Committee to Defend
Slobodan Milosevic (Irish Section|)
The Hague demonstration
28th June 2003
- By June Kelly
I was proud to represent the Irish Section of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic at the Demonstration in The Hague in the Netherlands on 28th of June 2003.
It was an honour also to meet leading members of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian-International Organisational Committee and the Sloboda Freedom Association and to hear first hand their inspiring speeches which they presented outside The Hague War Crimes Tribunal and at the front entrance of the Scheveningen Detention Unit.
As mentioned in the report by our UK colleague, Ian Johnson, at the conclusion of the demonstration outside the Detention Unit, a letter of support addressed to President Milosevic was handed to a prison authority for delivery.
A copy of the letter is attached herein along with a copy of Ian’s report and the Press Release/Message of Solidarity as presented by me at the demonstration outside of The Hague Detention Centre on 28th June.
On behalf of the CDSM-Ireland I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the organisers on a most successful demonstration.
To view photographs of speakers and banners, please visit the following Web sites. Thank you to the photographers for such a fine coverage of the Demonstration:
http://mona-lisa.org/milosevic/ (ICDSM-Ireland representative photos number 84 and 85)
http://homepage.mac.com/jbeentjes/Demonstraties/PhotoAlbum30.html
http://www.arbeiterfotografie.com/galerie/reportage-2003/2003-06-28-den-haag-milosevic-1.html
http://www.arbeiterfotographie.com/galerie/reportage-2003/2003-06-28-den-haag-milosevic-2.html
Sincerely - June Kelly
- Co-ordinator - CDSM-Ireland
______________________________
PRESS RELEASE
OPEN STATEMENT
27.6.2003
From the Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic-Ireland Quote -
Stop the aggression against people, law and democracy!
Down with new colonialism! Abolish the US/NATO Tribunal! Free Serbia!
Free Yugoslavia! Free Slobodan Milosevic!
(Sloboda Freedom Association Belgrade
slobodavk@yubc.net Tel/Fax: + 381 11 630 549 18.6.2003)
The following is a message of Solidarity from members of the Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (Ireland) who have travelled to The Hague for the Demonstration on 28th June and from those members who were unable to attend:
“To the organisers
and all attending the International Demonstration against the NATO “Court”
in The Hague, on this, the second anniversary of the abduction of the
former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, we extend our warmest best
wishes and message of solidarity in the struggle for TRUTH, JUSTICE and
PEACE.
Be assured that our members in Ireland will continue to campaign with
all of our means for the abolition of the US/NATO “Court” and
for the freedom of President Milosevic, other innocent prisoners in The
Hague and for the liberation of all peoples of Serbia and Yugoslavia”.
Sincerely,
June Kelly
Co ordinator
Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic-Ireland
cdsmireland@eircom.net or janekelly3@hotmail.com
Mobile 086 1963 134
Contact number whilst
in The Hague c/o Hotel Aquarius-070-3543543
http://www.icdsmireland.org/ (International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic Irish Section)
(To join the struggle,
please refer list of web sites at
end of letter to President Milosevic from the Serb Diaspora
dated 28.6.2003 which is posted herein and our Web Site
LINKS Section. Thank you.)
FURTHER OPEN STATEMENT/PRESS
RELEASE
Written by John Kelly for the Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic Ireland 20.6.2003
The writer Phillip
K Dick once described the West succinctly as Lies Inc.
The campaign against the Serbian people and Slobodan Milosevic in terms
of concentrated levels of lies, irrationality and hysteria has exceeded
anything previously conceived of by propagandists in the service of Imperialism.
It cannot be said often enough that the media is Licenced to Lie
On behalf of the war profiteers and their minions who are Licensed to
Kill.
Death dealing glamorised by James Bond the creation of nazi sympathiser
Ian Fleming.
The Director of a public relations company in Washington funded to manufacture lies against the Serbs and Yugoslavia to enlist world wide support for the barbaric assaults by NATO on the Bosnian Serbs in 1995 and on Yugoslavia in 1999 has said concernedly
“We may have
won the shooting war
If we lose the propaganda war the consequences will be
catastrophic “
Signs are that this
could be about to happen.
In the aftermath to the (criminal and unjust) bombardments of Iraq this
year it must be increasingly obvious even to the politically naïve
that Western nations do not attack other sovereign nations and depose
the leaders of those nations on either ultruistic or humanitarian grounds.
The agenda is McDonaldisation of the universe. Nothing less.
The tragedy is that
remarkably few people across the globe
extraordinarily enough perceived the enormity to the Lie propagated remorselessly
by the Deceivers to garner support for the demolition of what was then
Yugoslavia and the ultimate establishment of a puppet regime to serve
the interests of the
Imperialists (in Washington)
THE HAGUE DEMONSTRATION 28th JUNE 2003.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Netherlands outside The Hague
War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) on Saturday 28th June to demand the release
of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and the other political
prisoners who resisted the 78 day Nato bombing campaign conducted against
the sovereign state of Yugoslavia in 1999.
The Yugoslav organisers of the demonstration handed the ‘Tribunal’
a list of demands which included the release of the Yugoslav political
prisoners, the abolition of the illegal Hague ‘Tribunal’, an
end to interference in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia and reparation
payments to be made by the Nato governments responsible for all damages
caused by their war of aggression against Yugoslavia.
The demonstration coincided with the 2nd anniversary of the kidnapping
of Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague and represented the growing resistance
to the occupation of Yugoslavia by forces beholden to the United States.
Before commencing the march to The Hague Detention Unit where the prisoners
are held, the rally was addressed by speakers in four languages, reflecting
the international nature of the demonstration.
Once outside the Detention Unit itself further speakers explained to the
crowd the relevance of what happened to Yugoslavia in 1999 to what is
happening today, drawing attention to the U.S. aim of creating a New World
Order which would be at the expense of working people internationally.
The Socialist Labour Party contingent expressed the SLP policy that the
so-called Hague War Crimes Tribunal should be abolished and that all political
prisoners who resisted Nato should be released.
Sections of the colourful demonstration, waving Yugoslav flags and anti-Nato
banners and placards, chanted ‘Slobo…Slobodan…Yugoslavia’
(Slobo in Serbian meaning freedom) and at 5p.m. a letter of support addressed
to Mr Milosevic was handed in, bringing an end to what had been an excellent
and well organised event.
The wife of one of the prisoners, who was visiting her husband during
the rally, later told the demonstrators that some of the prisoners could
hear them and it had greatly lifted their morale.
A short meeting after the demonstration, held on the pier at Scheveningen,
determined that defence committees, in addition to those already established,
for Slobodan Milosevic and the other Yugoslav prisoners, would be set
up in countries throughout Europe.
The resistance is growing.
Ian Johnson July 2003.
___________________________________________________________
LETTER OF DIASPORA SERBS TO PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC -
(handed after the Vidovdan - June 28 demonstrations at The Hague)
To the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mr Slobodan
Milosevic
Dear Mr President,
As citizens and nationals of leading Nato member countries in Europe,
that
have participated in the Aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
we are deeply aware of the fact that your name has been used in the Western
Media far more frequently than the names of all other leaders in the
Balkans taken together. At critical times during the past decade, your
name has
been used globally more often than even the name of the American president,
a
very rare situation to occur for any statesman in Europe.
We have noticed, however, that the name "Milosevic" most frequently
did not
refer to your own person.
We became particularly aware that, during the military Aggression on the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, all leading media outlets in Nato states
claimed that Nato was bombing neither Yugoslavia, nor Serbia, nor the
people inside them but exclusively you personally. And yet some 23,000
tons of
Nato bombs were dropped not on you personally, but on the territory and
the
people of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
We noticed that on millions of occasions it was claimed that sanctions,
from which tens of thousands of children and old people in our country
of origin
lost their lives, were allegedly directed solely against a person with
the name "Milosevic".
It is because of this that we are fully aware that all the victims of
Nato
Aggression are linked to your name.
And we are especially aware that by accusing you personally as a "war
criminal", the Nato Aggressor, who is simultaneously also the owner
of the
so-called Tribunal that keeps you imprisoned, aims to prove that he only
acted against a "criminal".
It is a fact that the continuous and massive use, more correctly misuse,
of
your name has had its results with the citizens of Nato states as well
as
with our own Diaspora where many accepted the disinformation of Nato-media
propaganda machines, such as those of the American CNN, the British BBC,
the German ZDF, the French TF1 and others. Our aim is therefore to continue
to
act in our own environments to highlight the stark truth that it is via
your name that accusations are being levelled against the state, the republic,
the nation and inevitably and most cynically, against all the victims
of
the economic, financial, cultural and finally military aggression.
The so-called Tribunal fraudulently presents itself as the source for
truth
and justice for the territory of a European country against which its
master in Washington has conducted the first aggressive war in Europe
since 1945.
It is because of this that every appearance by yourself, despite taking
place in front of an illegitimate body, despite this being before your
kidnappers, is of great historical importance for the interpretation of
events of the past decade's events in The Balkans.
Many amongst us including our German, French, British, Dutch, Italian
as
well as other European and American colleagues judge your appearances
to be
exceptionally penetrating and of the highest quality. According to many
of
us you have already won your case against the so-called Tribunal via a
K.O.
on your very first appearance on 14th February 2002. The Nato-British
judge
Mr May allowed the process against you to continue, and to the surprise
of
many in the world, you repeated your performance of the first day.
Something that you have continually done since. So far you have on almost
every occasion managed to get your accusers and their witnesses into a
losing
position for the prosecution. All this despite the fact that the
prosecuting team had time to prepare itself for three years and had over
70 paid staff at its disposal. By contrast even the most elementary conditions
for
presenting your case have been denied to you and even your microphone
has
frequently been cut-off by the so-called judge, usually in order to save
the prosecution from further embarrassment.
We want to sincerely congratulate you on your outstanding courage and
the
dignity with which you have presented your case. Of this we have numerous
confirmations from internationally known experts and personalities, some
of
whom have specially travelled to The Hague to be with us today, both as
speakers and participants.
Thanks to your appearances, we in the Diaspora can more clearly evaluate
the historical events connected to our erstwhile homeland, and our position
is
clear. You, as well as others accused on the Serbian and Yugoslav side,
are
guilty because you remained loyal to the state to which you gave your
oath
and allegiance. Your guilt is known to us from the near and distant history
of the Balkan peoples:
Guilty because you stood up to the foreign aggressor in the defence of
country and people!
We would like to ask you to extend our greetings to all other prisoners,
and especially to the President of the Republika Srpska Krajina, Mr Milan
Martic as well as to the President of the Republika Srpska, Mr Momcilo
Krajisnik.
Serbs of the European Diaspora with the Organising Committee of the
Demonstrations in The Hague
Vidovdan, 28 June 2003
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council)
http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM)
http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/ (an independent web site)
_________________________________