ZGram - 3/10/2002 - "Here's something for Ariel Sharon to look forward to..."

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGrams - Where Truth is Destiny

March 10, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite

Today it's George Szamuely in "Top Drawer-The Bunker" - New York 
Press - Volume 15, Issue 10, at the Zundelsite:

[START]

Milosevic's Trial

Gandhi was once asked what he thought of Western civilization. He 
responded: "I think it would be a good idea."

Western civilization in all its triumphalist, moth-eaten glory is 
currently on display at the show trial of former Yugoslav President 
Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague. The elected leader of a European 
country is being forced to defend himself against ludicrous charges 
manufactured by the intelligence agencies of the very same countries 
that waged aggressive war against his nation. The man who tried to 
keep multinational Yugoslavia together in the face of 
Western-sponsored nationalist secession is the one accused of rabid 
nationalism.

Milosevic has refused to recognize Carla del Ponte's little circus as 
an independent and impartial tribunal of justice and has elected to 
represent himself. Therefore he is not permitted to meet any 
attorneys or indeed anyone who might offer him legal advice. Whenever 
he sees anyone - and he is allowed to see very few people - a 
tribunal official is always in attendance. He is kept under 24-hour 
video surveillance.

All his meetings are videotaped and transcribed. He is permitted to 
see his wife once a month, and even during those meetings an official 
is always in attendance. When she comes to the Hague there are severe 
restrictions on her movements. She can stay at her hotel or visit the 
prison. That's it.

   The other day the Dutch authorities even denied her a visa, citing 
some nonsense about not having been given adequate notice of her 
visit. The Dutch like to raise visa problems. It's their little 
contribution to the Alliance effort and Western civilization. The 
Dutch, as Gen. Michael Short so eloquently explained to Congress in 
October 1999, "are small dogs but they want to have a seat at the 
table." Short has a knack for blurting out such truths. At the height 
of the 1999 bombing he revealed NATO strategy: "If you wake up in the 
morning and you have no power to your house and no gas to your stove 
and the bridge you take to work is down and will be lying in the 
Danube for the next 20 years, I think you begin to ask, "Hey, Slobo, 
what's this all about? How much more of this do we have to 
withstand?"   Sounds awfully like a war crime confession to me.

Milosevic is being denied bail even though there is no likelihood 
whatsoever of his fleeing. Moreover, the International Covenant on 
Civil and 'olitical Rights is quite explicit that if you have not 
been convicted of anything there has to be a damn good reason why you 
should be in custody. Being in custody means Milosevic is unable to 
prepare properly for trial. He is not permitted Internet access. His 
only means of communication with the outside world is a public 
payphone. All of his telephone calls are monitored and transcribed. 
The prison authorities can pass this material on to the prosecutors. 
Any books or articles that are sent to him can be withheld and 
confiscated by the prison authorities. But then the tribunal is 
notorious for all sorts of fascinating legal innovations that must 
make any prosecutor drool.

It was bad enough that Milosevic was extradited even though the 
Yugoslav constitutional court had ruled his extradition to be 
illegal. The prosecutors then piled on a whole lot of additional 
nonsensical charges, thereby violating yet another international law 
according to which a defendant can only be tried for the crimes he 
was specifically charged with in the extradition request.

Prosecutors can also appeal an acquittal and insist on continued 
detention during the appeal. Hearsay evidence can be introduced 
without a complaint from the judge. The court has the power to demand 
the arrest and indefinite detention of defendants, yet has no power 
to subpoena defense witnesses. One of the witnesses against Milosevic 
was an employee of the tribunal - someone in the pay of the 
prosecutors.

Yet the organizations that are normally so vociferous in their 
indignation about human rights violations have been remarkably 
silent. Fraudulent NGOs that are really agencies of Western 
governments, like the George Soros-financed Human Rights Watch, have 
been positively gleeful at the treatment meted out to a former head 
of state. Amnesty International anguishes about the plight of Al 
Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo, yet stays silent about this abuse of a 
political prisoner.

Extraordinarily, even with all these handicaps Milosevic has easily 
been getting the better of the prosecutors.  Kosovo Albanians troop 
into the courtroom recounting absurd scripted tales of babies being 
knived, paralyzed women being burned to death and children being 
roasted. The moment Milosevic mentions the KLA, they all declare they 
know nothing about the organization. The prosecution is already 
demanding that the court clamp down on Milosevic's lengthy 
cross-examinations lest they "deter future witnesses from testifying 
against him."

The tribunal is under orders to find Milosevic guilty. It won't be 
hard for it to do so. According to its notion of "command 
responsibility" a leader is responsible for any atrocity by anyone 
unless he had taken active steps to stop it. This means Lyndon 
Johnson was personally responsible for the massacre at My Lai, George 
Bush the Elder for the slaughter of retreating Iraqis at the end of 
the Gulf War and George Bush the Younger for the butchery at 
Mazar-e-Sharif.

Western civilization really would be a good idea.

[END]


=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Thought for the Day:

"That's what the precendent of the Nuremberg Trials bestowed on the world."

(Ernst Z=FCndel)