Discussion:
ICTY Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic for War Crimes
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Steve Hayes
2016-07-29 09:34:33 UTC
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ICTY Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic for War Crimes

BELGRADE – The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has determined that the late Serbian
president Slobodan Milosevic was not responsible for war crimes
committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

In a stunning ruling, the trial chamber that convicted former
Bosnian-Serb president Radovan Karadzic of war crimes and sentenced
him to 40 years in prison, unanimously concluded that Slobodan
Milosevic was not part of a “joint criminal enterprise” to victimize
Muslims and Croats during the Bosnian war.

The March 24th Karadzic judgment states that “the Chamber is not
satisfied that there was sufficient evidence presented in this case to
find that Slobodan Milosevic agreed with the common plan” to
permanently remove Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian
Serb claimed territory.

The Karadzic trial chamber found that “the relationship between
Milosevic and the Accused had deteriorated beginning in 1992; by 1994,
they no longer agreed on a course of action to be taken. Furthermore,
beginning as early as March 1992, there was apparent discord between
the Accused and Milosevic in meetings with international
representatives, during which Milosevic and other Serbian leaders
openly criticised Bosnian Serb leaders of committing ‘crimes against
humanity’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ and the war for their own purposes.”

The judges noted that Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic both
favored the preservation of Yugoslavia and that Milosevic was
initially supportive, but that their views diverged over time. The
judgment states that “from 1990 and into mid-1991, the political
objective of the Accused and the Bosnian Serb leadership was to
preserve Yugoslavia and to prevent the separation or independence of
BiH, which would result in a separation of Bosnian Serbs from Serbia;
the Chamber notes that Slobodan Milosevic endorsed this objective and
spoke against the independence of BiH.”

The Chamber found that “the declaration of sovereignty by the SRBiH
Assembly in the absence of the Bosnian Serb delegates on 15 October
1991, escalated the situation,” but that Milosevic was not on board
with the establishment of Republika Srpska in response. The judgment
says that “Slobodan Milosevic was attempting to take a more cautious
approach”

The judgment states that in intercepted communications with Radovan
Karadzic, “Milosevic questioned whether it was wise to use ‘an
illegitimate act in response to another illegitimate act’ and
questioned the legality of forming a Bosnian Serb Assembly.”

The judges also found that “Slobodan Milosevic expressed his
reservations about how a Bosnian Serb Assembly could exclude the
Muslims who were ‘for Yugoslavia’.”

The judgment notes that in meetings with Serb and Bosnian Serb
officials “Slobodan Milosevic stated that ‘[a]ll members of other
nations and ethnicities must be protected’ and that ‘[t]he national
interest of the Serbs is not discrimination’.”

Also that “Milosevic further declared that crime needed to be fought
decisively.”

The trial chamber notes that “In private meetings, Milosevic was
extremely angry at the Bosnian Serb leadership for rejecting the
Vance-Owen Plan and he cursed the Accused.” They also found that
“Milosevic tried to reason with the Bosnian Serbs saying that he
understood their concerns, but that it was most important to end the
war.”

The judgment states that “Milosevic also questioned whether the world
would accept that the Bosnian Serbs who represented only one third of
the population of BiH would get more than 50% of the territory and he
encouraged a political agreement.”

At a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council the judgment says that
“Milosevic told the Bosnian Serb leadership that they were not
entitled to have more than half the territory in BiH, stating that:
‘there is no way that more than that could belong to us! Because, we
represent one third of the population. […] We are not entitled to in
excess of half of the territory – you must not snatch away something
that belongs to someone else! […] How can you imagine two thirds of
the population being crammed into 30% of the territory, while 50% is
too little for you?! Is it humane, is it fair?!’”

In other meetings with Serb and Bosnian Serb officials, the judgment
notes that Milosevic “declared that the war must end and that the
Bosnian Serbs’ biggest mistake was to want a complete defeat of the
Bosnian Muslims.”

Because of the rift between Milosevic and the Bosnian-Serbs, the
judges note that “the FRY reduced its support for the RS and
encouraged the Bosnian Serbs to accept peace proposals.”

The Tribunal’s determination that Slobodan Milosevic was not part of a
joint criminal enterprise, and that on the contrary he “condemned
ethnic cleansing” is of tremendous significance because he got blamed
for all of the bloodshed in Bosnia, and harsh economic sanctions were
imposed on Serbia as a result. Wrongfully accusing Milosevic ranks
right up there with invading Iraq only to find that there weren’t any
weapons of mass destruction after all.

Slobodan Milosevic was vilified by the entire western press corps and
virtually every politician in every NATO country. They called him “the
Butcher of the Balkans.” They compared him to Hitler and accused him
of genocide. They demonized him and made him out to be a bloodthirsty
monster, and they used that false image to justify not only economic
sanctions against Serbia, but also the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia and
the Kosovo war.

Slobodan Milosevic had to spend the last five years of his life in
prison defending himself and Serbia from bogus war crimes allegations
over a war that they now admit he was trying to stop. The most serious
charges that Milosevic faced, including the charge of genocide, were
all in relation to Bosnia. Now, ten years after his death, ICTY admits
that he wasn’t guilty after all.

The ICTY did nothing to publicize the fact that they had cleared
Milosevic of involvement in the joint criminal enterprise. They
quietly buried that finding 1,303 pages into the 2,590 page Karadzic
verdict knowing full well that most people would probably never bother
to read it.

The presiding judge in the Radovan Karadzic trial, O-Gon Kwon of South
Korea, was also one of the judges in the Slobodan Milosevic trial.
Milosevic’s exoneration by the Karadzic trial chamber may be an
indication of how the Milosevic chamber would have eventually ruled,
at least on the Bosnia charges, if Milosevic had lived to see the
conclusion of his own trial.

It’s worth recalling that Slobodan Milosevic died under a very
suspicious set of circumstances. He died of a heart attack just two
weeks after the Tribunal denied his request to undergo heart surgery
in Russia. He was found dead in his cell less than 72 hours after his
attorney delivered a letter to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in which he said that he feared he was being poisoned.

The Tribunal’s official report on the inquiry into his death confirmed
that, “Rifampicin had been found in a blood sample taken from Mr.
Milosevic on 12 January 2006.” And that “Mr. Milosevic was not told of
the results until 3 March 2006 because of the difficult legal position
in which Dr. Falke (the Tribunal’s chief medical officer) found
himself by virtue of the Dutch legal provisions concerning medical
confidentiality.”

The presence of Rifamicin (a non-prescribed drug) in Milosevic’s blood
would have counteracted the high blood pressure medication he was
taking and increased his risk of the heart attack that ultimately did
kill him. The Tribunal’s admission that they knew about the Rifampicin
for months, but didn’t tell Milosevic the results of his own blood
test until just days before his death because of “Dutch legal
provisions concerning medical confidentiality” is an incredibly lame
and disingenuous excuse. There is no provision of Dutch law that
prohibits a doctor from telling the patient the results of his own
blood test — that would be idiotic. On the contrary, concealing such
information from the patient could be seen as malpractice.

This all gives rise to well-founded suspicion that powerful
geopolitical interests would rather Milosevic die before the end of
his trial than see him acquitted and have their vicious lies exposed.
U.S. State Department cables leaked to Wikileaks confirm that The
Tribunal did discuss Milosevic’s medical condition and his medical
records with U.S. Embassy personnel in The Hague without his
consent.They clearly didn’t care about medical confidentiality laws
when they were blabbing about his medical records to the American
embassy.

It’s an unsatisfying outcome that Milosevic has been quietly
vindicated for the most serious crimes that he was accused of some ten
years after his death. At a minimum financial compensation should now
be paid to his widow and his children, and reparations should be paid
to Serbia by the western governments who sought to punish Serbia in
order to hold Milosevic “accountable” for crimes that their own
Tribunal now admits he wasn’t responsible for, and was in fact trying
to stop.

http://tinyurl.com/jf7kkdl

Comment:

This report is dated 24 July 2016.

I am posting it on 28 July 2016

A Google search has failed to reveal any of the "mainsteam" media
reporting this event.

This can mean one of two things:

1. The InSerbia site is bogus, and the report is false.
or
2. The "mainstream" media are suppressing this news.

Does anyone know which it is?
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
Oleg Smirnov
2016-07-30 07:31:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Steve Hayes
ICTY Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic for War Crimes
Slobodan Milosevic was vilified by the entire western
press corps and virtually every politician in every NATO
country. They called him "the Butcher of the Balkans."
They compared him to Hitler and accused him of genocide.
They demonized him and made him out to be a bloodthirsty
monster, and they used that false image to justify not
only economic sanctions against Serbia, but also the 1999
NATO bombing of Serbia and the Kosovo war.
The ICTY did nothing to publicize the fact that they had
cleared Milosevic of involvement in the joint criminal
enterprise. They quietly buried that finding 1,303 pages
into the 2,590 page Karadzic verdict knowing full well
that most people would probably never bother to read it.
http://tinyurl.com/jf7kkdl
This report is dated 24 July 2016.
I am posting it on 28 July 2016
A Google search has failed to reveal any of the
"mainsteam" media reporting this event.
1. The InSerbia site is bogus, and the report is false.
or
2. The "mainstream" media are suppressing this news.
Does anyone know which it is?
Perhaps nobody in the 'mainstream' no longer cares much about it.
The MSM might notice something if the ICTY issued an unequivocal clear
'judjement'. Not the case.

Original text <http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg-aw071816.htm>

The official ICTY's document <http://u.to/NpIlDw> is very voluminous,
one has to cope with about 2600 pages of these branchy noodles to make
his or her own judgement about the judgement.
Steve Hayes
2016-07-30 09:02:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by Oleg Smirnov
Post by Steve Hayes
A Google search has failed to reveal any of the
"mainsteam" media reporting this event.
1. The InSerbia site is bogus, and the report is false.
or
2. The "mainstream" media are suppressing this news.
Does anyone know which it is?
Perhaps nobody in the 'mainstream' no longer cares much about it.
The MSM might notice something if the ICTY issued an unequivocal clear
'judjement'. Not the case.
Because he was dead, they could not come to a verdict on his case.

But it does stand revealed as one of the worst cases of "trial by
media", especially since the media did not report the finding of the
court.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com

For information about why crossposting is (usually) good, and multiposting (nearly always) bad, see:
http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/unice.htm#xpost
Steve Hayes
2016-07-31 06:24:07 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 11:34:33 +0200, Steve Hayes
Post by Steve Hayes
ICTY Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic for War Crimes
BELGRADE – The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has determined that the late Serbian
president Slobodan Milosevic was not responsible for war crimes
committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Here's what I wrote on reading reports on his death in the
"mainstream" media:

Source: http://methodius.livejournal.com/39423.html

Will the real "Butcher of the Balkans" please stand up?

The news reports of the death and burial of Slobodan Milosevic,
erstwhile leader of Serbia and the rump Yugoslavia, have been quite
astounding for their malice, vitriol, and sheer mendaciousness.

According the the Western media, he was the "Butcher of the Balkans",
"a mass murderer", and he "orchestrated" the wars of the Yugoslav
succession and was responsible for the deaths of some 250 000 people.

That is not just spin, it is dangerous overrevving. And of course, it
begs the question.

The opening of the trial of Milosevic at the Hague was attended by
great publicity, but as soon as he began cross-examining witnesses,
and demonstrating the flimsiness of a lot of the evidence against him,
a news blackout descended, to be lifted only on his death, with a
verdict by vigorous assertion.

So I wonder, what is the point?

Why are the media trying to make Milosevic the sole scapegoat for the
wars of the Yugoslav succession, and telling such whopping lies? Why
has it become so politically correct to do so? And according to whose
criteria of political correctness?

I did a quick Google on the phrase "Butcher of the Balkans", and four
candidates for the epithet emerged: Ante Pavelic, Radko Mladic, Bill
Clinton and Slobodan Milosevic. And the first three are far more
deserving of the title than Milosevic, if one counts the people killed
as a result of their orders. They are probably as much, if not more,
deserving of the title "mass murderer" as well.

The number of 250 000 people that Milosevic is supposed to have killed
is quite amazing. Where do they get the figure from?

And that he "orchestrated" all this is the most astounding allegation
of all.

And who stands to benefit? Who are they covering up for? People don't
usually tell such enormous lies for no reason.

I don't think Slobodan Milosevic was a very nice man. He was an
unreconstructed communist warlord who sought to secure his own
position in power at the break-up of Yugoslavia. He was not a lover of
freedom and democracy, and his policies often tended to exacerbate
hostility and add fuel to the flames. But he didn't start the fire,
nor did he "orchestrate" it. He was one of several communist warlords,
like Franjo Tudjman and Izetbegovic, whose policies contributed to the
break-up of Yugoslavia, but even they didn't "orchestrate" it. The
"orchestration" was done elsewhere.

So perhaps one should hear another side of the story: not all the
Western media played the orchestrated tune. Here's one of the
exceptions:

Scapegoat RIP.
(has been removed from the web, page not found)
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
pyotr filipivich
2016-07-31 15:01:12 UTC
Permalink
Post by Steve Hayes
On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 11:34:33 +0200, Steve Hayes
Post by Steve Hayes
ICTY Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic for War Crimes
BELGRADE – The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague has determined that the late Serbian
president Slobodan Milosevic was not responsible for war crimes
committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Here's what I wrote on reading reports on his death in the
Source: http://methodius.livejournal.com/39423.html
Will the real "Butcher of the Balkans" please stand up?
[snippage]
Post by Steve Hayes
Scapegoat RIP.
(has been removed from the web, page not found)
Thank you. As I oft say "That is what I need to hear, even if it
was not what I wanted to hear."


--
pyotr filipivich
"If once a man indulges himself in Murder, very soon he comes
to think little of Robbing, and from Robbing he comes next to
Drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to Incivility and
Procrastination." T. De Quincy (1785-1859) "Murder Considered As One of the Fine Arts"
Steve Hayes
2016-08-01 02:04:38 UTC
Permalink
On Sun, 31 Jul 2016 08:24:07 +0200, Steve Hayes
Post by Steve Hayes
On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 11:34:33 +0200, Steve Hayes
Post by Steve Hayes
ICTY Exonerates Slobodan Milosevic for War Crimes
Scapegoat RIP.
(has been removed from the web, page not found)
Page has now been found in the Way-Back Machine:
https://t.co/SpNhTDyJOo

Scapegoat, R.I.P.

James Bissett, National Post
Published: Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Slobodan Milosevic's obituaries are damning. In death, as in the last
years of his life, the former Serbian president is being blamed for
all of the death and destruction that accompanied the breakup of the
Yugoslav Federation in the early 1990s. He has been described as the
"Butcher of the Balkans." He is accused of masterminding four wars, of
committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. These charges have been
repeated so many times that they have become part of received wisdom.
Yet the facts tell a different story.

Two weeks ago I travelled to The Hague to appear as a witness in
defence of Milosevic at his war-crimes trial. We met in his cell for
two days, going over my testimony.

On the first day, he seemed relaxed and in good health. On the second
day, following several hours of discussions, he suddenly became
flushed and appeared to be ill. I asked if he was alright, and he said
he was OK, but then explained that he suffered from a terrible ringing
in his ears. The prison doctors had told him it was "psychological,"
but finally agreed to a MRI, which revealed that an abnormal artery
was affecting his hearing. He told me he did not believe he was
getting adequate medical attention in the prison, and wanted to get
specialist treatment in Moscow, but tribunal officials had refused.

He regarded the presiding body -- the UN's International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia -- as a political court set up to
make him the scapegoat for everything that had gone wrong in
Yugoslavia. He was aware that there was, in effect, a Western news
blackout of anything revealed during the trial that was favourable to
his case. And he was also resigned to the reality that he would be
found guilty.

I have been asked often why I was willing to appear as a witness for a
man branded by the media as another Hitler. The answer is simple. His
prosecution was the most important war-crimes trial since the
Nuremberg Trials of leading Nazis following the Second World War. It
was important that the presumption of innocence be maintained, and it
was equally important that those with relevant information appear at
the court so that their evidence could be heard. I was in Belgrade as
Canada's ambassador during the critical early stages of the Yugoslav
breakup drama, and I was not prepared to remain silent about what I
observed.

Even in the early days, it was apparent that most of the media
reporting about the cause and course of the Yugoslav fighting was
biased. In effect, the Serbs had been branded as the bad guys, and any
news developments were interpreted on that basis.

But it was not the Serbians and "Slobo" who started the wars in
Yugoslavia. The fighting started because Slovenia, then a Yugoslav
republic, declared unilateral independence and used force to seize
customs posts along the Austrian border.

The federal prime minister of Yugoslavia, Ante Markovic, who happened
to be a Croatian, ordered the army into Slovenia to restore order. The
army was met by armed resistance and retired to barracks in Croatia to
avoid further bloodshed. The Croatian security and paramilitary forces
then surrounded the federal barracks and fighting broke out in
Croatia. At this time, Milosevic, as president of Serbia, had no
control over the federal army. (Incidentally, the federal minister of
defence at the time was also a Croatian, as was the foreign minister.)

Later, when the army lost all of its non-Serbian soldiers, it did
become a Serb-dominated force. But when the federal government
collapsed, it was none other than Milosevic who ordered all Serbian
soldiers out of Bosnia. (At the time I was asked to call upon him to
congratulate him for this decision.) From the outset of the violence
sweeping across Yugoslavia, Milosevic was a key player in all of the
peace plans that were proposed. Had it not been for him, the 1995
Dayton peace agreement could not have taken place. He was heralded
then by U.S. secretary of state Madeline Albright as a man of peace.

Although the war crimes Tribunal was set up in 1993, it was not until
the bombing of Kosovo five years later that a hurried indictment was
issued against Milosevic on charges of genocide. Yet the forensic
teams that searched for evidence of this genocide in Kosovo have so
far discovered fewer than 3,000 bodies -- bad enough, but not
genocide.

Milosevic was a communist party boss. He was an apparatchik and an
opportunist interested in holding on to his power, prestige and
privileges. He was not an ardent Serbian nationalist and I believe had
little interest in a "greater Serbia." As the president of Serbia, he
was forced to display sympathy to his fellow Serbians in Bosnia and
Croatia, but he did not have authority over them. He was prepared to
help them battle brutally for land and power, but he was also prepared
to sell them out if it was to his own advantage.

There are many Serbians who despise him for that. It is unfortunate
that he died before being given the chance to set down his side of the
story. Now we only have his opponent's version of events.
© National Post 2006


Steve Hayes
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://khanya.wordpress.com

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