The Madness of Carla Del Ponte
1. The Madness of Carla Del Ponte (by N. Malic)
2. ON THE HAGUE CRUCIFIX
(V. Blagojevic, Vecernje Novosti - January 31, 2004)
See also:
MILOSEVIC AND GENOCIDE: HAS THE PROSECUTION MADE THE CASE?
Experts fear the former president may get off genocide charge because
the burden of proof is too high.
By Stacy Sullivan / IWPR
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_344_1_eng.txt
=== 1 ===
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=1990
[see at the original webpage for many hyperlinks]
Balkan Express
February 19, 2004
The Madness of Carla Del Ponte
Out In the Open At Last
by Nebojsa Malic
Louise Arbour had it easy. She followed NATO's instructions, made
only as much fuss as she was told, and retired to the Canadian
Supreme Court. It fell on Carla Del Ponte, her successor as the Head
Inquisitor of the Hague kangaroo court, to actually put together and
prosecute a case against Slobodan Milosevic and the entire Serbian
political leadership. By the time Milosevic was seized and delivered
to Imperial troops in chains, Del Ponte's nerves were already
frayed. By the time the "trial" began, she was unstable. As it went
on, with increasingly disastrous results, she began to slip. And now
as the prosecution's farcical proceedings come to an end, she boldly
leaped right over the edge of sanity.
The Plunge
The defining moment came last Wednesday, when she claimed that
Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the wartime political and
military leaders of Bosnian Serbs, were both living in Belgrade, and
that Serbia was a "safe haven for… fugitives."
Del Ponte has specialized in making unsubstantiated allegations, in the
press as well as the courtroom, and the media have become used to
it. But this was so shocking, only the dedicated ICTY supporters
such as the London IWPR embraced it enthusiastically. Serbian
politicians laughed at the accusation. One anonymous Reuters source
termed it "science fiction," while Radical leader Tomislav Nikolic
dismissed it with sarcasm: were Karadzic truly in Belgrade, he said,
the "pro-American government... would rush to hand him over (and)
extradite him in the blink of an eye. How can it be proven he's not
hiding here? She might as well say he's in London."
Given the persistent failure of NATO's occupation troops to find either
Karadzic or Mladic, and the growing frustration with the ongoing
disaster that is the Milosevic trial, must have driven the Swiss
Inquisitor past the brink of sanity. It doesn't help that she was
slightly nutty to begin with – in the perceptive description of
Christopher Deliso, "a zealot whose statements often indicate she
would like the entire population of Serbia in jail, just to be on
the safe side."
[PHOTO: A devastated bridge in Serbia is mockingly called "Ponte di
Carla" (Carla's bridge), in a pun on the Head Inquisitor's name
implying she is a NATO puppet; from the anti-ICTY demonstration in
The Hague, 28 June 2003]
Don't Rock The Boat!
Del Ponte's histrionics got so far out of hand that the
establishment felt the need to send her a message via the New York
Times' European conduit. In the International Herald Tribune on Monday,
historian and interventionist Misha Glenny complained that Del
Ponte's "often unsubstantiated public claims" have a political
impact adverse to the Tribunal.
Noting that the Chief Inquisitor offered "no evidence for her dramatic
claim" that Karadzic was in Belgrade, he argues that "Del Ponte's
actions reinforce another popular belief, that Serbia has been
singled out for punitive treatment by the international community,"
which gives political capital to the Radicals (in addition to being
true, Glenny's insinuations to the contrary notwithstanding).
After reiterating his support for the ICTY and Del Ponte, Glenny
nonetheless advises the Inquisitor to revisit her style, because:
"…everybody in the international community should be engaging in a
positive and encouraging manner with Belgrade in order to ensure
Serbia's continuing commitment to reform and democracy, and its
long-term cooperation with institutions like the War Crimes
Tribunal."
Obviously, Glenny believes (as do many others in the West) that the
Empire's stranglehold on Serbia is in real danger and that Del
Ponte's recent outburst might hurt it further. This explains a
similar, though veiled, message sent this week in an editorial by
Transitions Online (TOL), a media outlet established and funded by
the Open Society Institute of George Soros. Many sources have
claimed that Soros is one of the major contributors to the
Tribunal's perennially needy coffers, which could mean that TOL was
chosen as a conduit to tell Del Ponte to calm down.
A Travesty of Pretense
But the damage may already be beyond repair. As it happens, this
week marked the end of the Prosecution's case against Slobodan
Milosevic. Del Ponte predictably claimed victory, telling AFP: "We
have succeeded in showing the responsibility of Milosevic." After
two years of continual embarrassments and bitter defeats, the
statement has all the ring of wishful thinking, though the press took
it at face value. In fact, Del Ponte and her fellow Inquisitors have
done nothing of the sort.
Writing in The Guardian last Thursday, commentator Neil Clark argued
that "things have gone horribly wrong for Ms. Del Ponte":
"…not only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic's
personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the
nature and extent of the atrocities themselves has also been called
into question."
It is obvious, he says, that the Prosecution has been "working
backwards – making charges and then trying to find evidence." He
does not mention specific details, but there are plenty. In the
last two months of the process, the Prosecution's witnesses were
seemingly random men and women, dragged into the courtroom to offer
baseless allegations and fourth-hand hearsay, though one would
expect a strong case to save its most damaging witnesses for the
very end.
Witness Disasters
The Inquisitors' choice of witnesses has always been poor, from the
hapless Mahmut Bakalli at the very beginning, through the conman
Ratomir Tanic and pompous show-off Wesley Clark, to French
general Philippe Morillon, whose attempts at incriminating Milosevic
got too tangled in truth.
Morillon, revered by the Bosnian Muslims for saving their troops in
Srebrenica from defeat in 1993, ended up enraging them by his
testimony last week. While trying to make it seem as if Milosevic
could have prevented the alleged events of 1995, Morillon let it
slip that the Serbs were out for blood because of Muslim massacres
of Serb civilians. The enraged Muslims announced they would sue the
French general as accessory to genocide.
This tragic farce aside, the twisted logic of Morillon and the
Prosecutors would have someone who stopped a potential massacre in
1993 – before sanctions and threats had caused a bitter split
between Milosevic and the Bosnian Serbs – therefore held responsible
for the alleged massacre two years later, when he emphatically
lacked influence in Bosnia. And as Hague arguments go, that's fairly
typical.
Even Biljana Plavsic, whose infamous "confession" in December 2002
smeared the Serb people as a whole (which it was supposed to do) and
earned her a life term in a Swedish prison, seems to have finally
seen the ICTY's true colors. It was said that she was transferred
back to Holland last weekend, in preparation to testify against
Milosevic – but the report was denied after she made public her
refusal.
Some day, there will be a book with all the outrageous witness moments
from the Milosevic trial. A lengthy one, given that there are 290
prosecution witnesses alone. It will make for fascinating reading –
sordid, but fascinating.
An Endeavor in Ruins
Declaring the trial a "travesty," Clark explains that the ICTY is a
"blatantly political body set up and funded by the very [NATO]
powers that waged an illegal war against Milosevic's Yugoslavia," and
as such, cannot possibly render an impartial verdict: "political
necessity dictates that [Milosevic] will be found guilty, if not of
all the charges, then enough for him to be incarcerated for life."
That actually explains the Inquisitors' dreadful performance, which
they try to cover up with bluster: the verdict has already been
reached, the sentence determined – Del Ponte and the "judges" are
simply going through the motions, giving lip service to the legal
process which, like the truth, has nothing to do with their work.
It was known from Day One that the Milosevic proceedings would be a
show trial. For all its ostensible purpose to find out the truth and
punish the individual perpetrators of atrocities, thus enabling
reconciliation, the ICTY has set out to conjure a grand conspiracy
headed by Milosevic that would provide a single explanation for
Yugoslavia's breakup and the Succession Wars, and the justification
for all Imperial interventions: no less than a wholesale
falsification of history. As Deliso puts it, "…reality has to be
force-fit into a costume it can't quite wear. The point here is to
stage a kind of morality play, an instructive fable to reinforce the
prevalent discourse of political responsibility."
Had Milosevic hired a lawyer and played by the Inquisition's rules, no
doubt the plan would have been well along by now. But for once he
did the unexpected, and over the past two years he has made
mincemeat out of the Prosecutors' case by himself.
It is beyond embarrassing for Del Ponte and her supporters that despite
their millions of dollars in funding, hundreds of zealous lawyers
and investigators, cases of intelligence files, hundreds of
witnesses willing to make things up as they go, the ability to make
up procedures on the fly and that the three-judge panel is firmly on
their side, they have suffered a defeat after defeat at the hands of
an elderly man with a heart condition, imprisoned, cut off from his
family and friends, under constant surveillance and lacking any
money or power.
On October 6, 2000, Slobodan Milosevic was a political washout with a
questionable legacy, accused of war crimes. Three years later,
thanks to the Hague Inquisition, he can justifiably claim to be a
champion of truth.
No wonder Carla Del Ponte went insane.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vn013104.htm
ON THE HAGUE CRUCIFIX
Vecernje Novosti - January 31, 2004
Written by: Vid Blagojevic
Translated by: Vera Martinovic
SAMAC, Republika Srpska – Simo Zaric did consent to speak to VECERNJE
NOVOSTI about his days at The Hague and about the court he called
political. – I have nothing to hide: if, God forbid, a war should break
out anew, I would do everything the same way, even if I ended up at
The Hague once more – he said at the beginning of our conversation. –
It was hard to endure 1.664 days in prison, particularly when you know
you’re not guilty.
- I drew strength from the support of my family – wife, children,
mother and sisters. They came to visit, they wrote me letters. A huge
support also arrived from my fellow citizens of Samac, the whole
Posavina [a region of the Sava river valley], Republika Srpska and
even from the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina and ex-Yugoslavia.
There were thousands of letters that I received, and I answered each
one of them – Simo Zaric begins his story.
Conditions at The Hague were bearable when food and hygiene are
concerned. Free time should be aplenty in prison. However…
- Each morning we got up at 7 a.m. and went to bed at 8.30 p.m. on
weekdays. On weekends, the taps was at 5 p.m. We were in complete
isolation twice a day while the guards were eating. The rest of the
time we spent in the canteen or kitchen, as we called it. Only the
detainees from the same floor can use the area. Here we played chess,
dominoes, and card games, watched TV, talked about the simplest human
things. We could not walk between floors – Simo describes a day in
prison.
HOW TO CONQUER TIME – DURING imprisonment I’ve read more than 500
books, I’ve written thousands of pages of the diary that I kept daily
and I’ve published a book “On The Hague Crucifix” – Zaric continues.
I’ve dedicated a lot of time to the proceedings as well, that was held
for more than two years, so that sometimes the time was scarce. Part
of it we spent walking, taking part in sport… A man who knows that he
should conquer time knows how to organize a prison life for himself.
It is far more difficult to conquer for men who become withdrawn and
develop psychological problems.
All the accused Serbs were forgotten by many of those not expected to
do that. Simo Zaric wishes to emphasize they were not abandoned by
everyone.
- It would be a sin to forget the support that we had from the SPC
[Serbian Orthodox Church] representatives. The Church gave us moral,
spiritual and human support – points out the former prisoner at The
Hague. – We had priests who visited us every month and held prayers.
Bishop Luka and Amfilohije Radovic came many times. Their spiritual
presence meant a lot to us. When reading religious literature, in each
of these books I found how one has to be kind, moral and righteous in
life and all those messages are most human and most wonderful. I
regret that I’ve started to be engaged in this kind of literature and
personal spiritual rebirth only after my destiny had brought me to The
Hague.
Zaric was spending his prison days with detainees from his floor:
Momcilo Krajisnik, Dragan Obrenovic, Dragan Nikolic – Jenki, Generals
Dragoljub Ojdanic and Mile Mrksic, Mario Cerkez, Milorad Krnojelac,
Ranko Cesic, Milan Martic and Milan Mrdja.
- I had the opportunity to meet Mr Milosevic several times and I found
him to be a very natural man and I believe that he had surprised
everyone with his naturalness and spontaneity – speaks Zaric. –
Destiny of a detainee at The Hague is a very strange one, here you have
very brave people, people who hold their face and dignity dear. On the
other hand, there are those who fall under certain pressures both from
the OTP and a certain atmosphere at the court.
GOOD JUDGES UNDESIRABLE – I BELIEVE that Milosevic is defending on
principle a strategic component related to the Serbian national
corpus. I have an impression that Krajisnik will not succumb to any
influences either and I base this belief on our talks that we held for
days. Those certainly not succumbing to pressures are Martic, General
Ojdanic and others who had already underwent a court procedure – Simo
Zaric is categorical.
-These people have guts to speak up in the language of truth and, to
make it clear, they do not defend crimes and nobody does support
crimes, but these people have the need to speak up in the name of the
Serbian national corpus with the purpose of preserving its identity.
A judge at The Hague who speaks up in the language of justice,
morality and truth gets removed immediately. Zaric substantiates these
examples:
- Judge Lindholm had gathered his strength to defend law and had the
courage to defend the truth in my case, by requesting my acquittal. In
the pleiad of such people there is by all means the Australian Judge
Hunt. Then there is the esteemed Judge Wald, otherwise an American
lady, who had acquitted brothers Kupreskic or Judge Cassese who had
acquitted Papic and Zejnil Delalic. None of them is a judge at The
Hague anymore. Judges who gather their strength to resist pressures
and mentorship imposed on them leave very quickly. Judge Hunt said in
his farewell statement that if The Hague Tribunal were to be
recognized by the manner of conducting its appeal proceedings and
dispensing justice, it would be a black spot in the world’s legal
system. The one who ends up at The Hague will be convicted not with
justice, but because he had passed through a political prism. The OTP
disregards facts obvious even to a small child. There are “million”
arguments to support that, but Zaric says he will stay close to the
“Samac case”.
MY GREATEST VICTORY - PEOPLE who testified in our case came prepared
by a secret service of the Muslims, AID, on what and how they would
speak against us – maintains Zaric. – They were mainly secret witnesses
and I am a disciplined man and shall not reveal their names. What’s
essential is that these testimonies were rigged. And the OTP builds
upon such invented statements later on and then the battle for the
truth gets really difficult. Witnesses for the Prosecution do not even
blush when their statements are refuted with arguments. Unlike them,
witnesses for the Defence of various nationalities came to testify
publicly, not hiding from anyone. In my case, 35 witnesses appeared
and more than 80% were the Muslims and the Croats from Samac. They
knew best what was he like and who is in fact Simo Zaric.
By the end of the conversation Simo Zaric wishes to say that his
greatest victory is in enduring it all and being able, although a
pensioner before all this had even started, to begin a new life. This
new life, as he says, will be dedicated to family, to his native
village Trnjak in the Municipality of Odzak (Federation of Bosnia &
Herzegovina) and his desire to bring back and breathe a new life into
it. If a party appears or if one exists that will satisfy his views,
perhaps he will become politically active.
The Hague Tribunal had passed long-term custodial sentences on five
people from Samac. Simo was imprisoned for being a distinguished
member of the community, Miroslav Tadic is imprisoned for working in
the municipal commissions for exchange, and so forth. That justice
doesn’t dwell at The Hague could be best seen from the fact that Amor
Masovic, the President of the Commission for Exchange of the
Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina, is being proposed for the Nobel
Prize, and Miroslav Tadic is sentenced to eight year’s imprisonment.
In addition to them, a native of Samac was also Alija Izetbegovic,
then there was Sulejman Tihic, but the “justice of The Hague” has
never reached them.
FATIMA IS – FATIMA - DRAGAN Lukac, currently executing a high office
in the security of Bosnia & Herzegovina, as a witness for the
Prosecution alleged there was an event when Simo Zaric renamed his wife
Fatima to Jevrosima at some kind of secret religious séance during the
war.
- After my wife, myself and many other witnesses had stated that this
was a blatant lie, Mr Lukac said without a shred of remorse that he
still maintained this to be true. Therefore I cannot believe that such
a man could currently execute any office at all.
Copyright 2004 Vecernje Novosti
Posted for Fair Use only.
1. The Madness of Carla Del Ponte (by N. Malic)
2. ON THE HAGUE CRUCIFIX
(V. Blagojevic, Vecernje Novosti - January 31, 2004)
See also:
MILOSEVIC AND GENOCIDE: HAS THE PROSECUTION MADE THE CASE?
Experts fear the former president may get off genocide charge because
the burden of proof is too high.
By Stacy Sullivan / IWPR
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/tri/tri_344_1_eng.txt
=== 1 ===
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=1990
[see at the original webpage for many hyperlinks]
Balkan Express
February 19, 2004
The Madness of Carla Del Ponte
Out In the Open At Last
by Nebojsa Malic
Louise Arbour had it easy. She followed NATO's instructions, made
only as much fuss as she was told, and retired to the Canadian
Supreme Court. It fell on Carla Del Ponte, her successor as the Head
Inquisitor of the Hague kangaroo court, to actually put together and
prosecute a case against Slobodan Milosevic and the entire Serbian
political leadership. By the time Milosevic was seized and delivered
to Imperial troops in chains, Del Ponte's nerves were already
frayed. By the time the "trial" began, she was unstable. As it went
on, with increasingly disastrous results, she began to slip. And now
as the prosecution's farcical proceedings come to an end, she boldly
leaped right over the edge of sanity.
The Plunge
The defining moment came last Wednesday, when she claimed that
Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the wartime political and
military leaders of Bosnian Serbs, were both living in Belgrade, and
that Serbia was a "safe haven for… fugitives."
Del Ponte has specialized in making unsubstantiated allegations, in the
press as well as the courtroom, and the media have become used to
it. But this was so shocking, only the dedicated ICTY supporters
such as the London IWPR embraced it enthusiastically. Serbian
politicians laughed at the accusation. One anonymous Reuters source
termed it "science fiction," while Radical leader Tomislav Nikolic
dismissed it with sarcasm: were Karadzic truly in Belgrade, he said,
the "pro-American government... would rush to hand him over (and)
extradite him in the blink of an eye. How can it be proven he's not
hiding here? She might as well say he's in London."
Given the persistent failure of NATO's occupation troops to find either
Karadzic or Mladic, and the growing frustration with the ongoing
disaster that is the Milosevic trial, must have driven the Swiss
Inquisitor past the brink of sanity. It doesn't help that she was
slightly nutty to begin with – in the perceptive description of
Christopher Deliso, "a zealot whose statements often indicate she
would like the entire population of Serbia in jail, just to be on
the safe side."
[PHOTO: A devastated bridge in Serbia is mockingly called "Ponte di
Carla" (Carla's bridge), in a pun on the Head Inquisitor's name
implying she is a NATO puppet; from the anti-ICTY demonstration in
The Hague, 28 June 2003]
Don't Rock The Boat!
Del Ponte's histrionics got so far out of hand that the
establishment felt the need to send her a message via the New York
Times' European conduit. In the International Herald Tribune on Monday,
historian and interventionist Misha Glenny complained that Del
Ponte's "often unsubstantiated public claims" have a political
impact adverse to the Tribunal.
Noting that the Chief Inquisitor offered "no evidence for her dramatic
claim" that Karadzic was in Belgrade, he argues that "Del Ponte's
actions reinforce another popular belief, that Serbia has been
singled out for punitive treatment by the international community,"
which gives political capital to the Radicals (in addition to being
true, Glenny's insinuations to the contrary notwithstanding).
After reiterating his support for the ICTY and Del Ponte, Glenny
nonetheless advises the Inquisitor to revisit her style, because:
"…everybody in the international community should be engaging in a
positive and encouraging manner with Belgrade in order to ensure
Serbia's continuing commitment to reform and democracy, and its
long-term cooperation with institutions like the War Crimes
Tribunal."
Obviously, Glenny believes (as do many others in the West) that the
Empire's stranglehold on Serbia is in real danger and that Del
Ponte's recent outburst might hurt it further. This explains a
similar, though veiled, message sent this week in an editorial by
Transitions Online (TOL), a media outlet established and funded by
the Open Society Institute of George Soros. Many sources have
claimed that Soros is one of the major contributors to the
Tribunal's perennially needy coffers, which could mean that TOL was
chosen as a conduit to tell Del Ponte to calm down.
A Travesty of Pretense
But the damage may already be beyond repair. As it happens, this
week marked the end of the Prosecution's case against Slobodan
Milosevic. Del Ponte predictably claimed victory, telling AFP: "We
have succeeded in showing the responsibility of Milosevic." After
two years of continual embarrassments and bitter defeats, the
statement has all the ring of wishful thinking, though the press took
it at face value. In fact, Del Ponte and her fellow Inquisitors have
done nothing of the sort.
Writing in The Guardian last Thursday, commentator Neil Clark argued
that "things have gone horribly wrong for Ms. Del Ponte":
"…not only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic's
personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the
nature and extent of the atrocities themselves has also been called
into question."
It is obvious, he says, that the Prosecution has been "working
backwards – making charges and then trying to find evidence." He
does not mention specific details, but there are plenty. In the
last two months of the process, the Prosecution's witnesses were
seemingly random men and women, dragged into the courtroom to offer
baseless allegations and fourth-hand hearsay, though one would
expect a strong case to save its most damaging witnesses for the
very end.
Witness Disasters
The Inquisitors' choice of witnesses has always been poor, from the
hapless Mahmut Bakalli at the very beginning, through the conman
Ratomir Tanic and pompous show-off Wesley Clark, to French
general Philippe Morillon, whose attempts at incriminating Milosevic
got too tangled in truth.
Morillon, revered by the Bosnian Muslims for saving their troops in
Srebrenica from defeat in 1993, ended up enraging them by his
testimony last week. While trying to make it seem as if Milosevic
could have prevented the alleged events of 1995, Morillon let it
slip that the Serbs were out for blood because of Muslim massacres
of Serb civilians. The enraged Muslims announced they would sue the
French general as accessory to genocide.
This tragic farce aside, the twisted logic of Morillon and the
Prosecutors would have someone who stopped a potential massacre in
1993 – before sanctions and threats had caused a bitter split
between Milosevic and the Bosnian Serbs – therefore held responsible
for the alleged massacre two years later, when he emphatically
lacked influence in Bosnia. And as Hague arguments go, that's fairly
typical.
Even Biljana Plavsic, whose infamous "confession" in December 2002
smeared the Serb people as a whole (which it was supposed to do) and
earned her a life term in a Swedish prison, seems to have finally
seen the ICTY's true colors. It was said that she was transferred
back to Holland last weekend, in preparation to testify against
Milosevic – but the report was denied after she made public her
refusal.
Some day, there will be a book with all the outrageous witness moments
from the Milosevic trial. A lengthy one, given that there are 290
prosecution witnesses alone. It will make for fascinating reading –
sordid, but fascinating.
An Endeavor in Ruins
Declaring the trial a "travesty," Clark explains that the ICTY is a
"blatantly political body set up and funded by the very [NATO]
powers that waged an illegal war against Milosevic's Yugoslavia," and
as such, cannot possibly render an impartial verdict: "political
necessity dictates that [Milosevic] will be found guilty, if not of
all the charges, then enough for him to be incarcerated for life."
That actually explains the Inquisitors' dreadful performance, which
they try to cover up with bluster: the verdict has already been
reached, the sentence determined – Del Ponte and the "judges" are
simply going through the motions, giving lip service to the legal
process which, like the truth, has nothing to do with their work.
It was known from Day One that the Milosevic proceedings would be a
show trial. For all its ostensible purpose to find out the truth and
punish the individual perpetrators of atrocities, thus enabling
reconciliation, the ICTY has set out to conjure a grand conspiracy
headed by Milosevic that would provide a single explanation for
Yugoslavia's breakup and the Succession Wars, and the justification
for all Imperial interventions: no less than a wholesale
falsification of history. As Deliso puts it, "…reality has to be
force-fit into a costume it can't quite wear. The point here is to
stage a kind of morality play, an instructive fable to reinforce the
prevalent discourse of political responsibility."
Had Milosevic hired a lawyer and played by the Inquisition's rules, no
doubt the plan would have been well along by now. But for once he
did the unexpected, and over the past two years he has made
mincemeat out of the Prosecutors' case by himself.
It is beyond embarrassing for Del Ponte and her supporters that despite
their millions of dollars in funding, hundreds of zealous lawyers
and investigators, cases of intelligence files, hundreds of
witnesses willing to make things up as they go, the ability to make
up procedures on the fly and that the three-judge panel is firmly on
their side, they have suffered a defeat after defeat at the hands of
an elderly man with a heart condition, imprisoned, cut off from his
family and friends, under constant surveillance and lacking any
money or power.
On October 6, 2000, Slobodan Milosevic was a political washout with a
questionable legacy, accused of war crimes. Three years later,
thanks to the Hague Inquisition, he can justifiably claim to be a
champion of truth.
No wonder Carla Del Ponte went insane.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vn013104.htm
ON THE HAGUE CRUCIFIX
Vecernje Novosti - January 31, 2004
Written by: Vid Blagojevic
Translated by: Vera Martinovic
SAMAC, Republika Srpska – Simo Zaric did consent to speak to VECERNJE
NOVOSTI about his days at The Hague and about the court he called
political. – I have nothing to hide: if, God forbid, a war should break
out anew, I would do everything the same way, even if I ended up at
The Hague once more – he said at the beginning of our conversation. –
It was hard to endure 1.664 days in prison, particularly when you know
you’re not guilty.
- I drew strength from the support of my family – wife, children,
mother and sisters. They came to visit, they wrote me letters. A huge
support also arrived from my fellow citizens of Samac, the whole
Posavina [a region of the Sava river valley], Republika Srpska and
even from the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina and ex-Yugoslavia.
There were thousands of letters that I received, and I answered each
one of them – Simo Zaric begins his story.
Conditions at The Hague were bearable when food and hygiene are
concerned. Free time should be aplenty in prison. However…
- Each morning we got up at 7 a.m. and went to bed at 8.30 p.m. on
weekdays. On weekends, the taps was at 5 p.m. We were in complete
isolation twice a day while the guards were eating. The rest of the
time we spent in the canteen or kitchen, as we called it. Only the
detainees from the same floor can use the area. Here we played chess,
dominoes, and card games, watched TV, talked about the simplest human
things. We could not walk between floors – Simo describes a day in
prison.
HOW TO CONQUER TIME – DURING imprisonment I’ve read more than 500
books, I’ve written thousands of pages of the diary that I kept daily
and I’ve published a book “On The Hague Crucifix” – Zaric continues.
I’ve dedicated a lot of time to the proceedings as well, that was held
for more than two years, so that sometimes the time was scarce. Part
of it we spent walking, taking part in sport… A man who knows that he
should conquer time knows how to organize a prison life for himself.
It is far more difficult to conquer for men who become withdrawn and
develop psychological problems.
All the accused Serbs were forgotten by many of those not expected to
do that. Simo Zaric wishes to emphasize they were not abandoned by
everyone.
- It would be a sin to forget the support that we had from the SPC
[Serbian Orthodox Church] representatives. The Church gave us moral,
spiritual and human support – points out the former prisoner at The
Hague. – We had priests who visited us every month and held prayers.
Bishop Luka and Amfilohije Radovic came many times. Their spiritual
presence meant a lot to us. When reading religious literature, in each
of these books I found how one has to be kind, moral and righteous in
life and all those messages are most human and most wonderful. I
regret that I’ve started to be engaged in this kind of literature and
personal spiritual rebirth only after my destiny had brought me to The
Hague.
Zaric was spending his prison days with detainees from his floor:
Momcilo Krajisnik, Dragan Obrenovic, Dragan Nikolic – Jenki, Generals
Dragoljub Ojdanic and Mile Mrksic, Mario Cerkez, Milorad Krnojelac,
Ranko Cesic, Milan Martic and Milan Mrdja.
- I had the opportunity to meet Mr Milosevic several times and I found
him to be a very natural man and I believe that he had surprised
everyone with his naturalness and spontaneity – speaks Zaric. –
Destiny of a detainee at The Hague is a very strange one, here you have
very brave people, people who hold their face and dignity dear. On the
other hand, there are those who fall under certain pressures both from
the OTP and a certain atmosphere at the court.
GOOD JUDGES UNDESIRABLE – I BELIEVE that Milosevic is defending on
principle a strategic component related to the Serbian national
corpus. I have an impression that Krajisnik will not succumb to any
influences either and I base this belief on our talks that we held for
days. Those certainly not succumbing to pressures are Martic, General
Ojdanic and others who had already underwent a court procedure – Simo
Zaric is categorical.
-These people have guts to speak up in the language of truth and, to
make it clear, they do not defend crimes and nobody does support
crimes, but these people have the need to speak up in the name of the
Serbian national corpus with the purpose of preserving its identity.
A judge at The Hague who speaks up in the language of justice,
morality and truth gets removed immediately. Zaric substantiates these
examples:
- Judge Lindholm had gathered his strength to defend law and had the
courage to defend the truth in my case, by requesting my acquittal. In
the pleiad of such people there is by all means the Australian Judge
Hunt. Then there is the esteemed Judge Wald, otherwise an American
lady, who had acquitted brothers Kupreskic or Judge Cassese who had
acquitted Papic and Zejnil Delalic. None of them is a judge at The
Hague anymore. Judges who gather their strength to resist pressures
and mentorship imposed on them leave very quickly. Judge Hunt said in
his farewell statement that if The Hague Tribunal were to be
recognized by the manner of conducting its appeal proceedings and
dispensing justice, it would be a black spot in the world’s legal
system. The one who ends up at The Hague will be convicted not with
justice, but because he had passed through a political prism. The OTP
disregards facts obvious even to a small child. There are “million”
arguments to support that, but Zaric says he will stay close to the
“Samac case”.
MY GREATEST VICTORY - PEOPLE who testified in our case came prepared
by a secret service of the Muslims, AID, on what and how they would
speak against us – maintains Zaric. – They were mainly secret witnesses
and I am a disciplined man and shall not reveal their names. What’s
essential is that these testimonies were rigged. And the OTP builds
upon such invented statements later on and then the battle for the
truth gets really difficult. Witnesses for the Prosecution do not even
blush when their statements are refuted with arguments. Unlike them,
witnesses for the Defence of various nationalities came to testify
publicly, not hiding from anyone. In my case, 35 witnesses appeared
and more than 80% were the Muslims and the Croats from Samac. They
knew best what was he like and who is in fact Simo Zaric.
By the end of the conversation Simo Zaric wishes to say that his
greatest victory is in enduring it all and being able, although a
pensioner before all this had even started, to begin a new life. This
new life, as he says, will be dedicated to family, to his native
village Trnjak in the Municipality of Odzak (Federation of Bosnia &
Herzegovina) and his desire to bring back and breathe a new life into
it. If a party appears or if one exists that will satisfy his views,
perhaps he will become politically active.
The Hague Tribunal had passed long-term custodial sentences on five
people from Samac. Simo was imprisoned for being a distinguished
member of the community, Miroslav Tadic is imprisoned for working in
the municipal commissions for exchange, and so forth. That justice
doesn’t dwell at The Hague could be best seen from the fact that Amor
Masovic, the President of the Commission for Exchange of the
Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina, is being proposed for the Nobel
Prize, and Miroslav Tadic is sentenced to eight year’s imprisonment.
In addition to them, a native of Samac was also Alija Izetbegovic,
then there was Sulejman Tihic, but the “justice of The Hague” has
never reached them.
FATIMA IS – FATIMA - DRAGAN Lukac, currently executing a high office
in the security of Bosnia & Herzegovina, as a witness for the
Prosecution alleged there was an event when Simo Zaric renamed his wife
Fatima to Jevrosima at some kind of secret religious séance during the
war.
- After my wife, myself and many other witnesses had stated that this
was a blatant lie, Mr Lukac said without a shred of remorse that he
still maintained this to be true. Therefore I cannot believe that such
a man could currently execute any office at all.
Copyright 2004 Vecernje Novosti
Posted for Fair Use only.