This is being sent on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED] as part of the mailing list that you joined. List: emperorsclothes URL: http://www.emperors-clothes.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This is forwarded from the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic at www.icdsm.org Please send it on. Dear friends, The following story from the 'Washington Post' is relatively accurate. (There are a few of the usual slanders; for example, the phrase "where he plotted strategy for four Balkans wars" gives the impression that it was Milosevic who ripped apart Yugoslavia, rather than Washington, Berlin and London, which are now trying to destroy Macedonia.) The ICDSM is proud to have gotten a good deal of accurate information into the international press. Of course, the key to this is Milosevic's refusal to crawl before the 'Tribunal.'- Jared Israel, Vice Chairman, ICDSM. THE WASHINGTON POST, Friday, August 17, 2001; Page A18 ********************** In an Office Behind Bars, Milosevic Plots Defense Former Yugoslav Leader to Challenge U.N. Court ********************** By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post Foreign Service PARIS, Aug. 16 -- Far from the presidential palace in Belgrade where he plotted strategy for four Balkan wars, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic spends his days in a Dutch prison cell poring over documents, meeting lawyers and planning ways to challenge -- and, he hopes, discredit -- the international court that will decide what his future will hold. According to people who have met him in prison, Milosevic has no intention of recognizing the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which he considers a puppet of NATO and the Western powers that helped topple him. But they say Milosevic is nonetheless immersing himself in details of the charges against him, crimes against humanity during the war in Kosovo in 1999. Milosevic, who holds a law degree, intends to represent himself so he can use his trial as a world-televised forum to blame NATO for what happened in Kosovo, a province of Serbia that since the war has become a NATO and U.N. protectorate. His next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 30. The trial itself has not been scheduled. "He's going to make it a political trial, and he's going to put NATO on trial," said Nico Varkevesser, a Dutch journalist who is coordinating the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, a group of lawyers, academics and journalists. Milosevic has been visited by his wife and closest political confidant, Mira Markovic. In a recent interview she said she talks with him by phone most every day. After an initial period of isolation, he has begun to mingle with some of his 39 fellow inmates, who include Croats, Muslims and Serbs. Visitors say Milosevic continues to argue that he did nothing wrong in Kosovo. In his mind, his moves against the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army were a legitimate effort to stop armed separatists from carving off a historic part of Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia. NATO's bombing of Kosovo to drive out the Yugoslav army and Serbian security forces is what led hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians to flee Kosovo, he contends, not ethnic cleansing and repression. He insists he tried to rein in security forces involved in atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, even disciplining some units -- a claim he could use in his defense if he decides to mount one. Christopher Black, a Canadian lawyer who heads the legal subcommittee of the Milosevic defense group, said the former president complained to him during a meeting last month that "people don't know anything about Yugoslav history, Serbian history." Milosevic's account of massacres committed by Yugoslav forces is that "whenever certain units in the field committed atrocities in the field, he did everything he could to stop it," Black said. "He says they can't prove anything different from that. . . . He thinks he's got a good case, and I do, too." Milosevic could raise all these points if he decides to offer a formal defense. He would also have the right to call witnesses -- theoretically, he could call people such as former U.N. ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark. "He can even call Clinton to testify," said Varkevesser. The judges who must decide on Milosevic's requests "are going to be very wary of the subpoena power being abused," said a veteran defense lawyer who has appeared before the court. "But, especially if he's defending himself, they will be bending over backward to be seen to be fair. He could make things very, very difficult for them." Since they are out of office now, Clinton administration people, including the former president, would have no immunity against testifying, the lawyer said. At the moment, though, Varkevesser said, there are no plans to subpoena witnesses because Milosevic's first line of defense will be to claim in a Dutch court that his detention in the Netherlands violates Dutch and international law. That claim, Varkevesser said, will end up in the European Court of Human Rights, "and there we have a lot of East European judges who are sympathetic." Serbian officials put Milosevic on a plane to The Hague despite a Yugoslav court order that any extradition be delayed. "The way he was brought to the tribunal was not only a violation of Yugoslav law, but also the Dutch constitution," said Varkevesser. Varkevesser added that Milosevic's strategy of not recognizing the tribunal must cause worry for the prosecutors and judges. "This is something they are concerned about -- Milosevic is not playing the game by their rules," he said. Tribunal officials have repeatedly warned Milosevic that representing himself will be risky in such a complex case. "We hope he decides to hire a proper legal defense team," Jim Landale, the tribunal spokesman, said. Milosevic has been allowed to confer confidentially with legal advisers. Among them is a former U.S. attorney general, Ramsey Clark, another member of the defense group, who told reporters after the visit that Milosevic "is a person who is used to speaking for himself, and he will speak for himself." Clark predicted a "very powerful defense." Black said that when he met Milosevic, the ex-president was wearing a blue sports jacket and a white shirt with no necktie. "His morale is quite good," he said. "He's feisty. He's a guy who is not going to quit." C 2001 The Washington Post Company NSP Lista isprobava demokratiju u praksi ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrBE8.bVKZIq Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
