This is a political trial

In violation of international law and its own rulings on 
procedural matters, the NATO-run International Court trying 
Slobadan Milosevic in The Hague has decided to impose a counsel 
chosen by the Court. Its aim is to silence Milosevic speaking in 
his own defence. In justification of its ruling the Court claimed 
that it was motivated by Milosevic's health. He is suffering from 
hypertension.

In contesting the decision before the Court, President Milosevic 
said it was his deep conviction that the decision to take away 
his right to represent himself was not prompted by health reasons 
nor legal reasons but by political reasons.

Milosevic quoted an August 29 article in the Washington 
Post, "At the start of the trial in February 2002, the 
original presiding judge, Britain's Richard May, ruled that 
'under international law, the defendant has a right to counsel 
but he also has a right not to have counsel.'"

"Virtually everything that has gone wrong with the Milosevic 
trial can be traced back to that erroneous ruling", the 
Washington Post article alleges.

"By acting as his own counsel, Milosevic was able to begin the 
trial with an 18-hour long opening argument, which included 
Hollywood-quality video and slide-show presentations showing the 
destruction wrought by the 1999 NATO bombing campaign."

The Washington Post article, said Milosevic, shows that 
"we're not talking about law here but politics".

The Washington Post article went on: "In creating the 
Yugoslavia tribunal statute, the UN Security Council set three 
objectives: First, to educate the Serbian people, who were long 
misled by Milosevic propaganda, about the acts of aggression, war 
crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his regime ..."

Milosevic responded: "As you can see, the Washington Post is 
citing a political reason which only a twisted mind can use in 
view of the fact that there was no war in Serbia and that Serbia 
was the only one that maintained the structure of population as 
it was before and that there was no discrimination at all. This 
is part of the propaganda which is being affirmed here."

Court-imposed counsel

About the question of assigning counsel Milosevic said: "I would 
like to also draw your attention to this question of assigning 
counsel that about 100 prominent legal scholars, professors, 
experts in international and criminal law from Serbia, Russia, 
Greece, Italy, Ireland, Germany, the United States, Canada, 
India, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, Hungary, Netherlands, Czech 
Republic, Great Britain and France, submitted a petition to the 
General Secretary [of the UN] and to the United Nations Security 
Council.

"You probably did not pay attention to this, but many arguments 
were stated there against this decision which was adopted by the 
Trial Chamber."

The petition said: "This apparently punitive measure is contrary 
to international law, incompatible with the adversarial system of 
criminal justice adopted by the Security Council in Resolution 
808, and ignores the Court's obligation to provide adequate 
medical care and provisional release to the defendant."

The petition goes on: "The envisaged imposition of counsel 
constitutes an egregious violation of internationally recognised 
judicial rights, and will serve to only aggravate Mr Milosevic's 
life-threatening illness and will further discredit these 
proceedings.

"The fundamental, minimum rights provided to a defendant under 
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as 
under the Statutes of the International Criminal Tribunals for 
Rwanda and Yugoslavia include the right to defend oneself in 
person."

Speaking to the Tribunal Milosevic said: "In the long history of 
British criminal jurisprudence, there was only one tribunal that 
ever adopted a practice of forcing counsel upon an unwilling 
defendant in criminal proceedings. The Tribunal was the Star 
Chamber. That curious institution, which flourished in the late 
16th and early 17th centuries, was of mixed executive and 
judicial character and characteristically departed from common 
law traditions. For those reasons, and because it specialised in 
trying "political" offences, the Star Chamber has for centuries 
symbolised disregard of basic individual rights.

"The right to defend oneself in person is at the heart of the 
International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. The United 
Nations should not tolerate these continuing violations of 
international law in the name of expediency. Using a detained 
person's inappropriately treated illness as an excuse to infringe 
upon his rights and silence him and embark on a 'radical reform' 
of the proceedings — as the Chamber is now considering, by 
changing the rules in the mid-trial, and to the defendant's 
detriment — is a perversion of both the letter and the spirit of 
international law.

"So, I would like to be very brief. I would like my right to be 
restored to me.

"I therefore demand my right to represent myself back. I believe 
that my legal position cannot be changed in the middle of the 
trial, or my capacity to defend myself, and I demand my right 
back. Thank you", concluded Milosevic.

The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM) 
has made an urgent appeal for financial assistance.

It says, "We need professional, legal work now more than ever. 
President Milosevic has the truth and law on his side. In order 
to use that advantage to achieve his freedom, we must fight this 
totally discredited tribunal and its patrons through 
professionally conducted actions which would involve the Bar 
Associations, the European Court, the UN organs in charge and the 
media.

"Our practice has shown that ad hoc voluntary work is not enough 
to deal properly with these tasks. Please organise fundraising 
activity urgently and send donations to the following ICDSM 
accounts:

Peter Betscher Stadt-und Kreissparkasse Darmstadt, Germany 
IBAN:DE 21 5085 0150 0102 1441 63 SWIFT-BIC: HELADEF1DAS

or

Vereinigung f|r Internationale Solidaritdt (VIS) 4000 Basel, 
Switzerland PC 40-493646-5J