Mr. Claude Jorda,
President
ICTY
The Hague
The Netherlands
Esteemed Mr. Jorda,
We have received with great dissatisfaction and embitterment your reply
to our October 13 letter. With regret we note your apparent
unwillingness to see the seriousness of the problem we have drawn your
attention to. That way you may become accomplice in the crime being
committed against President Milosevic under the auspices of the tribunal
you preside. We hope we shouldn't remind you that as President, you are
the most responsible for the legality of the ICTY works.
The basic principle of the criminal law endorses that an ill man can not
be put on trial. President Milosevic is having a serious heart condition
and his state of health is being ruined on a daily basis by the way the
process is being conducted, with hundreds of thousands pages of
documents and more than a thousand of tapes submitted by the
prosecution, with no condition to prepare for facing hundreds of
irrelevant or false witnesses sent by the prosecution. With the lack of
basic living conditions, such as the possibility to breathe fresh air,
to have regular meals and regular and sufficient sleep, it becomes
completely clear which factors cause the deterioration of the President
Milosevic's health.
Regarding your reference to the Trial Chamber III March 6 decision on
provisional release, implying perhaps that the issue can not be
discussed again, we are obliged to underline again that President
Milosevic's state of health seriously deteriorated exactly since that
time. For the reason of his illness the proceedings had to be suspended
several times. These are the facts that must be taken into
consideration.
We are also obliged to point the untruthfulness of your claim that
President Slobodan Milosevic receives "close medical attention of a high
quality". As a matter of fact, the truth is quite the opposite - he
receives practically no medical care, especially not of the high
quality, unless you consider appropriate for a person with serious heart
condition to be seen only once in a week, and not by a cardiologist, but
by an ordinary doctor, who only checks his blood pressure. In that sense
we recall once again the First Principle of Medical Ethics from the UN
General Assembly Resolution No. 37/194 of December 18, 1982, which says:
"Health personnel, particularly physicians, charged with the medical
care of prisoners and detainees, have a duty to provide them with
protection of their physical and mental health and treatment of disease
of the same quality and standard as is afforded to those who are not
imprisoned or detained." The same is stipulated by the Article 6 of the
Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (UN General Assembly
Resolution 34/169 of December 17, 1979) provisions of which established
the obligations for you as President of ICTY. Besides, the provisions of
the World Medical Association Declaration on the Rights of the Patient
(Lisbon, 1981; Bali, 1995) guarantee the right of every person without
discrimination to "choose freely and change his/her physician and
hospital or health service institution" (Principle 2). The will of
President Slobodan Milosevic is to be treated by Yugoslav doctors and
institutions, so you are obliged to enable with that by deciding that he
has to be cured in Yugoslavia.
We request once again your immediate decision that President Slobodan
Milosevic has to be cured in Yugoslavia. Any other decision will bear
direct responsibility for imperiling his life.
If there wouldn't be appropriate decision of your side in the following
days, we will be, with regret, forced to make further moves, but this
time towards the international and French bodies in charge of human
rights protection and lawyers' ethics. This will be followed by
activating all legal means to stop the crime and protect rights of
President Milosevic.
Belgrade, December 12, 2002
On behalf of the Freedom Association
Bogoljub Bjelica, President
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
icdsm temporary address:
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm/index.htm
for your donations:
http://emperor.vwh.net/icdsm/donations.htm
Serbian News Network - SNN
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