STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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"The Kostunica government deserves credit for adopting a cabinet
decree on Saturday..."
but as we've seen, he's far too modest to take the credit
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 9:02 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; activistlist; Eternera Mailing List
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Subject: Toronto Star Editorial on illegal decree... [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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[Courtesy of a disgusting paper, with despicable editors parading
as progressive...]
No place to hide
Thus do despots fall.
Two years ago, Slobodan Milosevic was undisputed master of
Yugoslavia. A notorious Balkan nationalist, he seduced his people
with dreams of a Greater Serbia, delivered nothing but ethnic
hatred, war, disintegration, sanctions and ruin, yet remained in
power. He seemed untouchable.
Not so today. Milosevic has been replaced by a reformist
democrat, President Vojislav Kostunica. He was ousted in a
remarkable popular uprising last October.
On April 1 Milosevic was arrested by fellow Serbs, charged with
corruption, jailed, served with a warrant to face United Nations
accusations of crimes against humanity, and now is fighting
extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague. After
more than a decade of self-imposed isolation, Serbia is rejoining
the family of nations.
Milosevic's fate is a powerful caution to other political leaders who
may imagine themselves to be above the rule of law.
His comfortable world changed in May, 1999 when a Canadian
jurist serving as U.N. chief war crimes prosecutor, Madam Justice
Louise Arbour, made legal history by issuing the indictment
against him and his cronies for crimes in Kosovo, where thousands
of ethnic Albanians were killed by Serb forces and hundreds of
thousands driven from their homes. That made him the first political
leader in office to be so charged.
At the time, Milosevic sneered that the court would never touch
him, claiming its reach did not extend to Serbia. How wrong he
was. The law proved more powerful than his bluster. Arbour's
indictment, no less than the North Atlantic Treaty Organization air
campaign to prevent Milosevic's army from rampaging through
Kosovo, shattered his credibility with Serbs and ultimately his
regime.
Today, a broken man, Milosevic sits in a Belgrade prison fighting
extradition, pitying himself and threatening suicide.
"Yugoslavia's international obligation as a U.N. member state is to
co-operate with The Hague tribunal," said Nebojsa Covic, a
Kostunica ally. "We must no longer allow ourselves to be
Milosevic's hostages.''
The Kostunica government deserves credit for adopting a cabinet
decree on Saturday promising to send Milosevic to The Hague for
trial for his role in Balkan campaigns of ``ethnic cleansing'' and
terror that killed 250,000 or more. The decree is meant to override
the Yugoslav parliament's refusal to change the law prohibiting
such extradition. Parliament is still thick with holdover Milosevic
cronies.
Judges and prosecutors must now co-operate fully with The Hague,
which yesterday requested Milosevic's extradition. Cabinet's
decree recognizes that international law takes precedence over
national law in war crimes cases. This gesture took political
courage, because many Serbs still oppose Milosevic's extradition,
though few want him back in office.
It should spur the United States, Canada and other countries to
pledge $1.5 billion or more in aid to Yugoslavia, to begin rebuilding
its war- and sanctions-shattered economy. A donors' conference
will be held in Brussels this coming weekend. Belgrade has earned
some help.
The sooner democratic Yugoslavia can regain its feet, and rejoin
the European community of nations, the better.
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