http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m090502.html
ANTIWAR, Thursday, September 5, 2002
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
Illusions of Truth and Justice
The Hague Inquisition's Factory of Lies
After a month-long hiatus, Slobodan Milosevic's show trial before the
Hague
Inquisition reopened last week. As expected, no one looked back on the
prosecution's fiasco just before the recess, when their star witness
turned
around and exonerated Milosevic. Rade Markovic, former head of Serbian
State
Security, also accused the new Belgrade authorities of abuse and
suborning
perjury.
But there was no talk of forced testimonies when the "trial" resumed.
Markovic was disappeared down the memory hole, and no one in officialdom
seems concerned about his fate. Yet that would be a legitimate concern,
given the propensity of Inquisition's prisoners to end up dead or worse.
Having failed to bully Markovic into fingering his former president, the
Inquisition finds itself running both out of time and out of lies. With
only
a week or so remaining for the Kosovo stage of the process, they have
opted
to recycle old, debunked accusations in a last-ditch effort to sling
enough
mud so some of it would stick.
The Impossible Prison Massacre
Much of last week's proceedings revolved around the allegation, brought
forward by two KLA members, that Serbian police massacred the inmates of
Dubrava prison near Istok, just after NATO bombed the penitentiary. The
media had a field day with this. Not only did they describe Musa
Krasniqi,
the first KLA witness, as a "physics teacher" and buried the references
to
his KLA membership elsewhere in their dispatches, they also presented
his
allegations as factual. Similar treatment was given the other witness,
Gani
Beqaj, though his peacetime profession was never mentioned. Perhaps it
lacked that "instant credibility" of teaching physics?
According to Krasniqi and Beqaj, the prisoners were rounded up in the
courtyard, then machine-gunned. Those who escaped (how?) were hunted
down
with hand grenades for two days. Yet both of them, and many other
prisoners,
stayed alive and unharmed. They were later transferred to other prisons
and
"told to say all prisoners were killed by NATO."
One can be forgiven for thinking this story somewhat less than
plausible,
and it's obvious as to why. Even the dumbest criminal out there would
never
tell his intended victims they were about to be killed as part of a
frame-up, then leave many of them alive and unharmed. And Milosevic is
accused of being a criminal mastermind who "covered up his crimes" so
well
that the Inquisition can't find any evidence of it!
Wisdom of the BBC
The triumphant Inquisitors next referred to a Human Rights Watch report
about the incident. The report was, naturally, based on interviews with
"NATO and former Dubrava inmates," and not those evil, deceptive Serbs,
so
it must be true, right?
The highlight of the show was Jackie Rowland of the BBC, who volunteered
to
testify even as many of her colleagues were protesting the decision to
subpoena (Western) journalists against their will. In a passionate
recounting of her testimony for the Guardian, Rowland reveals her
arrogance
and ignorance. She mistook sarcasm for praise, proudly spouted
inaccurate
"history," and provided the entire sordid affair with a delightfully
quotable but utterly meaningless "expert opinion":
"If I look at you now, Mr Milosevic, I can see that you have both your
arms.
I can see the features on your face. I can see that your body is intact.
If
however, you were hit by a bomb - heaven forbid - I think I would be
able to
tell by looking at your body whether that was the manner of your death."
But neither Milosevic, nor anyone in the Serbian government, ever
claimed
that each and every prisoner at Dubrava was killed by a direct hit of a
NATO
bomb. Fewer people are killed by direct bomb hits than by lightning.
When a
building is bombed, people are killed by debris, shockwave, shrapnel,
even
airburst. Rowland was making a dumb statement and being snooty about it.
Absent Men and Albanian Songs
The process continued this week with a witness who claimed only Albanian
houses in his town were burned. Behar Haxhiavdija told a sordid tale of
arson in his home town, but no one seemed to correct his geography:
"Gjakova," the town mentioned in agency reports, is the Albanian name
for
occupied Djakovica. Language aside, one glaring inconsistency found its
way
to an AP report of Haxhiavdija's tale:
"Most of the victims were dragged from the basement and shot, but his
5-year-old son was put in a cupboard and burned alive, said a witness
who
was hiding in a house nearby." [emphasis added]
Was this Haxhiavdija speaking, or another witness? The indefinite
article
suggests him quoting someone else, i.e. hearsay evidence. If he was
present,
how did he survive? Such questions are not expected to come up, given
the
shocking image of a 5-year-old burning in a cupboard.
Another testimony featured a bereaved Lirij Imeraj, who claimed Serb
soldiers "singing in Serb-Croat language and Albanian," came to her
house in
March 1999, and shot her husband and six children. Imeraj and her three
children survived and ran off to Montenegro (part of Yugoslavia).
Why would soldiers on a murder spree spare a woman and three children,
but
kill her husband and the other six? More to it, why would they be
singing in
Albanian? Milosevic asked the same question, but Imeraj said it was
"impossible, not at all possible" that the killers were KLA. She claims
the
murderers were Serbs, and that she knew them - yet she named no names,
at
least none that appeared in the AP story covering the testimony.
The Incredibly Elusive Fridge Trucks
Finally, this Tuesday, the prosecutors resurrected the accusation used
to
abduct Milosevic and send him to The Hague: refrigerator trucks filled
with
Albanians' bodies.
One Caslav Golubovic, whose position in the Serbian police hierarchy
agency
reports never properly clarified, said a truck with 30 bodies was pulled
out
of the Danube river in April 1999 (during the bombing). Golubovic
claimed
the truck was blown up and the bodies removed under orders from Vlajko
Stojiljkovic, Serbia's Interior Minister. He also said the orders came
to
him through General Vlastimir Djordjevic.
There are several problems with Golubovic's story. It conveniently
blames
people who can't be questioned: Djordjevic has disappeared, and
Stojiljkovic
publicly committed suicide in April. Then there is an exhaustive study
by an
American scholar, showing that the "refrigerator truck" story was never
more
than a malicious, unsubstantiated rumor: there has been no evidence to
it
whatsoever.
But the Inquisition certainly doesn't care. Lack of evidence is by
itself
evidence of Milosevic's criminal mastermind, right? As long as they can
find
some patsy to say the lines, they don't need no stinkin' evidence!
Perhaps one shouldn't be so harsh on Golubovic. It's hard to tell what
he
actually said, given the agencies' habit of printing out-of-context
snippets
in a sea of drivel. But that doesn't change the fact that the
refrigerator
truck story is bogus.
Burden of Proof
In a recent interview with a pro-NATO journalist and a leader of the
International Committee to Defend Milosevic (ICDSM), a BBC journalist
claimed the war crimes have been "proven." But where is the evidence?
All
the world has heard so far have been the testimonies of dozens of
coached
Albanian villagers, KLA leaders and sympathizers, NATO officials,
pro-NATO
diplomats and journalists, and the Inquisition's own "experts". The
"evidence" they produced would have been thrown out of any American
court
any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
Systematic Crimes
Now no one even remotely sane would dispute that the Yugoslav Succession
Wars (1991-95) and the conflict in Kosovo were rife with atrocities. The
real question is, were those atrocities systematic?
It is obvious from the Inquisition's indictments that the "international
community" (the Empire and its allies) believes that Serb atrocities
were
systematic, while others were random. Only Serb government leaders, in
Bosnia as well as Serbia, stand accused of war crimes. Only Serbs are
charged with genocide - by definition, a systematic crime. Only Serbs
are
accused of a "joint criminal enterprise."
Methods employed, or allegedly employed, by Milosevic's government or
the
Bosnian Serbs are routinely deemed genocidal and criminal, but when
employed
by NATO, there is "no need for investigation." Same with the U.S.,
Croatians, Bosnian Muslims or the KLA.
This makes sense only if seen through the logic of total war, where the
"righteous" can employ any means necessary to defeat the "evil."
Naturally,
the definition of "righteous" and "evil" depends on who has more bombs
and
better press coverage.
Monsters' Ball
Of course, the state itself is a criminal institution, using coercion to
deprive its residents of their liberty, property and life (when it
fights
wars, as most states do). So essentially, every head of state is a
criminal.
>From that standpoint, Slobodan Milosevic is clearly guilty of being
head of
state, and doing what any head of state would do in his place. And those
persecuting him are no less guilty, of the same infractions and then
some.
Yet they claim absolute innocence and the right to judge others, as some
sort of über-government.
Milosevic's regime at least prosecuted several hundred soldiers and
militia
who were accused of looting, murder, arson and other atrocities. The
world
is yet to see any Imperial troops answer for their deeds: not because
there
weren't any - for there were, and plenty - but because the Empire
considers
itself above the law. The Hague may be a monster's ball, but the monster
is
not Milosevic.
A Factory of Lies
Power needs no justification to act as it wishes, just as its "courts"
need
no evidence to proclaim guilt. It does need, however, to manufacture
consent
for its continued survival by creating perceptions of righteousness and
legitimacy.
An amazing number of people still misguidedly believe that the Hague
Inquisition is a legitimate court, staffed by impartial prosecutors and
judges, which seeks to punish perpetrators of war crimes for the sake of
peace, justice and individualized guilt.
But as real, not manufactured, evidence shows each day the charade
continues, the so-called "court" in the Netherlands is nothing more than
Empire's vicious factory of lies.
ANTIWAR, Thursday, September 5, 2002
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
Illusions of Truth and Justice
The Hague Inquisition's Factory of Lies
After a month-long hiatus, Slobodan Milosevic's show trial before the
Hague
Inquisition reopened last week. As expected, no one looked back on the
prosecution's fiasco just before the recess, when their star witness
turned
around and exonerated Milosevic. Rade Markovic, former head of Serbian
State
Security, also accused the new Belgrade authorities of abuse and
suborning
perjury.
But there was no talk of forced testimonies when the "trial" resumed.
Markovic was disappeared down the memory hole, and no one in officialdom
seems concerned about his fate. Yet that would be a legitimate concern,
given the propensity of Inquisition's prisoners to end up dead or worse.
Having failed to bully Markovic into fingering his former president, the
Inquisition finds itself running both out of time and out of lies. With
only
a week or so remaining for the Kosovo stage of the process, they have
opted
to recycle old, debunked accusations in a last-ditch effort to sling
enough
mud so some of it would stick.
The Impossible Prison Massacre
Much of last week's proceedings revolved around the allegation, brought
forward by two KLA members, that Serbian police massacred the inmates of
Dubrava prison near Istok, just after NATO bombed the penitentiary. The
media had a field day with this. Not only did they describe Musa
Krasniqi,
the first KLA witness, as a "physics teacher" and buried the references
to
his KLA membership elsewhere in their dispatches, they also presented
his
allegations as factual. Similar treatment was given the other witness,
Gani
Beqaj, though his peacetime profession was never mentioned. Perhaps it
lacked that "instant credibility" of teaching physics?
According to Krasniqi and Beqaj, the prisoners were rounded up in the
courtyard, then machine-gunned. Those who escaped (how?) were hunted
down
with hand grenades for two days. Yet both of them, and many other
prisoners,
stayed alive and unharmed. They were later transferred to other prisons
and
"told to say all prisoners were killed by NATO."
One can be forgiven for thinking this story somewhat less than
plausible,
and it's obvious as to why. Even the dumbest criminal out there would
never
tell his intended victims they were about to be killed as part of a
frame-up, then leave many of them alive and unharmed. And Milosevic is
accused of being a criminal mastermind who "covered up his crimes" so
well
that the Inquisition can't find any evidence of it!
Wisdom of the BBC
The triumphant Inquisitors next referred to a Human Rights Watch report
about the incident. The report was, naturally, based on interviews with
"NATO and former Dubrava inmates," and not those evil, deceptive Serbs,
so
it must be true, right?
The highlight of the show was Jackie Rowland of the BBC, who volunteered
to
testify even as many of her colleagues were protesting the decision to
subpoena (Western) journalists against their will. In a passionate
recounting of her testimony for the Guardian, Rowland reveals her
arrogance
and ignorance. She mistook sarcasm for praise, proudly spouted
inaccurate
"history," and provided the entire sordid affair with a delightfully
quotable but utterly meaningless "expert opinion":
"If I look at you now, Mr Milosevic, I can see that you have both your
arms.
I can see the features on your face. I can see that your body is intact.
If
however, you were hit by a bomb - heaven forbid - I think I would be
able to
tell by looking at your body whether that was the manner of your death."
But neither Milosevic, nor anyone in the Serbian government, ever
claimed
that each and every prisoner at Dubrava was killed by a direct hit of a
NATO
bomb. Fewer people are killed by direct bomb hits than by lightning.
When a
building is bombed, people are killed by debris, shockwave, shrapnel,
even
airburst. Rowland was making a dumb statement and being snooty about it.
Absent Men and Albanian Songs
The process continued this week with a witness who claimed only Albanian
houses in his town were burned. Behar Haxhiavdija told a sordid tale of
arson in his home town, but no one seemed to correct his geography:
"Gjakova," the town mentioned in agency reports, is the Albanian name
for
occupied Djakovica. Language aside, one glaring inconsistency found its
way
to an AP report of Haxhiavdija's tale:
"Most of the victims were dragged from the basement and shot, but his
5-year-old son was put in a cupboard and burned alive, said a witness
who
was hiding in a house nearby." [emphasis added]
Was this Haxhiavdija speaking, or another witness? The indefinite
article
suggests him quoting someone else, i.e. hearsay evidence. If he was
present,
how did he survive? Such questions are not expected to come up, given
the
shocking image of a 5-year-old burning in a cupboard.
Another testimony featured a bereaved Lirij Imeraj, who claimed Serb
soldiers "singing in Serb-Croat language and Albanian," came to her
house in
March 1999, and shot her husband and six children. Imeraj and her three
children survived and ran off to Montenegro (part of Yugoslavia).
Why would soldiers on a murder spree spare a woman and three children,
but
kill her husband and the other six? More to it, why would they be
singing in
Albanian? Milosevic asked the same question, but Imeraj said it was
"impossible, not at all possible" that the killers were KLA. She claims
the
murderers were Serbs, and that she knew them - yet she named no names,
at
least none that appeared in the AP story covering the testimony.
The Incredibly Elusive Fridge Trucks
Finally, this Tuesday, the prosecutors resurrected the accusation used
to
abduct Milosevic and send him to The Hague: refrigerator trucks filled
with
Albanians' bodies.
One Caslav Golubovic, whose position in the Serbian police hierarchy
agency
reports never properly clarified, said a truck with 30 bodies was pulled
out
of the Danube river in April 1999 (during the bombing). Golubovic
claimed
the truck was blown up and the bodies removed under orders from Vlajko
Stojiljkovic, Serbia's Interior Minister. He also said the orders came
to
him through General Vlastimir Djordjevic.
There are several problems with Golubovic's story. It conveniently
blames
people who can't be questioned: Djordjevic has disappeared, and
Stojiljkovic
publicly committed suicide in April. Then there is an exhaustive study
by an
American scholar, showing that the "refrigerator truck" story was never
more
than a malicious, unsubstantiated rumor: there has been no evidence to
it
whatsoever.
But the Inquisition certainly doesn't care. Lack of evidence is by
itself
evidence of Milosevic's criminal mastermind, right? As long as they can
find
some patsy to say the lines, they don't need no stinkin' evidence!
Perhaps one shouldn't be so harsh on Golubovic. It's hard to tell what
he
actually said, given the agencies' habit of printing out-of-context
snippets
in a sea of drivel. But that doesn't change the fact that the
refrigerator
truck story is bogus.
Burden of Proof
In a recent interview with a pro-NATO journalist and a leader of the
International Committee to Defend Milosevic (ICDSM), a BBC journalist
claimed the war crimes have been "proven." But where is the evidence?
All
the world has heard so far have been the testimonies of dozens of
coached
Albanian villagers, KLA leaders and sympathizers, NATO officials,
pro-NATO
diplomats and journalists, and the Inquisition's own "experts". The
"evidence" they produced would have been thrown out of any American
court
any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
Systematic Crimes
Now no one even remotely sane would dispute that the Yugoslav Succession
Wars (1991-95) and the conflict in Kosovo were rife with atrocities. The
real question is, were those atrocities systematic?
It is obvious from the Inquisition's indictments that the "international
community" (the Empire and its allies) believes that Serb atrocities
were
systematic, while others were random. Only Serb government leaders, in
Bosnia as well as Serbia, stand accused of war crimes. Only Serbs are
charged with genocide - by definition, a systematic crime. Only Serbs
are
accused of a "joint criminal enterprise."
Methods employed, or allegedly employed, by Milosevic's government or
the
Bosnian Serbs are routinely deemed genocidal and criminal, but when
employed
by NATO, there is "no need for investigation." Same with the U.S.,
Croatians, Bosnian Muslims or the KLA.
This makes sense only if seen through the logic of total war, where the
"righteous" can employ any means necessary to defeat the "evil."
Naturally,
the definition of "righteous" and "evil" depends on who has more bombs
and
better press coverage.
Monsters' Ball
Of course, the state itself is a criminal institution, using coercion to
deprive its residents of their liberty, property and life (when it
fights
wars, as most states do). So essentially, every head of state is a
criminal.
>From that standpoint, Slobodan Milosevic is clearly guilty of being
head of
state, and doing what any head of state would do in his place. And those
persecuting him are no less guilty, of the same infractions and then
some.
Yet they claim absolute innocence and the right to judge others, as some
sort of über-government.
Milosevic's regime at least prosecuted several hundred soldiers and
militia
who were accused of looting, murder, arson and other atrocities. The
world
is yet to see any Imperial troops answer for their deeds: not because
there
weren't any - for there were, and plenty - but because the Empire
considers
itself above the law. The Hague may be a monster's ball, but the monster
is
not Milosevic.
A Factory of Lies
Power needs no justification to act as it wishes, just as its "courts"
need
no evidence to proclaim guilt. It does need, however, to manufacture
consent
for its continued survival by creating perceptions of righteousness and
legitimacy.
An amazing number of people still misguidedly believe that the Hague
Inquisition is a legitimate court, staffed by impartial prosecutors and
judges, which seeks to punish perpetrators of war crimes for the sake of
peace, justice and individualized guilt.
But as real, not manufactured, evidence shows each day the charade
continues, the so-called "court" in the Netherlands is nothing more than
Empire's vicious factory of lies.