[L-I] Milosevic being denied his case for defense

06 Jul 2004

As powerful defense case is about to open - Hague court tries to stop
Milosevic from representing himself at trial.

Despite objections from former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the
NATO-created International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) at The Hague stopped him on July 5 from presenting the defense half
of his trial based on Milosevic's medical problems. Milosevic's supporters
call this an attempt to use his medical condition to "silence the truth."

Tiphaine Dickson, an attorney from Canada who is assisting Milosevic's
supporters, said, "The Prosecutor is attempting, yet again, to force
President Milosevic to accept legal counsel to represent him, using his poor
health as an excuse. President Milosevic has insisted that he represent
himself from the onset. Within the U.S., the Supreme Court has recognized
this as a right under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. To refuse to
allow him this right would turn the already illegal ICTY hearings into a
star-chamber proceeding."

In a conversation with his aide Vladimir Krsljanin regarding the latest
developments, Milosevic said, "This illegal court is daring to judge
biological and medical issues after they have proven incapable of judging
legal and historical issues. This court is like the Inquisition."

The defense was finally set to open after two years of prosecution testimony
that included some 300 witnesses hostile to President Milosevic. Many
observers believe that the prosecution has failed to present credible
witnesses who can connect the defendant with the crimes with which he has
been charged.

Madeleine Albright, who was U.S. secretary of state during the 1999
U.S.-NATO war against Yugoslavia, was seen in The Hague at the ICTY building
on July 5. Supporters of Milosevic believe that her presence is connected
with the court's decision to postpone the trial and its attempt to change
the rules.

Milosevic's long-time aide, Vladimir Krsljanin, speaking from Belgrade on
July 5, said, "What we have seen at The Hague is the worse kind of political
theater. It is a legal outrage directed at the president. Slobodan Milosevic
was brought to trial while he was suffering bad health conditions. Despite
our pleas and complaints and the petitions of medical experts to the ICTY,
it refused our demands for more time for preparation and rest for President
Milosevic."

"First the court created conditions that worsened his health and now they
are using his ill health to justify stifling his presentation of his
powerful defense case," said Krsljanin.

In a recent document, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has made
himself clear on the issue of Milosevic's right to defend himself:
"President Milosevic chose to 'defend himself in person,' a fundamental
human right recognized by the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights."

On the prisoner's health and the ICTY's responsibility, Clark wrote in a
recent document: 'In the interest of truth, fairness in fact and appearance,
justice and respect for international law and organizations, Slobodan
Milosevic must be afforded medical and health care, living conditions that
protect his well being, require presentation of prosecution evidence through
witness testimony and provide the time and means necessary to present his
defense in a fair trial in the absence of the abolition of the ICTY."

Prosecution case: Two years long -

The ICTY opened the prosecution case in February 2002 after a year of
preparation. At that time, the ICTY and the media presented the Milosevic
case as "the trial of the century." That's when the prosecution hoped to use
it as a show trial to convict the Yugoslav leader and blame him and the
entire Serb people for the wars in the Balkans.

Within the first month, however, Milosevic had so ably handled his political
and legal presentation, and had so effectively cross-examined hostile
witnesses that many reporters had to admit that publicity on the case
damaging NATO's justification for the war.

Throughout the two years of prosecution that ended last February, President
Milosevic was plagued by high blood pressure and a heart ailment. The court
delayed proceedings, but refused to release him from the harsh prison
conditions or to give him the medical care of his choice.

The ICTY allowed Milosevic only 90 days to prepare his defense and was to
allow only 150 days for him to present it, half the time the court took for
the prosecution. Any time there is a delay for his health, the court refuses
to allow him access to any papers or books or to interview potential
witnesses at leisure. He even lost 50 of the 90 days preparation for this
reason.

As part of his defense case, Milosevic was preparing to call as witnesses a
number of political analysts and activists who have written, spoken and
organized against U.S. and NATO intervention in the Balkans. Some of these
potential witnesses have contributed articles to 'Hidden Agenda--the
U.S.-NATO takeover of Yugoslavia,' edited by John Catalinotto and Sara
Flounders and published in 2002 by the International Action Center (IAC).

Flounders, who is a co-director of the IAC, was among those scheduled to be
among the early witnesses and met with Milosevic in The Hague on June 28.
She said that, "The attempt to remove Milosevic as his own attorney is an
admission of President Milosevic's innocence of the war-crimes charges and
of the U.S. and NATO guilt in planning, executing and carrying out a 10-year
war that broke a strong and successful Yugoslav Federation up into a
half-dozen weak colonies and neo-colonies subservient to the United States
and Western Europe.

"Just as the weapons of mass destruction have never been found in Iraq,"
Flounders continued, "the charge of massacres, mass graves and genocide
proved to be an utter fabrication in Kosovo. It is essential that President
Milosevic have a full opportunity expose NATO's war crimes and to defend
Yugoslavia and to answer these charges against his government."

Contact numbers:
Sara Flounders International Action Center
(212) 633-6646 x 27,

Maitre Tiphaine Dickson of Canada, assisting the
International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan
Milosevic, is ready to deliver press statements:
450-263-7974,

Vladimir Krsljanin, who is Milosevic's closest aide and
head of the Sloboda (Freedom) organization:
381-63-886-2301 (Belgrade),



--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.

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