* LETTURA NUOVO "CAPO DI IMPUTAZIONE" SULLA BOSNIA PER MILOSEVIC
* "AMICI CURIAE" IMPONGONO AVVOCATO CONTRO LA VOLONTA' DI MILOSEVIC

* JUSTICE? OR ITS ANTITHESIS? (by Stephen Gowans)

===*===


MILOSEVIC: TPI; VIA A LETTURA ATTO INCRIMINAZIONE PER
BOSNIA E' ACCUSATO DI GENOCIDIO E CRIMINI CONTRO L'UMANITA'

(ANSA) - L'AJA, 11 DIC - Nell'aula del Tribunale
Internazionale per l'ex-Jugoslavia (Tpi) all'Aja e' appena
cominciata la lettura dell'atto di incriminazione contro
Slobodan Milosevic per genocidio, crimini contro l'umanita' ed
altri gravi capi d'imputazione per presunte responsabilita'
durante il conflitto in Bosnia (1992-95).
L'imputato e' in aula, di fronte alla Corte presieduta dal
giudice britannico Richard May. Sul fronte opposto il
procuratore del Tpi Carla Del Ponte.
Al termine della lettura dell'atto d'accusa, l'ex-presidente
jugoslavo dovra' dire se si dichiara colpevole o meno per
ciascuno dei capi di imputazione.
Quella relativa alla Bosnia e' la terza incriminazione
portata da Del Ponte nei confronti di Milosevic accanto a quelle
per il Kosovo e la Croazia. La Corte dovra' oggi decidere se i
tre 'dossier' potranno essere riuniti in modo da celebrare un
unico maxi-processo a carico di Milosevic, che non riconosce il
Tribunale. (ANSA)

MILOSEVIC: TPI;BOSNIA,SLOBO NON RISPONDE SU ACCUSA GENOCIDIO
IGNORA DOMANDA GIUDICE: INCRIMINAZIONE E' 'SUPREMA ASSURDITA'

(ANSA) - L'AJA, 11 DIC - Non cambia l'atteggiamento di sfida
di Slobodan Milosevic nei confronti del Tribunale Internazionale
per l'ex-Jugoslavia (TPI) dell'Aja.
Oggi l'ex-presidente jugoslavo - dopo aver ascoltato per
oltre un'ora in aula la lettura dell'atto di incriminazione a
suo carico per i presunti crimini commessi durante la guerra di
Bosnia (1992-1995) - si e' rifiutato di rispondere al giudice
Richard May che gli chiedeva di dichiararsi colpevole o non
colpevole per il capo di imputazione di genocidio.
'Slobo' ha ignorato la richiesta di May ed ha replicato con
durezza: ''Quello che ho appena sentito, questo testo tragico,
e' una suprema assurdita'. Io dovrei ricevere credito per la
pace in Bosnia, non essere accusato per la guerra. La
responsabilita' per la guerra in Bosnia e' delle forze che hanno
condotto alla disintegrazione della Jugoslavia, e non dei
serbi''. May ha allora tagliato corto ed ha disposto d'ufficio
la messa agli atti di una dichiarazione di non colpevolezza per
tutti i 29 capi di imputazione a carico di Milosevic.
La Corte - dopo una pausa - ha poi avviato l'esame del
secondo punto dell'udienza odierna: la mozione del procuratore
del TPI Carla Del Ponte per la riunificazione dei tre
procedimenti contro Milosevic (per Bosnia, Croazia e Kosovo) in
un unico maxi-processo. La tesi dell'accusa e' che esiste un
solo grande disegno di 'Slobo' che unisce i tre sanguinosi
conflitti: il progetto per la creazione di una Grande Serbia.
Del Ponte - nel motivare la sua richiesta alla Corte - ha
sottolineato che ''migliaia di vittime chiedono giustizia'':
''Se avremo tre diversi processi - ha aggiunto - i tempi si
allungheranno enormemente. E' essenziale dare a queste vittime
la possibilita' di seguire un solo processo dall'inizio''.
Se l'istanza di Del Ponte venisse accolta, i tempi per
l'avvio del processo contro Milosevic slitterebbero
sensibilmente: per il momento e' previsto che il dibattimento
sul Kosovo abbia inizio nel febbraio 2002.

MILOSEVIC: LO DIFENDERA' EX AVVOCATO CARLOS E KLAUS BARBIE

(ANSA) - PARIGI, 13 DIC - Jacques Verges, avvocato francese
noto per la difesa di cause ''impossibili'' - quali quelle del
terrorista Carlos e il criminale di guerra nazista Klaus Barbie
- fara' parte del collegio di legali dell'ex presidente jugoslavo
Slobodan Milosevic, in stato d'accusa davanti al Tribunale penale
internazionale (Tpi) per la ex Jugoslavia. ''Sono stato contattato
dagli amici di Milosevic - ha detto al quotidiano 'Le Monde' l'avvocato
Verges, personaggio dalla biografia fitta di misteri - che mi hanno
chiesto di partecipare al loro lavoro. Il contatto si e' stabilito.
Ora preparo dei dossier''. Carlos e l'ex capo della Gestapo a Lione,
Klaus Barbie, sono alcuni dei clienti ''eccellenti'' di Verges,
che si e' occupato anche della difesa di alcuni inquisiti nella
'tangentopoli' francese dell'Rpr, il partito neogollista. Nato in
Indocina, formato alla scuola del comunismo stalinista, Verges e' stato
confidente di capi di stato come Mao Zedong e Omar Bongo. (ANSA). GIT
13/12/2001 18:23


===*===


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=======================================
Justice? Or its Antithesis?
by Stephen Gowans
[posted 28 November 2001]
=======================================

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, under detention
at the Hague in connection with murder, deportation and genocide
charges, says he's under drastically increased pressure to recognize
the Hague Tribunal.

In three appearances before the tribunal, Milosevic refused to
plead to the indictments against him, and refused to appoint
lawyers, arguing the tribunal, and his detention, are illegal.

And now Milosevic's Belgrade lawyer, Dragoslav Ognjanovic says
that strong spotlights have been left on all night in Milosevic's
cell, a subtle form of torture.

Why is Milosevic being deprived of sleep?

And why is the former Yugoslav president denied access to the
media? After doing an interview with American media, Milosevic
was reprimanded by Hague authorities, and warned against further
breaches of rules that prevent the former president from talking
to the press.

Why won't the Hague Tribunal allow Milosevic to conduct his own
defense?

And why is Milosevic's microphone cut-off when he appears before
the tribunal?

The usual reply is that Milosevic would make a mockery of the
proceedings. And if given access to the media he would have a
platform to spout nonsense. But surely, if it's nonsense he'll
spout, let him. Nonsense will be obvious for what it is, and
the press will soon grow tired of it. But another answer seems
more likely: Maybe it's not nonsense Milosevic has to speak.
And maybe Milosevic's being allowed to conduct his own
defense would expose the tribunal for what it is -- a mockery of
justice.

Augusto Pinochet, dictator, murderer, goes free. Ariel Sharon,
architect of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, ethnic cleanser,
and war criminal, presides over the commission of fresh war crimes
as prime minister of Israel. War criminals Henry Kissinger and Bill
Clinton make a king's ransom from speaking engagements. Meanwhile,
we're showered with absurdities from the US foreign policy
establishment connected Human Rights Watch about war criminals
having nowhere to hide, Milosevic being the signal case.

The hypocrisy is plain, if the case is made, but who makes the
case? People on the margins, heard by few. But what if someone
like Milosevic, who, if allowed to speak to the media, reached
countless numbers? He'd have a platform to make the case, if the
tribunal's rules didn't gag him. And maybe that's why he's gagged.

Washington and London have always been afraid of their own people
hearing the other side. During NATO's 78-day terror campaign against
Yugoslavia, Serb Radio-TV, which carried a different view of the
bombing than delivered by the complicit and tightly controlled Western
press, was deliberately bombed, a blatant war crime. British Prime
Minister Tony Blair said that Milosevic's propaganda machine had
to be taken out. What he meant was that NATO had to control the
public relations agenda.

Weeks ago, US bombers took out Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, for the
same reason -- it threatened Washington's control over what the
public saw and heard and understood. Al Jazeera offered something
other than the tightly controlled and scripted US take on the
war against Afghanistan. Control the story, and you control the
hearts and minds of the public. Give people like Milosevic and the
Afghans carried on Al-Jazeera a platform, and the carefully crafted
complex of lies may fall apart.

As to the nonsense about war criminals having nowhere to hide, they
do. Behind a Security Council veto, for one. And behind a compliant
press, whose deafness, dumbness and blindness owes much to
Chauvinism, and the fact that letting the White House, State
Department, and Pentagon write your copy is a good business model.
Keeps cost down.

Up to now, Milosevic has been under indictment for murder and
deportation, in connection with events in Kosovo. The White House
and State Department and Pentagon, and yes, the media too, tried,
and convicted Milosevic of committing genocide in Kosovo. There
were 100,000 missing and presumed dead. Then 10,000. Then forensic
pathologists turned up only 2,000 corpses, none in mass graves,
their identities (were they ethnic Albanian Kosovars?) uncertain.
Then doubts arose about the authenticity of the Racak massacre,
the casus belli for terrorizing Yugoslavia with bombs for 78 days.
And then the indictment came, and with it, no charge of genocide.

Now, in new indictments, Milosevic is charged with genocide in
connection with earlier wars in Croatia and Bosnia. It's as if
the tribunal had come up with the charge first and has worked
backwards from there. Now that we've made the charge, we'll need the
evidence to make it stick.

Genocide? In what connection has that word been uttered before?

East Timor. That genocide was carried out by a pal of Washington's,
the dictator Suharto, right under Washington's nose and with its
full approval. Nothing as insignificant as genocide was going to
stand in the way of US businesses turning handsome profits in an
Indonesia known as an "investor's paradise," "hell" being more
frequently uttered by those who have to work there. And yet there
was no indictment. Earlier, Suharato had arranged for the systematic
killing of between 500,000 and one million communists, while Washington
checked off the names. No indictment for that crime either.

Iraq. Over the last decade, US enforced sanctions of mass destruction
have killed over one million Iraqis. That's a genocide. Will the
perpetrators be held accountable? No. They wield a Security Council
veto.

The Security Council set up the Hague Tribunal, which means Security
Council members, some of which committed brazen war crimes in
their 78-day terror campaign against Yugoslavia, will never be
indicted, unless you assume the tribunal's prosecutors are going to
indict their bosses who appointed them.

An International Criminal Court, which would obviate the Security
Council striking tribunals, and allow anyone to be indicted, won't
do the trick either. Washington won't agree to it, unless Americans
are given blanket immunity from prosecution, or Washington controls
who's indicted.

And it also means that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
genocides, committed by permanent members of the Security Council
and their allies, will never be the subject of a tribunal. Handy,
isn't it?

So, this is what we get as justice. Washington backs fascist
elements in Croatia and Islamists in Bosnia and Kosovo connected
to Osama bin Laden, the Yugoslav federation spins apart under the
pressure of the centrifugal forces nurtured by Security Council
members, and the Serbs, at the center of the opposition, are
branded the new Nazis, and are brought before a Security Council
created tribunal to answer for crimes against humanity by the very
forces that set in motion the descent into war and terrorism and
chaos, and now, growing poverty.

Justice? How about its very antithesis?

***

Mr. Steve Gowans is a writer and political activist who lives in
Ottawa, Canada.

By courtesy & (C) 2001 Steve Gowans

By the same author: http://www.mediamonitors.net/gowans35.html

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