Subject: ATTENTION: Press Conference of People's Unity - Watch it
On-Line
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:12:01 +0200
From: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
REPRESENTATIVES OF PATRIOTIC FORCES TOGETHER ON A
PRESS CONFERENCE TO DEMAND RELEASE OF SLOBODAN
MILOSEVIC!
Bogoljub Bjelica, SPS, Acting President
Dr Vojislav Seselj, SRS, President
Goran Matic, JUL, Vice-President
Dr Ivica Stojanovic, Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia, Vice-President
Dr Branko Rakic, SLOBODA / Freedom Association, Board Member
HEADS OF LEADING PATRIOTIC PARTIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
WILL DEMONSTRATE THEIR SUPPORT TO THE KEY
POLITICAL FACTOR OF THE FREE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY -
TO PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
AND TO HIS POLICY OF PEOPLE'S UNITY
AS A VIVID PEOPLE'S OPPOSITION TO THE OCCUPATION,
SALE AND DESTRUCTION OF SERBIA AND YUGOSLAVIA.
FOLLOW OR TAKE PART IN THE PRESS CONFERENCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 10:00 a.m.
CET USING THE FOLLOWING LINK:
http://www.yumediacenter.com/english/online/logine.asp?ID=486
Online conference in Media Center
Friday, September 13, 10:00
Press conference by the "Sloboda" Yugoslav National Committee for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic
Bogoljub Bjelica, deputy president of the Socialist Party of Serbia
(SPS)
and president of the Yugoslav National Committee for the Defense of
Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj, president of the Serbian Radical
Party (SRS), Goran Matic, vice president of the Yugoslav Left (JUL),
Ivica Stojanovic, vice president of the Patriotic Union of Yugoslavia,
and
Branko Rakic, member of the Yugoslav National Committee for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic, to speak about the collapse of the Kosovo
indictment.
Live broadcast: english, serbian
===*===
ARTEL GEOPOLITIKA by www.artel.co.yu
office@...
Date:12 September 2002
THE BELGRADE FORUM: MILOSEVIC TRIAL - STATEMENT /3/
THE BELGRADE FORUM FOR THE WORLD OF EQUALS
THE MILOSEVIC TRIAL - STATEMENT /3/
Done in Belgrade on 12 September 2002
In its two previous statements The Belgrade
Forum for the World of Equals /Forum/ expressed
its concern about the conduct of the trial of
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic before the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
/ICTY/ in the Hague. The Forum also called upon
all human rights organisations to appoint their
observers at the trial in order to ensure the
right to a fair trial is fully observed.
Further to these statements, several members of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe made a motion before this body for the
observers to be appointed at the trial. The
result of this initiative remains to be seen in
the near future.
In the meantime, The Forum notes the following
irregularities:
- on 14 June the cross-examination of the NATO
retired general Klaus Naumann / the man who
authorised the bombardment of targets in
downtown Belgrade/ by one of the amicus curiae
Mr. Tapuskovic, was abruptly cut short by Judge
May with an explanation that "the witness had a
plane to catch";
- on June 11 nothing but a legally scandalous
situation occurred when the witness Mr. Avdiju
claimed to have survived a firing squad
followed by a four hour period in open flames
in a house in Mala Krusa. Witness then claimed
that his surname was not Avdiju, but changed
into Krasniqi, and he also admited that some of
the four signatures at the end of the witness
statement were not his. Although Judge Kwon did
try to throw some light on this issue, it is
rather regretable that the Chamber never
requested the witness to lodge his signature
with it on the spot;
- witness K12 who had refused to testify
claiming to have been exposed to "a
psychological processing" by the prosecution
was held by the Chamber to be in contempt of
court. The Forum wonders why the unfortunate
K12 was not helped by the Chamber and releaved
of the psychological pressures he was exposed
to and notes that no other witness was
penalised in this way, in spite of the fact
that many testimonies were rather incredible;
- witness Mr. Ali Djogaj, a grave-digger from
Kosovo, claimed on 3 July to have loaded a
refrigerator lorry with bodies from a mass
grave in Kosovo and categoricaly contended this
had happened in April 2000. There were no
Yugoslav Army and police in Kosovo at the time.
Judge May personally acknowledged the date.
However, the following morning the Chamber
allowed the witness to reappear before it and
to change his testimony. The relevant date was
not April 2000 anymore, but "April 1999". When
Mr. Milosevic protested, Judge May said that
the transcript had to be looked into.
The Forum recalls that in its first statement
it called upon the Chamber to take penal
measures against the witnesses whose
testimonies were obviously incredible and the
Forum then noted that great many witnesses from
Kosovo claimed not to have even heard of the
KLA. On August 30, however, Mr. Gani Boqaj,
sentenced for the criminal act of terrorism,
testified that every single man in his village
was a KLA member! And the Office of the
Prosecution, in the final stages of its Kosovo
case, made sure to bring as many KLA members to
testify as possible. One of these witnesses
even claimed "to have killed as many Serbs as
he took aim at". The Forum notes that the
credibility of these witnesses, who are openly
hostile to the Yugoslav state and Mr.
Milosevic, is non-existent.
The Forum also notes that it is not only the
witnesses from Kosovo whose testimonies are
deprived of credibility. For instance, Mr. Ian
Hendry, a police detective from Britain,
reappeared before the Chamber in order to
"persuade" it that on two, more or less,
identical photographs of the same deceased from
Racak, blood could be visible on one of the
photos and not on the another. Gen. Klaus
Naumann, who might have also authorised the
bombing of Mr. Milosevic`s residence and his
daughters TV station "Kosava", continued his
hostile campaign before the ICTY with some
outrageous claims. The Forum considers it
utterly unacceptable that the testimony of the
witness who might have comitted war crimes and
the crime of attempted murder of Mr. Milosevic
and his family can be treated as impartial
before the ICTY.
The Forum calls upon:
- the Federal Government of the FRY to take
concrete steps in order to implement the
decision of the Yugoslav Federal Constitutional
Court pertaining to an illegal deportation of
Mr. Milosevic to the Hague;
- the President of the FRY Mr. Kostunica to
personally address all heads of states and ask
for their engagement in granting Mr. Milosevic
a provisional release - defence as a free man
from the Hague;
- the Governments of the FRY and Serbia to
address all parliaments in the world and
request their support for the release of Mr.
Milosevic.
The Forum considers that the prosecution has
failed to link Mr. Milosevic with the alleged
crimes in Kosovo and the proof for this is the
obvious attempt of the Prosecutor to link the
Yugoslav security forces and Mr. Milosevic with
the estabilished NATO crimes, such as the
bombing of the "Dubrava" prison and Albanian
refugees in Bistrezin and Meia. In order to try
to exculpate NATO in this way, the prosecution
has called many false witnesses, such as Musa
Krasniqi and Gani Baqaj, both sentenced for the
criminal act of terrorism; this is obviously an
abuse of power by the prosecution and the
reason for mistrial to be declared. For the
aforementioned reasons The Forum considers that
the Kosovo case should be immediately dismissed
by the Chamber. Another reason for the
dismissal is a total lack of equality of arms
between Mr. Milosevic and the prosecution.
Finally, the Forum remains concerned not only
about the conduct of the trial, but also about
the health of Mr. Milosevic whose recent blood
pressure was 200/120 due to the trial effort.
The Forum repeats its call to all human rights
organisations and other relevant bodies to
appoint their observers in the next phase of
the trial and it calls upon the trial Chamber
to put a stop on the Prosecutor`s practice to
call sentenced, indicted or suspected criminals
as witnesses, witnesses who are employees of
the Office of the Prosecutor, as well as those
who testify from the second hand. There have
been to many witnesses of this kind and The
Forum remainds the Presiding Judge May that
hear-say testimonies are not admissible before
the courts of law in his own country. The
aforementioned witnesses cannot help the
Chamber, but only expose Mr. Milosevic to an
undue exhaustion.
President of the Forum Vladislav Jovanovic
____
BEOGRADSKI FORUM ZA SVET RAVNOPRAVNIH
11000 Beograd, Misarska 6/II, Jugoslavija
Tel./Fax: (++381 11) 3245601
E-Mail: info@...
www.belgrade-forum.org
On-Line
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:12:01 +0200
From: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
REPRESENTATIVES OF PATRIOTIC FORCES TOGETHER ON A
PRESS CONFERENCE TO DEMAND RELEASE OF SLOBODAN
MILOSEVIC!
Bogoljub Bjelica, SPS, Acting President
Dr Vojislav Seselj, SRS, President
Goran Matic, JUL, Vice-President
Dr Ivica Stojanovic, Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia, Vice-President
Dr Branko Rakic, SLOBODA / Freedom Association, Board Member
HEADS OF LEADING PATRIOTIC PARTIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
WILL DEMONSTRATE THEIR SUPPORT TO THE KEY
POLITICAL FACTOR OF THE FREE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY -
TO PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
AND TO HIS POLICY OF PEOPLE'S UNITY
AS A VIVID PEOPLE'S OPPOSITION TO THE OCCUPATION,
SALE AND DESTRUCTION OF SERBIA AND YUGOSLAVIA.
FOLLOW OR TAKE PART IN THE PRESS CONFERENCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 10:00 a.m.
CET USING THE FOLLOWING LINK:
http://www.yumediacenter.com/english/online/logine.asp?ID=486
Online conference in Media Center
Friday, September 13, 10:00
Press conference by the "Sloboda" Yugoslav National Committee for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic
Bogoljub Bjelica, deputy president of the Socialist Party of Serbia
(SPS)
and president of the Yugoslav National Committee for the Defense of
Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj, president of the Serbian Radical
Party (SRS), Goran Matic, vice president of the Yugoslav Left (JUL),
Ivica Stojanovic, vice president of the Patriotic Union of Yugoslavia,
and
Branko Rakic, member of the Yugoslav National Committee for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic, to speak about the collapse of the Kosovo
indictment.
Live broadcast: english, serbian
===*===
ARTEL GEOPOLITIKA by www.artel.co.yu
office@...
Date:12 September 2002
THE BELGRADE FORUM: MILOSEVIC TRIAL - STATEMENT /3/
THE BELGRADE FORUM FOR THE WORLD OF EQUALS
THE MILOSEVIC TRIAL - STATEMENT /3/
Done in Belgrade on 12 September 2002
In its two previous statements The Belgrade
Forum for the World of Equals /Forum/ expressed
its concern about the conduct of the trial of
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic before the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
/ICTY/ in the Hague. The Forum also called upon
all human rights organisations to appoint their
observers at the trial in order to ensure the
right to a fair trial is fully observed.
Further to these statements, several members of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe made a motion before this body for the
observers to be appointed at the trial. The
result of this initiative remains to be seen in
the near future.
In the meantime, The Forum notes the following
irregularities:
- on 14 June the cross-examination of the NATO
retired general Klaus Naumann / the man who
authorised the bombardment of targets in
downtown Belgrade/ by one of the amicus curiae
Mr. Tapuskovic, was abruptly cut short by Judge
May with an explanation that "the witness had a
plane to catch";
- on June 11 nothing but a legally scandalous
situation occurred when the witness Mr. Avdiju
claimed to have survived a firing squad
followed by a four hour period in open flames
in a house in Mala Krusa. Witness then claimed
that his surname was not Avdiju, but changed
into Krasniqi, and he also admited that some of
the four signatures at the end of the witness
statement were not his. Although Judge Kwon did
try to throw some light on this issue, it is
rather regretable that the Chamber never
requested the witness to lodge his signature
with it on the spot;
- witness K12 who had refused to testify
claiming to have been exposed to "a
psychological processing" by the prosecution
was held by the Chamber to be in contempt of
court. The Forum wonders why the unfortunate
K12 was not helped by the Chamber and releaved
of the psychological pressures he was exposed
to and notes that no other witness was
penalised in this way, in spite of the fact
that many testimonies were rather incredible;
- witness Mr. Ali Djogaj, a grave-digger from
Kosovo, claimed on 3 July to have loaded a
refrigerator lorry with bodies from a mass
grave in Kosovo and categoricaly contended this
had happened in April 2000. There were no
Yugoslav Army and police in Kosovo at the time.
Judge May personally acknowledged the date.
However, the following morning the Chamber
allowed the witness to reappear before it and
to change his testimony. The relevant date was
not April 2000 anymore, but "April 1999". When
Mr. Milosevic protested, Judge May said that
the transcript had to be looked into.
The Forum recalls that in its first statement
it called upon the Chamber to take penal
measures against the witnesses whose
testimonies were obviously incredible and the
Forum then noted that great many witnesses from
Kosovo claimed not to have even heard of the
KLA. On August 30, however, Mr. Gani Boqaj,
sentenced for the criminal act of terrorism,
testified that every single man in his village
was a KLA member! And the Office of the
Prosecution, in the final stages of its Kosovo
case, made sure to bring as many KLA members to
testify as possible. One of these witnesses
even claimed "to have killed as many Serbs as
he took aim at". The Forum notes that the
credibility of these witnesses, who are openly
hostile to the Yugoslav state and Mr.
Milosevic, is non-existent.
The Forum also notes that it is not only the
witnesses from Kosovo whose testimonies are
deprived of credibility. For instance, Mr. Ian
Hendry, a police detective from Britain,
reappeared before the Chamber in order to
"persuade" it that on two, more or less,
identical photographs of the same deceased from
Racak, blood could be visible on one of the
photos and not on the another. Gen. Klaus
Naumann, who might have also authorised the
bombing of Mr. Milosevic`s residence and his
daughters TV station "Kosava", continued his
hostile campaign before the ICTY with some
outrageous claims. The Forum considers it
utterly unacceptable that the testimony of the
witness who might have comitted war crimes and
the crime of attempted murder of Mr. Milosevic
and his family can be treated as impartial
before the ICTY.
The Forum calls upon:
- the Federal Government of the FRY to take
concrete steps in order to implement the
decision of the Yugoslav Federal Constitutional
Court pertaining to an illegal deportation of
Mr. Milosevic to the Hague;
- the President of the FRY Mr. Kostunica to
personally address all heads of states and ask
for their engagement in granting Mr. Milosevic
a provisional release - defence as a free man
from the Hague;
- the Governments of the FRY and Serbia to
address all parliaments in the world and
request their support for the release of Mr.
Milosevic.
The Forum considers that the prosecution has
failed to link Mr. Milosevic with the alleged
crimes in Kosovo and the proof for this is the
obvious attempt of the Prosecutor to link the
Yugoslav security forces and Mr. Milosevic with
the estabilished NATO crimes, such as the
bombing of the "Dubrava" prison and Albanian
refugees in Bistrezin and Meia. In order to try
to exculpate NATO in this way, the prosecution
has called many false witnesses, such as Musa
Krasniqi and Gani Baqaj, both sentenced for the
criminal act of terrorism; this is obviously an
abuse of power by the prosecution and the
reason for mistrial to be declared. For the
aforementioned reasons The Forum considers that
the Kosovo case should be immediately dismissed
by the Chamber. Another reason for the
dismissal is a total lack of equality of arms
between Mr. Milosevic and the prosecution.
Finally, the Forum remains concerned not only
about the conduct of the trial, but also about
the health of Mr. Milosevic whose recent blood
pressure was 200/120 due to the trial effort.
The Forum repeats its call to all human rights
organisations and other relevant bodies to
appoint their observers in the next phase of
the trial and it calls upon the trial Chamber
to put a stop on the Prosecutor`s practice to
call sentenced, indicted or suspected criminals
as witnesses, witnesses who are employees of
the Office of the Prosecutor, as well as those
who testify from the second hand. There have
been to many witnesses of this kind and The
Forum remainds the Presiding Judge May that
hear-say testimonies are not admissible before
the courts of law in his own country. The
aforementioned witnesses cannot help the
Chamber, but only expose Mr. Milosevic to an
undue exhaustion.
President of the Forum Vladislav Jovanovic
____
BEOGRADSKI FORUM ZA SVET RAVNOPRAVNIH
11000 Beograd, Misarska 6/II, Jugoslavija
Tel./Fax: (++381 11) 3245601
E-Mail: info@...
www.belgrade-forum.org