COURAGE, EFFICIENCY, INITIATIVE, PERSISTENCE and happiness for your families, were the wishes of President Slobodan Milosevic for the New Year sent to his comrades and associates from SLOBODA/Freedom Association.

The wishes were expressed with his always vivid and sound spirit that gives strength and self-confidence to everyone who had luck to get in direct contact with him.

As for our concerns, they are still and extremely big. At present, we are in uneasy struggle with absent (due to Christmas brake) Tribunal stuff to finally get the approval for the team of medical specialists from the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade to go to The Hague and make necessary medical examinations of the President's health, after the last deterioration. The original request for this visit was sent on November 9.

Many of those who sent their written appeals to the Tribunal receive these days replies. The lies told in these replies about the medical care provided to President Milosevic should be exposed.

Pressure should also concentrate on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, who should react immediately and soundly on human rights violations within the UN system.

Weekends and long holidays are the time when we all particularly worry. One can not forget that Dr Milan Kovacevic, Jasenovac survivor, with known heart disease, died at The Hague in a weekend night, after hours of agony, with no one even attempted to help. Here are few lines from BBC News report of August 1, 1998:

"...tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier denied that the tribunal was lax in its care or surveillance of jailed suspects. He said it recognised the stress they were under, and said that Dr Kovacevic had been under regular care by a heart specialist. (...)

The [defense] legal team also argued that their client should be released because he was suffering from a life threatening heart condition. "

Does this sound familiar?

RECENT INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS AND APPEALS

1. German Communist Party

2. A Slovenian MP at WEU Parliamentary Assembly

3. New Worker on the London support meeting

4. Journal of the Dutch Bar Association on the process

5. CANA London

6. Reactions on a Guardian article on The Hague process

7. A Column from Antiwar.com

1. German Communist Party

FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE "HAGUE TRIBUNAL" -

FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC!

(Resolution adopted by the16th Congress of the German Communist Party (DKP) in Duesseldorf, December 1st, 2002)

The German Communist Party demands the immediate abolition of the so-called "tribunal" for the former Yugoslavia.

This "tribunal" was created by an unauthorized organ - UN Security Council, in violation of the UN Chapter. It is not a legal institution, but the continuation of the NATO aggression, poorly camouflaged with pseudo-juridical requisites. Its purpose is not only to fabricate false legitimacy for the illegal NATO-war, but also to prepare new wars. The US at the same time negates the jurisdiction of the legally founded International Criminal Court, announcing even the military intervention in The Netherlands if a US citizen would be brought before the ICC, presses Yugoslavia to cooperate with the NATO court martial and threatens to establish another ad-hoc-tribunal in the case of Iraq.

By his sovereign appearance at The Hague, Slobodan Milosevic produced a fiasco for the NATO prosecutor. Since the "tribunal" cannot defeat Slobodan Milosevic by "legal" means, it tries to threaten his health and life by inhuman court and prison conditions. We support the appeal of German and international physicians that Slobodan Milosevic has to be released in order to get adequate therapy in Yugoslavia by the doctors who took care about his health for years.

After, at the beginning of the "trial" even mainstream journalists had to draw parallels with the German fascist Reichstag-fire trial against Georgi Dimitrov, there is media silence about The Hague process now. The many years of media demonization of Slobodan Milosevic was part of war propaganda. Today, Slobodan Milosevic is the highest ranking political prisoner of NATO and as such he deserves solidarity of all anti-imperialist forces.

The German Communist Party supports the struggle of Slobodan Milosevic and the Socialist Party of Serbia against the "tribunal" of NATO criminals.

The NATO aggressors have to be put on trial, Yugoslavia needs to get comprehensive reparations for war damages!

We demand the immediate abolition of the "Hague Tribunal" and the immediate release of Slobodan Milosevic and of all prisoners of the illegal "Tribunal"!

2. A Slovenian MP at WEU Parliamentary Assembly

Mr. Zmago Jelincic, president of the Slovenian National Party put two unpleasant questions to the leading representatives of NATO. The answers were without answer. But the questions become the main subject of discussion in the couloirs during the whole session. We quote the questions from the official transcript.

ASSEMBLY OF WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION

THE INTERIM EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE ASSEMBLY

FORTY-EIGHTH ORDINARY SESSION, Paris, 2-4 December 2002

Mr Antonio MARTINS DA CRUZ, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Portugal, Chairman-in-Office of the WEU Council

Mr. JELINCIC: Portugal is soon to lead the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and because it is not possible to create stability, security and peace without discovering the reality of past events, I should like to put the following question: The medical condition of the former Yugoslav President, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, has seriously deteriorated, to the degree to which it is questionable whether he will even survive to the end of the trial in The Hague. Given that, we must ask ourselves what is in the best interests of truth. Will Mr. Milosevic's death contribute to a fair trial or to the credibility of the international court? Will he still be able to reveal information that is crucial to the truth? I think not. With his death, the truth will be lost. Do you not think that it would be for the best if the Assembly appealed to the international community and competent organisations to release Mr. Milosevic, enabling him to receive proper medical care?

Mr Guenther ALTENBURG, NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, representing Lord ROBERTSON, Secretary General

Mr. JELINCIC: On the subject of the

widening of the EU and NATO, we cannot avoid the question of security in the neighbouring countries. The current Yugoslav Government has no trust among the people - with justification, it would seem. Violence and criminality in Yugoslavia are increasing day by day, and the demands of the separatist minority parties are getting more and more recognition. On the other hand, the government is doing nothing to establish a stable and prosperous environment. It behaves passively, and even cooperates with those parties. Such a situation could easily lead to further violence, such as that caused by Albanian separatists in the recent past. Yugoslavia in its current state cannot afford to fall into another war, but that is bound to happen if nothing is done. Due to its inappropriate behavior, the current government has lost the confidence of the nation that elected it. There must be new elections to clarify the situation. Naturally, the government will not declare elections, so it is in the hands of responsible national organisations to call for new elections. Do you agree that Europe should demand the clarification of the political situation in Yugoslavia through elections?

3. New Worker on the London support meeting

New Worker Online

New Worker International News - 20/12/2002

Defend the life of Slobodan Milosevic!

by Elizabeth Farrell

SLOBODAN Milosevic faces a torrent of lies and abuse in the dock of the so-called International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. This is beginning to seriously damage the health of the former Yugoslav President, who had been diagnosed with a heart condition and suffers form very high blood pressure. He is not only fighting for justice, he is also fighting for his life, warned the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic at a meeting in London Conway Hall last week.

Paul Davidson chaired the meeting, and speakers included Brian Denny from the Campaign Against Euro-Federalism, Serbian activist Stan Gasparovski and Christopher Black, Milosevich's legal advisor.

Denny raised his concerns about the 'Corpus Durus' system that is used in the trial, which means that the judge is also the prosecutor. There is no jury, and - unlike any trial in Britain - the defendant is guilty until proven innocent. He also mentioned the conditions under which Milosevic is imprisoned.

"The days in court are long, and Milosevic is only given a sandwich and a bad coffee for lunch. By the time he gets back, he has missed his evening meal."

Stan Gasparovski, who had recently been to The Hague to attend the trial, told the meeting about that visit. He warned us about Milosevich's health, saying that his heart condition, 'Essential hypertension with secondary organ damage and hypertrophy of the left ventricle', is life threatening and needs immediate treatment. Stan pointed out that, so far, Milosevic has only been allowed to see the prison GP, and has been refused an examination by specialists, and medical treatment.

Despite all this, he said, "Milosevic is very determined and confident - because he has the truth on his side."

The last speaker was Chris Black, Milosevic's legal advisor.

He told us that Nato's main weapon was to demonise the Serbs and destroy Milosevic, by using propaganda to justify their aggression against Yugoslavia.

He also pointed out that the prosecution's main witness, former head of Serbia's Secret Services Rado Markovich, spoke in favour of Milosevic instead of against him. When he was asked whether Milosevic had given orders to start ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, Markovic replied: "No such orders were ever given, and no ethnic cleansing took place."

The only evidence against Milosevic, Chris Black rightfully said, "is that he is not guilty."

4. Advocatenblad - Journal of the Dutch Bar Association on the process

The appointment of the Friends of the court by The Yugoslavia tribunal countervails Mr Milosevic's right to conduct his own defense. This is the view advocated by N.M.P. Steijnen, an attorney of Milosevic in the "legal affairs outside the tribunal".

N.M.P. Steijnen, attorney in Zeist and member of the ICDSM.

The right to conduct one's own defense ("to defend himself in person") is a minimum basic right (Art. 6 ECHR, Art. 14 ICCPR; see Art. 26 ICTY Statute). It is doubtful whether counsel can ever be imposed. The Dutch system goes a long way toward recognizing this right but does not make it absolute, as is demonstrated by the imposition of a counsel in criminal trials in the last instance. The European Court also allows the legislator to impose a counsel in some cases where the nature of the proceedings so requires. On the other hand, if the right to defend oneself has been explicitly recognized in certain kinds of proceedings (as in the trials before the ICTY) this right has to be respected in full. This principle should also apply to Milosevic, who has repeatedly emphasized that he wants to conduct his own defense.

Objective perspective

The tribunal has now appointed three amici curiae in Milosevic's case at the request of the Dutch attorney Wladimiroff. In Advocatenblad 2001-16 (21 September 2001) Wladimiroff explained his appointment: "It seemed to me that someone like that [amicus curiae] could also see to the defense in Milosevic's case, with the difference that Milosevic is not the client. We give the objective perspective of the defense independently of the suspect." (p. 621) It is of course a profound mystery how any defense can exist without a client. It is equally nonsensical to say that something called "the objective perspective of the defense" could exist "independently of the suspect". If it is not Wladimiroff and his co-amici who decide what the "objective perspective of the defense" is, then who is it? This goes to show that the "objective perspective of the defense" is perfectly subjective and, as a bonus, "independent of the suspect", i.e. quite impervious to what the suspect thinks about it.

Why has the ICTY decided to allow such a construction? The motivation given in the decision of appointment is that it was considered "desirable" and "important to secure a fair trial". The tribunal could thus give the impression of being properly concerned about Milosevic's "fair trial". That was of utmost importance in order to mask what happened to the right "to have adequate facilities for the preparation of his defence" (Art. 6 ECHR, Art. 14 ICCPR and Art. 21 of the ICTY Statute).

Adequate facilities

Milosevic wanted to conduct his own defense but did not waive his right to have adequate facilities for the preparation of his defence. Already during his detention in Belgrade and before his transfer to The Hague he had at his disposal an international team of attorneys, ICDSM, to assist him in the preparation of his defense. However, the administration of the tribunal has been systematic in its attempts to sabotage and prevent Milosevic's cooperation with this team.

First, the access to Milosevic was limited as much as possible by simply refusing to respond to a request for admission. If, after repeated requests, the permission for a visit was finally granted, it was done out of magnanimity far transcending anything to which the tribunal was even remotely obliged. The length of the visit was then severely limited, confidential contact was made impossible and the exchange of documents was prohibited. One often found out that the correspondence sent to Milosevic did not reach him. Ultimately, the Canadian lawyer Chris Black was completely banned by the administration of the tribunal, because he had relayed some statements made by Milosevic to the Dutch press.

Finally the tribunal decided, without any notice and without consulting those concerned, to appoint Ramsey Clark and Livingston as Milosevic's "permanent legal advisers" with the exclusive right to function in this capacity. Clark, who is associated with the ICDSM, was incapable of crossing the ocean frequently simply due to his age, whereas Livingston is unknown to both the ICDSM and Milosevic. From the outset it was quite clear that this solution was completely unacceptable to Milosevic. With this strategem the administration of the tribunal managed to close the door definitively to the legal advisers who Milosevic had chosen for himself.

I was subjected to more or less the same treatment, but because I worked as Milosevic's lawyer in Dutch legal proceedings, my contact with the client could not be completely banned. The limited access that I was granted was subject to the explicit restriction that we could discuss only the Dutch legal proceedings and every contact was being monitored. The latter restriction was removed only after Milosevic authorized me to initiate legal proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights. Even then, the administration of the tribunal was willing to change its mind only when pressured with impeding interlocutory injunction proceedings and only after it had reminded us that the tribunal was not strictly speaking bound by this Agreement, because it was not a party to the treaty.

When the trial began, Milosevic was also in a desperately isolated position. He had only a fixed telephone line with his party rank and file in Belgrade and his two personal lawyers Tomanovic and Ognjanovic. After repeated complaints, the tribunal relaxed somewhat the contacts with the Yugoslav lawyers. This does not mean that Milosevic's enormous handicap in comparison to the powerful and extensive machinery of the Prosecution has narrowed. Mil osevic tries to make the best of his preparation whatever it takes.

Outmanoeuvred

With the appointment of the amici curiae all this got camouflaged. First and foremost, the amici curiae are part of the household of the tribunal, which controls them, whereas the ICDSM advisers belong to the Milosevic camp and are beyond the tribunal's disciplinary measures. The three amici were granted all the rights which are normally afforded to the chosen lawyer, including the right to table various "motions" and make "submissions", perform cross-examination and further act "in any other way designated counsel considers appropriate in order to secure a fair trial". The tribunal thus has a number of pseudolawyers, who countervail Milosevic's procedural strategy contingent on the illegality of the tribunal.

An example. Milosevic has repeatedly insisted that his abduction from Yugoslavia and his detention in Scheveningen were illegal and he regarded the tribunal as an illegal institution. The Trial Chamber finally asked Milosevic to set all this in writing. Immediately the amici curiae also set to work in order to express their objections to the legality, but unlike Milosevic, they called this paper explicitly a "preliminary motion". This way, they gave the tribunal the chance to regard the papers by Milosevic and by the amici curiae as a joint "preliminary motion" without any distinction, and hence as a document subject to the rules of procedure of the tribunal. This way, the tribunal could regard the subsequent review as a formal session, which could also look into the question of habeas corpus, which is not subject to any specific rule in the tribunal's basic documents. Milosevic was thus quite unaware that it was now possible for the tribunal to rule on the request of habeas corpus. He was caught unprepared and was outmanoeuvred on this point.

Munition

The statements attributed to Wladimiroff by the Trial Chamber have again caused Milosevic to take action against the amici. The discharge of Wladimiroff is not the ultimate objective, the ultimate objective is the discharge of all the amici. In spite of the recent discharge, Milosevic wants the disciplinary organs of the Dutch law society to make a ruling on Wladimiroff's conduct, which he expects will provide munition against the rest of the amici.

Endnote on the functions of Mr Steijnen

In this connection he appeared in interlocutory injunction proceedings which Milosevic had initiated against the Dutch State after his transfer to and detention in The Hague; in this connection, he was authorized by Milosevic to initiate proceedings in the ECHR together with the French attorney Vergès, the Canadian lawyer Black and others.

5. CANA London

To the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

24th December 2002

Dear Sirs

I refer to reports which I have received tonight that the health of the former President of Yugoslavia, Mr Milosevic is again worsening, & the Tribunal has done nothing, despite protests from all over the world, to ensure that the prisoner is seen by competent specialist physicians independent of the Tribunal & neither will the Tribunal grant bail.

I have written to the Tribunal on previous occasions, without receiving any acknowledgement, pointing out that the decisions of Judge May constitute prima facie a criminal case under section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. He is complicit in torture, & not merely complicit but the main instrument.

I have told the Law Officers that I will be lodging as soon as convenient an Information @ Highgate Magistrates Court with the view to the prosecution of the said judge May.

The Information is currently being prepared but should Mr Milosevic die I will upgrade it to a charge of murder against both Judge May & the other judges hearing this case.

I think the behaviour of your Court is deplorable. Primary responsibility is on the Netherlands Government for hosting your Court & on the United Nation Security Council for refusing to engage in any form of monitoring of their own creation. We believe an enquiry should be instituted by the Security Council & the General Assembly into (inter alia) the illegal financing of this Court, (the expenses of which should be met from the normal UN budget, but @ least in part they are met by Mr Soros. Is this not

correct?)

We also blame Amnesty International, which organisation has altogether failed in terms of protecting the interests of prisoners of conscience. We call on AI organisations world wide to take up such an obvious case of political persecution & to hear the concerns of so many people about this farce of international justice, the WTE, (Washington's Tribunal in Europe).

CANA UK believes that Mr Milosevic's life is in imminent danger, not least because of the imminence of the pre-planned aggression on Iraq.

The American Government has taken a leaf out of the Stalinist book. Trotsky was finally eliminated in 1940, as the German armies were marching through France. There is no doubt in my mind that the object of the Tribunal, now that it has not been able to find a case against the President, is to kill him, in the most expeditious & least publicised manner possible & also at the most opportune time.

Judge May's tenure @ the Hague, in his NATO- EU role, of supreme torturer, as well as prosecutor, judge & in all probability executioner, should go down in history as the most obscene misapplication of judicial power by a British judge anywhere in the world since Judge Jeffreys & the Bloody Assize.

British judges have built up an entirely fallacious reputation for being fair minded, when in fact as a group, & with few exceptions, they are invariably corrupt, as Judge May's handling of this so called trial proves, & as do many other cases known to me.

The Law Officers consistently refuse to investigate all the numerous instances of judicial corruption brought to their attention every year. If they are indolent, in their refusal to grasp this nettle, this is not surprising, when the UK judiciary as a collectivity believe themselves to be above the law. The psycho-pathological problems which afflict them as a caste are accentuated in the case of Judge May as he is currently removed from the jurisdiction, (although he remains an official of the UK Government - whatever undertakings he may have entered into with regard to this continent so called Court, he remains bound by judicial oath to Her Majesty).

I also paste below a copy of a letter sent to the Guardian + copy to Geoffrey Robertson QC which highlights a deficiency in the Court as an institution, quite apart from its procedures.

Yours Sincerely

William Spring

6. Reactions on a Guardian article on The Hague process

(Sent but unpublished letters to the Editor)

*****************

from Colin Meade

53 Florence Rd

London

N4 4 4DJ

Dear Sir,

In his article on the Milosevic trial (19 December), Geoffrey Robertson QC writes as if he knows that Milosevic is the main author of the tragic events in the former Yugoslavia. If he has this information, he should pass it on to the Hague Prosecutors, who clearly have no such evidence.

In his self-defence, Mr Milosevic has effectively demolished the received wisdom about his country's fate, using arguments and facts. He has among other things destroyed the credibility of many witnesses claiming to be "victims of his policies". His performance should lead rational people to question their prejudices.

As for a "fair trial", there can be no such thing without the requirement for the parties to produce compelling and consistent evidence and the presumption of innocence. In relation to the trial of Milosevic, far too many responsible people seem to have forgotten these elementary principles.

Yours faithfully

Colin Meade

*****************

To the Editor

The Guardian

Dear Sir

There is at least one colossal flaw in the logic of Geoffrey Robertson's argument, (Guardian 19th December) favouring the standards of supposed international justice exemplified by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. No justice can be justice if not applied equally to all. I am not a Yugoslav citizen. My first concern isn't with Mr Milosevic, but with the activities of my Government, of Blair, Cook, & Straw, for example, all of whom I regard as war criminals.

In the case of the first two, in May 1999 I sought to press criminal charges before Magistrates, one, for encouraging terrorism in a foreign state contrary to section Five of the Criminal Justice Act, and two, for conspiracy to murder & to cause explosions in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Magistrates declined to issue the proceedings citing insufficient evidence.

What I find remarkable is the Hague Court entertaining the testimony of NATO war criminals, when in 1999 NATO didn't even have the figleaf of a United Nations resolution to legitimise military action. How can such a Court be just, which only hears the accusations of the victors, themselves law breakers, & ignores the cries of the vanquished? Don't dead or mutilated Yugoslavs, Afghans, or Palestinians, nor those shortly to suffer in Iraq, count for anything? Don't they deserve an advocate? If they do, it shouldn't be Mr Robertson. His view of justice is inexorably skewed, in favour of wealth, power, & the ruthless use of propaganda & military force by humanitarian warriors.

Yours sincerely

William Spring

CANA UK Christians Against Nato Aggression UK

1 Scales Road London N17 9HB

Telephone 0208 376 1454

*****************

re: Playing the Odds in the Justice Game

by Geoffrey Robertson QC

Dec 19, 2002--The Guardian

After reading Mr Robertson's account of his brief visit to The Hague Tribunal one can only assume that this field trip to 'the aquarium' is his only experience with the Milosevic trial--and that his ever being weaned from the tit of the British mainstream media is not very likely--if not completely beyond hope.

All his talk of fairness, even excessive judicial fairness [sic], the moral implications of procedural niceties, such as Milosevic's cross-examining witnesses actually ceding legitimacy to the Tribunal, and linkages between WWII Germany and Serbia/Yugoslavia of the 90s, Dr Seselj's Radical Party of Serbia and Fascism, and Hermann Goering and Slobodan Milosevic, bespeak a superficial sense of recent history and a misunderstanding of contemporary geopolitical forces so contorted by the ignorance and expediency of the consensus reality of pop culture as to be more befitting a lager lout than a QC.

The illegality of the foundations and procedures of the Tribunal are of no concern to Robertson: Its birth by untimely ripping from the desiccated womb of a gang-raped and brain dead UN-- midwifed by Mad Albright and her seven dwarves (Clinton, Rubin, Cohen, Zimmerman, Holbrooke, Gelbardt, and Soros); its outrageous private financing by the chief sponsors of global

terrorism: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and the US; its total neglect of the very time-honoured principles, i.e., presumption of innocence, the right to face one's accusers, equal consideration before the law, that Robertson seems so proud to represent--and not just their neglect, but the aggressive inversion of these principles each time Richard May berates President Milosevic for his cross-examinations and cuts off is mike, each time a hopelessly under-rehearsed secret witness (but usually a spy, warlord or terrorist, very well known to all in Serbia!) is fuzzed over the tv monitors, and each time stale and thoroughly refuted media lies, like Roy Gutman's award-winning hearsay of the Bosnian Death and Rape Camps or of the misattributed Croatian, Bosnian Muslim and KLA atrocities, are presented as fresh-baked . . . media lies: All of these are beyond Robertson's considerations.

He seems concerned with "Justice" and especially "International Justice". And certainly he is exercised over the a priori villain Milosevic's not turning the court's kindness, its fairness, into its weakness by demonstrating just how this Tribunal, rather than adjudicating crimes against humanity, actually covers up and perpetuates such crimes. He says nothing of how the Tribunal has refused to hear of the monstrous acts committed by its sponsors against the people of Serbia and Yugoslavia and against the person of Slobodan Milosevic, first with their generous application of Depleted Uranium missiles and now with their iatrogenocidal concerns for the state of his health.

Obviously Maitre Robertson exists in some para-reality; some ethereal world connected to the physical world that constrains the rest of us working stiffs only by a Murdochian/Orwellian news network where the interests served are neither those of Historical Truth nor International Justice nor even the Reality Principle, but only those of naked, ugly Geopolitical Power.

He seems to think that if he can stand with the strong, by parroting their infantile, delusional myths of how things are, he will be all right.

But I'm afraid, from start to finish, he is dead wrong.

Mick Collins

Cirque Minime/Paris

7. A Column from Antiwar.com

More Dirty Lies

Courtesy of The Hague Inquisition

Just recently, this column examined the many facets of falsifying history, noting in passing the role of the Hague Inquisition in currently the largest such effort in the world. Indeed, the ICTY is an endeavor more massive even than the current campaign to conjure a reason for invading Iraq, and it seeks not merely to modify history, but to rewrite it wholesale.

Lubyanka, not Nuremberg

Its main thesis, that Slobodan Milosevic and other Serb leaders organized a vast conspiracy, a "joint criminal enterprise," to murder, expel or conquer other Balkan peoples and "defy the West" in the process, is a transparent attempt to recast Balkans actors as modern-day Axis and Allies. In this production, Slobodan Milosevic is starring as Hitler, his fellow Serbs as Nazis, and Albanians, Croats and Bosnian Muslims as their innocent victims, while the ICTY invokes the spirit of Nuremberg.

Apart from this being a deeply ironic role reversal from the original production, which ran in blood from 1941 to 1945, the "Tribunal's" methods and practices reflect far more the Soviet show trials of the Stalin era. It doesn't help that the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent, just like those in Lubyanka, or that its "holding facilities" in Scheveningen were used by the Nazis to imprison Dutch patriots.

For almost a year, however, Milosevic has been making a mockery of the prosecutors' efforts to railroad him. He has successfully demolished every witness and every argument brought out against him, while refusing to recognize either the Inquisition's authority or its rules. Milosevic's outspoken defense made a striking contrast to the conquered Balkans, where the Empire had managed to silence virtually all the voices of dissent and resistance.

Beria's Heirs

Having failed in a head-on confrontation, despite playing with heavily loaded dice, the Inquisitors tried a different route. In September, they managed to extort a confession from a former Bosnian Serb leader, Biljana Plavsic, in which she not only admitted to participating in the planning of atrocities, but also implicated Milosevic and other Serb dignitaries.

Bits of Plavsic's plea cited by the media sound like they were written by the prosecutors: [She] acknowledged she covered up crimes, ignored widespread allegations of criminal acts and "publicly rationalized and justified the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs" in a document setting out facts underpinning her guilty plea.

"Mrs. Plavsic embraced and supported the objective of ethnic separation by force and contributed to achieving it," said the document admitting her role in killings, expulsions and cruelty inflicted by Bosnian Serbs on non-Serbs in 1992. . (Reuters)

It's as if the Inquisitors took lessons in purging "traitors to the Party" directly from Lavrenti Beria's NKVD. Such extorted confessions are part and parcel of any show trial, but even the ICTY has not been this blatant before.

Why Plavsic confessed is a mystery. She claims it was remorse, and that Serbs committed crimes out of fear, but both explanations sound more pathetic than reasonable. She does have a strong dislike for Milosevic, and she enthusiastically collaborated with Bosnia's NATO occupiers between 1996 and 1998. Plavsic's true motives may be an enigma, but the Inquisition's are not. They have seized upon the confession to re-launch allegations of Nazi-like conduct by the Serbs, while "rewarding" Plavsic with a "lenient" sentence of life imprisonment.

'Nazi' Slander Resurrected

The assault came this week, at Plavsic's sentencing hearings. One of the Inquisitors' star witnesses was no other than Madeleine Albright. The former U.S. Secretary of State has never tried to hide her Serbophobia, nor has she ever expressed an ounce of remorse for masterminding the criminal act of NATO aggression in 1999, which led to the present occupation of Kosovo. In fact, she has been outright proud of it, as well as of her support in establishing the Inquisition.

Albright was supposed to testify to Plavsic's willingness to collaborate with the NATO occupiers, but also to provide the association between the alleged Serb crimes and the Holocaust. Events in Bosnia were "reminiscent of pictures that reminded one of World War II," she said, adding, "We saw pictures of people being taken into what could only be labeled as concentration camps."

Reinforcing the Nazi analogy further was Holocaust celebrity Elie Wiesel. Even during the war, Wiesel sided with the Bosnian Muslim campaign to depict their side as the victim of "Serb Nazis," despite the fact that many Muslims joined the actual Nazis sixty years ago. Since he neither knew Plavsic or possessed intimate knowledge of the alleged atrocities in Bosnia, Wiesel's testimony was intended purely for emotional value in absence of real arguments.

In case anyone missed the point, the prosecutors then showed the pictures of emaciated Muslims in Serb "death camps," recycling that 1992 canard long after its expiration date. The photo, actually depicting a tuberculosis-ridden Muslim standing in front of a chicken-wire fence with barbed-wire top, was debunked as a malicious camera trick by 1997. Trotting Albright to the stand, invoking Wiesel's fame and recycling trashy propaganda photos only goes to show that, while the Inquisition's vitriolic assault on Serbs as "genocidal Nazis" shows no sign of slowdown, the actual case against Plavsic - or Milosevic, for that matter - is pretty much nonexistent. The only "joint criminal enterprise" is between them, NATO and the Empire.

Champions of Falsehood

But that is not all. Having long since collapsed into itself under the burden of lies and fabrications, like a black hole, the ICTY attracts ever more such material from all over the world. The following two cases come from the UK, but there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around.

As the Plavsic hearings unfolded and the Milosevic trial continued, the London Guardian published a tear-jerking piece by Jadranka Cigelj, a "rape victim" of a "Serb death camp." Cigelj's passionate diatribe is a masterpiece of propaganda. It blames Milosevic for horrendous atrocities without a shred of evidence, while also damning the "West" for its supposed inability to stop him then, or punish him now.

Though an author of a book about her alleged ordeal (for it was never proven in court), and a prominently featured celebrity victim, Jadranka Cigelj is also a high official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), party of the late Croatian president, ardent Serbophobe and Holocaust revisionist Franjo Tudjman. She also worked for the Croatian Information Center, a propaganda arm of the HDZ aimed at Western reporters, and single-handedly provided most of the "evidence" for stories of mass rape and genocide in Bosnia, none of which have ever been proven. In other words, Ms. Cigelj is a professional propagandist and a committed Croatian national-socialist. Her story, however tempting, ought to be taken with healthy skepticism.

Speaking of accomplished propagandists, one cannot ignore the real champion in the category, the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Their take on reporting about the Inquisition simply reeks of falsehoods. They dare use such terms as "hate speech," "misconceptions" and "negative propaganda," even as their own coverage is nothing but. One look at their Balkans report page is enough: tabloid-style headlines heading columns of malicious drivel. Lascivious services of media hacks have been a powerful factor in the rise of the modern repressive State, but IWPR has taken shameless prostitution of journalism to a whole new level.

Truth? You Can't Handle the Truth!

It is disturbing to see the ease with which outlandish concepts such as the "Tribunal" itself and the outrageous lies it peddles are accepted by the general public in the Empire and elsewhere. But the sad fact of human nature is that violations of truth and justice are seen as somehow less despicable the more they are committed.

The sheer gall of the violators seems to know no bounds. One of the Inquisitors actually said, "It is only through the establishment of the truth that the unhealthy shackles of revisionism that debilitate the former Yugoslavia and that foster suspicion, ethnic hatred and civil unrest can be broken."

Everything in this sentence is a lie. The Inquisition does not establish truth, but rather forges those very shackles of revisionism, making sure that the debilitating miseries of former Yugoslavia are perpetuated!

Burden of Fiction

Since its illegal inception in 1993, the "International Criminal Tribunal" has faithfully pursued its one and only purpose: to serve the Empire's interests in the Balkans. It has done so in part by usurping the authority of sovereign states and subverting international treaties and accords, but its focus has been on fabricating a recent history of the Balkans that would justify Imperial intervention, occupation and war.

What makes the ICTY's lies and hypocrisy so hard to swallow is the fact that many Balkans atrocities they claim to be prosecuting actually happened - but not in the way they present them, and not to the degree alleged by the combatants or the media. By manipulating very real crimes into false history, the Hague Inquisition is poisoning the well of collective memory for generations to come.

Driven by their demented obsession to falsify facts by casting Serbs (and sometimes others, for the sake of "diversity" and political expedience) as evil incarnate, the Inquisition and its patrons have come to willfully ignore reality. And in reality, their actions have disastrous consequences, perfectly exemplified in the recent terrorist attack on Pristina's Bill Clinton Avenue, and the situation in Kosovo in general.

Those who seek to control things that by nature cannot be controlled are doomed to fail. When the truth finally emerges, and it has a nasty habit of doing so when least expected, there will be Hell to pay.

- Nebojsa Malic