Jugoinfo
* LETTURA NUOVO "CAPO DI IMPUTAZIONE" SULLA BOSNIA PER MILOSEVIC
* "AMICI CURIAE" IMPONGONO AVVOCATO CONTRO LA VOLONTA' DI MILOSEVIC
* JUSTICE? OR ITS ANTITHESIS? (by Stephen Gowans)
===*===
MILOSEVIC: TPI; VIA A LETTURA ATTO INCRIMINAZIONE PER
BOSNIA E' ACCUSATO DI GENOCIDIO E CRIMINI CONTRO L'UMANITA'
(ANSA) - L'AJA, 11 DIC - Nell'aula del Tribunale
Internazionale per l'ex-Jugoslavia (Tpi) all'Aja e' appena
cominciata la lettura dell'atto di incriminazione contro
Slobodan Milosevic per genocidio, crimini contro l'umanita' ed
altri gravi capi d'imputazione per presunte responsabilita'
durante il conflitto in Bosnia (1992-95).
L'imputato e' in aula, di fronte alla Corte presieduta dal
giudice britannico Richard May. Sul fronte opposto il
procuratore del Tpi Carla Del Ponte.
Al termine della lettura dell'atto d'accusa, l'ex-presidente
jugoslavo dovra' dire se si dichiara colpevole o meno per
ciascuno dei capi di imputazione.
Quella relativa alla Bosnia e' la terza incriminazione
portata da Del Ponte nei confronti di Milosevic accanto a quelle
per il Kosovo e la Croazia. La Corte dovra' oggi decidere se i
tre 'dossier' potranno essere riuniti in modo da celebrare un
unico maxi-processo a carico di Milosevic, che non riconosce il
Tribunale. (ANSA)
MILOSEVIC: TPI;BOSNIA,SLOBO NON RISPONDE SU ACCUSA GENOCIDIO
IGNORA DOMANDA GIUDICE: INCRIMINAZIONE E' 'SUPREMA ASSURDITA'
(ANSA) - L'AJA, 11 DIC - Non cambia l'atteggiamento di sfida
di Slobodan Milosevic nei confronti del Tribunale Internazionale
per l'ex-Jugoslavia (TPI) dell'Aja.
Oggi l'ex-presidente jugoslavo - dopo aver ascoltato per
oltre un'ora in aula la lettura dell'atto di incriminazione a
suo carico per i presunti crimini commessi durante la guerra di
Bosnia (1992-1995) - si e' rifiutato di rispondere al giudice
Richard May che gli chiedeva di dichiararsi colpevole o non
colpevole per il capo di imputazione di genocidio.
'Slobo' ha ignorato la richiesta di May ed ha replicato con
durezza: ''Quello che ho appena sentito, questo testo tragico,
e' una suprema assurdita'. Io dovrei ricevere credito per la
pace in Bosnia, non essere accusato per la guerra. La
responsabilita' per la guerra in Bosnia e' delle forze che hanno
condotto alla disintegrazione della Jugoslavia, e non dei
serbi''. May ha allora tagliato corto ed ha disposto d'ufficio
la messa agli atti di una dichiarazione di non colpevolezza per
tutti i 29 capi di imputazione a carico di Milosevic.
La Corte - dopo una pausa - ha poi avviato l'esame del
secondo punto dell'udienza odierna: la mozione del procuratore
del TPI Carla Del Ponte per la riunificazione dei tre
procedimenti contro Milosevic (per Bosnia, Croazia e Kosovo) in
un unico maxi-processo. La tesi dell'accusa e' che esiste un
solo grande disegno di 'Slobo' che unisce i tre sanguinosi
conflitti: il progetto per la creazione di una Grande Serbia.
Del Ponte - nel motivare la sua richiesta alla Corte - ha
sottolineato che ''migliaia di vittime chiedono giustizia'':
''Se avremo tre diversi processi - ha aggiunto - i tempi si
allungheranno enormemente. E' essenziale dare a queste vittime
la possibilita' di seguire un solo processo dall'inizio''.
Se l'istanza di Del Ponte venisse accolta, i tempi per
l'avvio del processo contro Milosevic slitterebbero
sensibilmente: per il momento e' previsto che il dibattimento
sul Kosovo abbia inizio nel febbraio 2002.
MILOSEVIC: LO DIFENDERA' EX AVVOCATO CARLOS E KLAUS BARBIE
(ANSA) - PARIGI, 13 DIC - Jacques Verges, avvocato francese
noto per la difesa di cause ''impossibili'' - quali quelle del
terrorista Carlos e il criminale di guerra nazista Klaus Barbie
- fara' parte del collegio di legali dell'ex presidente jugoslavo
Slobodan Milosevic, in stato d'accusa davanti al Tribunale penale
internazionale (Tpi) per la ex Jugoslavia. ''Sono stato contattato
dagli amici di Milosevic - ha detto al quotidiano 'Le Monde' l'avvocato
Verges, personaggio dalla biografia fitta di misteri - che mi hanno
chiesto di partecipare al loro lavoro. Il contatto si e' stabilito.
Ora preparo dei dossier''. Carlos e l'ex capo della Gestapo a Lione,
Klaus Barbie, sono alcuni dei clienti ''eccellenti'' di Verges,
che si e' occupato anche della difesa di alcuni inquisiti nella
'tangentopoli' francese dell'Rpr, il partito neogollista. Nato in
Indocina, formato alla scuola del comunismo stalinista, Verges e' stato
confidente di capi di stato come Mao Zedong e Omar Bongo. (ANSA). GIT
13/12/2001 18:23
===*===
The URL for this article is http://www.icdsm.org/more/justice.htm
Send this article to a friend!
=======================================
Justice? Or its Antithesis?
by Stephen Gowans
[posted 28 November 2001]
=======================================
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, under detention
at the Hague in connection with murder, deportation and genocide
charges, says he's under drastically increased pressure to recognize
the Hague Tribunal.
In three appearances before the tribunal, Milosevic refused to
plead to the indictments against him, and refused to appoint
lawyers, arguing the tribunal, and his detention, are illegal.
And now Milosevic's Belgrade lawyer, Dragoslav Ognjanovic says
that strong spotlights have been left on all night in Milosevic's
cell, a subtle form of torture.
Why is Milosevic being deprived of sleep?
And why is the former Yugoslav president denied access to the
media? After doing an interview with American media, Milosevic
was reprimanded by Hague authorities, and warned against further
breaches of rules that prevent the former president from talking
to the press.
Why won't the Hague Tribunal allow Milosevic to conduct his own
defense?
And why is Milosevic's microphone cut-off when he appears before
the tribunal?
The usual reply is that Milosevic would make a mockery of the
proceedings. And if given access to the media he would have a
platform to spout nonsense. But surely, if it's nonsense he'll
spout, let him. Nonsense will be obvious for what it is, and
the press will soon grow tired of it. But another answer seems
more likely: Maybe it's not nonsense Milosevic has to speak.
And maybe Milosevic's being allowed to conduct his own
defense would expose the tribunal for what it is -- a mockery of
justice.
Augusto Pinochet, dictator, murderer, goes free. Ariel Sharon,
architect of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, ethnic cleanser,
and war criminal, presides over the commission of fresh war crimes
as prime minister of Israel. War criminals Henry Kissinger and Bill
Clinton make a king's ransom from speaking engagements. Meanwhile,
we're showered with absurdities from the US foreign policy
establishment connected Human Rights Watch about war criminals
having nowhere to hide, Milosevic being the signal case.
The hypocrisy is plain, if the case is made, but who makes the
case? People on the margins, heard by few. But what if someone
like Milosevic, who, if allowed to speak to the media, reached
countless numbers? He'd have a platform to make the case, if the
tribunal's rules didn't gag him. And maybe that's why he's gagged.
Washington and London have always been afraid of their own people
hearing the other side. During NATO's 78-day terror campaign against
Yugoslavia, Serb Radio-TV, which carried a different view of the
bombing than delivered by the complicit and tightly controlled Western
press, was deliberately bombed, a blatant war crime. British Prime
Minister Tony Blair said that Milosevic's propaganda machine had
to be taken out. What he meant was that NATO had to control the
public relations agenda.
Weeks ago, US bombers took out Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, for the
same reason -- it threatened Washington's control over what the
public saw and heard and understood. Al Jazeera offered something
other than the tightly controlled and scripted US take on the
war against Afghanistan. Control the story, and you control the
hearts and minds of the public. Give people like Milosevic and the
Afghans carried on Al-Jazeera a platform, and the carefully crafted
complex of lies may fall apart.
As to the nonsense about war criminals having nowhere to hide, they
do. Behind a Security Council veto, for one. And behind a compliant
press, whose deafness, dumbness and blindness owes much to
Chauvinism, and the fact that letting the White House, State
Department, and Pentagon write your copy is a good business model.
Keeps cost down.
Up to now, Milosevic has been under indictment for murder and
deportation, in connection with events in Kosovo. The White House
and State Department and Pentagon, and yes, the media too, tried,
and convicted Milosevic of committing genocide in Kosovo. There
were 100,000 missing and presumed dead. Then 10,000. Then forensic
pathologists turned up only 2,000 corpses, none in mass graves,
their identities (were they ethnic Albanian Kosovars?) uncertain.
Then doubts arose about the authenticity of the Racak massacre,
the casus belli for terrorizing Yugoslavia with bombs for 78 days.
And then the indictment came, and with it, no charge of genocide.
Now, in new indictments, Milosevic is charged with genocide in
connection with earlier wars in Croatia and Bosnia. It's as if
the tribunal had come up with the charge first and has worked
backwards from there. Now that we've made the charge, we'll need the
evidence to make it stick.
Genocide? In what connection has that word been uttered before?
East Timor. That genocide was carried out by a pal of Washington's,
the dictator Suharto, right under Washington's nose and with its
full approval. Nothing as insignificant as genocide was going to
stand in the way of US businesses turning handsome profits in an
Indonesia known as an "investor's paradise," "hell" being more
frequently uttered by those who have to work there. And yet there
was no indictment. Earlier, Suharato had arranged for the systematic
killing of between 500,000 and one million communists, while Washington
checked off the names. No indictment for that crime either.
Iraq. Over the last decade, US enforced sanctions of mass destruction
have killed over one million Iraqis. That's a genocide. Will the
perpetrators be held accountable? No. They wield a Security Council
veto.
The Security Council set up the Hague Tribunal, which means Security
Council members, some of which committed brazen war crimes in
their 78-day terror campaign against Yugoslavia, will never be
indicted, unless you assume the tribunal's prosecutors are going to
indict their bosses who appointed them.
An International Criminal Court, which would obviate the Security
Council striking tribunals, and allow anyone to be indicted, won't
do the trick either. Washington won't agree to it, unless Americans
are given blanket immunity from prosecution, or Washington controls
who's indicted.
And it also means that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
genocides, committed by permanent members of the Security Council
and their allies, will never be the subject of a tribunal. Handy,
isn't it?
So, this is what we get as justice. Washington backs fascist
elements in Croatia and Islamists in Bosnia and Kosovo connected
to Osama bin Laden, the Yugoslav federation spins apart under the
pressure of the centrifugal forces nurtured by Security Council
members, and the Serbs, at the center of the opposition, are
branded the new Nazis, and are brought before a Security Council
created tribunal to answer for crimes against humanity by the very
forces that set in motion the descent into war and terrorism and
chaos, and now, growing poverty.
Justice? How about its very antithesis?
***
Mr. Steve Gowans is a writer and political activist who lives in
Ottawa, Canada.
By courtesy & (C) 2001 Steve Gowans
By the same author: http://www.mediamonitors.net/gowans35.html
Send this article to a friend!
http://www.icdsm.org
* "AMICI CURIAE" IMPONGONO AVVOCATO CONTRO LA VOLONTA' DI MILOSEVIC
* JUSTICE? OR ITS ANTITHESIS? (by Stephen Gowans)
===*===
MILOSEVIC: TPI; VIA A LETTURA ATTO INCRIMINAZIONE PER
BOSNIA E' ACCUSATO DI GENOCIDIO E CRIMINI CONTRO L'UMANITA'
(ANSA) - L'AJA, 11 DIC - Nell'aula del Tribunale
Internazionale per l'ex-Jugoslavia (Tpi) all'Aja e' appena
cominciata la lettura dell'atto di incriminazione contro
Slobodan Milosevic per genocidio, crimini contro l'umanita' ed
altri gravi capi d'imputazione per presunte responsabilita'
durante il conflitto in Bosnia (1992-95).
L'imputato e' in aula, di fronte alla Corte presieduta dal
giudice britannico Richard May. Sul fronte opposto il
procuratore del Tpi Carla Del Ponte.
Al termine della lettura dell'atto d'accusa, l'ex-presidente
jugoslavo dovra' dire se si dichiara colpevole o meno per
ciascuno dei capi di imputazione.
Quella relativa alla Bosnia e' la terza incriminazione
portata da Del Ponte nei confronti di Milosevic accanto a quelle
per il Kosovo e la Croazia. La Corte dovra' oggi decidere se i
tre 'dossier' potranno essere riuniti in modo da celebrare un
unico maxi-processo a carico di Milosevic, che non riconosce il
Tribunale. (ANSA)
MILOSEVIC: TPI;BOSNIA,SLOBO NON RISPONDE SU ACCUSA GENOCIDIO
IGNORA DOMANDA GIUDICE: INCRIMINAZIONE E' 'SUPREMA ASSURDITA'
(ANSA) - L'AJA, 11 DIC - Non cambia l'atteggiamento di sfida
di Slobodan Milosevic nei confronti del Tribunale Internazionale
per l'ex-Jugoslavia (TPI) dell'Aja.
Oggi l'ex-presidente jugoslavo - dopo aver ascoltato per
oltre un'ora in aula la lettura dell'atto di incriminazione a
suo carico per i presunti crimini commessi durante la guerra di
Bosnia (1992-1995) - si e' rifiutato di rispondere al giudice
Richard May che gli chiedeva di dichiararsi colpevole o non
colpevole per il capo di imputazione di genocidio.
'Slobo' ha ignorato la richiesta di May ed ha replicato con
durezza: ''Quello che ho appena sentito, questo testo tragico,
e' una suprema assurdita'. Io dovrei ricevere credito per la
pace in Bosnia, non essere accusato per la guerra. La
responsabilita' per la guerra in Bosnia e' delle forze che hanno
condotto alla disintegrazione della Jugoslavia, e non dei
serbi''. May ha allora tagliato corto ed ha disposto d'ufficio
la messa agli atti di una dichiarazione di non colpevolezza per
tutti i 29 capi di imputazione a carico di Milosevic.
La Corte - dopo una pausa - ha poi avviato l'esame del
secondo punto dell'udienza odierna: la mozione del procuratore
del TPI Carla Del Ponte per la riunificazione dei tre
procedimenti contro Milosevic (per Bosnia, Croazia e Kosovo) in
un unico maxi-processo. La tesi dell'accusa e' che esiste un
solo grande disegno di 'Slobo' che unisce i tre sanguinosi
conflitti: il progetto per la creazione di una Grande Serbia.
Del Ponte - nel motivare la sua richiesta alla Corte - ha
sottolineato che ''migliaia di vittime chiedono giustizia'':
''Se avremo tre diversi processi - ha aggiunto - i tempi si
allungheranno enormemente. E' essenziale dare a queste vittime
la possibilita' di seguire un solo processo dall'inizio''.
Se l'istanza di Del Ponte venisse accolta, i tempi per
l'avvio del processo contro Milosevic slitterebbero
sensibilmente: per il momento e' previsto che il dibattimento
sul Kosovo abbia inizio nel febbraio 2002.
MILOSEVIC: LO DIFENDERA' EX AVVOCATO CARLOS E KLAUS BARBIE
(ANSA) - PARIGI, 13 DIC - Jacques Verges, avvocato francese
noto per la difesa di cause ''impossibili'' - quali quelle del
terrorista Carlos e il criminale di guerra nazista Klaus Barbie
- fara' parte del collegio di legali dell'ex presidente jugoslavo
Slobodan Milosevic, in stato d'accusa davanti al Tribunale penale
internazionale (Tpi) per la ex Jugoslavia. ''Sono stato contattato
dagli amici di Milosevic - ha detto al quotidiano 'Le Monde' l'avvocato
Verges, personaggio dalla biografia fitta di misteri - che mi hanno
chiesto di partecipare al loro lavoro. Il contatto si e' stabilito.
Ora preparo dei dossier''. Carlos e l'ex capo della Gestapo a Lione,
Klaus Barbie, sono alcuni dei clienti ''eccellenti'' di Verges,
che si e' occupato anche della difesa di alcuni inquisiti nella
'tangentopoli' francese dell'Rpr, il partito neogollista. Nato in
Indocina, formato alla scuola del comunismo stalinista, Verges e' stato
confidente di capi di stato come Mao Zedong e Omar Bongo. (ANSA). GIT
13/12/2001 18:23
===*===
The URL for this article is http://www.icdsm.org/more/justice.htm
Send this article to a friend!
=======================================
Justice? Or its Antithesis?
by Stephen Gowans
[posted 28 November 2001]
=======================================
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, under detention
at the Hague in connection with murder, deportation and genocide
charges, says he's under drastically increased pressure to recognize
the Hague Tribunal.
In three appearances before the tribunal, Milosevic refused to
plead to the indictments against him, and refused to appoint
lawyers, arguing the tribunal, and his detention, are illegal.
And now Milosevic's Belgrade lawyer, Dragoslav Ognjanovic says
that strong spotlights have been left on all night in Milosevic's
cell, a subtle form of torture.
Why is Milosevic being deprived of sleep?
And why is the former Yugoslav president denied access to the
media? After doing an interview with American media, Milosevic
was reprimanded by Hague authorities, and warned against further
breaches of rules that prevent the former president from talking
to the press.
Why won't the Hague Tribunal allow Milosevic to conduct his own
defense?
And why is Milosevic's microphone cut-off when he appears before
the tribunal?
The usual reply is that Milosevic would make a mockery of the
proceedings. And if given access to the media he would have a
platform to spout nonsense. But surely, if it's nonsense he'll
spout, let him. Nonsense will be obvious for what it is, and
the press will soon grow tired of it. But another answer seems
more likely: Maybe it's not nonsense Milosevic has to speak.
And maybe Milosevic's being allowed to conduct his own
defense would expose the tribunal for what it is -- a mockery of
justice.
Augusto Pinochet, dictator, murderer, goes free. Ariel Sharon,
architect of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, ethnic cleanser,
and war criminal, presides over the commission of fresh war crimes
as prime minister of Israel. War criminals Henry Kissinger and Bill
Clinton make a king's ransom from speaking engagements. Meanwhile,
we're showered with absurdities from the US foreign policy
establishment connected Human Rights Watch about war criminals
having nowhere to hide, Milosevic being the signal case.
The hypocrisy is plain, if the case is made, but who makes the
case? People on the margins, heard by few. But what if someone
like Milosevic, who, if allowed to speak to the media, reached
countless numbers? He'd have a platform to make the case, if the
tribunal's rules didn't gag him. And maybe that's why he's gagged.
Washington and London have always been afraid of their own people
hearing the other side. During NATO's 78-day terror campaign against
Yugoslavia, Serb Radio-TV, which carried a different view of the
bombing than delivered by the complicit and tightly controlled Western
press, was deliberately bombed, a blatant war crime. British Prime
Minister Tony Blair said that Milosevic's propaganda machine had
to be taken out. What he meant was that NATO had to control the
public relations agenda.
Weeks ago, US bombers took out Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, for the
same reason -- it threatened Washington's control over what the
public saw and heard and understood. Al Jazeera offered something
other than the tightly controlled and scripted US take on the
war against Afghanistan. Control the story, and you control the
hearts and minds of the public. Give people like Milosevic and the
Afghans carried on Al-Jazeera a platform, and the carefully crafted
complex of lies may fall apart.
As to the nonsense about war criminals having nowhere to hide, they
do. Behind a Security Council veto, for one. And behind a compliant
press, whose deafness, dumbness and blindness owes much to
Chauvinism, and the fact that letting the White House, State
Department, and Pentagon write your copy is a good business model.
Keeps cost down.
Up to now, Milosevic has been under indictment for murder and
deportation, in connection with events in Kosovo. The White House
and State Department and Pentagon, and yes, the media too, tried,
and convicted Milosevic of committing genocide in Kosovo. There
were 100,000 missing and presumed dead. Then 10,000. Then forensic
pathologists turned up only 2,000 corpses, none in mass graves,
their identities (were they ethnic Albanian Kosovars?) uncertain.
Then doubts arose about the authenticity of the Racak massacre,
the casus belli for terrorizing Yugoslavia with bombs for 78 days.
And then the indictment came, and with it, no charge of genocide.
Now, in new indictments, Milosevic is charged with genocide in
connection with earlier wars in Croatia and Bosnia. It's as if
the tribunal had come up with the charge first and has worked
backwards from there. Now that we've made the charge, we'll need the
evidence to make it stick.
Genocide? In what connection has that word been uttered before?
East Timor. That genocide was carried out by a pal of Washington's,
the dictator Suharto, right under Washington's nose and with its
full approval. Nothing as insignificant as genocide was going to
stand in the way of US businesses turning handsome profits in an
Indonesia known as an "investor's paradise," "hell" being more
frequently uttered by those who have to work there. And yet there
was no indictment. Earlier, Suharato had arranged for the systematic
killing of between 500,000 and one million communists, while Washington
checked off the names. No indictment for that crime either.
Iraq. Over the last decade, US enforced sanctions of mass destruction
have killed over one million Iraqis. That's a genocide. Will the
perpetrators be held accountable? No. They wield a Security Council
veto.
The Security Council set up the Hague Tribunal, which means Security
Council members, some of which committed brazen war crimes in
their 78-day terror campaign against Yugoslavia, will never be
indicted, unless you assume the tribunal's prosecutors are going to
indict their bosses who appointed them.
An International Criminal Court, which would obviate the Security
Council striking tribunals, and allow anyone to be indicted, won't
do the trick either. Washington won't agree to it, unless Americans
are given blanket immunity from prosecution, or Washington controls
who's indicted.
And it also means that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
genocides, committed by permanent members of the Security Council
and their allies, will never be the subject of a tribunal. Handy,
isn't it?
So, this is what we get as justice. Washington backs fascist
elements in Croatia and Islamists in Bosnia and Kosovo connected
to Osama bin Laden, the Yugoslav federation spins apart under the
pressure of the centrifugal forces nurtured by Security Council
members, and the Serbs, at the center of the opposition, are
branded the new Nazis, and are brought before a Security Council
created tribunal to answer for crimes against humanity by the very
forces that set in motion the descent into war and terrorism and
chaos, and now, growing poverty.
Justice? How about its very antithesis?
***
Mr. Steve Gowans is a writer and political activist who lives in
Ottawa, Canada.
By courtesy & (C) 2001 Steve Gowans
By the same author: http://www.mediamonitors.net/gowans35.html
Send this article to a friend!
http://www.icdsm.org
IN ENGLISH AND SERBOCROATIAN
> http://www.sps.org.yu/aktuelno/2001/decembar/12-01.html
11. decembar 2001. godine - HAG
Predsednik Slobodan Milo¹eviæ u Hagu, 11. decembra 2001.
(stenogram)
ZASLU®NI SMO ZA MIR, A NE ZA RAT!
A za rat su odgovorni oni koji su rasturali
Jugoslaviju. Ovo je kazna za otpor najveæoj tiraniji
koja je zapretila èoveèanstvu. La¾nim optu¾bama ¾ele
da prikriju saradnju sa teroristima. Branili smo
slobodu i ravnopravnost naroda i ljudi!
SRBIJOM ÆE USKORO PONOVO UPRAVLjATI PATRIOTE!
SLOBODAN MILO©EVIÆ (posle èitanja "optu¾nice" za Bosnu i
Hercegovinu):
Ovo ¹to smo èuli ovde, ovaj ¾alosni tekst
je vrhunac apsurda. Meni pripada zasluga
za mir u Bosni, a ne za rat. Odgovornost
za rat u Bosni snose sile koje su rasturale
Jugoslaviju i njihovi satrapi u Jugoslaviji, a ne ni
Srbija, ni srpski narod, ni srpska politika. Ovo je
poku¹aj... (iskljuèen mikrofon)
SLOBODAN MILO©EVIÆ (u raspravi o objedinjavanju "optu¾nica"):
Sve ¹to smo danas èuli od tzv. tu¾be samo potvrðuje
da je celokupna zamisao potpuno proma¹ena, ali da mi
ne biste oduzeli reè, dr¾aæu se samo onih argumenata
koji odgovaraju na va¹e pitanje.
Za mene je potpuno jasno za¹to ova la¾na tu¾ba
insistira na spajanju. To je posledica 11. septembra.
Oni ¾ele da stave u drugi plan optu¾be za Kosovo, jer
optu¾be za Kosovo neizbe¾no otvaraju pitanje saradnje
Klintonove administracije sa teroristima na Kosovu,
ukljuèujuæi i organizaciju Bin Ladena.
Drugo, ono ¹to smo mogli danas da èujemo - i oni su
svesni toga da u tom sluèaju ne mogu izbeæi, bez
obzira na ilegalnost ovog suda, da se ovde pojave
glavni akteri zloèina izvr¹enog protiv moje zemlje i
mog naroda, poèev od Klintona, Olbrajtove, Klarka i
drugih, ali naravno, i mnogi mirovni posrednici èija
aktivnost i saradnja na pronala¾enju mira potpuno
demantuje ove, rekao bih, monstruozne optu¾be koje su
ovde izreèene.
Dakle, njihovi su razlozi potpuno pragmatièni i
vezani za za¹titu onih koji su izvr¹ili zloèine nad
mojom zemljom, a ne za bilo kakvo ekonomisanje
vremenom, jer njih sigurno nije briga da li æu se ja
umarati ili ne, a ja sam vam rekao ¹ta o tome mislim
i pre.
©to se tièe krunskog argumenta, o ideji o stvaranju
"velike Srbije", taj argument se sasvim lako mo¾e
demantovati i ja mislim da niko razuman ne bi smeo
taj argument, koji su uzeli kao mit i osnovu za sve
zloèine da vi¹e poku¹ava da imputira, nameæe ili na
bilo kakav naèin zloupotrebi. Postoje èinjenice koje
su neoborive. 28. aprila 1992. godine formirana je
Savezna Republika Jugoslavija. 28. aprila 1992.
godine, dakle, pre nego ¹to su poèeli sukobi, pre
nego ¹to je poèeo graðanski rat. Ta ustavotvorna
skup¹tina je svojim zvaniènim dokumentom deklarisala
na¹u poziciju u kojoj se ka¾e da Savezna Republika
Jugoslavija nema teritorijalne pretenzije ni prema
jednoj od biv¹ih jugoslovenskih republika. To je
apsolutno dovoljan dokaz da se ove besmislice koje
poku¹avaju da se imputiraju u potpunosti odbace.
Podsetio bih vas i na to da je na samom poèetku, maja
1993. godine, uz na¹e maksimalno zalaganje, u Atini
prihvaæen Vens-Ovenov plan koji su tada potpisali i
srpski predstavnici. I da je to prihvatanje, takoðe -
smatrajuæi mir najveæim ciljem i najveæom vredno¹æu
za sve jugoslovenske narode - do kraja demantovalo
svaku takvu ideju.
Na kraju krajeva, sam ¾ivot tih deset godina u
nekada¹njoj Jugoslaviji najbolje demantuje ideje o
nacionalnoj ili verskoj diskriminaciji, jer je
Savezna Republika Jugoslavija ostala jedina dr¾ava
koja je saèuvala svoj vi¹enacionalni karakter i u
kojoj nije bilo nikakve diskriminacije na nacionalnoj
ili verskoj osnovi. Deset godina to potvrðuje. Ista
je stvar i sa Kosovom. Mo¾da vi ne znate, ali je
vlada AP Kosovo i Metohija i 1998. i 1999. - u toku
rata (sve dok oni koji su izvr¹ili agresiju nisu
instalirali na vlast u Beogradu svoje najamnike) bila
sastavljena od Srba, Albanaca, Muslimana, Turaka,
Goranaca, Roma i Egipæana. Srbi su u toj vladi bili u
manjini. Kako uop¹te ideju o nekakvoj nacionalnoj
diskriminaciji pomiriti sa tom èinjenicom?! Na¹a
delegacija u Rambujeu sastojala se, isto tako, od
predstavnika svih tih nacionalnosti. Kako to pomiriti
sa ovakvim monstruoznim imputiranjem nacionalne
diskriminacije?! Da li znate da je 1998. godine,
posle deset godina potpunog mira na Kosovu, (u deset
godina u kojima niko nije ubijen, za tih deset godina
niko nije uhap¹en, izlazilo je nekoliko desetina
listova na albanskom jeziku koje ste mogli da kupite
na svakom æo¹ku, ¹kolovanje je bilo na albanskom
jeziku u svim osnovnim i srednjim ¹kolama) posle
deset godina, kada je krenuo terorizam koji su
organizovale strane slu¾be od otpadaka albanske
mafije po Evropi, mi smo formirali lokalnu policiju u
albanskim selima tako ¹to su sami graðani birali
svoje policajce koji su nosili oru¾je i svi su bili
Albanci. Ti isti lokalni policajci kao i Albanci
po¹tari, kao i Albanci ¹umari, kao i Albanci na
drugim funkcijama u dr¾avnom aparatu, bili su predmet
atentata, ubistava, klanja, pretnji, itd. od strane
albanskih terorista. U toj 1998. godini vi¹e je ljudi
albanske nacionalnosti ubijeno od strane albanskih
terorista, nego ¹to je Srba ubijeno od strane
albanskih terorista. Posebno je ilustrativno to da u
svim na¹im strukturama, pa i u ovoj na¹oj
Socijalistièkoj partiji, èlanstvo je bilo one
strukture kakva je bila i meðu graðanima - bilo je i
Srba, i Albanaca, i Turaka, i Maðara, i Rusina, i
Rumuna, i Bugara i svih drugih. Ko bi od njih uop¹te
i¹ao uz program nacionalne, verske ili rasne
diskriminacije koji se ovde imputira?
Ove dve optu¾nice za Hrvatsku i Bosnu, ekspresno su
lansirane upravo da bi se utopila optu¾nica za Kosovo
koja ukazuje na terorizam, iako je jasno da smo se i
u Hrvatskoj i u Bosni bavili mirom, a ne ratom. Mi
smo pomagali svoj narod da opstane, da ne postane,
kao u Drugom svetskom ratu, ¾rtva genocida. Ali mnogo
puta smo i javno rekli, i ja sam o tome govorio, mi
¾elimo da on bude slobodan i ravnopravan na
teritorijama na kojima vekovima ¾ivi. I da to ne bude
na raèun bilo kog drugog naroda. Primer Savezne
Republike Jugoslavije i veoma dobrih meðunacionalnih
odnosa za sve vreme sukoba to najbolje pokazuje. Za
vreme sukoba u Bosni nijedan musliman nije isteran iz
Srbije, za vreme sukoba u Hrvatskoj nijedan Hrvat
nije isteran iz Srbije. Èak, za vreme sukoba u Bosni
- pogledajte evidenciju Meðunarodnog komesarijata za
izbeglice UN - preko 70 hiljada Muslimana izbeglica
na¹lo je skloni¹te upravo u Srbiji. Pa koji bi to
narod i koje desetine hiljada ljudi dolazile da se
sklone kod onih koji su izvr¹ili agresiju na njih. Pa
znate li vi da u Srbiji ¾ivi vi¹e muslimana nego u
Bosni i Hercegovini? Muslimani u Bosni i Hercegovini
su gurnuti u tu nesreæu, u taj rat, da bi kasnije
mogla da im se daje podr¹ka i da bi se time kupio
alibi za ubijanje mnogostruko vi¹e - miliona
Muslimana - u skladu sa interesima onih koji su to
postavljali u funkciji novog porobljavanja sveta i
novog kolonijalizma.
Posebno, ja ne mogu da razumem da neko mo¾e da se
drzne da ovde govori o Kosovu implicite kao o neèemu
¹to nije deo Srbije. Kosovo je Srbija i Kosovo æe
ostati Srbija i ova situacija trajaæe taèno onoliko
koliko bude trajala ova nelegalna okupacija Kosova i
Metohije. Nelegalna zato ¹to je do nje do¹lo
zloupotrebom UN i Rezolucije 1244 Saveta bezbednosti
koja predviða prisustvo bezbednosnih snaga UN.
Meðutim, te su snage uzurpirale ovla¹æenja UN,
dozvolile dalje divljanje albanskih terorista,
hiljade Srba i drugih nealbanskih stanovnika Kosova
su ubijeni i oteti, desetine hiljada srpskih kuæa je
zapaljeno, vi¹e od stotinu crkava je sru¹eno i
zapaljeno, sve pod okriljem meðunarodnih snaga koje
su bile do¹le da garantuju svima bezbednost. I danas,
posle ovih karikaturalnih izbora, ti vajni srpski
poslanici dolaze avionom iz Beograda da vr¹e svoju
funkciju poslanika i pod vojnom pratnjom ulaze u taj
tzv. parlament. To æe stanje trajati koliko bude
trajala okupacija. To je stanje trajalo i pod turskom
okupacijom èitavih 500 godina. Ova neæe moæi toliko
da traje, ali onog trenutka kada se ona zavr¹i Kosovo
æe opet biti potpuno pod srpskom kontrolom, a nije
reè samo o Kosovu veæ i o Srbiji, jer æe i Srbijom
ponovo i uskoro upravljati patriote. Patriote æe
upravljati i drugim zemljama umesto ove ¹eme novog
kolonijalizma i postavljanja raznih marionetskih
vlada.
Ja mislim da je sve ¹to smo èuli danas i ¹to je u
potpunoj svaði sa istinom pokazalo do koje su mere
ove optu¾nice proma¹ene. Ja jedino mogu da ih razumem
kao izraz gneva i osvete za fijasko koji je NATO
pretrpeo u poku¹aju da izvr¹i vojnu okupaciju
Jugoslavije. I mogu da vam ka¾em, ponosim se time ¹to
sam komandovao oru¾anim snagama Jugoslavije koje su
zaustavile NATO, jer se pokazalo da zemlja, makar i
mala, koja ima èvrstu volju da brani svoju slobodu i
da brani ideju slobode i ravnopravnosti i naroda i
ljudi, mo¾e da se odbrani. Ovo je kazna zato ¹to smo
se usprotivili opasnosti najveæe tiranije koja je
zapretila èoveèanstvu.
I ono ¹to mo¾e da se pogrebe po tim optu¾nicama je
talog i mulj iz desetogodi¹njeg medijskog rata koji
je voðen sa ciljem satanizacije i Srbije i srpskog
naroda, i srpskog rukovodstva, i moje liène, pa èak i
moje porodice. Zato ¹to je medijski rat prethodio
pravom ratu i ¹to je imao cilj da ubedi javno mnjenje
na Zapadu da smo mi zlikovci iako za to nikada nismo
dali povoda.
Vi ste danas proèitali ovde kako je 6. aprila 1992.
godine Evropska Unija priznala Bosnu i Hercegovinu.
To je uèinjeno pod uticajem tada¹njeg ministra
inostranih poslova Nemaèke Hansa Ditriha Gen¹era, jer
je 6. april dan kada je 1941. godine Hitler napao
Beograd. To je bila ¾elja da se simbolizuje promena
rezultata Drugog svetskog rata. Nikada to ne bih
pripisao nemaèkom narodu, ali neki su politièari
zadr¾ali isto ono zlo protiv koga smo se zajedno
borili i postigli i vi¹e od osvete jer su uspeli da
nas ubijaju rukama na¹ih saveznika, Amerikanaca,
Engleza, Francuza, sa kojima smo se u dva svetska
rata borili protiv tog istog zla.
(.........)
Ja sam vam veæ rekao o svom odnosu prema ovom sudu,
iako sudija Robinson ka¾e da taj moj odnos ne
proizvodi za vas nikakve posledice. Prema tome ¹ta
æete da uradite to je va¹a stvar, a ja vam samo ka¾em
da nijedan argument koji je ovde upotrebljen u prilog
nekakvog spajanja nije istinit, ne stoji, nije taèan,
i ne mo¾e se ni na kakav naèin pravdati. Prema tome,
argumenti su la¾ni kao ¹to je la¾na i optu¾nica, a vi
æete uraditi kako vi ¾elite, to je va¹a stvar.
Ja mislim da su upravo dati argumenti koji su protiv
ideje koju je iznela tu¾ba, jer sve ¹to oni iznose i
koliko god dalje budu i¹li - pokazaæe koliko je to
sve na staklenim nogama, iskonstruisano i pokupljeno
iz taloga tog medijskog rata a ne iz stvarnih
èinjenica, pogotovo èinjenica koje bi mogle imati
pravnu te¾inu. A to ¹to je njihov reènik i struktura
onoga ¹to izla¾u u potpunosti podudarno sa onim ¹to
smo deset godina slu¹ali u politièkim pamfletima, po
raznoj ¹tampi samo pokazuje da im je poreklo iz iste
kuhinje i ni¹ta drugo.
Na va¹em mestu ja bih lièno, bez obzira na va¹ status
koji ja osporavam, ¹to vam nije nepoznato, odbacio
ovakve ideje. Oni hoæe u drugi plan da stave Kosovo
samo zato ¹to ono otvara pitanje saradnje sa
teroristima, ¹to ne odgovara tekuæoj politici. Oni u
ovom trenutku falsifikuju istorijske èinjenice u
funkciji dnevne politike, a time ne bi smeo da se
bavi èak ni ovaj ilegalni sud.
(............)
Ja sam u meðuvremenu obave¹ten da ste, bez mog
zahteva imenovali neke savetnike koje ja nisam
tra¾io, tumaèeæi moju saglasnost da primim posete
pojedinih ljudi kao zahtev da se imenuju pravni
savetnici. Ja sam na to odgovorio Sekretarijatu da ne
smatram da ko god me poseæuje, a ima u d¾epu diplomu
Pravnog fakulteta, da mora prvo sa moje strane da
bude imenovan za pravnog savetnika. I mislim da ne bi
bilo dopustivo da mi se dalje ogranièavaju posete
lica koja ¾ele da me posete u skladu sa pravilima
koja ste vi izgradili, i na bazi nediskriminacije, s
obzirom da drugi koji se nalaze u tom zatvoru imaju
moguænost da budu poseæivani. Drugo...
(.............)
Ja sam rekao da ¾elim da mi se omoguæi da me poseæuju
ljudi koji ¾ele da me posete i to je sve.
Drugo, èuo sam ovde da imate ovde infra-crvenu kameru
u mojoj æeliji. Mene je obavestila uprava zatvora da
mi je sad svetlo iskljuèeno jer su oni iskljuèili
svoju kameru, a nisam obave¹ten da je ta o kojoj je
va¹ predstavnik govorio za javnost iskljuèena, pa
molim da se i ona iskljuèi.
===*===
"I DESERVE CREDIT FOR PEACE NOT WAR!" - MILOSEVIC
Those who have been breaking up Yugoslavia are guilty for
war.
This "trial" is a punishment for our resistance to the worst
tyranny that has ever threatened mankind.
Using false accusations they try to hide the fact that they
have allied with terrorists.
We have been defending the freedom and equality of all
individuals and all peoples.
PATRIOTS WILL SOON, ONCE AGAIN, RULE SERBIA!
President Slobodan Milosevic in
the Hague, December 11, 2001
(full transcript):
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
[After the reading of the "indictment" for Bosnia
and Herzegovina]
I want to tell you that what we have heard here,
this miserable text, is the ultimate absurdity. I
deserve credit for the peace in Bosnia, not the
war. The responsibility for the war lies with the
powers that have been breaking up Yugoslavia and
with their agents in Yugoslavia, not with Serbia,
not with the Serbian people and not with Serbian
policy. This is an attempt... [Here the mike was
turned off]
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
[In the debate on unifying the 'indictments']
All that we have heard today from the so-called
prosecution only confirms that the focus here
entirely misses the point, but so as to not have
the mike turned off again, I will stick to
arguments that respond to your question.
It is entirely clear to me why this false
prosecution insists on "unifying." It is because of
September 11th. They want to divert attention from
the accusations against me concerning Kosovo since
those accusations inevitably open the question of
the Clinton administration's collaboration with
terrorists in Kosovo, including bin Laden's
organization.
Second, regarding what we have heard today, they
are conscious that, if they focus on Kosovo, they
cannot, regardless of the illegality of this court,
avoid having the main perpetrators of the crimes
committed against my country and my people,
starting from Clinton, Albright and Clark and then
also the others, appear before this body, nor could
they avoid the appearance here of many peace
brokers whose activities and cooperation in
searching for peace deny the accusations - I would
say, monstrous accusations - that have been made
here.
So, their reasons for attempting to "unify" are
totally pragmatic and aimed at the protection of
those who have committed crimes against my country,
and are not, as they claim, intended to ensure an
efficient trial since they certainly do not care if
I get tired out or not. I have told you before what
I think about that.
As for their crowning argument, the accusation that
we were motivated by the aim of creating a "Greater
Serbia," that argument can be very easily disproved
and I think that no reasonable person should dare
to use that argument, which they have put forward
as the mythical basis for all crimes. Nobody should
try any longer to impute, to impose, or to abuse
that argument in any way.
Here are irrefutable facts: On April 28, 1992 the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. On April
28, 1992, that is, before the conflicts began,
before the civil war broke out, that Constitutional
Assembly declared, in its official document, our
position: that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
has no territorial pretensions regarding any of the
former Yugoslav republics. This is absolutely
enough evidence to totally reject the nonsense that
they are trying to impute.
I would remind you as well, that at the very
beginning, in May 1993, with our maximum efforts,
the Vance-Owen Plan was accepted and was then
signed in Athens, including by Serbian
representatives. The acceptance of that plan
clearly shows that we regarded peace as the
greatest goal and highest value for all Yugoslav
peoples and refutes this mythical idea.
Finally, during those ten years in Yugoslavia, life
itself has entirely disproved these accusations of
national or religious discrimination, since the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remained the only
part of the old Yugoslavia to preserve its
multinational character and in which there was no
discrimination on national or religious grounds.
Those ten years confirm that. The same goes for
Kosovo. Maybe you do not know, but the government
of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohia in
1998 and 1999 - that is, during the war, until
those who committed aggression installed their
mercenaries in power - was formed of Serbs,
Albanians, Moslems, Turks, Goranies, Roma and
Egyptians. Serbs were a minority in that
government. How can the notion that there was
national discrimination be reconciled with that
fact?!
Our delegation in Rambouillet was comprised of
representatives of all these nationalities as well.
How does that jibe with this monstrous imputing of
national discrimination?! Do you know that in 1998,
after ten years of total peace in Kosovo - ten
years when no one got killed, ten years when no one
got arrested, when tens of daily papers printed in
Albanian could be purchased on every corner, when
education in primary and secondary schools was in
Albanian - when, after ten years, terrorism broke
out, organized by foreign secret services out of
the outcasts of the Albanian Mafia all over Europe,
we formed local Police forces in Albanian villages,
where citizens chose their policemen. They carried
weapons. All of them were ethnic Albanians. These
Albanian policemen, and also Albanian mailmen,
Albanian foremen, and other Albanians within the
State apparatus, were all targets of threats,
attempted murders, assassinations and outright
butchery, all committed by Albanian terrorists.
In 1998 Albanian terrorists killed more Albanians
than Serbs. It is truly remarkable that in all of
our state structures, and in our Socialist Party as
well, membership corresponded to the ethnic
composition of our citizens - there were Serbs,
Albanians, Turks, Hungarians, Ruthenians,
Romanians, Bulgarians and all the others. Which one
of these groups would ever go along with a program
of national, religious, or racial discrimination,
such as has here been imputed?
These two "indictments," for Croatia and Bosnia,
were expressly launched for one purpose only: to
drown the "indictment" concerning Kosovo because
talking about Kosovo opens up the whole issue of
terrorism - this apart from the fact that it is
clear that in Croatia and Bosnia we worked for
peace, not war. We have assisted our people in
order to help them survive rather than becoming, as
they did in World War II, a victim of genocide.
Many times we have said publicly, and I have said
this myself, that we want our people to be free and
equal in the territories where it has lived for
centuries. But at the same time, this should not be
at the expense of any other people.
The example of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
and its very good interethnic relations during the
whole period of conflicts demonstrates this best.
During the conflict in Bosnia no Moslem was
expelled from Serbia. During the conflict in
Croatia no Croat was expelled from Serbia. More
than that, during the conflict in Bosnia - look at
the records at UNHCR - over 70.000 Moslem refugees
found shelter in Serbia. What nation, what tens of
thousands of people, would seek shelter among those
who had committed aggression against them?
Do you know that more Moslems live in Serbia than
in Bosnia and Herzegovina? The Moslems in Bosnia
and Herzegovina were pushed into that disaster,
into that war, so that those outside forces,
appearing as supporters of Muslims, could hide
their responsibility for the deaths of many times
more - millions of Moslems - in accordance with
their interests of enslaving the World and a new
colonialism.
Especially, I cannot understand that someone could
dare to speak here about Kosovo implicitly as if it
were something outside Serbia. Kosovo is Serbia and
Kosovo will remain Serbia but the terrible
situation in Kosovo and Metohia will continue as
long as it is subject to illegal occupation.
Illegal because it was made possible based on an
abuse of the UN and of Security Council Resolution
1244. This Resolution does envisage the presence of
UN security forces; however, the forces in Kosovo
have violated their UN authorization, including by
allowing further savageries by the Albanian
terrorists.
Thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanian residents
of Kosovo have been killed and kidnapped, tens of
thousands of Serb homes have been burned down, more
than a hundred churches have been destroyed and
burned down, all under the auspices of the
international forces that came there to guarantee
safety for all.
And today, after these cartoon-like elections,
those fine Serbian MPs come by plane from Belgrade
to do their job as deputies and under military
escort get into that so-called parliament. This
situation will last as long as the occupation. A
similar situation under Turkish occupation lasted
for all of 500 years. This one won't last that
long, and in the very moment it ends, Kosovo will
again be completely under Serbian control, and here
we are talking not only about Kosovo, but of Serbia
as well, since Serbia too will be ruled again and
soon by patriots. Patriots will rule in other
countries as well, instead of this scheme of new
colonialism and the establishing of various puppet
governments.
I think that all we heard here today, which is in
total contradiction to the truth, has shown how
failed these "indictments" are. I can only
understand them as a statement of anger and revenge
for the fiasco that NATO has suffered in the
attempt to militarily occupy Yugoslavia. I can tell
you that I am proud that I commanded the armed
forces of Yugoslavia that have stopped NATO, since
this has shown that a country, even a small one,
having a strong will to defend its freedom and
defend the idea of freedom and equality of nations
and peoples, can succeed. I am here as a punishment
for our standing up against the danger of the
biggest tyranny that has threatened mankind.
What of substance can be scraped from these
accusations is nothing more than the mud and dregs
of a decade-long media war aimed at demonizing both
Serbia and the Serbian people, as well as the Serb
leadership, and myself, and even my family. Because
the media war preceded the real one and had as its
goal convincing public opinion in the West that we
are villains, regardless of the fact that we never
provided any grounds for that.
You have read here today how on April 6, 1992, the
European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This was done under the influence of the then
foreign affairs minister of Germany, Hans Dietrich
Genscher, because April 6, 1941 was the day when
Hitler started the attack on Yugoslavia and bombed
Belgrade. There was a wish, in this way, to
communicate that the outcome of World War II had
been changed. I would never blame such a desire on
the German people, but some politicians have held
onto the evil, which we fought against together. In
this way, these politicians realized a revenge in
greater measure, for they have succeeded in killing
us using the hands of our Allies, the Americans,
English and French, with whom we fought together in
two world wars, against that very same evil.
(...........)
I have already told you about my relation to this
court; no matter that Judge Robinson says my
relation to it is of no consequences for you.
Therefore, what you are going to do is your
business, and I can only tell you that every
argument used here to support "unifying" is not
true, does not stand, is not correct, and cannot be
justified in any way. So, the arguments are false,
as the indictment is false; and you will do what
you please, and that is your problem.
We have heard many arguments against the idea
raised by the prosecution. Everything they bring
up, and this will become more apparent as they go
on, shows that their entire case stands on glass
legs and is taken from the dregs of the media war,
not from real facts, especially not from facts that
could have some legal weight. The vocabulary and
structure of all their arguments entirely matches
what we have heard in political pamphlets or the
media, which only shows that it was all cooked in
the same kitchen, nothing else.
If I were you, I would, personally, regardless of
your status, to which I object, a fact which is not
unknown to you, reject such ideas. They want to put
aside Kosovo only because it opens the matter of
collaboration with the terrorists, which does not
correspond with current policies. At this moment
they are falsifying historical facts for the sake
of daily policies, and that is something that even
this illegal tribunal should not allow.
(............)
I have been informed, in the meantime, that without
my knowledge you have nominated some legal advisers
whom I have not requested, interpreting my
agreement to receive the visits of some people as a
request to nominate legal advisors. I have answered
the Registry, stating that I do not consider that
whoever visits me, and has a Law Faculty degree,
must first be nominated by me as legal advisor. And
I consider that it would be inadmissible to have
limitations to visits by people who wish to visit
me, according to the rules you have set, and on the
basis of no discrimination, since others who are in
this prison have the possibility of receiving such
visits. Second.....
(............)
I have only said that I wish that people who want
to visit me should be allowed to do it and that is
all.
Second, I have heard that you have an infrared
camera in my cell. The prison authorities informed
me that the reason they finally turned off the
regular light in my cell was that they had turned
off their camera, but I have not been informed that
this one, which your representative referred to
publicly, has also been turned off. I ask that this
one be turned off as well.
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to
defend Slobodan Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian
newspaper advocating liberation)
> http://www.sps.org.yu/aktuelno/2001/decembar/12-01.html
11. decembar 2001. godine - HAG
Predsednik Slobodan Milo¹eviæ u Hagu, 11. decembra 2001.
(stenogram)
ZASLU®NI SMO ZA MIR, A NE ZA RAT!
A za rat su odgovorni oni koji su rasturali
Jugoslaviju. Ovo je kazna za otpor najveæoj tiraniji
koja je zapretila èoveèanstvu. La¾nim optu¾bama ¾ele
da prikriju saradnju sa teroristima. Branili smo
slobodu i ravnopravnost naroda i ljudi!
SRBIJOM ÆE USKORO PONOVO UPRAVLjATI PATRIOTE!
SLOBODAN MILO©EVIÆ (posle èitanja "optu¾nice" za Bosnu i
Hercegovinu):
Ovo ¹to smo èuli ovde, ovaj ¾alosni tekst
je vrhunac apsurda. Meni pripada zasluga
za mir u Bosni, a ne za rat. Odgovornost
za rat u Bosni snose sile koje su rasturale
Jugoslaviju i njihovi satrapi u Jugoslaviji, a ne ni
Srbija, ni srpski narod, ni srpska politika. Ovo je
poku¹aj... (iskljuèen mikrofon)
SLOBODAN MILO©EVIÆ (u raspravi o objedinjavanju "optu¾nica"):
Sve ¹to smo danas èuli od tzv. tu¾be samo potvrðuje
da je celokupna zamisao potpuno proma¹ena, ali da mi
ne biste oduzeli reè, dr¾aæu se samo onih argumenata
koji odgovaraju na va¹e pitanje.
Za mene je potpuno jasno za¹to ova la¾na tu¾ba
insistira na spajanju. To je posledica 11. septembra.
Oni ¾ele da stave u drugi plan optu¾be za Kosovo, jer
optu¾be za Kosovo neizbe¾no otvaraju pitanje saradnje
Klintonove administracije sa teroristima na Kosovu,
ukljuèujuæi i organizaciju Bin Ladena.
Drugo, ono ¹to smo mogli danas da èujemo - i oni su
svesni toga da u tom sluèaju ne mogu izbeæi, bez
obzira na ilegalnost ovog suda, da se ovde pojave
glavni akteri zloèina izvr¹enog protiv moje zemlje i
mog naroda, poèev od Klintona, Olbrajtove, Klarka i
drugih, ali naravno, i mnogi mirovni posrednici èija
aktivnost i saradnja na pronala¾enju mira potpuno
demantuje ove, rekao bih, monstruozne optu¾be koje su
ovde izreèene.
Dakle, njihovi su razlozi potpuno pragmatièni i
vezani za za¹titu onih koji su izvr¹ili zloèine nad
mojom zemljom, a ne za bilo kakvo ekonomisanje
vremenom, jer njih sigurno nije briga da li æu se ja
umarati ili ne, a ja sam vam rekao ¹ta o tome mislim
i pre.
©to se tièe krunskog argumenta, o ideji o stvaranju
"velike Srbije", taj argument se sasvim lako mo¾e
demantovati i ja mislim da niko razuman ne bi smeo
taj argument, koji su uzeli kao mit i osnovu za sve
zloèine da vi¹e poku¹ava da imputira, nameæe ili na
bilo kakav naèin zloupotrebi. Postoje èinjenice koje
su neoborive. 28. aprila 1992. godine formirana je
Savezna Republika Jugoslavija. 28. aprila 1992.
godine, dakle, pre nego ¹to su poèeli sukobi, pre
nego ¹to je poèeo graðanski rat. Ta ustavotvorna
skup¹tina je svojim zvaniènim dokumentom deklarisala
na¹u poziciju u kojoj se ka¾e da Savezna Republika
Jugoslavija nema teritorijalne pretenzije ni prema
jednoj od biv¹ih jugoslovenskih republika. To je
apsolutno dovoljan dokaz da se ove besmislice koje
poku¹avaju da se imputiraju u potpunosti odbace.
Podsetio bih vas i na to da je na samom poèetku, maja
1993. godine, uz na¹e maksimalno zalaganje, u Atini
prihvaæen Vens-Ovenov plan koji su tada potpisali i
srpski predstavnici. I da je to prihvatanje, takoðe -
smatrajuæi mir najveæim ciljem i najveæom vredno¹æu
za sve jugoslovenske narode - do kraja demantovalo
svaku takvu ideju.
Na kraju krajeva, sam ¾ivot tih deset godina u
nekada¹njoj Jugoslaviji najbolje demantuje ideje o
nacionalnoj ili verskoj diskriminaciji, jer je
Savezna Republika Jugoslavija ostala jedina dr¾ava
koja je saèuvala svoj vi¹enacionalni karakter i u
kojoj nije bilo nikakve diskriminacije na nacionalnoj
ili verskoj osnovi. Deset godina to potvrðuje. Ista
je stvar i sa Kosovom. Mo¾da vi ne znate, ali je
vlada AP Kosovo i Metohija i 1998. i 1999. - u toku
rata (sve dok oni koji su izvr¹ili agresiju nisu
instalirali na vlast u Beogradu svoje najamnike) bila
sastavljena od Srba, Albanaca, Muslimana, Turaka,
Goranaca, Roma i Egipæana. Srbi su u toj vladi bili u
manjini. Kako uop¹te ideju o nekakvoj nacionalnoj
diskriminaciji pomiriti sa tom èinjenicom?! Na¹a
delegacija u Rambujeu sastojala se, isto tako, od
predstavnika svih tih nacionalnosti. Kako to pomiriti
sa ovakvim monstruoznim imputiranjem nacionalne
diskriminacije?! Da li znate da je 1998. godine,
posle deset godina potpunog mira na Kosovu, (u deset
godina u kojima niko nije ubijen, za tih deset godina
niko nije uhap¹en, izlazilo je nekoliko desetina
listova na albanskom jeziku koje ste mogli da kupite
na svakom æo¹ku, ¹kolovanje je bilo na albanskom
jeziku u svim osnovnim i srednjim ¹kolama) posle
deset godina, kada je krenuo terorizam koji su
organizovale strane slu¾be od otpadaka albanske
mafije po Evropi, mi smo formirali lokalnu policiju u
albanskim selima tako ¹to su sami graðani birali
svoje policajce koji su nosili oru¾je i svi su bili
Albanci. Ti isti lokalni policajci kao i Albanci
po¹tari, kao i Albanci ¹umari, kao i Albanci na
drugim funkcijama u dr¾avnom aparatu, bili su predmet
atentata, ubistava, klanja, pretnji, itd. od strane
albanskih terorista. U toj 1998. godini vi¹e je ljudi
albanske nacionalnosti ubijeno od strane albanskih
terorista, nego ¹to je Srba ubijeno od strane
albanskih terorista. Posebno je ilustrativno to da u
svim na¹im strukturama, pa i u ovoj na¹oj
Socijalistièkoj partiji, èlanstvo je bilo one
strukture kakva je bila i meðu graðanima - bilo je i
Srba, i Albanaca, i Turaka, i Maðara, i Rusina, i
Rumuna, i Bugara i svih drugih. Ko bi od njih uop¹te
i¹ao uz program nacionalne, verske ili rasne
diskriminacije koji se ovde imputira?
Ove dve optu¾nice za Hrvatsku i Bosnu, ekspresno su
lansirane upravo da bi se utopila optu¾nica za Kosovo
koja ukazuje na terorizam, iako je jasno da smo se i
u Hrvatskoj i u Bosni bavili mirom, a ne ratom. Mi
smo pomagali svoj narod da opstane, da ne postane,
kao u Drugom svetskom ratu, ¾rtva genocida. Ali mnogo
puta smo i javno rekli, i ja sam o tome govorio, mi
¾elimo da on bude slobodan i ravnopravan na
teritorijama na kojima vekovima ¾ivi. I da to ne bude
na raèun bilo kog drugog naroda. Primer Savezne
Republike Jugoslavije i veoma dobrih meðunacionalnih
odnosa za sve vreme sukoba to najbolje pokazuje. Za
vreme sukoba u Bosni nijedan musliman nije isteran iz
Srbije, za vreme sukoba u Hrvatskoj nijedan Hrvat
nije isteran iz Srbije. Èak, za vreme sukoba u Bosni
- pogledajte evidenciju Meðunarodnog komesarijata za
izbeglice UN - preko 70 hiljada Muslimana izbeglica
na¹lo je skloni¹te upravo u Srbiji. Pa koji bi to
narod i koje desetine hiljada ljudi dolazile da se
sklone kod onih koji su izvr¹ili agresiju na njih. Pa
znate li vi da u Srbiji ¾ivi vi¹e muslimana nego u
Bosni i Hercegovini? Muslimani u Bosni i Hercegovini
su gurnuti u tu nesreæu, u taj rat, da bi kasnije
mogla da im se daje podr¹ka i da bi se time kupio
alibi za ubijanje mnogostruko vi¹e - miliona
Muslimana - u skladu sa interesima onih koji su to
postavljali u funkciji novog porobljavanja sveta i
novog kolonijalizma.
Posebno, ja ne mogu da razumem da neko mo¾e da se
drzne da ovde govori o Kosovu implicite kao o neèemu
¹to nije deo Srbije. Kosovo je Srbija i Kosovo æe
ostati Srbija i ova situacija trajaæe taèno onoliko
koliko bude trajala ova nelegalna okupacija Kosova i
Metohije. Nelegalna zato ¹to je do nje do¹lo
zloupotrebom UN i Rezolucije 1244 Saveta bezbednosti
koja predviða prisustvo bezbednosnih snaga UN.
Meðutim, te su snage uzurpirale ovla¹æenja UN,
dozvolile dalje divljanje albanskih terorista,
hiljade Srba i drugih nealbanskih stanovnika Kosova
su ubijeni i oteti, desetine hiljada srpskih kuæa je
zapaljeno, vi¹e od stotinu crkava je sru¹eno i
zapaljeno, sve pod okriljem meðunarodnih snaga koje
su bile do¹le da garantuju svima bezbednost. I danas,
posle ovih karikaturalnih izbora, ti vajni srpski
poslanici dolaze avionom iz Beograda da vr¹e svoju
funkciju poslanika i pod vojnom pratnjom ulaze u taj
tzv. parlament. To æe stanje trajati koliko bude
trajala okupacija. To je stanje trajalo i pod turskom
okupacijom èitavih 500 godina. Ova neæe moæi toliko
da traje, ali onog trenutka kada se ona zavr¹i Kosovo
æe opet biti potpuno pod srpskom kontrolom, a nije
reè samo o Kosovu veæ i o Srbiji, jer æe i Srbijom
ponovo i uskoro upravljati patriote. Patriote æe
upravljati i drugim zemljama umesto ove ¹eme novog
kolonijalizma i postavljanja raznih marionetskih
vlada.
Ja mislim da je sve ¹to smo èuli danas i ¹to je u
potpunoj svaði sa istinom pokazalo do koje su mere
ove optu¾nice proma¹ene. Ja jedino mogu da ih razumem
kao izraz gneva i osvete za fijasko koji je NATO
pretrpeo u poku¹aju da izvr¹i vojnu okupaciju
Jugoslavije. I mogu da vam ka¾em, ponosim se time ¹to
sam komandovao oru¾anim snagama Jugoslavije koje su
zaustavile NATO, jer se pokazalo da zemlja, makar i
mala, koja ima èvrstu volju da brani svoju slobodu i
da brani ideju slobode i ravnopravnosti i naroda i
ljudi, mo¾e da se odbrani. Ovo je kazna zato ¹to smo
se usprotivili opasnosti najveæe tiranije koja je
zapretila èoveèanstvu.
I ono ¹to mo¾e da se pogrebe po tim optu¾nicama je
talog i mulj iz desetogodi¹njeg medijskog rata koji
je voðen sa ciljem satanizacije i Srbije i srpskog
naroda, i srpskog rukovodstva, i moje liène, pa èak i
moje porodice. Zato ¹to je medijski rat prethodio
pravom ratu i ¹to je imao cilj da ubedi javno mnjenje
na Zapadu da smo mi zlikovci iako za to nikada nismo
dali povoda.
Vi ste danas proèitali ovde kako je 6. aprila 1992.
godine Evropska Unija priznala Bosnu i Hercegovinu.
To je uèinjeno pod uticajem tada¹njeg ministra
inostranih poslova Nemaèke Hansa Ditriha Gen¹era, jer
je 6. april dan kada je 1941. godine Hitler napao
Beograd. To je bila ¾elja da se simbolizuje promena
rezultata Drugog svetskog rata. Nikada to ne bih
pripisao nemaèkom narodu, ali neki su politièari
zadr¾ali isto ono zlo protiv koga smo se zajedno
borili i postigli i vi¹e od osvete jer su uspeli da
nas ubijaju rukama na¹ih saveznika, Amerikanaca,
Engleza, Francuza, sa kojima smo se u dva svetska
rata borili protiv tog istog zla.
(.........)
Ja sam vam veæ rekao o svom odnosu prema ovom sudu,
iako sudija Robinson ka¾e da taj moj odnos ne
proizvodi za vas nikakve posledice. Prema tome ¹ta
æete da uradite to je va¹a stvar, a ja vam samo ka¾em
da nijedan argument koji je ovde upotrebljen u prilog
nekakvog spajanja nije istinit, ne stoji, nije taèan,
i ne mo¾e se ni na kakav naèin pravdati. Prema tome,
argumenti su la¾ni kao ¹to je la¾na i optu¾nica, a vi
æete uraditi kako vi ¾elite, to je va¹a stvar.
Ja mislim da su upravo dati argumenti koji su protiv
ideje koju je iznela tu¾ba, jer sve ¹to oni iznose i
koliko god dalje budu i¹li - pokazaæe koliko je to
sve na staklenim nogama, iskonstruisano i pokupljeno
iz taloga tog medijskog rata a ne iz stvarnih
èinjenica, pogotovo èinjenica koje bi mogle imati
pravnu te¾inu. A to ¹to je njihov reènik i struktura
onoga ¹to izla¾u u potpunosti podudarno sa onim ¹to
smo deset godina slu¹ali u politièkim pamfletima, po
raznoj ¹tampi samo pokazuje da im je poreklo iz iste
kuhinje i ni¹ta drugo.
Na va¹em mestu ja bih lièno, bez obzira na va¹ status
koji ja osporavam, ¹to vam nije nepoznato, odbacio
ovakve ideje. Oni hoæe u drugi plan da stave Kosovo
samo zato ¹to ono otvara pitanje saradnje sa
teroristima, ¹to ne odgovara tekuæoj politici. Oni u
ovom trenutku falsifikuju istorijske èinjenice u
funkciji dnevne politike, a time ne bi smeo da se
bavi èak ni ovaj ilegalni sud.
(............)
Ja sam u meðuvremenu obave¹ten da ste, bez mog
zahteva imenovali neke savetnike koje ja nisam
tra¾io, tumaèeæi moju saglasnost da primim posete
pojedinih ljudi kao zahtev da se imenuju pravni
savetnici. Ja sam na to odgovorio Sekretarijatu da ne
smatram da ko god me poseæuje, a ima u d¾epu diplomu
Pravnog fakulteta, da mora prvo sa moje strane da
bude imenovan za pravnog savetnika. I mislim da ne bi
bilo dopustivo da mi se dalje ogranièavaju posete
lica koja ¾ele da me posete u skladu sa pravilima
koja ste vi izgradili, i na bazi nediskriminacije, s
obzirom da drugi koji se nalaze u tom zatvoru imaju
moguænost da budu poseæivani. Drugo...
(.............)
Ja sam rekao da ¾elim da mi se omoguæi da me poseæuju
ljudi koji ¾ele da me posete i to je sve.
Drugo, èuo sam ovde da imate ovde infra-crvenu kameru
u mojoj æeliji. Mene je obavestila uprava zatvora da
mi je sad svetlo iskljuèeno jer su oni iskljuèili
svoju kameru, a nisam obave¹ten da je ta o kojoj je
va¹ predstavnik govorio za javnost iskljuèena, pa
molim da se i ona iskljuèi.
===*===
"I DESERVE CREDIT FOR PEACE NOT WAR!" - MILOSEVIC
Those who have been breaking up Yugoslavia are guilty for
war.
This "trial" is a punishment for our resistance to the worst
tyranny that has ever threatened mankind.
Using false accusations they try to hide the fact that they
have allied with terrorists.
We have been defending the freedom and equality of all
individuals and all peoples.
PATRIOTS WILL SOON, ONCE AGAIN, RULE SERBIA!
President Slobodan Milosevic in
the Hague, December 11, 2001
(full transcript):
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
[After the reading of the "indictment" for Bosnia
and Herzegovina]
I want to tell you that what we have heard here,
this miserable text, is the ultimate absurdity. I
deserve credit for the peace in Bosnia, not the
war. The responsibility for the war lies with the
powers that have been breaking up Yugoslavia and
with their agents in Yugoslavia, not with Serbia,
not with the Serbian people and not with Serbian
policy. This is an attempt... [Here the mike was
turned off]
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
[In the debate on unifying the 'indictments']
All that we have heard today from the so-called
prosecution only confirms that the focus here
entirely misses the point, but so as to not have
the mike turned off again, I will stick to
arguments that respond to your question.
It is entirely clear to me why this false
prosecution insists on "unifying." It is because of
September 11th. They want to divert attention from
the accusations against me concerning Kosovo since
those accusations inevitably open the question of
the Clinton administration's collaboration with
terrorists in Kosovo, including bin Laden's
organization.
Second, regarding what we have heard today, they
are conscious that, if they focus on Kosovo, they
cannot, regardless of the illegality of this court,
avoid having the main perpetrators of the crimes
committed against my country and my people,
starting from Clinton, Albright and Clark and then
also the others, appear before this body, nor could
they avoid the appearance here of many peace
brokers whose activities and cooperation in
searching for peace deny the accusations - I would
say, monstrous accusations - that have been made
here.
So, their reasons for attempting to "unify" are
totally pragmatic and aimed at the protection of
those who have committed crimes against my country,
and are not, as they claim, intended to ensure an
efficient trial since they certainly do not care if
I get tired out or not. I have told you before what
I think about that.
As for their crowning argument, the accusation that
we were motivated by the aim of creating a "Greater
Serbia," that argument can be very easily disproved
and I think that no reasonable person should dare
to use that argument, which they have put forward
as the mythical basis for all crimes. Nobody should
try any longer to impute, to impose, or to abuse
that argument in any way.
Here are irrefutable facts: On April 28, 1992 the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. On April
28, 1992, that is, before the conflicts began,
before the civil war broke out, that Constitutional
Assembly declared, in its official document, our
position: that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
has no territorial pretensions regarding any of the
former Yugoslav republics. This is absolutely
enough evidence to totally reject the nonsense that
they are trying to impute.
I would remind you as well, that at the very
beginning, in May 1993, with our maximum efforts,
the Vance-Owen Plan was accepted and was then
signed in Athens, including by Serbian
representatives. The acceptance of that plan
clearly shows that we regarded peace as the
greatest goal and highest value for all Yugoslav
peoples and refutes this mythical idea.
Finally, during those ten years in Yugoslavia, life
itself has entirely disproved these accusations of
national or religious discrimination, since the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remained the only
part of the old Yugoslavia to preserve its
multinational character and in which there was no
discrimination on national or religious grounds.
Those ten years confirm that. The same goes for
Kosovo. Maybe you do not know, but the government
of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohia in
1998 and 1999 - that is, during the war, until
those who committed aggression installed their
mercenaries in power - was formed of Serbs,
Albanians, Moslems, Turks, Goranies, Roma and
Egyptians. Serbs were a minority in that
government. How can the notion that there was
national discrimination be reconciled with that
fact?!
Our delegation in Rambouillet was comprised of
representatives of all these nationalities as well.
How does that jibe with this monstrous imputing of
national discrimination?! Do you know that in 1998,
after ten years of total peace in Kosovo - ten
years when no one got killed, ten years when no one
got arrested, when tens of daily papers printed in
Albanian could be purchased on every corner, when
education in primary and secondary schools was in
Albanian - when, after ten years, terrorism broke
out, organized by foreign secret services out of
the outcasts of the Albanian Mafia all over Europe,
we formed local Police forces in Albanian villages,
where citizens chose their policemen. They carried
weapons. All of them were ethnic Albanians. These
Albanian policemen, and also Albanian mailmen,
Albanian foremen, and other Albanians within the
State apparatus, were all targets of threats,
attempted murders, assassinations and outright
butchery, all committed by Albanian terrorists.
In 1998 Albanian terrorists killed more Albanians
than Serbs. It is truly remarkable that in all of
our state structures, and in our Socialist Party as
well, membership corresponded to the ethnic
composition of our citizens - there were Serbs,
Albanians, Turks, Hungarians, Ruthenians,
Romanians, Bulgarians and all the others. Which one
of these groups would ever go along with a program
of national, religious, or racial discrimination,
such as has here been imputed?
These two "indictments," for Croatia and Bosnia,
were expressly launched for one purpose only: to
drown the "indictment" concerning Kosovo because
talking about Kosovo opens up the whole issue of
terrorism - this apart from the fact that it is
clear that in Croatia and Bosnia we worked for
peace, not war. We have assisted our people in
order to help them survive rather than becoming, as
they did in World War II, a victim of genocide.
Many times we have said publicly, and I have said
this myself, that we want our people to be free and
equal in the territories where it has lived for
centuries. But at the same time, this should not be
at the expense of any other people.
The example of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
and its very good interethnic relations during the
whole period of conflicts demonstrates this best.
During the conflict in Bosnia no Moslem was
expelled from Serbia. During the conflict in
Croatia no Croat was expelled from Serbia. More
than that, during the conflict in Bosnia - look at
the records at UNHCR - over 70.000 Moslem refugees
found shelter in Serbia. What nation, what tens of
thousands of people, would seek shelter among those
who had committed aggression against them?
Do you know that more Moslems live in Serbia than
in Bosnia and Herzegovina? The Moslems in Bosnia
and Herzegovina were pushed into that disaster,
into that war, so that those outside forces,
appearing as supporters of Muslims, could hide
their responsibility for the deaths of many times
more - millions of Moslems - in accordance with
their interests of enslaving the World and a new
colonialism.
Especially, I cannot understand that someone could
dare to speak here about Kosovo implicitly as if it
were something outside Serbia. Kosovo is Serbia and
Kosovo will remain Serbia but the terrible
situation in Kosovo and Metohia will continue as
long as it is subject to illegal occupation.
Illegal because it was made possible based on an
abuse of the UN and of Security Council Resolution
1244. This Resolution does envisage the presence of
UN security forces; however, the forces in Kosovo
have violated their UN authorization, including by
allowing further savageries by the Albanian
terrorists.
Thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanian residents
of Kosovo have been killed and kidnapped, tens of
thousands of Serb homes have been burned down, more
than a hundred churches have been destroyed and
burned down, all under the auspices of the
international forces that came there to guarantee
safety for all.
And today, after these cartoon-like elections,
those fine Serbian MPs come by plane from Belgrade
to do their job as deputies and under military
escort get into that so-called parliament. This
situation will last as long as the occupation. A
similar situation under Turkish occupation lasted
for all of 500 years. This one won't last that
long, and in the very moment it ends, Kosovo will
again be completely under Serbian control, and here
we are talking not only about Kosovo, but of Serbia
as well, since Serbia too will be ruled again and
soon by patriots. Patriots will rule in other
countries as well, instead of this scheme of new
colonialism and the establishing of various puppet
governments.
I think that all we heard here today, which is in
total contradiction to the truth, has shown how
failed these "indictments" are. I can only
understand them as a statement of anger and revenge
for the fiasco that NATO has suffered in the
attempt to militarily occupy Yugoslavia. I can tell
you that I am proud that I commanded the armed
forces of Yugoslavia that have stopped NATO, since
this has shown that a country, even a small one,
having a strong will to defend its freedom and
defend the idea of freedom and equality of nations
and peoples, can succeed. I am here as a punishment
for our standing up against the danger of the
biggest tyranny that has threatened mankind.
What of substance can be scraped from these
accusations is nothing more than the mud and dregs
of a decade-long media war aimed at demonizing both
Serbia and the Serbian people, as well as the Serb
leadership, and myself, and even my family. Because
the media war preceded the real one and had as its
goal convincing public opinion in the West that we
are villains, regardless of the fact that we never
provided any grounds for that.
You have read here today how on April 6, 1992, the
European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This was done under the influence of the then
foreign affairs minister of Germany, Hans Dietrich
Genscher, because April 6, 1941 was the day when
Hitler started the attack on Yugoslavia and bombed
Belgrade. There was a wish, in this way, to
communicate that the outcome of World War II had
been changed. I would never blame such a desire on
the German people, but some politicians have held
onto the evil, which we fought against together. In
this way, these politicians realized a revenge in
greater measure, for they have succeeded in killing
us using the hands of our Allies, the Americans,
English and French, with whom we fought together in
two world wars, against that very same evil.
(...........)
I have already told you about my relation to this
court; no matter that Judge Robinson says my
relation to it is of no consequences for you.
Therefore, what you are going to do is your
business, and I can only tell you that every
argument used here to support "unifying" is not
true, does not stand, is not correct, and cannot be
justified in any way. So, the arguments are false,
as the indictment is false; and you will do what
you please, and that is your problem.
We have heard many arguments against the idea
raised by the prosecution. Everything they bring
up, and this will become more apparent as they go
on, shows that their entire case stands on glass
legs and is taken from the dregs of the media war,
not from real facts, especially not from facts that
could have some legal weight. The vocabulary and
structure of all their arguments entirely matches
what we have heard in political pamphlets or the
media, which only shows that it was all cooked in
the same kitchen, nothing else.
If I were you, I would, personally, regardless of
your status, to which I object, a fact which is not
unknown to you, reject such ideas. They want to put
aside Kosovo only because it opens the matter of
collaboration with the terrorists, which does not
correspond with current policies. At this moment
they are falsifying historical facts for the sake
of daily policies, and that is something that even
this illegal tribunal should not allow.
(............)
I have been informed, in the meantime, that without
my knowledge you have nominated some legal advisers
whom I have not requested, interpreting my
agreement to receive the visits of some people as a
request to nominate legal advisors. I have answered
the Registry, stating that I do not consider that
whoever visits me, and has a Law Faculty degree,
must first be nominated by me as legal advisor. And
I consider that it would be inadmissible to have
limitations to visits by people who wish to visit
me, according to the rules you have set, and on the
basis of no discrimination, since others who are in
this prison have the possibility of receiving such
visits. Second.....
(............)
I have only said that I wish that people who want
to visit me should be allowed to do it and that is
all.
Second, I have heard that you have an infrared
camera in my cell. The prison authorities informed
me that the reason they finally turned off the
regular light in my cell was that they had turned
off their camera, but I have not been informed that
this one, which your representative referred to
publicly, has also been turned off. I ask that this
one be turned off as well.
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to
defend Slobodan Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian
newspaper advocating liberation)
RADIO B-52 INTERVISTA NOAM CHOMSKY
Radio B-92, la radio piu' filoamericana nel panorama dei media
jugoslavi, da molti anni nota per gli appoggi ed i fondi ricevuti dal
carrozzone Soros e da altri settori statunitensi ed europei (compresa la
campagna pubblicitaria nella quale fu coinvolta Hillary Clinton), ha
intervistato l'"intellettuale critico ufficiale" degli USA, il signor
Noam Chomsky, sul significato degli attentati dell'11 settembre.
L'intervista, tradotta in italiano, si puo' leggere su:
http://www.collettivodifisica.it/Attivita/Gruppi_di_studio/
Guerra_e_pace/Guerra_e_pace_doc/b-92_intervista.htm
Radio B-92 imita nel nome i famosi bombardieri B-52, quelli delle bombe
"taglia margherite", che colpiscono chirurgicamente i cattivi facendo
germogliare la democrazia tutto attorno al luogo dell'esplosione. (I.
Slavo)
Radio B-92, la radio piu' filoamericana nel panorama dei media
jugoslavi, da molti anni nota per gli appoggi ed i fondi ricevuti dal
carrozzone Soros e da altri settori statunitensi ed europei (compresa la
campagna pubblicitaria nella quale fu coinvolta Hillary Clinton), ha
intervistato l'"intellettuale critico ufficiale" degli USA, il signor
Noam Chomsky, sul significato degli attentati dell'11 settembre.
L'intervista, tradotta in italiano, si puo' leggere su:
http://www.collettivodifisica.it/Attivita/Gruppi_di_studio/
Guerra_e_pace/Guerra_e_pace_doc/b-92_intervista.htm
Radio B-92 imita nel nome i famosi bombardieri B-52, quelli delle bombe
"taglia margherite", che colpiscono chirurgicamente i cattivi facendo
germogliare la democrazia tutto attorno al luogo dell'esplosione. (I.
Slavo)
Per le puntate precedenti sul caso di P.-H. Bunel si veda:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1437
===*===
mercredi 12 décembre 2001, 18h59
Bunel condamné à deux ans fermes et écroué pour trahison
Par Thierry Lévêque
PARIS (Reuters) - L'ex-officier français Pierre Bunel
a été condamné à Paris, après deux jours de
procès, à cinq ans de prison, dont deux fermes,
pour trahison au profit de la Yougoslavie en 1998.
Il a été reconnu coupable d'avoir livré à un
agent de Belgrade des documents secrets de l'Otan.
L'ancien officier a été arrêté à l'audience
pour être incarcéré, comme le veut la procédure. Il a
déclaré qu'il ne savait pas encore s'il allait
faire appel. Entre deux gendarmes et entouré d'une
nuée de caméras, il a de nouveau nié avoir trahi son pays.
"J'ai commis une faute professionnelle mais pas
une trahison", a-t-il lancé. Avant d'être emmené
par les gendarmes, il a expliqué avoir le sentiment
d'un "gâchis énorme".
La cour d'assises spéciale du tribunal aux armées,
composée de sept magistrats professionnels, n'a
délibéré qu'une heure.
Elle est allée au-delà des réquisitions du procureur
Janine Stern, qui avait requis une peine de
cinq ans de prison mais sans exclure que cette
peine soit totalement assortie du sursis.
Pierre Bunel, 49 ans, a déjà été détenu durant
près de dix mois dans cette affaire, du 31 octobre
1998 au 23 août 1999. Il ne lui resterait donc
que quelques mois à purger.
Il risquait une peine maximale de quinze ans de détention criminelle.
Défense et accusation sont tombées d'accord à
la fin du procès pour estimer que l'ancien
commandant avait agi de sa propre initiative,
pour tenter de jouer un rôle qui dépassait les tâches
bureaucratiques où il était confiné.
Pierre Bunel a reconnu avoir livré en juillet
et octobre 1998 à un agent secret de Belgrade, Jovan
Milanovic, une synthèse de deux documents classés
"secret-Otan" présentant deux options des projets
de bombardements sur le Kosovo.
Pierre Bunel était alors chef de cabinet du général
Pierre Wiroth, responsable de la
représentation militaire de la France au siège
de l'Otan à Bruxelles. La Yougoslavie était sous la
menace de frappes de l'Alliance en raison d'une
brutale répression des albanophones de la province
du Kosovo.
Le procureur Stern, magistrate détachée à l'armée
qui a le grade de colonel et requiert en
uniforme, a montré une grande sévérité dans sa lecture des faits.
---
"Foutre la trouille aux Serbes"
---
"M. Bunel, vous avez voulu être un héros. En réalité, vous avez
trahi vos camarades, l'armée, la France, les alliés de la
France. Vous avez discrédité la France auprès de ses alliés,
détruit la crédibilité de la France sur la scène internationale",
a-t-elle dit.
La simple transmission de documents secrets, quelles qu'en
soient les raisons, suffisait, selon le
procureur, à entraîner la condamnation.
Me Eric Najsztat, avocat du militaire, a de son côté
abandonné dans sa plaidoirie la thèse d'un
ordre donné par la sécurité militaire française, évoquée
par l'accusé mardi.
"Il voulait foutre la trouille aux Serbes, sans ordres,
sans mission, comme l'électron libre qu'il
s'était décrété lui-même", a dit Me Najsztat. Il
a souligné que l'accusé n'avait pas travaillé pour
de l'argent, ni voulu nuire à la France ou donner
un avantage au régime de Belgrade.
L'avocat a estimé par ailleurs que c'était "la volonté
de la France de détruire la légende d'une
armée pro-serbe" qui avait conduit le gouvernement
à déférer l'affaire à la justice, au lieu de la
traiter en interne par des sanctions disciplinaires.
L'ancien commandant a lui-même semblé abandonner
la thèse d'un ordre ou d'une demande de la
sécurité militaire française.
"Cette audience m'a appris beaucoup de choses sur
moi-même. Je n'aspire plus qu'à une chose, mener
enfin une vie normale", a-t-il simplement dit à la fin des débats
===*===
World Socialist Web Site
> http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/dec2001/brun-d11.shtml
French officer accused of collaborating with Milosevic government
By Francis Dubois and Paul Stuart
11 December 2001
Pierre-Henri Bunel, a former French intelligence
officer, is appearing before a military
tribunal charged with treason. Bunel is accused
of handing over to Serbian intelligence
secret plans for the Alliance's air strikes
on Yugoslavia, one year before the bombing
campaign commenced in spring 1999.
On October 19, 1998, Bunel was imprisoned
in Paris without a trial. He was brought
before a magistrate and charged; the story
of his arrest broke on November 2 that year.
At his original trial, the civilian court
ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the case and
transferred it to a military court. This
move to a closed military court was imperative
for the French ruling elite and its armed
forces. Even then it has taken two years for
the court to have "amassed" material against Bunel.
Bunel is no minor figure in French military
circles. He received the Légion d'honneur,
France's highest military decoration, for
his intelligence work in Bosnia in 1995. He
was attached to the French NATO delegation
in Brussels in mid-1996, serving as head
of staff to the delegation's senior military
adviser, General Pierre Wiroth. He had
access to most of NATO's classified information.
Speaking fluent Arabic, Bunel is an expert
on the "Muslim world" who served in the
Jordanian desert prior to the Gulf War and
also undertook missions in Somalia and
Rwanda on behalf of French imperialism.
His latest book is entitled Menaces
Islamistes (The Islamic Menace).
When arrested, officials said Bunel's activities
were those of an "isolated individual".
Bunel denies this, however. His legal defence
explained in a statement, "What he did
was not an act of treason. His actions were
sponsored by a French service."
Neither Bunel nor his lawyers have indicated
which arm of the French state they allege
instructed him to pass on secret files. Bunel
has said, "I admit passing on information
classified `secret' to a Serb agent... But this
was confidential information, not top
secret: top secret in NATO is classified `Cosmic'.
I never passed on flight plans or
operational orders." He continued, "I passed
documents on to get certain key
messages across. They were that France would
take part in the conflict [in Kosovo],
that the five principal NATO countries had
agreed to strike Yugoslavia, and that if
Milosevic did not withdraw his troops the
carnage would be terrible."
According to Canadian journalist Steve Albert,
Bunel told investigators, "He decided to
hand over NATO plans after a meeting [with]
Lieutenant-Colonel Jovan Milanovic in a
Serbian restaurant in Brussels... Milanovic
was sent to Brussels with the express
purpose of finding out these plans." It was
highly unlikely to have been a chance
encounter and would have been arranged beforehand.
When Bunel was first arrested, he was accused
of meeting with Milanovic on four
occasions between July and October 1998 and
passing on sensitive information,
including operational orders, flight plans and
target lists.
French divisions over Yugoslavia
Defending his actions, Bunel wrote a book called
War crimes at NATO * and set up a
website in which he insists, "It is nonsensical
to undertake a military action if it does
not correspond to a political solution."
Investigative reports published so far indicate
that he was not acting alone, but on behalf of
those within the French elite who were
opposed to breaking political relations with
Serbia and viewed participation in a US-led
military attack in Europe as a betrayal of
France's national interests.
There have been at least two other incidents
said to prove collaboration took place
between French military intelligence and the
former Yugoslav regime. In a report first
aired on the France 2 news programme Envoye
Special (Special Correspondent) in
1996, it was alleged that the commander of
UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection
Force) General Bernard Janvier, took part in
secret negotiations with General Mladic
and General Perisic, Commander in Chief of the
Serbian Army, to obtain the freedom of
captured French UN troops, in return for a
promise not to order air strikes if Srebrenica
were attacked.
In 1998 Washington accused Major Hervé Gourmelon
of warning Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic that he was facing imminent
arrest for war crimes, foiling a NATO
plan to take him into custody. According to
Time magazine, Gourmelon was a French
spy who, in 1994, "while a press officer for
UNPROFOR... was caught on hidden video
rifling through the desk of UNPROFOR's military
commander, Gen. Michael Rose".
It is well known that at the same time France
was acting as part of the UN's so-called
"peace keeping" force during the period of
the Bosnian War, it repeatedly carried out
separate negotiations with the Bosnian Serbs
and the Milosevic regime, in direct
opposition to UN regulations and NATO policy.
The French authorities have always been
reluctant to have their military personnel
testifying in front of any court, particularly
the international war crimes tribunal at The
Hague, about the events in the Balkans. French
diplomats and officials have never
hidden the fact that they saw the Hague
tribunal as an "American affair", with French
Defence Minister Alain Richard calling it
a "spectacle". According to some French
commentators, testifying before it would
reveal too much of the murky activities of the
French military and secret services in the
Balkans. They feared that indicted war
criminals might cite documents or transcripts
of telephone calls uncovering French
duplicity or call on "friendly" French officers
to testify in their defence.
The French establishment and military
bureaucracy are divided over what attitude to
take in the Balkans. In contrast to Germany,
for example, France refused to recognise
Bosnian independence for some time. Significant
sections of the ruling class saw
Serbia as a useful ally, which could play the
role of a regional strongman in ensuring
stability in the Balkans. As Paris read the
situation after the 1992-95 Balkan wars, the
territories within Bosnia's borders claimed
by the Serbs would eventually go back to
Serbia. There was open hostility at the extent
to which the US was able to dominate
Balkan events and to America's preferred policy
of encouraging separatist sentiments
in order to undermine the Milosevic regime,
which Washington viewed as an obstacle
to securing its own hegemony. Some diplomats
explained that the Dayton agreement
was " an American show", expressing the
resentment of the French bourgeoisie at
their eventually being forced to work within
the parameters laid down by US policy
decisions in the Balkans.
Even as the Bunel trial gets underway, French
President Jacques Chirac has called on
the people in the Serbian republic of Montenegro
and UN-run Kosovo province to
reject separatism and instead take part in a
reform of the Yugoslav federation.
Speaking at the Belgrade University, he
insisted, "The split of the country can not be a
peaceful and stable solution in the modern
world... a solution can not be found in a
policy of secession, in an approach... based
on the logic of confrontation."
Chirac is the first European head of state
to travel to Serbia since the Western-backed
coup that led to the fall of Milosevic in
October 2000. Also directing his message
towards Macedonia, he insisted, "A renewal
of the Yugoslav federation, with respect
to its integrity, is the best solution, not
only for the stability in the region, but also for a
development of harmonic relations between
different parts of the Yugoslav society."
* * *
* Crimes de Guerre à l'Otan, published by EDITIONS 1, France
Copyright 1998-2001
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1437
===*===
mercredi 12 décembre 2001, 18h59
Bunel condamné à deux ans fermes et écroué pour trahison
Par Thierry Lévêque
PARIS (Reuters) - L'ex-officier français Pierre Bunel
a été condamné à Paris, après deux jours de
procès, à cinq ans de prison, dont deux fermes,
pour trahison au profit de la Yougoslavie en 1998.
Il a été reconnu coupable d'avoir livré à un
agent de Belgrade des documents secrets de l'Otan.
L'ancien officier a été arrêté à l'audience
pour être incarcéré, comme le veut la procédure. Il a
déclaré qu'il ne savait pas encore s'il allait
faire appel. Entre deux gendarmes et entouré d'une
nuée de caméras, il a de nouveau nié avoir trahi son pays.
"J'ai commis une faute professionnelle mais pas
une trahison", a-t-il lancé. Avant d'être emmené
par les gendarmes, il a expliqué avoir le sentiment
d'un "gâchis énorme".
La cour d'assises spéciale du tribunal aux armées,
composée de sept magistrats professionnels, n'a
délibéré qu'une heure.
Elle est allée au-delà des réquisitions du procureur
Janine Stern, qui avait requis une peine de
cinq ans de prison mais sans exclure que cette
peine soit totalement assortie du sursis.
Pierre Bunel, 49 ans, a déjà été détenu durant
près de dix mois dans cette affaire, du 31 octobre
1998 au 23 août 1999. Il ne lui resterait donc
que quelques mois à purger.
Il risquait une peine maximale de quinze ans de détention criminelle.
Défense et accusation sont tombées d'accord à
la fin du procès pour estimer que l'ancien
commandant avait agi de sa propre initiative,
pour tenter de jouer un rôle qui dépassait les tâches
bureaucratiques où il était confiné.
Pierre Bunel a reconnu avoir livré en juillet
et octobre 1998 à un agent secret de Belgrade, Jovan
Milanovic, une synthèse de deux documents classés
"secret-Otan" présentant deux options des projets
de bombardements sur le Kosovo.
Pierre Bunel était alors chef de cabinet du général
Pierre Wiroth, responsable de la
représentation militaire de la France au siège
de l'Otan à Bruxelles. La Yougoslavie était sous la
menace de frappes de l'Alliance en raison d'une
brutale répression des albanophones de la province
du Kosovo.
Le procureur Stern, magistrate détachée à l'armée
qui a le grade de colonel et requiert en
uniforme, a montré une grande sévérité dans sa lecture des faits.
---
"Foutre la trouille aux Serbes"
---
"M. Bunel, vous avez voulu être un héros. En réalité, vous avez
trahi vos camarades, l'armée, la France, les alliés de la
France. Vous avez discrédité la France auprès de ses alliés,
détruit la crédibilité de la France sur la scène internationale",
a-t-elle dit.
La simple transmission de documents secrets, quelles qu'en
soient les raisons, suffisait, selon le
procureur, à entraîner la condamnation.
Me Eric Najsztat, avocat du militaire, a de son côté
abandonné dans sa plaidoirie la thèse d'un
ordre donné par la sécurité militaire française, évoquée
par l'accusé mardi.
"Il voulait foutre la trouille aux Serbes, sans ordres,
sans mission, comme l'électron libre qu'il
s'était décrété lui-même", a dit Me Najsztat. Il
a souligné que l'accusé n'avait pas travaillé pour
de l'argent, ni voulu nuire à la France ou donner
un avantage au régime de Belgrade.
L'avocat a estimé par ailleurs que c'était "la volonté
de la France de détruire la légende d'une
armée pro-serbe" qui avait conduit le gouvernement
à déférer l'affaire à la justice, au lieu de la
traiter en interne par des sanctions disciplinaires.
L'ancien commandant a lui-même semblé abandonner
la thèse d'un ordre ou d'une demande de la
sécurité militaire française.
"Cette audience m'a appris beaucoup de choses sur
moi-même. Je n'aspire plus qu'à une chose, mener
enfin une vie normale", a-t-il simplement dit à la fin des débats
===*===
World Socialist Web Site
> http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/dec2001/brun-d11.shtml
French officer accused of collaborating with Milosevic government
By Francis Dubois and Paul Stuart
11 December 2001
Pierre-Henri Bunel, a former French intelligence
officer, is appearing before a military
tribunal charged with treason. Bunel is accused
of handing over to Serbian intelligence
secret plans for the Alliance's air strikes
on Yugoslavia, one year before the bombing
campaign commenced in spring 1999.
On October 19, 1998, Bunel was imprisoned
in Paris without a trial. He was brought
before a magistrate and charged; the story
of his arrest broke on November 2 that year.
At his original trial, the civilian court
ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the case and
transferred it to a military court. This
move to a closed military court was imperative
for the French ruling elite and its armed
forces. Even then it has taken two years for
the court to have "amassed" material against Bunel.
Bunel is no minor figure in French military
circles. He received the Légion d'honneur,
France's highest military decoration, for
his intelligence work in Bosnia in 1995. He
was attached to the French NATO delegation
in Brussels in mid-1996, serving as head
of staff to the delegation's senior military
adviser, General Pierre Wiroth. He had
access to most of NATO's classified information.
Speaking fluent Arabic, Bunel is an expert
on the "Muslim world" who served in the
Jordanian desert prior to the Gulf War and
also undertook missions in Somalia and
Rwanda on behalf of French imperialism.
His latest book is entitled Menaces
Islamistes (The Islamic Menace).
When arrested, officials said Bunel's activities
were those of an "isolated individual".
Bunel denies this, however. His legal defence
explained in a statement, "What he did
was not an act of treason. His actions were
sponsored by a French service."
Neither Bunel nor his lawyers have indicated
which arm of the French state they allege
instructed him to pass on secret files. Bunel
has said, "I admit passing on information
classified `secret' to a Serb agent... But this
was confidential information, not top
secret: top secret in NATO is classified `Cosmic'.
I never passed on flight plans or
operational orders." He continued, "I passed
documents on to get certain key
messages across. They were that France would
take part in the conflict [in Kosovo],
that the five principal NATO countries had
agreed to strike Yugoslavia, and that if
Milosevic did not withdraw his troops the
carnage would be terrible."
According to Canadian journalist Steve Albert,
Bunel told investigators, "He decided to
hand over NATO plans after a meeting [with]
Lieutenant-Colonel Jovan Milanovic in a
Serbian restaurant in Brussels... Milanovic
was sent to Brussels with the express
purpose of finding out these plans." It was
highly unlikely to have been a chance
encounter and would have been arranged beforehand.
When Bunel was first arrested, he was accused
of meeting with Milanovic on four
occasions between July and October 1998 and
passing on sensitive information,
including operational orders, flight plans and
target lists.
French divisions over Yugoslavia
Defending his actions, Bunel wrote a book called
War crimes at NATO * and set up a
website in which he insists, "It is nonsensical
to undertake a military action if it does
not correspond to a political solution."
Investigative reports published so far indicate
that he was not acting alone, but on behalf of
those within the French elite who were
opposed to breaking political relations with
Serbia and viewed participation in a US-led
military attack in Europe as a betrayal of
France's national interests.
There have been at least two other incidents
said to prove collaboration took place
between French military intelligence and the
former Yugoslav regime. In a report first
aired on the France 2 news programme Envoye
Special (Special Correspondent) in
1996, it was alleged that the commander of
UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection
Force) General Bernard Janvier, took part in
secret negotiations with General Mladic
and General Perisic, Commander in Chief of the
Serbian Army, to obtain the freedom of
captured French UN troops, in return for a
promise not to order air strikes if Srebrenica
were attacked.
In 1998 Washington accused Major Hervé Gourmelon
of warning Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic that he was facing imminent
arrest for war crimes, foiling a NATO
plan to take him into custody. According to
Time magazine, Gourmelon was a French
spy who, in 1994, "while a press officer for
UNPROFOR... was caught on hidden video
rifling through the desk of UNPROFOR's military
commander, Gen. Michael Rose".
It is well known that at the same time France
was acting as part of the UN's so-called
"peace keeping" force during the period of
the Bosnian War, it repeatedly carried out
separate negotiations with the Bosnian Serbs
and the Milosevic regime, in direct
opposition to UN regulations and NATO policy.
The French authorities have always been
reluctant to have their military personnel
testifying in front of any court, particularly
the international war crimes tribunal at The
Hague, about the events in the Balkans. French
diplomats and officials have never
hidden the fact that they saw the Hague
tribunal as an "American affair", with French
Defence Minister Alain Richard calling it
a "spectacle". According to some French
commentators, testifying before it would
reveal too much of the murky activities of the
French military and secret services in the
Balkans. They feared that indicted war
criminals might cite documents or transcripts
of telephone calls uncovering French
duplicity or call on "friendly" French officers
to testify in their defence.
The French establishment and military
bureaucracy are divided over what attitude to
take in the Balkans. In contrast to Germany,
for example, France refused to recognise
Bosnian independence for some time. Significant
sections of the ruling class saw
Serbia as a useful ally, which could play the
role of a regional strongman in ensuring
stability in the Balkans. As Paris read the
situation after the 1992-95 Balkan wars, the
territories within Bosnia's borders claimed
by the Serbs would eventually go back to
Serbia. There was open hostility at the extent
to which the US was able to dominate
Balkan events and to America's preferred policy
of encouraging separatist sentiments
in order to undermine the Milosevic regime,
which Washington viewed as an obstacle
to securing its own hegemony. Some diplomats
explained that the Dayton agreement
was " an American show", expressing the
resentment of the French bourgeoisie at
their eventually being forced to work within
the parameters laid down by US policy
decisions in the Balkans.
Even as the Bunel trial gets underway, French
President Jacques Chirac has called on
the people in the Serbian republic of Montenegro
and UN-run Kosovo province to
reject separatism and instead take part in a
reform of the Yugoslav federation.
Speaking at the Belgrade University, he
insisted, "The split of the country can not be a
peaceful and stable solution in the modern
world... a solution can not be found in a
policy of secession, in an approach... based
on the logic of confrontation."
Chirac is the first European head of state
to travel to Serbia since the Western-backed
coup that led to the fall of Milosevic in
October 2000. Also directing his message
towards Macedonia, he insisted, "A renewal
of the Yugoslav federation, with respect
to its integrity, is the best solution, not
only for the stability in the region, but also for a
development of harmonic relations between
different parts of the Yugoslav society."
* * *
* Crimes de Guerre à l'Otan, published by EDITIONS 1, France
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