo, who remain unable to return home. Nearly a quarter of Serbs lack jobs, stoking extremist politics, as continuing U.S. war-crimes sanctions make it difficult for Serbia to repair its damaged economy and integrate into Europe. Kosovo remains a potent flash point in the Balkans, where Serbs continue to die amid failed international efforts to create ethnic harmony and dialogue. Three days of violence in March exposed the impotence of U.N. bureaucrats and the unwillingness of many non-U.S. NATO soldiers to put themselves in harm's way to defend Serbs, Roma Gypsies and other ethnic minorities against Albanian mobs. Copyright 2004 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/opinion/1095759007318140. xml ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/NfOolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BalkanNews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
