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----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 11:50 AM
Subject: U.S./NATO Charged with Criminal Negligence in Death of
Pres. SlobodanMilosevic In this email: 1) Press Release from the International Action Center "U.S./NATO Charged with Criminal Negligence in Death of President Slobodan Miloševic" 2) Letter from the The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Miloševic to the UN Security Council 3) Statement from the International Action Center on the Death of Slobodan Miloševic, President of Yugoslavia International Action Center 39 West 14th St, #206, New York, NY, 10011 www.iacenter.org - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Contact: John Catalinotto, Sara Flounders, Dustin Langley - 212-633-6646 March 11, 2006 U.S./NATO Charged with Criminal Negligence in Death of President Slobodan Milosevic Upon learning of the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in prison in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 12, the International Action Center in the United States joined organizations and individuals around the world in condemning the court, prison authorities and the forces behind them with criminal negligence in ignoring the prisoner’s medical care. The IAC also condemned the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for holding a “fraudulent trial for the last four years in an attempt to blame President Milosevic and Yugoslavia for NATO’s criminal war in the Balkans.” IAC co-director Sara Flounders said, “The full responsibility for the death of President Slobodan Milosevic lies directly with the fraudulent court created by the U.S. and NATO governments at The Hague – the ICTY. Ever since the illegal kidnapping of President Milosevic from Serbia in June 2001 and his forcible detention at Scheveningen prison on fraudulent war crimes charges, the court has consistently denied adequate medical care.” Flounders cited the last action of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM) continuing efforts to save the life of the seriously ill defendant. The Defense Committee appealed on March 8 to the 15 ambassadors of the members of the United Nations Security Council. Their letter signed by prominent supporters urged that Milosevic be transferred to Russia under secure guarantees for his return, for emergency medical care, given his critical medical condition, after the ICTY had refused this treatment. The IAC delivered the letters to the UN Security Council members. “During this trial, now over four years old,” said Flounders, “the prosecution failed to present a coherent case against President Milosevic. In addition, his vigorous defense exposed step by step the crimes of the imperialist powers, especially the U.S. and Germany, in conspiring to destroy the Yugoslav Socialist Federation through subversion and direct military assault. As the case was drawing to a close this presented a terrible dilemma for the court.” Flounders traveled with international human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark to Yugoslavia during the U.S.-NATO bombing in the spring of 1999. Based on that trip Flounders met with President Milosevic in Scheveningen prison at The Hague and was on the schedule to be a witness at the trial for the defense on the impact of the NATO bombing. The UN Security Council established the ICTY in 1993, at the insistence of Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Its role from the beginning was restricted to prosecuting solely people from the Yugoslav Federation. Almost all the cases were directed against Serbs and all of the cases served to deflect responsibility from the U.S. and NATO. The ICTY rejected attempts by a group of international attorneys to bring war crimes charges against the United States for the 78 days of bombing primarily civilian targets in Yugoslavia. Ramsey Clark has often described the ICTY’s establishment as “an explicit violation of the UN Charter and a political court used as an instrument of war against the Yugoslav peoples.” The Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter also described the court. “The U.S./NATO court trying Slobodan Milosevic was always totally illegitimate. It could never be taken seriously as a court of justice. Milosevic defense is powerful, convincing, persuasive and impossible to dismiss.” The ICTY received its financing from the U.S. and other NATO powers and from international financial organizations such as those connected with billionaire George Soros, an enemy of socialism in Eastern Europe. Although there was an extremely unequal financing of the ICTY’s prosecution compared with Milosevic’s defense effort, NATO governments still interfered with all attempts to collect funds from human rights organizations to support the Yugoslav president’s effort to make his case. The German and Austrian governments closed the Defense Committee’s bank accounts in both countries in the last few months before Milosevic’s death. Despite having no permanent staff and relatively little legal assistance to respond to 500,000 pages of prosecution documents, Milosevic politically countered every charge against him while discrediting the prosecution witnesses. During the defense part of the trial, he was able to present a damning case against the U.S. and NATO. Though the NATO powers first announced the Milosevic case as the “trial of the century” and planned a show trial, when Milosevic turned the table on the prosecution and counter-charged NATO with war crimes almost all coverage of the trial ended. In two major statements, answering the charges against him in 2001 at the opening of the trial and in 2004 at the opening of his defense, Milosevic makes the historical record. The 2001 statement is published in the 2002 book, “Hidden Agenda – The U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia,” and his 2004 statement in the book, “The Defense Speaks – For History and the Future.” Both books are published by the IAC. In a statement released by the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic – www.icdsm.org the committee called the courts action: “tantamount to the murder of a man who stood as a symbol of resistance to the New World Order and a symbol of and fighter for the independence and sovereignty of the peoples of Yugoslavia and for social justice in the world. This was his only crime.” The Defense Committee demanded: “that there be an international, independent enquiry into the circumstances and cause of his death and that his family, his party and his supporters be party to that enquiry. We also demand the right of his wife and family to attend his funeral without fear of persecution, arrest or any other impediment to their right to honor their beloved husband, comrade and father.” In a statement made Nov. 29, 2005, exposing the duplicity of the court regarding the inadequate health care provided him; Milosevic made it clear to British judge Ian Bonomy what he thought of the tribunal: “This entire court was envisaged as an instrument of war against my country. It was founded illegally on the basis of an illegal decision and carried through by the forces that waged war against my country. There is just one thing that is true here: It is true that there is a joint criminal enterprise, but not in Belgrade, not with Yugoslavia as its center, but those, who, in a war that was waged in Yugoslavia from 1991 onwards, destroyed Yugoslavia.” - 30 – President Milosevic opening statement as the Trial opened is printed in full in the IAC book Hidden Agenda: The U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia .His statement to the court 2 years later as the defense finally began its rebuttal is printed in full in the IAC book The Defense Speaks – For History and the Future . The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Miloševic I C D S M Sofia-New York-Moscow-Belgrade www.icdsm.org Founded 25 March 2001 in Berlin New York, 8 March 2006 Phone/Fax +381 11 630 549 Letter to the 15 Members of the UN Security Council Dear Ambassador, We are dismayed and deeply distressed at the cavalier and dilatory dismissal by the ICTY Trial Chamber of former President Slobodan Milosevic’s request that, as recommended by the internationally respected Bakoulev Center for Cardiovascular Surgery in Moscow, he be transferred there for further testing and possible treatment for a life threatening cardiovascular condition. The Trial Chambers opinion is attached. Based on medical examinations of President Milosevic by three doctors on November 4, 2005, including Dr. M.V. Shumilina, an angiologist from the Bakoulev Center, Dr. L.A. Bockeria, Director and Chairman of the Bakoulev Center found President Milosevic condition to be “critical”. The Trial Chamber received these medical evaluations on November 15, 2005. Most dismaying and distressing is the total failure of the Trial Chamber to address and acknowledge the medical condition of President Milosevic and order needed testing and medical treatment as is the right of every prisoner. International law—and in particular, the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights-- prescribes, and the ICTY’s own Rules of detention guarantee, the rights of prisoners to be “treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person”. Throughout the course of legal proceedings, accused are presumed innocent, and those deprived of their liberty are to be treated in a manner “appropriate to their status as unconvicted persons”. President Milosevic remains untreated in the face of Dr. Shumilina’s conclusion that his medical treatment at the United Nations Detention Unit is “inadequate”. Incredibly, despite his history of heart problems and high blood pressure, no vascular diagnoses had been made before November 4, 2004. Yet President Milosevic’s health has been a major concern in the proceedings for the past three years. The stress of the proceedings, the inadequate medical care and the prison conditions have severely worsened his prior health problems endangering his life. The Trial Chamber has taken no action to protect the life of a prisoner whose physical condition has been found to be critical. Instead it has trivialized its duty to assure adequate and necessary medical care for a person being tried before it. Detainees who require special treatment, as does President Milosevic, must be transferred to specialized institutions for that treatment, as set out by the. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. The Trial Chamber astonishingly proclaims: 1. “That neither Dr. Shumilina nor Dr. Bockeria states that the Bakoulev Center is the only possible location for appropriate diagnosis and treatment of the accused’s condition.” What conceit could lead them to such a boast? They doubtless believe their Center is the best and such a conclusion is justified. No confidence can be placed in the medical choices of the Court authorities after their years of neglect and selection in December 2005 of Dr. Aarts, a Dutch neurological radiologist, who found no pathological condition in President Milosevic and made no recommendations for treatment. 2. That it “...accepts the submission of the Prosecution that if the Accused wishes to be treated by specialists who are not from the Netherlands, such physicians may come here to treat him.” Rich and famous people travel from all parts of the world to leading medical centers like Bakoulev, often when their very travel is a risk. No one believes the same quality service could be provided by roving medical teams of the world’s best doctors and if it could be, the number of patients they serve would be drastically reduced. Both propositions are absurd in a proceeding where life and fundamental rights are at stake. And how does the panel explain it’s authorizing Pavle Strugar to be repeatedly released to travel to Montenegro, an entity which is not a UN member, for hip replacement surgery, a relatively safe, simple and a minor procedure? Prosecutor v. Pavle Strugar, IT-01-42-A, 3 December 2001, 16 December 2005. The final conclusion of the Trial Chamber proclaims that it is “not satisfied ... that it is more likely than not that the Accused, if released, would return for the continuation of his trial”. Why it has more trust in the government of Montenegro or interim administration of Kosovo than the Russian Federation, which has given its word to return President Milosevic, is not explained, but the insult to a permanent member of the Security Council is inescapable. The Trial Chamber’s reliance in denying President Milosevic needed medical care, on the proceedings being in “its latter stages ... at the end of which ... he may face the possibility of life imprisonment” is irrational at best. Does it mean under such circumstances, a prisoner may just have to die? Is it too late for urgently needed medical treatment? Does it mean “the possibility of life imprisonment is greater in the latter stages of a trial than in the beginning? Then it is commenting on the weight of the evidence which it will judge. Would a defendant who believes he would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison wait until the latter stages of proceedings to seek a means of escape? Would an impartial Court obligated to hear all the evidence before reaching a decision believe in the latter stages of a trial it was hearing that the defendant was more likely to flee then than he was at the beginning, unless the Court believed the evidence supported a severe sentence? Has the Court revealed its bias by its bizarre reliance on a presumed fear of a life sentence by the accused in the latter stages of these proceedings? The decision of the Trial Chamber is unsupportable in fact and in law. It exposes the Court’s strategy of feeble excuses to support its prejudice and reveals its own failures to protect the health of this prisoner. The decision is so unreasonable and plainly unjust as to demonstrate the appearance and the fact of judicial prejudice. The Court has determined that President Milosevic must face the possibility of death because it sees the possibility of a life sentence as the cause for his seeking emergency medical care. The decision alone, affirmed by the Appeals Chamber, will do great injury to the ICTY and international humanitarian law. The death or serious impairment of President Milosevic for want of medical care will impose the same sentence on the ICTY and international law as a means to peace. We urge you to direct the ICTY to order the immediate transfer of President Milosevic to the Bakoulev Center for testing and treatment under the conditions proposed. Respectfully submitted, Ramsey Clark, Former US Attorney General, USA Professor Velko Valkanov, doctor of law, President of the Bulgarian Committee for Human Rights, former MP, Bulgaria Professor Alexander Zinoviev, philosopher, writer, Russian Federation Professor Sergei Baburin, doctor of law, Vice-Chairman of the State Duma of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russian Federation Judr Vojtěch Filip, Vice-Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Thanassis Pafilis, Member of the European Parliament, General Secretary of the World Peace Council, Greece Tiphaine Dickson, international criminal lawyer, Quebec Professor Aldo Bernardini, doctor of international law, Italy Christopher Black, international criminal lawyer, Canada Klaus Hartmann, Vice-Chairman of the World Union of Freethinkers, Germany Sara Flounders, Co Director of the International Action Center Attachment: Decision of the ICTY Trial Chamber IAC STATEMENT ON THE DEATH IN PRISON OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, PRESIDENT OF YUGOSLAVIA The International Action Center would like to send its sincere condolences to the family, friends and comrades of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and to the peoples of the Balkans who mourn his death at the hands of the court and prison authorities in The Hague. We join with others around the world to condemn the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for this crime. The full responsibility for the death of President Slobodan Milosevic lies directly with the fraudulent court created by the U.S. and NATO governments at The Hague – the ICTY. We join the also the demands for an independent investigation of the circumstances of President Milosevic’s death. Since the illegal kidnapping of President Milosevic from Serbia in June 2001 and his forcible detention at Scheveningen prison on fraudulent war crimes charges, the court has consistently denied adequate medical care. The ICTY has held a fraudulent trial for the last four years in an attempt to blame Milosevic and Yugoslavia for NATO’s criminal war in the Balkans. During this trial, now over four years old, the prosecution has failed to present anything like a case against Milosevic. In addition, his vigorous defense has exposed the crimes of the imperialist powers, especially the U.S. and Germany, in conspiring to destroy the Yugoslav Socialist Federation through subversion and direct military assault. In the days before President Milosevic’s death, the IAC joined the efforts of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM), sending to the 15 ambassadors of the members of the United Nations Security Council a request that President Milosevic be transferred to Russia for medical care, given his critical medical condition. This court has now—at the very least—allowed him to die rather than exposing its own inability to build a case against this Yugoslav and Serb political leader. The ICTY was responsible for his care and is guilty in the very least of criminal neglect. The NATO leaders--with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder topping the list—should have been the ones on trial for war crimes. >From the day of his kidnapping, President Milosevic waged a heroic defense of his own actions to defend Yugoslavia. He equally exposed the crimes of these leaders of the great powers to the world. For this the peoples of the Balkans and of the world will be indebted to him. Sara Flounders, Co-coordination, International Action Center March 11, 2006
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