Worldwide appeal: End dangerous farce at the Hague!
At the start of today's (Feb. 26) session of his so-called trial at The Hague, President Slobodan Milosevic said: "There is no kind of equality when one side has only a telephone and the other has organisation, institutions, secret services, governments, and the mass media. And even my telephone was mysteriously not working yesterday afternoon. That is why I again repeat the demand for you to release me so that I may have some semblance of equality in this process and... " Before President Milosevic could finish, Judge May turned off his microphone. The "tribunal" has made clear that its strategy for answering President Milosevic's unanswerable charges against NATO is to silence him, physically exhausting him with abusive conditions and an endless stream of obviously lying witnesses. We urge all who care about justice to protest against these attacks. Show Slobodan Milosevic and NATO's "tribunal" that he is not alone. Recently, a Radio Netherlands journalist wrote: "The performance Slobodan Milosevic is putting up at his trial for war crimes and genocide in The Hague — alone, without a lawyer to defend him - - has earned him admiration and respect — not just among his supporters, but in the Belgrade newspapers and the Serb public as a whole. As one newspaper put it: "Milosevic —1, The Hague — 0.'" (Radio Netherlands, February 22, 2002, http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/icty020222.html) It is not only the brilliance of Slobodan Milosevic's presentation and cross-examination that took the world by storm. It is the content. He has forced people previously fooled by NATO's cartoon-babble about "humanitarian bombing" and "collateral damage", to face reality. NATO still sponsors the KLA and other terrorists. It destroyed multiethnic life in Kosovo. It deliberately murdered thousands in an effort to terrorize Yugoslavia into surrender. President Milosevic's style, intelligence and political message simply do not fit the fabricated media image of "another new Hitler". "To the outside world, used to Slobodan Milosevic being referred to as the 'Butcher of the Balkans', his courtroom performance has come as a surprise. Is this [the] man they've seen depicted in political cartoons in their newspapers...?" (Radio Netherlands) Those of us who labour to counter media lies about Yugoslavia asked ourselves: has NATO made a disastrous error? Have they, inadvertently and at long last given truth a platform? How can NATO possibly answer Slobodan Milosevic? After two weeks, we know their strategy. They are trying to silence him. First, the foreign policy establishments of the NATO countries are using their stranglehold on the media to guarantee one-sided coverage of the "trial". Thus, a newspaper will report the claims of a "witness" but not report the details of President Milosevic's devastating cross-examination. And second, the "tribunal" is doing everything it can to physically exhaust Slobodan Milosevic and eventually, they hope, lower his morale. Example — the Dutch Government, obviously on orders from the "tribunal", has refused to give a visa to Mira Markovic, President Milosevic's wife. Example — He is awakened every day at 7am even though the "trial" doesn't start until 9:30 and his cell is only a few minutes from the "tribunal". Example — Last Thursday, he was kept waiting two and a half hours after the proceedings ended because the "tribunal" claimed it couldn't find a vehicle to take him back to the World War II Nazi prison where he is incarcerated. Example — He is not permitted to exercise or even to walk outside when the "tribunal" is in session. And perhaps worst of all, the "tribunal" is using every trick to drag out the nightmarish process. Most "tribunal" proceedings last a few days or weeks. This one is projected to go two years, or longer, with President Milosevic forced to listen to an endless stream of ridiculous, obviously false witnesses. For example, on Monday, February 25, President Milosevic cross-examined Halil Morina. Morina claimed Yugoslav soldiers wantonly attacked his village of Landovice on March 26, 1999. President Milosevic challenged him: "Wasn't what happened in Landovice in fact a firefight between Yugoslav forces and Kosovo Liberation Army terrorists?" Morina claimed there were no KLA members in his village. Milosevic asked: "Wasn't a monument to Ramiz Sadiku and Boro Vukmirovic destroyed in Landovice?" (These slain partisans, an ethnic Albanian and an ethnic Montenegrin, symbolised brotherhood in Yugoslavia.) "Yes", said Morina. "And what replaced it?" asked President Milosevic. "Why, a monument to our fallen KLA soldiers", said Morina. This prompted the following quite reasonable response: "I question that he does not know anything about these [KLA] activities", President Milosevic said. "I must say you [the 'prosecutor'] are bringing in witnesses of this kind to ill-treat me. These are false witnesses." Earlier, Morina testified that Yugoslav soldiers arrived in Landovice in a particular army vehicle. Though this assertion had no bearing on anything or anyone, least of all President Milosevic, the prosecution produced pictures of different army vehicles and everyone had to wait while the "witness" studied them, finally picking the one that looked like the vehicle in which the troops had travelled. This combination of physical abuse, isolation from family, friends and advisors — even President Milosevic's lawyers in the Dutch courts are not permitted to see him — and a stream of ridiculous "witnesses" is the real content of the prosecution case against President Milosevic. We urge all individuals, groups, mass media and members of parliament who care about justice to protest this abuse in any way possible including with letters and petitions to the United Nations Security Council. Demand: 1) End this farce of a trial. It is already obvious the "prosecution" has no case. 2) Until The Hague farce is ended, Slobodan Milosevic must be freed from the abusive Hague jail. He must be allowed to live in a house in The Netherlands with his family, thus preserving his physical well being and allowing him to conduct his defence and counter attack in full contact with advisers and research facilities. This kind of action and public pressure must go on continuously in different forms until we FREE SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC. Milosevic must not be silenced. International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic. Where to write: Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations(President of Council in March)825 Third Avenue, 39th Floor, New York, NY 1022 Telefax: + 212 688 0554 The above appeal and the addresses of all the Security Council Members are to be found on the Committee's website: http://www.icdsm.org where there is additional reading on the subject. See also Emperor's Clothes website: http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/prog2.htm