[L-I] NAZI- AND NATO-"JUSTICE" by Klaus Hartmann

Nazi- and NATO-"Justice": how the images resemble

 

Speech by Klaus Hartmann, Vice-Chairman of ICDSM,
on November 8, 2003 on the Plein in Den Haag (English translation)



Read this and other speeches from the Hague International Demonstrations of 8 November 2003 at: http://www.sloboda.org.yu/engleski/demonstration.htm or at www.icdsm.org  

 

Friends and Citizens!

We are demonstrating here today for the second time this year demanding the dissolution of the Hague "Tribunal" on Yugoslavia. We are demonstrating for the immediate release of Slobodan Milosevic. We are demonstrating for the release of all political prisoners of NATO! We are not demanding that criminals be released. On the contrary, we are demanding the conviction and imprisonment of war criminals, the war criminals who destroyed Yugoslavia:

.           The leaders of the NATO-states belong behind bars!

.           The release and reparations for their victims!

We are not protesting against the fact that the government of the Netherlands and The Hague are accommodating international courts of the United Nations. To host the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court honors this city and this country. But the good reputation is damaged through this so-called ad-hoc-Tribunal on Yugoslavia. This is not an institution of law, but an instrument of political blackmail. It serves the United States and other NATO states as an instrument for their continued aggression against the peoples of the Balkans. With the so-called "tribunal" this city is left holding the illegitimate baby of Madeleine Albright, who is called "the mother of the tribunal".

This so-called "tribunal" is illegal: it was founded by an unauthorized body on a non-exiting legal basis. It is illegally financed and it is the symbol of a permanent breach of international law. This is illegality from one end to the other; it is an illegality that cannot be redeemed. And it will lead nowhere. This is why we demand:

.           The immediate dissolution of this "tribunal"

.           The annulment of all its so called sentences 

.           The release of and compensation for those illegally imprisoned 

Our protest is taking place at a time, when all over the world antifascists are commemorating the Day of Remembrance and Admonition.  

The night of November 9 is such an occasion, because in 1938, 65 years ago, the racist, anti-Jewish campaign that had been in process over the years became an orgy of violence in the nationwide pogrom known by the Nazis as the "Reichskristallnacht". The Nazis held their Jewish victims responsible, demanding that they pay for the violence and destruction! This is similar to the recent developments in the Balkans. 

The fascists coined the image of "Slavic sub humans" and the western media did not hesitate to draw on this image in their anti-Serb-hate-campaigns in the early 1990s. This campaign was racist and escalated into a violent orgy: the NATO-aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999.

The history books of the aggressors propagate the image of Serbs being the aggressors, for example against the Croats. Long before international attention was drawn to the war already in progress, the Croat separatists had imitated a "Kristallnacht". During the Dalmatian Kristallnacht on Mai 2, 1991, Croats, while chanting their WW II fascist Ustacha-songs and waving their checkerboard flags with the Croatian swastikas, hunted down and slaughtered Serbs. Who knows about this Kristallnacht here in the West, with its brainwashing mass media? Of course, this crime plays no role in DelPonte's circus.

>From September to December 1933, exactly 70 years ago, the so called Reichstag Fire trial was taking place in Leipzig with Georgi Dimitrov and his Comrades Blagoj Popov and Vassil Tanev as the defendants. The German fascists attempted to use this farce in the Leipzig Reich's Court to criminalize all their opponents, to win legitimacy for and consolidate their dictatorship. The German fascists themselves had set the Reichstag on fire in order to accuse the communists of arson. How the images resemble! NATO broke up Yugoslavia, but accuses those who defended it, of destruction. 

How the images resemble: in Leipzig the arsonists presumed to set in judgment over the victims of fascist terror. In The Hague, the NATO-aggressors presume to set in judgment over the victims of their aggression.

How the images resemble: in Leipzig the German Reich's Court tried to refuse Georgi Dimitrov the right to speak, allowing him to only answer questions. In The Hague, Judge May attempts to declare the embarrassing questions posed by Slobodan Milosevic "irrelevant," at times even cutting off his microphone.

How the images resemble: the fascists tried to completely isolate Georgi Dimitrov in prison, to cut him off from all contacts with the outside, especially contacts with his comrades. The Hague "tribunal" is trying not only to refuse Slobodan Milosevic visits from his family but also from his comrades.

How the images resemble: the Nazis had planned the trial in Leipzig as an exemplary show trial to promote their dictatorship. They installed a special post office adjacent to the courthouse; the trial was transmitted live from the courtroom.. But, just as in The Hague, this functioned only at the beginning of the trial.

How the images resemble: 70 years ago today, on November 8, 1933, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, took the stand in the "trial" against Georgi Dimitrov. He suffered a total defeat. The chiefs of propaganda, Rudolf Scharping, Tony Blair, Madeleine Albright and Jamie Shea are afraid, still today, to take the witness stand against Slobodan Milosevic. The third rank - Holbrooke, Petritch, Ashdown and Mesic are allowed to portray miniature Goebbels - also without success.

How the images resemble: In Leipzig the Nazis called on police spies, criminals and agents to witness against Georgi Dimitrov. In The Hague, UCK-terrorists, CIA-agent William Walker and NATO-General Naumann took the stand.

How the images resemble: The German fascists brought antifascists, incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps, before the court in Leipzig - promising them liberty, if they gave false testimony against Georgi Dimitrov. The same pattern in The Hague: by offering "deals", the court is pushing other defendants to give false testimony. The court's collaborators in Belgrade promised not only to release Rade Markovic, but to also furnish him with a new identity and wealth. But because of Rade Markovic' steadfastness, he was immediately returned to prison in Belgrade.

How the images resemble: The Leipzig court was surprised and horrified, when Georgi Dimitrov succeeded in politicizing the trial. Today Del Ponte, Nice and May and their subservient media are terrified that Slobodan Milosevic contradicts the falsified and racist media manipulation with historical facts in their proper contexts.

How the images resemble: Georgi Dimitrov thwarted the fascists' plans for an anti-communist show trial by turning the trial into an indictment of fascism. Slobodan Milosevic is thwarting the plans of his NATO accusers by putting them in the dock and even the tribunal's sympathizing media is dumbfounded and has had to admit this. 

How the images resemble: Georgi Dimitrov exposed that the arson in the Reichstag and the trial were two parts of the same fascist provocation, and sarcastically referred to those behind the scenes doing stage management of both the arson and the indictment as the "Holy Ghost". Today Slobodan Milosevic is showing, that the aggressors and indicters come from the same stable and that this tribunal is part of NATO's arsenal for enslaving peoples.

How the images resemble: In the early 90s, the United States and their accomplices put the "New World Order" on their agenda. Who remembers, who knows that 60 years earlier there was talk of the Nuovo Ordine Europeo, - The "New Order of Europe" was on the agenda of the fascist axis powers!

Many images are similar, but some differ: in 1933, the fascists made no secret of their objectives: they wanted to finish off with communism and install their limitless dictatorship. Today the aggressors complain of violations of human rights and war crimes, to cover up their crusades of subjugation. Hypocrisy is triumphant. They rarely let the cat out of the bag:

The coup against Milosevic in October 2000, though originally colporteured in NATO capitals as a victory over "Serbian nationalism", it very soon became billed as the victory over the "last communist state in Europe".

When Alija Izetbegovic was buried a few weeks ago, those holding obituary speeches at the graveside regretted that he had not been able to accomplish "the most important goal in his life": "the political supremacy of the Muslims in Bosnia"! Not a word about the multi-cultural idyll, he was rumored to have promoted during the war. 

Imagine, a corner of the truth is exposed - and even though it exposes the lie of a so-called "Serb aggression" - it goes practically unnoticed!

How will the show in the Del Ponte circus continue?

Professor Paul de Waart, the well known Dutch expert in international law, recently stated on the Netherlands' television, that the trial against Milosevic should have been suspended a month after it had started on the grounds of lack of evidence. The fact that this did not happen speaks volumes and proves that we are not dealing with a court but with political agents of NATO.

The half-time of Slobodan Milosevic's defense will follow the half-time of the "prosecution". The "prosecution" had up to 8 years to prepare its case. Slobodan Milosevic asked for two years for his preparation - two years in liberty, with access to archives, witnesses and means of communication. The "court's" answer is known: Milosevic has 3 months - in his prison cell. This, in reality, will mean only 6 weeks, at which time he is supposed to submit the complete list of defense witnesses and the main themes of their testimony. Equal protection before the law is a basic, internationally recognized principle. But this "tribunal" doesn't care about internationally recognized principles. Here is a man, denied his rights, having to face alone this enormous apparatus, the NATO hemisphere. It simply shows, that this "court" has nothing to do with law. It tramples on the principles of rule of law. 

We are proud that the founder of our international Committee is the president of the anti-fascists of Bulgaria, the land of Georgi Dimitrov. Prof. Velko Valkanov was right in his assessment: "It is not at all surprising that the judges have granted Milosevic so little time to prepare his defense. These are not really judges. If the tribunal is not a legitimate court, how can these people be true judges? They have a political mission to accomplish. They are the executive organs of political vengeance - a vengeance carried out against all those who dared to contradict the rulers of the world. The "judges" in The Hague are really accomplices to NATO's crimes. Their behavior at the tribunal is evidence of their anti-juridical nature."

How the tribunal deals with the health problems of its victims speaks also volumes and makes a mockery of UN conventions. Subsequent to a Dutch cardiologist's diagnosis that Slobodan Milosevic has such high blood pressure that he is in danger of organic defects, heart attack, brain stroke and death, Del Ponte sneered in the Neue Züricher Zeitung on July 18, 2003 that "he is in very good health. Many people 60 years old and older have high blood pressure." One could not expect more sensitivity from this creature, but she added: "We don't spare him. - I hope you do not get this impression!" What should one call this - an attempt at judicial murder? What an abyss of cynicism, of pure contempt for humanity! It is for just this depth of cynicism that made fascist torturers infamous. 

In my speech, June 28, at the Vidovdan, in front of the former Nazi-prison in Scheveningen - now serving as NATO-prison, I said: "They will not get away with it! Slaveholders were never victorious in history!"

We are demonstrating today under the motto: "We will not allow NATO to write our history!"

The NATO-powers need the revenge "justice" of Del Ponte's circus in order to establish their version of history, their interpretation of reality, as the only and eternal truth. They will not succeed, just as German fascists did not succeed in building their "1000 year Reich", which ended in 12 years.

In 1933, communists and anti-fascists wrote the "Brown Book on the Reichstag Arson and the Terror of Hitler". It is an excellent document of international anti-fascist solidarity. It was the central and strongest weapon against fascist lies. It was history written by the masses, the real history helping the population to learn the truth about fascist barbarism. Let us continue this tradition of antifascism and internationalism: let us use this example and write the black book on the destruction of Yugoslavia and NATO-terror. Let us contribute to the exposure of the truth about NATO's shady characters behind the tribunal. Let us propagate the truth about the just struggle of the Serbian people, about their heroic resistance against NATO-aggression - as an incentive for the necessary resistance to the "new world order".

In the article "Let's distribute Original-Ton of Slobodan Milosevic", SLOBODA made a classical formulation: Slobodan Milosevic will help us in our struggle, if we help him now! Let us make known, what Slobodan Milosevic is saying in courtroom. He is a feared weapon against imperialism, as is shown through May's behavior in the "tribunal" and the silence of the media. Our struggle for the release of Slobodan Milosevic stands in the tradition of the struggle against fascism and war.

The central lesson, the oath given after the liberation from fascist barbarism ended with the following promise: "Never again fascism, never again war!" This promise was broken on March 24, 1999. Never again fascism, never again war! This is and will remain our commitment. This connects us to the anti- fascists, the anti-militarists of all generations.

Anti-fascism is not simply a commemoration of the past. Anti-fascism is not looking towards the past. Anti-fascism still means, what Georgi Dimitrov said at the time: the struggle against the most aggressive forces of international finance capital and its world hegemonic designs.

By defending those resisting the new hegemonic forces, we honor the memory of Georgi Dimitrov. 

We repeat the promise we gave on June 28. We will come again!

Freedom for Slobodan! Liberty for Yugoslavia!

Freedom and Equality for all peoples!

Never again fascism, never again war!


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URGENT CALL: Make the full victory of truth and justice possible!

SLOBODA urgently needs your donation.
Please find the detailed instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm 

To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan Milosevic)
http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM)
http://www.icdsm-us.org/ (US section of ICDSM)
http://www.icdsmireland.org/ (ICDSM Ireland)
http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council)
http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)

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