THE MILOSEVIC TRIAL: THE FINAL SERVICE OF THE TRIBUNAL AS A POLITICAL AND PROPAGANDA ARM OF NATO
Parts 1 and 2
Edward S. Herman
Part 1: The Tribunal and Its Record
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY, or Tribunal) was created in 1993 by the major NATO powers, notably the United States and Germany, to go after Serbian leaders and personnel, as part of the buildup to a war against Serbia and the remnant Yugoslavia. With an extremely clear public relations and political role in support of NATO policy, the Tribunal has been "international" or "independent" only in a Pickwickian sense. Its abuses of the principles of Western jurisprudence have been spectacular from its beginning to today. It represents an egregious case of the powerful using a nominal cover of law to help attack and dismantle a small country; a case of what Diana Johnstone, referring to the Tribunal's work from 1993-1998, calls "FUTURE victors' justice." Since the NATO war and subsequent political conquest of Yugoslavia, and with the current trial of Milosevic, we have a more familiar case of straightforward "victor's justice."
MORE: http://www.zmag.org/balkanwatch/herman_milosovec-trial.htm
