Milosevic "trial" synopsis, 15--17 Dec., 2003
1. On Criminal Clark's testimony:
1.A) THE PERFUMED PRINCE MAKES HIS DEBUT (WESLEY CLARK - DAY 1) -
December 15, 2003
1.B) WESLEY CLARK, A MAN IN LOVE WITH HIMSELF - December 16, 2003
2. UNDERAGE AND DRAFTED INTO THE B-H ARMY (Synopsis Dec. 17, 2003)
=== 1 ===
Almost full transcripts of the "testimony" can be read at:
http://www.un.org/icty/transe54/031215ED.htm
http://www.un.org/icty/transe54/031216ED.htm
Pictures can be seen at:
http://www.icdsm.org/more/draftWC.htm
--- 1.A ---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg121903.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: THE PERFUMED PRINCE MAKES HIS DEBUT
(WESLEY CLARK - DAY 1)
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 19, 2003
Retired American General Wesley Clark testified in front of The Hague
Tribunal on Monday and Tuesday. From the outset it was apparent that
his testimony would be stage-managed and restricted so as not to
embarrass the "perfumed prince" or his government.
At the outset President Milosevic objected to the terms of Clark's
testimony saying, "I don't quite understand the position of this
witness since my understanding was that he would be testifying in
closed session and that you described that as a temporarily closed
session, and then, in the meantime, representatives of the government
of his country may be able to review the transcript, to approve some
of it, to redact some of it possibly, and only then to release it to
the public. I am not aware of any legal court in the world delegating
its authority of this kind to any government. This would be the first
time for any such thing to happen. Of course, you consider yourself to
be a legal court."
It turned out that the U.S. Government had no real need to redact the
transcript. President Milosevic's ability to cross-examine Clark was
so radically limited that he couldn't ask any questions unless the
prosecution had already asked about the topic first. Essentially the
prosecution dictated the terms of the cross-examination, and the
so-called "trial chamber" enforced those terms.
Before Clark's testimony even started the so-called "Presiding Judge"
Richard May, expressed concern that Clark's witness statement was too
broad, and would therefore enable too wide-ranging of a
cross-examination by President Milosevic.
Mr. May also expressed concern that admitting Wesley Clark's book
would enable President Milosevic to ask questions about the contents
of the book. Therefore, it was decided that the book would not be
exhibited, with the stated objective being to limit President
Milosevic's cross-examination.
After the Examination-in-chief was concluded, Mr. May was very keen to
limit the cross-examination. The fist thing he said to President
Milosevic was "Mr. Milosevic, before you begin cross-examining, you
should know that there are parameters in this case beyond which you
cannot go. We've already made an order which restricts the scope of
cross-examination. I'm not going to go into the reasons for it again.
It is limited to the statement which the witness has given, which
means that you are restricted in a way that you are not restricted
with other witnesses, because then you're allowed to ask any relevant
matters. You're restricted in this case to the witness's evidence. So
you can give -- ask him questions, of course, about what he's said
here but not about other evidence. He's given no other evidence
against you apart from the matter which General Clark has dealt with
here. So your cross-examination in this case is limited."
"We have refused to admit the book. It's not part of the evidence. We
therefore will not allow some free-ranging cross-examination through
it, but you may, if you are entitled to do so, and that will be a
matter of relevance, you can, if you wish, ask General Clark about
passages of the book which are related to his evidence, and that
largely will be -- not entirely will be the matters which are already
underlined. So subject to those matters, of course you may conduct your
cross-examination, but you will be stopped if you go beyond those
particular bounds."
Wesley Clark's examination-in-chief was of no real value to the
prosecution. He had no important evidence to speak of. In fact he made
a better case against himself than he did against Milosevic.
On August 1, 1975 the Helsinki Final act
[http://www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html%5d was signed by the U.S.
Government and also by Yugoslavia.
Signatories to the Helsinki final act are obliged under Sec. VI to
“refrain from any form of armed intervention or threat of such
intervention against another participating State,” and to “refrain
from direct or indirect assistance to terrorist activities, or to
subversive or other activities directed towards the violent overthrow
of the regime of another participating State.”
Section II of the Helsinki Final Act states that “the participating
States will refrain from any acts constituting a threat of force or
direct or indirect use of force against another participating State.
Likewise they will refrain from any manifestation of force for the
purpose of inducing another participating State to renounce the full
exercise of its sovereign rights. Likewise they will also refrain in
their mutual relations from any act of reprisal by force.”
“No such threat or use of force will be employed as a means of
settling disputes, or questions likely to give rise to disputes,
between them.”
During his examination-in-chief Clark explained that he met with
Milosevic several times in order to force him to withdraw Yugoslav
army and police forces from Kosovo. Clark says he told Milosevic that
if he didn’t remove the army and the police then NATO would attack
Yugoslavia.
I knew that Clark was evil, but I had no idea that he was so
incredibly stupid. He just confirmed to the world that he, Wesley
Clark, went to a sovereign state and told the head of state that
unless they removed their army and their police forces from their own
territory that they would be bombed, and as we know Yugoslavia was
bombed.
Wesley Clark quite clearly proved that he broke international law, but
he didn’t demonstrate that Milosevic did, his “evidence” was worthless
to the prosecution.
At one point Clark bragged to Mr. Nice that he told Milosevic, “NATO
is going to be asking – these [NATO] leaders are going to be asking
what is it that you [Milosevic] are trying to do to this country? You
forced professors to sign loyalty oaths, you have crushed democracy,
you have taken a vibrant economy, you've wrecked it. They're going to
be asking, what kind of a leader are you?"
First of all, what Clark said was completely untrue. Professors didn’t
have to sign any loyalty oaths to Milosevic. Not even professors who
support DOS allege such a stupid thing. The economy was wrecked by
sanctions imposed from outside, and Milosevic was elected in
multiparty elections.
Clark went on to explain to Mr. Nice that after he made that remark to
Milosevic then he didn’t make any more progress with him in the
“negotiations”. Will wonders never cease? Wesley Clark went to
Yugoslavia, met with the head of state, presented him with threats and
ultimatums, generally behaved like a belligerent jerk, hurled lies and
insults at him, and now he wonders how come he didn’t get anywhere? How
dumb can this guy be? The man seems to take pride in his own arrogance.
The only thing that Clark said, which even remotely incriminated
Milosevic was when he said that he asked Milosevic: "Mr. President,
you say you have so much influence over the Bosnian Serbs, but how is
it then, if you have such influence, that you allowed General Mladic
to kill all those people in Srebrenica?" Clark said that Milosevic
replied by saying, “Well, General Clark, I warned Mladic not to do
this, but he didn't listen to me.”
Of course the only alleged witness to this alleged conversation was
Joseph Kruzel, and he’s dead. But it defies belief that Milosevic
would tell someone like Wesley Clark something like that. Slobodan
Milosevic has never attributed any killings at Srebrenica to Mladic.
Slobodan Milosevic has consistently claimed that mercenaries, and not
the VRS, carried out killings. Secondly, he has consistently stated
that he fond out about Srebrenica after the fact, so how could he have
told Mladic not to do it ahead of time?
Because Kruzel is dead, we have Clark’s word against Milosevic’s word,
and Milosevic branded Clark’s claim as a blatant lie. I’m inclined to
agree with Milosevic here. I don’t believe for a second that Milosevic
said that. It conflicts with everything else he had been saying. I
find it very hard to believe that Milosevic would confide in Wesley
Clark and tell him something that he didn’t tell anybody else.
Wesley Clark spoke about the MUP and VJ’s actions in Kosovo, Mr. Nice
asked him to explain what his sources of information were and Clark
replied by saying, “I got this from both the news media and other
reliable sources.”
The news media, and some unnamed “reliable sources.” Well now I really
am impressed with the prosecution’s case! Mr. Nice got the former NATO
Supreme Allied Commander and the former Commander-in-Chief of the
United States European Command to testify on the basis of what he saw
in the media. Excelsior to you Mr. Nice! Words can’t express how
impressed I am with your case.
When the cross-examination did start, Mr. May limited it to two and a
half hours. As he explained to President Milosevic, ”two and a half
hours should be adequate to deal with the limited matters which the
witness has given in evidence.” In other words “Judge” May was saying,
“Why should we give you a bunch of time? We won’t let you ask him
anything anyway.”
The elephant in the room was of course Wesley Clark’s command over the
NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, and President Milosevic was
prohibited from asking him any questions about that.
Yes you read that right, Slobodan Milosevic was the president of
Yugoslavia, and while he was the president of Yugoslavia, Wesley Clark
conducted a war against Yugoslavia, and this “minor detail” was
something that President Milosevic was prohibited from asking
questions about.
Let’s get this perfectly clear President Milosevic asked the following
question, “Mr. May, just in order to clarify the basic attitude
towards me in relation to this witness, is it in dispute that General
Clark was in command of NATO during the war against Yugoslavia? And is
it disputed that that was his most important role in everything that
related to Yugoslavia? And is it in dispute that you're not allowing
me to ask him anything at all about that?”
Mr. May’s response was “That's right,” and so President Milosevic
asked him again. He said, “So I cannot ask him anything at all about
the war waged by NATO against Yugoslavia. Is that what you're saying?”
And May said, “Yes.”
At that point President Milosevic denounced the proceedings as a
farce, and then in order to prove President Milosevic right “judge”
May said, “I also restrict your comments too.”
The first substantive topic that Clark spoke about in
cross-examination was his meeting with Mladic regarding the Contact
Group Plan in 1994. For some reason Clark went out of his way to
describe Mladic as angry and belligerent, he said that the meeting was
unproductive because of Mladic’s alleged intransigence.
Pictures [http://www.srpskapolitika.com/veliki/mladic-clark.jpg%5d from
the meeting tell a different story. They show a smiling Clark, and a
happy looking Mladic wearing each other’s hats like a couple of buddies
out having a good time.
The Cross-examination was grinding and tedious. President Milosevic
was repeatedly prohibited from bringing up matters of key importance.
Milosevic attempted to bring up the fact that Wesley Clark admitted in
the November 17, 2003 issue of the New Yorker that NATO’s Kosovo war
was “technically illegal” because according to Clark, “The Russians
and the Chinese said they would both veto it. There was never a chance
that it would be authorized.”
I guess if Clark thinks that the NATO bombing was “technically
illegal” then that makes him technically a war criminal, because he
commanded it. Unfortunately, Milosevic couldn’t make that point
because his microphone was constantly being switched off by Mr. May.
Mr. May was behaving as if the U.S. Government had attached electrodes
to his testicles and would give him a shock if he allowed Milosevic to
even get a question related to the war out of his mouth. Mr. May was
unusually quick to switch off Milosevic’s microphone during Clark’s
so-called “testimony.”
During Clark’s examination-in-chief he boasted that he took Milosevic
aside and “warned him that if he didn't comply with the request of the
United Nations [SC RES 1199], that action would be taken against him
in the form of bombing.” The “request” Clark is referring to is the
withdrawal of Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo.
President Milosevic asked Clark if Resolution 1199 authorized the use
of force against Yugoslavia and all Clark would say was, “The content
of the Resolution is a matter of public record, and I was following
the instructions from NATO and from my government.”
Clark is right, it is a public document, and it turns out that
Resolution 1199 doesn’t authorize any bombing. Therefore, the
instructions issued to Clark by the U.S. Government and NATO
contradicted the resolution.
Furthermore Resolution 1199 simply demanded, “the withdrawal of
security units used for civilian repression.” Seeing as how no
Yugoslav army or police units were in Kosovo for the purpose of
repressing civilians Yugoslavia wasn’t obliged to withdraw any of its
security forces. All of Yugoslavia’s security forces were in Kosovo to
protect the civilians.
Clark was obviously interpreting Resolution 1199 to suit his own
purposes. I’m sure NATO was already planning its war and Clark was
just looking to get any resistance to a potential NATO ground invasion
out of Kosovo. Therefore, Clark was telling Yugoslavia to get its
forces out of Kosovo and he was using this vaguely worded part of the
resolution as his justification.
I’ll post a report on Day 2 of the Wesley Clark farce tomorrow.
--- 1.B ---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg121603.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: WESLEY CLARK, A MAN IN LOVE WITH HIMSELF
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 20, 2003 [Synopsis of December
16, 2003 proceedings]
As with day one of Clark’s “testimony”, much of day two was spent
discussing Slobodan Milosevic’s roll at the Dayton peace negotiations.
In the most cynical display I’ve seen, Wesley Clark was trying to use
Slobodan Milosevic’s leading roll in ending the bloodshed in Bosnia
against him. The essence of Clark’s testimony was Milosevic took the
leading roll in the negotiations; therefore he must have taken the
leading roll on the battlefield.
The fact of the matter was that NATO wouldn’t deal with the Bosnian
Serb leadership. As Clark himself explained, “they were indicted war
criminals, and so it wasn't our desire to speak to either Karadzic or
Mladic.”
Because the most senior Bosnian Serb leadership couldn’t attend the
negotiations, lest they be arrested, the remedy was to form a single
delegation joint delegation of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska. The
delegation consisted of three members from Republika Srpska and three
from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and as he held the most
senior position among the delegates Slobodan Milosevic led the
delegation and was given the decisive vote. Without Slobodan Milosevic
there would have been no way to negotiate and end to the war.
The agreement to form the single delegation was reached on August 29,
1995 at the Yugoslav army residence in Dobanovci. Present at the
meeting were: The president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
Zoran Lilic; the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic; the
president of Montenegro, Momir Bulatovic; the president of the federal
government, Dr. Rade Kontic; federal Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic;
and the Yugoslav Army General Chief of Staff, Colonel General Momcilo
Perisic. President of the Republic of Srpska, Dr. Radovan Karadzic;
vice-president Dr. Nikola Koljevic and Dr. Biljana Plavsic; president
of the Assembly of Republika Srpska, Momcilo Krajisnik; the president
of the Republika Srpska, Dusan Kozic; Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr.
Aleksa Buha; the Commander of the Main Staff of Republika Srpska
Colonel-General Ratko Mladic with Generals Zdravko Tolimir, Milan
Gvero, and Djordje Djukic.
Under the terms of the agreement reached by the Governments of
Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska:
<< The leadership of Republika Srpska is in agreement with the
complete coordination of its approach to the peace process with the
leadership of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the interests of
peace.
The leadership of Republika Srpska agrees that binding decisions for
the delegation in relation to the peace plan be made by the delegation
at a plenary session based on a majority of votes. In the event of an
equal number of votes, the vote of President Slobodan Milosevic would
be decisive. >>
Also present at the meeting were the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox
Church, His Eminence Pavle and Bishop Irinej Bulovic, who bestowed
their blessings on the agreement.
So we can see that the single delegation came about on the basis of an
agreement between the government of Yugoslavia on the one hand and the
government of Republika Srpska on the other. The agreement was reached
to coordinate the approach rather than any kind of alchemistry on the
part of Milosevic.
The Republika Srpska leadership was locked out of the process by NATO
and so President Milosevic had to go to Dayton in their place, and he
went in their place only after he received their authorization.
He insisted on having this agreement and having the casting vote so
that there wouldn’t be a repeat of what happened with the Vance-Owen
plan.
President Milosevic worked for tirelessly for peace. He took the
leading roll at Dayton and this stupid “court” is now trying to hold
that against him.
Wesely Clark loves himself more than anybody I’ve ever seen. Slobodan
Milosevic asked him a simple question about a criticism leveled
against him by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Henry
Shelton. Shelton says, in the November 17, 2003 issue of the New
Yorker that “the reason he [Wesley Clark] came out of Europe early had
to do with integrity and character issues ... Wes won't get my vote”
Wesley Clark responded by saying “I want to, Your Honor, thoroughly
disabuse the accused of the idea that there was any reflection on my
character and integrity.” Then he proceeded to read out a 10 minute
long speech about what a great guy he is. By the time he finished I
was beginning to wonder if he would ever shut up.
I’m sure that after listening to Wesley Clark talking about what a
great guy Wesley Clark is for 10 minutes that Slobodan Milosevic was
quite disabused indeed.
All Clark had to say was that Shelton is a political opponent of his,
and was only saying bad things about him for political reasons, sort
of like what he was doing to Milosevic.
As if listening to him read a 10 minute long speech about how great he
is wasn’t enough, Wesley Clark procured a fax from Bill Clinton
calling him a great officer and calling Milosevic a liar.
Clinton calling Milosevic a liar that’s a good one; Bill Clinton the
man who was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, because he
lied to a grand-jury is calling Slobodan Milosevic a liar.
Of course, Clark couldn’t just hand the fax in to the “judges.” No, he
had to read the whole damn thing out, and we had to listen to him
going on again about what a great guy he is. It’s no wonder they call
him the perfumed prince.
Wesley Clark also made his views on the KLA known. He said “I don't
accept the definition of the KLA as a terrorist organization. I want
to state that for the record.”
Very well Mr. Clark, you are now on record saying that these happy KLA
members holding the severed Serbian heads in this photo aren’t
terrorists.
Wesley Clark also said that “NATO had no relationship with the KLA,
period.” Really? In this next photo we see the top NATO and KLA
leadership posing for a friendly group photo. Clark himself is the one
on the far right.
Slobodan Milosevic said, they looked like “[the] three Musketeers
where he [Clark] is like D'Artagnan with the leaders of these
terrorists”
It looks to me like, far from having no relationship, that NATO has a
very friendly relationship with the KLA. It also appears to me that
the KLA are terrorists. It's your choice, you can believe Wesley Clark
or you can believe your eyes.
All together Wesley Clark’s testimony was pretty worthless. There was
a lot of fanfare, but little substance. Clark really didn’t have
anything to say. Aside from what a wonderful guy he thinks he is.
Wesley Clark’s “testimony” proves beyond any doubt that this so-called
“trial” is a farce. The restrictions imposed on President Milosevic’s
cross-examination were ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous.
This was an embarrassment for the “tribunal” and it was an
embarrassment for the U.S. Government. They brought in this
high-profile witness with a lot of fan fare. It attracted global
attention and what did the world see? They saw a vainglorious jerk
hiding from difficult questions behind the “presiding judge’s”
skirts…um…I mean robes.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg121703.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS - DECEMBER 17, 2003: UNDERAGE AND DRAFTED
INTO THE B-H ARMY
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 17, 2003
Two secret witnesses were heard at the “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic
today; B-1619, a Muslim from Zepa and B-1401 a Muslim from Srebrenica.
B-1619 was an underage member of the B-H Army who was trained in
Srebrenica and stationed in Zepa. After Zepa fell, B-1619 attempted to
illegally cross the border into Serbia. B-1619 and 8 of friends
constructed a raft and floated it across the Drina River.
Upon crossing into Serbian territory B-1619, while still wearing his
military uniform, was arrested by the Serbian police and sent back to
the nearest municipality on the Bosnian side, which was Visegrad.
B-1619 claimed that he was then mistreated by the local Serbs in
Visegrad.
B-1619 shed some interesting light on the situation around Zepa.
B-1619 said that the major combat started in the spring of 1992 when
his unit ambushed a JNA column who was bringing in food and
humanitarian assistance. According to B-1619 his unit killed 45 JNA
soldiers in that ambush.
B-1619’s unit was subordinated to Nasir Oric’s 28th Division which was
stationed in Srebrenica. According to B-1619 it was the UN’s
responsibility to demilitarize Srebrenica and Zepa. Obviously this is
something that didn’t happen.
According to B-1619 his unit in Zepa consisted of 1,200 men and
roughly 10% of them were underage children who had been mobilized.
B-1619 also said that his unit seized UNPROFOR weapons and escorted
UNPROFOR back to their base ahead of the combat activities in Zepa.
B-1619’s dad went to Serbia as a refugee along with a group consisting
of hundreds of other Muslim refugees. His father spent 7 months in
Serbia and then went on to the United States. B-1619’s dad was treated
well in Serbia, he was not mistreated in any way.
B-1619, after being returned to Bosnia, was put into prison and held
until he was exchanged on January 19, 1996. B-1619 told some
cock-and-bull story about how Gen. Mladic would get drunk and come to
the prison and mistreat him.
B-1619 said at first that he didn’t know who the drunk man was until
he introduced himself as Gen. Mladic. Later on B-1619 changed his
story and said that he knew who Mladic was all along because he had
seen him on TV.
At any rate it is quite improbable that Gen. Mladic had nothing better
to do than get drunk and harass Muslims at some prison, and according
to B-1619 this didn’t only happen once. B-1619 said that Mladic came
around several times.
B-1619 claimed not to know how about the number of weapons his unit
had or about the number of casualties that his unit suffered in the
fighting around Zepa.
The next witness was B-1401. B-1401 has previously testified at The
Hague “tribunal”. He testified as “Witness O” at the Radislav Krstic
“trial” on April 13, 2000.
B-1401 was 17 years old in July of 1995 when 15,000 military aged men
and boys from Srebrenica attempted to breakout of Srebrenica towards
Tuzla.
They formed a column at Jaglici, the column was mixed between soldiers
and civilians. The objective was for to breakthrough the Serbian lines
and escape to Tuzla.
During the course of the breakout the column was fired on by the
Bosnian Serb Army. B-1401 personally saw 500 men killed himself, and
he said that others began committing suicide.
B-1401 said that he surrendered to some soldiers whose unit he
couldn’t identify. He says that he was loaded onto a truck and
transported to a school and he claimed that people were killed at the
school.
Later he claims that he was taken from the school to a place where
executions were taking place. He didn’t know who was carrying out the
executions, or how many people were executed. He didn’t know how many
people were on the truck with him, and he didn’t know how many people
had been at the school with him.
B-1401 claims that he survived the execution and escaped with one
other man to B-H Army territory.
B-1401 told a sad story, but even if its true, it doesn’t have
anything to do with Slobodan Milosevic. There’s just no link. The
witness couldn’t identify the perpetrators of the crimes he was
alleging.
At the beginning of the day some administrative matters were
discussed, and we know for a fact now that portions of Wesley Clark’s
testimony were redacted. We don’t know how much has been cut, or what
the nature of the redacted testimony was, but portions of it have been
redacted. Mr. May announced that he had been informed by the registrar
that certain testimony was redacted.
At the end of the day the prosecutor introduced more 92-bis(A)
statements into “evidence.” These 92-bis(A) statements are treated as
evidence, but President Milosevic doesn’t have the opportunity to
cross-examine the witnesses whose alleged statements are being used
against him and in most cases the witnesses are secret witnesses who
are identified only by pseudonyms.
1. On Criminal Clark's testimony:
1.A) THE PERFUMED PRINCE MAKES HIS DEBUT (WESLEY CLARK - DAY 1) -
December 15, 2003
1.B) WESLEY CLARK, A MAN IN LOVE WITH HIMSELF - December 16, 2003
2. UNDERAGE AND DRAFTED INTO THE B-H ARMY (Synopsis Dec. 17, 2003)
=== 1 ===
Almost full transcripts of the "testimony" can be read at:
http://www.un.org/icty/transe54/031215ED.htm
http://www.un.org/icty/transe54/031216ED.htm
Pictures can be seen at:
http://www.icdsm.org/more/draftWC.htm
--- 1.A ---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg121903.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: THE PERFUMED PRINCE MAKES HIS DEBUT
(WESLEY CLARK - DAY 1)
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 19, 2003
Retired American General Wesley Clark testified in front of The Hague
Tribunal on Monday and Tuesday. From the outset it was apparent that
his testimony would be stage-managed and restricted so as not to
embarrass the "perfumed prince" or his government.
At the outset President Milosevic objected to the terms of Clark's
testimony saying, "I don't quite understand the position of this
witness since my understanding was that he would be testifying in
closed session and that you described that as a temporarily closed
session, and then, in the meantime, representatives of the government
of his country may be able to review the transcript, to approve some
of it, to redact some of it possibly, and only then to release it to
the public. I am not aware of any legal court in the world delegating
its authority of this kind to any government. This would be the first
time for any such thing to happen. Of course, you consider yourself to
be a legal court."
It turned out that the U.S. Government had no real need to redact the
transcript. President Milosevic's ability to cross-examine Clark was
so radically limited that he couldn't ask any questions unless the
prosecution had already asked about the topic first. Essentially the
prosecution dictated the terms of the cross-examination, and the
so-called "trial chamber" enforced those terms.
Before Clark's testimony even started the so-called "Presiding Judge"
Richard May, expressed concern that Clark's witness statement was too
broad, and would therefore enable too wide-ranging of a
cross-examination by President Milosevic.
Mr. May also expressed concern that admitting Wesley Clark's book
would enable President Milosevic to ask questions about the contents
of the book. Therefore, it was decided that the book would not be
exhibited, with the stated objective being to limit President
Milosevic's cross-examination.
After the Examination-in-chief was concluded, Mr. May was very keen to
limit the cross-examination. The fist thing he said to President
Milosevic was "Mr. Milosevic, before you begin cross-examining, you
should know that there are parameters in this case beyond which you
cannot go. We've already made an order which restricts the scope of
cross-examination. I'm not going to go into the reasons for it again.
It is limited to the statement which the witness has given, which
means that you are restricted in a way that you are not restricted
with other witnesses, because then you're allowed to ask any relevant
matters. You're restricted in this case to the witness's evidence. So
you can give -- ask him questions, of course, about what he's said
here but not about other evidence. He's given no other evidence
against you apart from the matter which General Clark has dealt with
here. So your cross-examination in this case is limited."
"We have refused to admit the book. It's not part of the evidence. We
therefore will not allow some free-ranging cross-examination through
it, but you may, if you are entitled to do so, and that will be a
matter of relevance, you can, if you wish, ask General Clark about
passages of the book which are related to his evidence, and that
largely will be -- not entirely will be the matters which are already
underlined. So subject to those matters, of course you may conduct your
cross-examination, but you will be stopped if you go beyond those
particular bounds."
Wesley Clark's examination-in-chief was of no real value to the
prosecution. He had no important evidence to speak of. In fact he made
a better case against himself than he did against Milosevic.
On August 1, 1975 the Helsinki Final act
[http://www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html%5d was signed by the U.S.
Government and also by Yugoslavia.
Signatories to the Helsinki final act are obliged under Sec. VI to
“refrain from any form of armed intervention or threat of such
intervention against another participating State,” and to “refrain
from direct or indirect assistance to terrorist activities, or to
subversive or other activities directed towards the violent overthrow
of the regime of another participating State.”
Section II of the Helsinki Final Act states that “the participating
States will refrain from any acts constituting a threat of force or
direct or indirect use of force against another participating State.
Likewise they will refrain from any manifestation of force for the
purpose of inducing another participating State to renounce the full
exercise of its sovereign rights. Likewise they will also refrain in
their mutual relations from any act of reprisal by force.”
“No such threat or use of force will be employed as a means of
settling disputes, or questions likely to give rise to disputes,
between them.”
During his examination-in-chief Clark explained that he met with
Milosevic several times in order to force him to withdraw Yugoslav
army and police forces from Kosovo. Clark says he told Milosevic that
if he didn’t remove the army and the police then NATO would attack
Yugoslavia.
I knew that Clark was evil, but I had no idea that he was so
incredibly stupid. He just confirmed to the world that he, Wesley
Clark, went to a sovereign state and told the head of state that
unless they removed their army and their police forces from their own
territory that they would be bombed, and as we know Yugoslavia was
bombed.
Wesley Clark quite clearly proved that he broke international law, but
he didn’t demonstrate that Milosevic did, his “evidence” was worthless
to the prosecution.
At one point Clark bragged to Mr. Nice that he told Milosevic, “NATO
is going to be asking – these [NATO] leaders are going to be asking
what is it that you [Milosevic] are trying to do to this country? You
forced professors to sign loyalty oaths, you have crushed democracy,
you have taken a vibrant economy, you've wrecked it. They're going to
be asking, what kind of a leader are you?"
First of all, what Clark said was completely untrue. Professors didn’t
have to sign any loyalty oaths to Milosevic. Not even professors who
support DOS allege such a stupid thing. The economy was wrecked by
sanctions imposed from outside, and Milosevic was elected in
multiparty elections.
Clark went on to explain to Mr. Nice that after he made that remark to
Milosevic then he didn’t make any more progress with him in the
“negotiations”. Will wonders never cease? Wesley Clark went to
Yugoslavia, met with the head of state, presented him with threats and
ultimatums, generally behaved like a belligerent jerk, hurled lies and
insults at him, and now he wonders how come he didn’t get anywhere? How
dumb can this guy be? The man seems to take pride in his own arrogance.
The only thing that Clark said, which even remotely incriminated
Milosevic was when he said that he asked Milosevic: "Mr. President,
you say you have so much influence over the Bosnian Serbs, but how is
it then, if you have such influence, that you allowed General Mladic
to kill all those people in Srebrenica?" Clark said that Milosevic
replied by saying, “Well, General Clark, I warned Mladic not to do
this, but he didn't listen to me.”
Of course the only alleged witness to this alleged conversation was
Joseph Kruzel, and he’s dead. But it defies belief that Milosevic
would tell someone like Wesley Clark something like that. Slobodan
Milosevic has never attributed any killings at Srebrenica to Mladic.
Slobodan Milosevic has consistently claimed that mercenaries, and not
the VRS, carried out killings. Secondly, he has consistently stated
that he fond out about Srebrenica after the fact, so how could he have
told Mladic not to do it ahead of time?
Because Kruzel is dead, we have Clark’s word against Milosevic’s word,
and Milosevic branded Clark’s claim as a blatant lie. I’m inclined to
agree with Milosevic here. I don’t believe for a second that Milosevic
said that. It conflicts with everything else he had been saying. I
find it very hard to believe that Milosevic would confide in Wesley
Clark and tell him something that he didn’t tell anybody else.
Wesley Clark spoke about the MUP and VJ’s actions in Kosovo, Mr. Nice
asked him to explain what his sources of information were and Clark
replied by saying, “I got this from both the news media and other
reliable sources.”
The news media, and some unnamed “reliable sources.” Well now I really
am impressed with the prosecution’s case! Mr. Nice got the former NATO
Supreme Allied Commander and the former Commander-in-Chief of the
United States European Command to testify on the basis of what he saw
in the media. Excelsior to you Mr. Nice! Words can’t express how
impressed I am with your case.
When the cross-examination did start, Mr. May limited it to two and a
half hours. As he explained to President Milosevic, ”two and a half
hours should be adequate to deal with the limited matters which the
witness has given in evidence.” In other words “Judge” May was saying,
“Why should we give you a bunch of time? We won’t let you ask him
anything anyway.”
The elephant in the room was of course Wesley Clark’s command over the
NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, and President Milosevic was
prohibited from asking him any questions about that.
Yes you read that right, Slobodan Milosevic was the president of
Yugoslavia, and while he was the president of Yugoslavia, Wesley Clark
conducted a war against Yugoslavia, and this “minor detail” was
something that President Milosevic was prohibited from asking
questions about.
Let’s get this perfectly clear President Milosevic asked the following
question, “Mr. May, just in order to clarify the basic attitude
towards me in relation to this witness, is it in dispute that General
Clark was in command of NATO during the war against Yugoslavia? And is
it disputed that that was his most important role in everything that
related to Yugoslavia? And is it in dispute that you're not allowing
me to ask him anything at all about that?”
Mr. May’s response was “That's right,” and so President Milosevic
asked him again. He said, “So I cannot ask him anything at all about
the war waged by NATO against Yugoslavia. Is that what you're saying?”
And May said, “Yes.”
At that point President Milosevic denounced the proceedings as a
farce, and then in order to prove President Milosevic right “judge”
May said, “I also restrict your comments too.”
The first substantive topic that Clark spoke about in
cross-examination was his meeting with Mladic regarding the Contact
Group Plan in 1994. For some reason Clark went out of his way to
describe Mladic as angry and belligerent, he said that the meeting was
unproductive because of Mladic’s alleged intransigence.
Pictures [http://www.srpskapolitika.com/veliki/mladic-clark.jpg%5d from
the meeting tell a different story. They show a smiling Clark, and a
happy looking Mladic wearing each other’s hats like a couple of buddies
out having a good time.
The Cross-examination was grinding and tedious. President Milosevic
was repeatedly prohibited from bringing up matters of key importance.
Milosevic attempted to bring up the fact that Wesley Clark admitted in
the November 17, 2003 issue of the New Yorker that NATO’s Kosovo war
was “technically illegal” because according to Clark, “The Russians
and the Chinese said they would both veto it. There was never a chance
that it would be authorized.”
I guess if Clark thinks that the NATO bombing was “technically
illegal” then that makes him technically a war criminal, because he
commanded it. Unfortunately, Milosevic couldn’t make that point
because his microphone was constantly being switched off by Mr. May.
Mr. May was behaving as if the U.S. Government had attached electrodes
to his testicles and would give him a shock if he allowed Milosevic to
even get a question related to the war out of his mouth. Mr. May was
unusually quick to switch off Milosevic’s microphone during Clark’s
so-called “testimony.”
During Clark’s examination-in-chief he boasted that he took Milosevic
aside and “warned him that if he didn't comply with the request of the
United Nations [SC RES 1199], that action would be taken against him
in the form of bombing.” The “request” Clark is referring to is the
withdrawal of Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo.
President Milosevic asked Clark if Resolution 1199 authorized the use
of force against Yugoslavia and all Clark would say was, “The content
of the Resolution is a matter of public record, and I was following
the instructions from NATO and from my government.”
Clark is right, it is a public document, and it turns out that
Resolution 1199 doesn’t authorize any bombing. Therefore, the
instructions issued to Clark by the U.S. Government and NATO
contradicted the resolution.
Furthermore Resolution 1199 simply demanded, “the withdrawal of
security units used for civilian repression.” Seeing as how no
Yugoslav army or police units were in Kosovo for the purpose of
repressing civilians Yugoslavia wasn’t obliged to withdraw any of its
security forces. All of Yugoslavia’s security forces were in Kosovo to
protect the civilians.
Clark was obviously interpreting Resolution 1199 to suit his own
purposes. I’m sure NATO was already planning its war and Clark was
just looking to get any resistance to a potential NATO ground invasion
out of Kosovo. Therefore, Clark was telling Yugoslavia to get its
forces out of Kosovo and he was using this vaguely worded part of the
resolution as his justification.
I’ll post a report on Day 2 of the Wesley Clark farce tomorrow.
--- 1.B ---
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg121603.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: WESLEY CLARK, A MAN IN LOVE WITH HIMSELF
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 20, 2003 [Synopsis of December
16, 2003 proceedings]
As with day one of Clark’s “testimony”, much of day two was spent
discussing Slobodan Milosevic’s roll at the Dayton peace negotiations.
In the most cynical display I’ve seen, Wesley Clark was trying to use
Slobodan Milosevic’s leading roll in ending the bloodshed in Bosnia
against him. The essence of Clark’s testimony was Milosevic took the
leading roll in the negotiations; therefore he must have taken the
leading roll on the battlefield.
The fact of the matter was that NATO wouldn’t deal with the Bosnian
Serb leadership. As Clark himself explained, “they were indicted war
criminals, and so it wasn't our desire to speak to either Karadzic or
Mladic.”
Because the most senior Bosnian Serb leadership couldn’t attend the
negotiations, lest they be arrested, the remedy was to form a single
delegation joint delegation of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska. The
delegation consisted of three members from Republika Srpska and three
from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and as he held the most
senior position among the delegates Slobodan Milosevic led the
delegation and was given the decisive vote. Without Slobodan Milosevic
there would have been no way to negotiate and end to the war.
The agreement to form the single delegation was reached on August 29,
1995 at the Yugoslav army residence in Dobanovci. Present at the
meeting were: The president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
Zoran Lilic; the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic; the
president of Montenegro, Momir Bulatovic; the president of the federal
government, Dr. Rade Kontic; federal Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic;
and the Yugoslav Army General Chief of Staff, Colonel General Momcilo
Perisic. President of the Republic of Srpska, Dr. Radovan Karadzic;
vice-president Dr. Nikola Koljevic and Dr. Biljana Plavsic; president
of the Assembly of Republika Srpska, Momcilo Krajisnik; the president
of the Republika Srpska, Dusan Kozic; Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr.
Aleksa Buha; the Commander of the Main Staff of Republika Srpska
Colonel-General Ratko Mladic with Generals Zdravko Tolimir, Milan
Gvero, and Djordje Djukic.
Under the terms of the agreement reached by the Governments of
Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska:
<< The leadership of Republika Srpska is in agreement with the
complete coordination of its approach to the peace process with the
leadership of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the interests of
peace.
The leadership of Republika Srpska agrees that binding decisions for
the delegation in relation to the peace plan be made by the delegation
at a plenary session based on a majority of votes. In the event of an
equal number of votes, the vote of President Slobodan Milosevic would
be decisive. >>
Also present at the meeting were the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox
Church, His Eminence Pavle and Bishop Irinej Bulovic, who bestowed
their blessings on the agreement.
So we can see that the single delegation came about on the basis of an
agreement between the government of Yugoslavia on the one hand and the
government of Republika Srpska on the other. The agreement was reached
to coordinate the approach rather than any kind of alchemistry on the
part of Milosevic.
The Republika Srpska leadership was locked out of the process by NATO
and so President Milosevic had to go to Dayton in their place, and he
went in their place only after he received their authorization.
He insisted on having this agreement and having the casting vote so
that there wouldn’t be a repeat of what happened with the Vance-Owen
plan.
President Milosevic worked for tirelessly for peace. He took the
leading roll at Dayton and this stupid “court” is now trying to hold
that against him.
Wesely Clark loves himself more than anybody I’ve ever seen. Slobodan
Milosevic asked him a simple question about a criticism leveled
against him by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Henry
Shelton. Shelton says, in the November 17, 2003 issue of the New
Yorker that “the reason he [Wesley Clark] came out of Europe early had
to do with integrity and character issues ... Wes won't get my vote”
Wesley Clark responded by saying “I want to, Your Honor, thoroughly
disabuse the accused of the idea that there was any reflection on my
character and integrity.” Then he proceeded to read out a 10 minute
long speech about what a great guy he is. By the time he finished I
was beginning to wonder if he would ever shut up.
I’m sure that after listening to Wesley Clark talking about what a
great guy Wesley Clark is for 10 minutes that Slobodan Milosevic was
quite disabused indeed.
All Clark had to say was that Shelton is a political opponent of his,
and was only saying bad things about him for political reasons, sort
of like what he was doing to Milosevic.
As if listening to him read a 10 minute long speech about how great he
is wasn’t enough, Wesley Clark procured a fax from Bill Clinton
calling him a great officer and calling Milosevic a liar.
Clinton calling Milosevic a liar that’s a good one; Bill Clinton the
man who was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, because he
lied to a grand-jury is calling Slobodan Milosevic a liar.
Of course, Clark couldn’t just hand the fax in to the “judges.” No, he
had to read the whole damn thing out, and we had to listen to him
going on again about what a great guy he is. It’s no wonder they call
him the perfumed prince.
Wesley Clark also made his views on the KLA known. He said “I don't
accept the definition of the KLA as a terrorist organization. I want
to state that for the record.”
Very well Mr. Clark, you are now on record saying that these happy KLA
members holding the severed Serbian heads in this photo aren’t
terrorists.
Wesley Clark also said that “NATO had no relationship with the KLA,
period.” Really? In this next photo we see the top NATO and KLA
leadership posing for a friendly group photo. Clark himself is the one
on the far right.
Slobodan Milosevic said, they looked like “[the] three Musketeers
where he [Clark] is like D'Artagnan with the leaders of these
terrorists”
It looks to me like, far from having no relationship, that NATO has a
very friendly relationship with the KLA. It also appears to me that
the KLA are terrorists. It's your choice, you can believe Wesley Clark
or you can believe your eyes.
All together Wesley Clark’s testimony was pretty worthless. There was
a lot of fanfare, but little substance. Clark really didn’t have
anything to say. Aside from what a wonderful guy he thinks he is.
Wesley Clark’s “testimony” proves beyond any doubt that this so-called
“trial” is a farce. The restrictions imposed on President Milosevic’s
cross-examination were ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous.
This was an embarrassment for the “tribunal” and it was an
embarrassment for the U.S. Government. They brought in this
high-profile witness with a lot of fan fare. It attracted global
attention and what did the world see? They saw a vainglorious jerk
hiding from difficult questions behind the “presiding judge’s”
skirts…um…I mean robes.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg121703.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS - DECEMBER 17, 2003: UNDERAGE AND DRAFTED
INTO THE B-H ARMY
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - December 17, 2003
Two secret witnesses were heard at the “trial” of Slobodan Milosevic
today; B-1619, a Muslim from Zepa and B-1401 a Muslim from Srebrenica.
B-1619 was an underage member of the B-H Army who was trained in
Srebrenica and stationed in Zepa. After Zepa fell, B-1619 attempted to
illegally cross the border into Serbia. B-1619 and 8 of friends
constructed a raft and floated it across the Drina River.
Upon crossing into Serbian territory B-1619, while still wearing his
military uniform, was arrested by the Serbian police and sent back to
the nearest municipality on the Bosnian side, which was Visegrad.
B-1619 claimed that he was then mistreated by the local Serbs in
Visegrad.
B-1619 shed some interesting light on the situation around Zepa.
B-1619 said that the major combat started in the spring of 1992 when
his unit ambushed a JNA column who was bringing in food and
humanitarian assistance. According to B-1619 his unit killed 45 JNA
soldiers in that ambush.
B-1619’s unit was subordinated to Nasir Oric’s 28th Division which was
stationed in Srebrenica. According to B-1619 it was the UN’s
responsibility to demilitarize Srebrenica and Zepa. Obviously this is
something that didn’t happen.
According to B-1619 his unit in Zepa consisted of 1,200 men and
roughly 10% of them were underage children who had been mobilized.
B-1619 also said that his unit seized UNPROFOR weapons and escorted
UNPROFOR back to their base ahead of the combat activities in Zepa.
B-1619’s dad went to Serbia as a refugee along with a group consisting
of hundreds of other Muslim refugees. His father spent 7 months in
Serbia and then went on to the United States. B-1619’s dad was treated
well in Serbia, he was not mistreated in any way.
B-1619, after being returned to Bosnia, was put into prison and held
until he was exchanged on January 19, 1996. B-1619 told some
cock-and-bull story about how Gen. Mladic would get drunk and come to
the prison and mistreat him.
B-1619 said at first that he didn’t know who the drunk man was until
he introduced himself as Gen. Mladic. Later on B-1619 changed his
story and said that he knew who Mladic was all along because he had
seen him on TV.
At any rate it is quite improbable that Gen. Mladic had nothing better
to do than get drunk and harass Muslims at some prison, and according
to B-1619 this didn’t only happen once. B-1619 said that Mladic came
around several times.
B-1619 claimed not to know how about the number of weapons his unit
had or about the number of casualties that his unit suffered in the
fighting around Zepa.
The next witness was B-1401. B-1401 has previously testified at The
Hague “tribunal”. He testified as “Witness O” at the Radislav Krstic
“trial” on April 13, 2000.
B-1401 was 17 years old in July of 1995 when 15,000 military aged men
and boys from Srebrenica attempted to breakout of Srebrenica towards
Tuzla.
They formed a column at Jaglici, the column was mixed between soldiers
and civilians. The objective was for to breakthrough the Serbian lines
and escape to Tuzla.
During the course of the breakout the column was fired on by the
Bosnian Serb Army. B-1401 personally saw 500 men killed himself, and
he said that others began committing suicide.
B-1401 said that he surrendered to some soldiers whose unit he
couldn’t identify. He says that he was loaded onto a truck and
transported to a school and he claimed that people were killed at the
school.
Later he claims that he was taken from the school to a place where
executions were taking place. He didn’t know who was carrying out the
executions, or how many people were executed. He didn’t know how many
people were on the truck with him, and he didn’t know how many people
had been at the school with him.
B-1401 claims that he survived the execution and escaped with one
other man to B-H Army territory.
B-1401 told a sad story, but even if its true, it doesn’t have
anything to do with Slobodan Milosevic. There’s just no link. The
witness couldn’t identify the perpetrators of the crimes he was
alleging.
At the beginning of the day some administrative matters were
discussed, and we know for a fact now that portions of Wesley Clark’s
testimony were redacted. We don’t know how much has been cut, or what
the nature of the redacted testimony was, but portions of it have been
redacted. Mr. May announced that he had been informed by the registrar
that certain testimony was redacted.
At the end of the day the prosecutor introduced more 92-bis(A)
statements into “evidence.” These 92-bis(A) statements are treated as
evidence, but President Milosevic doesn’t have the opportunity to
cross-examine the witnesses whose alleged statements are being used
against him and in most cases the witnesses are secret witnesses who
are identified only by pseudonyms.