STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Have you visited eBayTM lately? The Worlds Marketplace where you can buy and sell practically anything keeps getting better. From consumer electronics to movies, find it all on eBay. What are you waiting for? Try eBay today. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday July 3, 6:03 PM Milosevic "moral winner" over UN war crimes court: lawyer BELGRADE, July 3 (AFP) - A lawyer for Slobodan Milosevic said the former Yugoslav president had scored a moral victory over the UN war crimes tribunal, where he appeared Tuesday without legal representation to face charges of crimes against humanity. "He acted as a moral winner over these indictments and it is clear he does not recognise this court," Veselin Cerovic, one of the lawyers representing Milosevic against domestic charges of corruption and abuse of power, told AFP. "This is the biggest political trial in the world," Cerovic said. He said Milosevic's decision to appear before the judges without defence counsel was "a moral rejection" of the UN court and its charges against him. In his first, historic appearance before the tribunal in The Hague, a defiant Milosevic said in English: "I consider this tribunal false tribunal and indictments false indictments. It is illegal, not being appointed by the UN General Assembly, so I have no need to appoint counsel." "This trial's aim is to prove false justification for the war crimes of NATO committed in Yugoslavia," insisted Milosevic, dressed in a sobre black suit and a tie bearing the colours of the Yugoslav flag. [Milosevic] refused to enter a plea or ask for an ajournment to consider his position. And when presiding judge Richard May asked if he wanted the indictments against him read out, Milosevic retorted: "That's your problem." Serbian state television (RTS) and independent B92 TV broadcast Milosevic's hearing live in Yugoslavia. "Milosevic is (a part of) history and his issue will be discussed for a long time," Cerovic said. "With a single gesture (appearing alone) he denied legitimacy to this farcical and fake process against his opinion ... All that he said there is a philosophy of his defence," Cerovic said. Cerovic said Milosevic had been denied the right to defend himself because Judge May stopped him making an apparently prepared speech challenging the legitimacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). "Mr Milosevic this is not the time for speeches. As I have said you will have a full opportunity in due course," the British judge said before ajourning the hearing until the week of August 27. "(His) right to defence was denied. We should have heard what he had to say," Cerovic said. "The Milosevic issue itself is a clash of two positions -- one to defend the sovereignty of one's state and people and the other the force of NATO to control this soverignty according to the rules of the new world order," he added.... __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
