His Excellency Mr. S. Milosevic

Huis van Bewaring

Pompstationsweg 46a

2597 GX Den Haag

                                           24 september 2001

Excellency,

As part of the order that I received from you through Mr. C. Black and Mr. A. Tremblay, confirmed in the meeting with Mr. Ognjanovic at his hotel in the Hague, namely to use all domestic legal means in the Netherlands and all possible legal means within the framework of the European human rights instruments, in order to re-establish the rule of law regarding your basic rights, I hereby inform my intention to prepare now, and in the next phase also to undertake, new and separate legal action against the State of the Netherlands on your behalf.

I hope that this letter will reach you in good order and without delay. Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter.

When I do not receive such ackowledgment within a reasonable time, I will assume that the tribunal's censorship has prevented you from receiving this letter.
 

In that case, I will take two different kinds of action. In the first place, I will give this censorship practised by the so-called tribunal the publicity it deserves, as a new act of violation of your basic human rights. And secondly, falling back on your original basic instructions, I will proceed with the inten­ded legal action without your specific reaction on this intended renewed and separate legal action on your behalf.

As a first step to this renewed and separate legal action  against the State of the Netherlands, I intend to address the following letter to the Dutch state authorities and to the court competent in basic rights matters (the same court that rendered the verdict on 31 August).

This is meant to be a first step to make the case ready for new litigation.

The letter reads:

To the Minister of General Affairs

mr. W. Kok

P.O. Box 2001

2500 AE the Hague

To the President of the District Court of the Hague

Mr. R.J. Paris

P.O Box 20302

2500 EH the Hague

Sirs,

By its ruling of 31 August 2001, the Dutch court, i.e. the President of the District Court in the Hague, declared himself incompetent as regards the claims of Mr. S. Milosevic, aimed at the observance and full preservation of his basic human rights in the Netherlands.
 

In the relationship between Mr. Milosevic and the State of the Netherlands, which has resulted in legal proceedings, the former is my client. And when I mention him in the following as my client, it is explicitly and merely in this specific relationship.

As you may know, an appeal has been lodged agaist the afore- mentioned decision with the Court of Appeal in the Hague. However, this appeal will take a long time.

In the meantime the situation is as follows.

On the occasion of the initial appearance before the so-called tribunal according to Rule 62 and the subsequent appearance at the end of August, my client has, time and again, denounced the illegality and illegitimacy of his detention in no uncertain terms.

Nevertheless, no response at all has been forthcoming on the complaint, so clearly put forward by my client, that his custody is illegal and illegitimate.

A closer examination of the Rules of Procedure, which have been self-fabricated by the so-called tribunal, learns that there is no legal provision whatsoever, which makes it possible to challenge the lawfulness of his his detention via a procedure leading to a speedy decision of the court.

The consequence of all this is that for anyone who falls in the hands of the so-called tribunal there is no recourse to a provision, like Article 5, par. 4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which is part of the basic human rights, and reads:

"Every one who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful",

since, as is by now clearly revealed, such a provision is abesent in the Rule of Procedure of this so-called tribunal.

My client's attempt to apply otherwise to the domes­tic Dutch court in order to gua­rantee compliance with this basic right, has failed, now that the national Dutch court felt that it had to declare itself incompetent as regards the protection of my client's human rights.

All this makes it utterly clear that so far there has been no guarantee whatsoever that my client mr. Milosevic can exercise this fundamental right. In fact, untill this very moment, this fundamental human right is simply denied him, both by the very structure of the so-called tribunal and by the refusal of the President of the domestic court in the Hague to face his legal responsibility.

Obviously, this state of affairs is absolutely unacceptable to my client.

Fundamental human rights are one and indivisable and ought to be equally guaranteed to everyone.
 

There not a single conceivable reason why my client, Mr. Milosevic, should put up with anything less than full compliance with his human rights.

On the other hand, the fact that it has by now been clearly proved that fundamental human rights are systematically denied by this so-called tribunal to victims who find themselves in its power again urgently shows which clear danger this kanga­roo court represents for civilization and the internatio­nal legal order.

The situation is now as follows.

My client Mr. Milosevic continues to claim his entitlement to take proceedings in order to obtain a speedily court decision on the lawfulness of his detention, as guaran­teed to him by Article 5, par. 4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

In this context the following legal data are important.

Article 13 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms reads:

"Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in this Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority (...)"

The Dutch court has deliberately ignored to carry out the task assigned to it by this Convention in respect of Mr. Milosevic, and this while there is not even the possibility that the so-called tribunal is able, let alone willing, to offer an alter­native of any kind in order to guarantee this human right in respect of my client. This even apart from the question whether the 'national authority', as mentioned in this Covenant, in itself should be entiteld, in term of this Treaty, to give a mandate concerning to this assignment to any other, non-natio­nal authority.

Now that the Dutch court, clearly the 'national authority' as referred to in Article 13 of the Convention, has thought that it must forsake its treaty-based duty to offer an 'effective remedy' against the violation of the human rights of my client Mr. Milosevic, and the so-called tribunal does not seem to care at all about the compliance with the fundamental right as led down in Article 5, par. 4 of the Convention an absolute dead­lock is created by this.

Under this circumstances, my client Mr. Milosevic, still deman­ding that his basic rights should be guaranteed unimpaired, demands that the State of the Netherlands and the Dutch 'nati­onal authority' within the meaning of Article 13 of the Conven­tion, will consult among each other and with the socalled tribunal, in order to decide how they can safegu­ard the human right, expressed in Article 5, par. 4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom, on respect of Mr. Milosevic and that they should present to me a workable solution for this stalemate created by them, and this at the latest within ten days after the date of this summons.

If you fail to comply with this demand, my client Mr. Milose­vic will without delay institute legal action against the State of the Netherlands (the Minister of General Affairs and the President of the District Court in the Hague), in order to claim that they will consult among each other and with the so- called tribunal, and that they will jointly find a solution in order to safeguard this specific human right towards him.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. N.M.P. Steijnen

I hope to receive an acknowlegdment of receipt of this letter as soon as possible.
 

And I repeat that, if I fail to receive such acknowledgment, I will assume that the tribunal's administration is interfe­ring, in which case I will fall back to your basic order to underta­ke everything necessary in your relationship with the Dutch legal order for the defence of your fundamental rights.

Yours sincerely,

Nico Steijnen