STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Carl Bildt: "I think the original indictment against Milosevic was thinner than anything supported at Nuremberg and Tokyo," he said, referring to war crimes trials after the second world war. Mass Kosovo Albanian grave may clinch case (Financial Times, June 29) By Gordon Cramb in The Hague and Hugh Carnegy in London - Jun 29 2001 18:54:13 Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the United Nations tribunal before which Slobodan Milosevic will appear next Tuesday, said on Friday she was "trying to have no emotion" at the prospect of leading the first case to be brought against a former head of state under international law. What she will need instead is evidence, argument and precedent that establish a clear link between the man who led Yugoslavia through a decade of conflict, and specific atrocities carried out by his forces. Mr Milosevic faces charges of crimes against humanity, and violation of the laws or customs of war. But unlike the Bosnian Serbs and others who have so far been convicted by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), he will - at least for the most part - be able to say that he was not present at the scene. Carl Bildt, United Nations special envoy to the Balkans, said the recent discovery in Serbia of mass graves believed to hold bodies of Kosovo Albanians could provide the vital "smoking gun" evidence needed to convict Mr Milosevic. "If it can be proved that there was a meeting in which he instructed (Serbian forces) to take the bodies out of Kosovo and hide them (in Serbia), then he can be held directly responsible for that," Mr Bildt said. Serb authorities this month began exhuming bodies from a mass grave in eastern Serbia in the same region where a refrigerated truck filled with bodies was earlier recovered from the river Danube. The bodies were assumed to be Kosovo war victims brought to Serbia in a bid to cover up atrocities. Mr Bildt said it was vital that such direct evidence be brought against Mr Milosevic. To date the indictment against him was based on the principle that he was guilty on the grounds of "line of command" - that he was ultimately responsible for those who committed atrocities. "I think the original indictment against Milosevic was thinner than anything supported at Nuremberg and Tokyo," he said, referring to war crimes trials after the second world war. Ms Del Ponte said the exhumations under way near Belgrade might provide evidence for the case that she expects to start within months. The prosecution intends to broaden its case beyond the charges related to the Kosovo incursion by Serb forces. "Indictments for crimes committed during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia are also in preparation," Ms Del Ponte added. A charge of genocide was also being considered. The 1999 indictment, an updated version of which was served on Mr Milosevic in his cell on Friday, says he "planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in a campaign of terror and violence directed at Kosovo Albanian civilians living in Kosovo". ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
