------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 21, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WHY MILOSEVIC, NOT NATO, IS ON TRIAL By John Catalinotto The moneyed media throughout the United States and Western Europe are focusing much attention on the opening of what they call a "war-crimes trial" of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Feb. 12. But those who want to know what's really behind this trial won't find it in the media of the very imperialist powers that pulverized Yugoslavia with merciless bombing raids and dismembered the former socialist country. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague was authorized in 1993 by the United Nations Security Council under pressure from the U.S. government. Its officials decided it would not put U.S. or NATO generals on trial. Only those from the Balkans have been tried, and most of those charged are Serbs. This court is the antithesis of "justice." The trial of Milosevic was set up by the victors of the imperialist war to put on trial those who defied their plans of domination. And Milosevic, the first head of state to face an international war crimes tribunal, is standing trial because he was the head of a country that resisted the dismantling of socialism and the surrender of the economy to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Milosevic was Serbia's premier for eight years before being elected Yugoslav president in 1997. He is also the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia. The judges accuse Milosevic of committing war crimes in three different struggles that dismembered Yugoslavia: the war in Croatia in 1991-1995, Bosnia in 1992-1995, and Kosovo in 1999. The charges are concocted for the sole purpose of creating a justification for wars that carved up the remainder of socialist Yugoslavia after the Cold War had succeeded in overturning the Soviet Union. Who is providing the "evidence" to back up these charges? Court officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that reports on Kosovo--a region of Serbia--came from the CIA. Washington and Berlin backed a right-wing terrorist group called the Kosovo Liberation Army that assassinated Serb and Albanian officials in Kosovo. The British MI-6 is supplying material on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, two republics of the former Yugoslavia. (Associated Press, Feb. 13) The U.S. and NATO powers, during a 78-day bombing campaign in 1999, dropped 25,000 tons of bombs and killed thousands of Yugoslavs, many of them seniors and children. The anti-war movements in United States and Europe have organized independent tribunals to try the Pentagon and NATO brass in abstention and, after pouring over testimony and facts, found the imperialists guilty of war crimes against the peoples of Yugoslavia. In his Jan. 30 statement to an ICTY hearing, Milosevic said of the combined charges against him: "All three indictments really have a running thread ... which is the ongoing crime against Yugoslavia and against my people." He said the victims are being punished and the criminals let off "because they were backed by forces that wanted to establish control over the Balkans, so as to be able to use this strategic position to establish their control elsewhere." PART OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE The trial of Milosevic in The Hague is therefore viewed by many in Yugoslavia and around the world as a continuation of the imperialist campaign in eastern Europe. Milosevic, who is defending himself before the court, has refused to recognize the authority of the imperial tribunal. He is expected to politically rebut the charges against him on Feb. 14. Milosevic's stand has aroused support in Yugoslavia. Thousands marched in Belgrade on Feb. 9 demanding his freedom. The demonstration was organized by the SPS. It took great courage to take to the streets in an anti-imperialist demonstration at this time. More than 100,000 Serbs have already signed a petition demanding his immediate release. This petition will be sent to the United Nations and to the Hague Tribunal. Some 1,380 Yugoslavs volunteered to go to The Hague to testify in his behalf, according to a French Press Agency (AFP) report. In The Hague, anti-war activists from Europe and the U.S. denounced the tribunal as "NATO's court" and called it a political tool of the U.S. and European NATO powers to shift blame for the Balkan wars from themselves to the Serb and Yugoslav people. Those present included members of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic and a delegation from the International Action Center (IAC) from the United States. Milosevic was first charged with war crimes by the tribunal in May 1999. It was part of NATO's attempt to pressure the Yugoslav government to surrender control of the Serbian region of Kosovo and Metohia to U.S./NATO occupation. Washington was trying to avoid a land invasion that could bring U.S. military casualties and spark more anti-war actions within the United States. Deposed by a foreign-financed election and a coup in the fall of 2000, Milosevic was arrested by the new pro-NATO regime in the spring of 2001. The leaders of this government, President Vojislav Kostunica and Serbian Premier Zoran Djinidjic, were unable to bring substantial charges against the former president. Instead, they violated the Yugoslav Constitution and turned him over to NATO on June 28, 2001. Even then the only charges he faced involved Kosovo. Only last fall, six to ten years after the events, did they add charges involving Croatia and Bosnia, where a bitter civil war had been fought between Croatian, right-wing Muslim and Serb nationalist regimes. The ICTY hoped it could make him responsible for alleged crimes of the Serb forces and make the more serious charge of "genocide" stick. After the collapse of the USSR, right-wing ethnic nationalists in Croatia and Bosnia launched civil wars that were tearing the country apart. The U.S. and German governments and secret services backed these right-wing forces, especially the neo-fascist Franjo Tudjman in Croatia and the Alija Izetbegovic regime in Bosnia. Milosevic asked why "70,000 Muslim refugees sought sanctuary in Serbia during the Bosnian conflict? Do you think someone would flee their home and take refuge in the very territory from which they were endangered?" The former president pointed out that, for all the phony charges, only "the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," said Milosevic, "which now exists, retained its [multi]ethnic makeup. There were no expulsions, from the beginning to the end of the Yugoslav crisis." After the imperialist-backed forces won, "half a million Serbs were expelled from Croatia," Bosnia was split in three ethnic regions, and virtually all non-Albanians were driven from Kosovo. [Catalinotto is co-editor of a new book on Yugoslavia called "Hidden Agenda: U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia," published by the International Action Center. A full transcript of President Milosevic's Jan. 30 statement can be found at www.iacenter.org.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
