International Demonstration in The Hague
The Aggressors Shall Not Write Our History.
The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM) held a second successful demonstration at The Hague on Saturday 8th November 2003 following on from the impressive first event in June this year.
The participation of more political organisations, the presence of a Greek MEP, and the announcement of newly formed ICDSM National Committees, was a vindication of the principled stand taken by the ICDSM in this last period and a testament to the correctness of their work and to the inspiration of the struggle conducted by Slobodan Milosevic.
The demonstration commenced with a rally at Het Plien,
outside the Dutch Parliament, where the speakers and the colourful crowd
attracted the attention of passers-by.
Using the slogan, ‘the aggressors shall not write our history’,
the speakers emphasised the key demands of the protest which attacked
both the political and legal legitimacy of the ICTY.
The subsequent march wound through the streets of Den
Haag and reached the Detention Unit in Scheveningen where the demonstrators
roared their support for the Yugoslav political prisoners held there.
The speakers of various nationalities who addressed the crowd outside
the prison gates showed the international nature of the demonstration.
An emotional moment occurred between the speeches as a minute of silence was observed for the workers of RTS Belgrade who lost their lives during the Nato bombing of the television station. As each name was called out from the platform a member of the demonstration came forward holding a cross with the victim’s name on it. Sixteen crosses were assembled at the front of the platform and the rally did what no western media had the decency to do: they paid their respects to these innocent victims of the aggression.
As darkness fell and the music and speeches concluded the demonstrators reluctantly dispersed. However, as in June, their behaviour was impeccable and even the Dutch police present had to admit that the marchers posed not a second of trouble or disorder.
It is clear that this struggle, and associated resistance throughout the world, will intensify and to this end the ICDSM is planning further actions, events and demonstrations and details will be released as soon as they are finalised.
Some of these announcements will necessarily be at short notice but I would urge all honest and progressive people to do their utmost to support them.
(Prior to the demonstration the ICDSM delivered a protest letter to members of the UN Security Council and to the ICTY itself. Please see copy below).
Ian Johnson November
2003.
To the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
To the Governments of the French Republic, People’s Republic of
China, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland, United States of America
(via their Embassies at The Hague);
To the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
The people of Serbia
and Yugoslavia have been victimized by the criminal and irresponsible
actions of foreign powers, primarily the U.S. and other leading NATO governments.
These powers provoked the break-up of Yugoslavia and, in alliance with
terrorists and neo-fascists, waged the first war of aggression on European
soil since 1945, against Yugoslavia. Until now no one responsible from
these countries has been held accountable for these crimes.
Instead, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and almost all political
and military leaders of the Serbian people who resisted the destruction
of their country have been forced to appear before the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, established in violation of the UN
Charter. Not being a legitimate court of law, the ICTY has also proven
to be no court of justice. Directly or indirectly, the ICTY is responsible
for the loss of seven human lives. Its unfairness, bias and violation
of both universal and European conventions on the protection of human-rights,
as well as of generally accepted juridical principles, oblige all the
most responsible members of the World Organization to dismiss this malignant
and failed attempt to create an ad hoc court, which was done on a purely
political basis.
The ICTY is not solving,
but is deepening problems in the Balkans.
The rules and procedures of the ICTY favor the Prosecution and presume
the guilt of the defendants. The trials are being conducted so as to allow
the falsification of history, charging the entire Serbian nation for alleged
crimes, which is a kind of racism we believed was buried forever in Europe.
The Serbs and all other honest people of Europe refuse to allow the aggressors
to write history!
A terrifying panorama of distorted and perverse views on the history of
the Balkans was presented in the three indictments against President Milosevic,
who has been kept in illegal detention for more than two years in spite
of the three judgements of the Yugoslav Constitutional Court. Supported
by the freedom loving people in his country and abroad, President Milosevic
has heroically and successfully defended the truth, in spite of his ill
health, the bias of the judges and his isolation from his family, associates
and the media.
President Milosevic has been deprived of the basic conditions necessary
to prepare his case time and facilities. To prepare to confront
what the tribunal has fabricated or collected in ten years, while spending
700 million dollars from the UN budget alone, and what took two years
and millions of pages of disclosure for the Prosecution to present, President
Milosevic has been granted only six weeks, and he must remain in his prison
cell! At the same time, should this sort of pressure on him continue,
his malignant hypertension and damaged heart, exacerbated by the way the
trial is conducted, by the harsh prison conditions and the absence of
specialized medical care, can cause an infarct or stroke any moment. Only
in freedom is it possible to diminish the threat to his life and allow
the relative recuperation of his health.
For all the above reasons, we
DEMAND:
1. The immediate release
of President Milosevic and an adjournment of the process against him for
at least two years;
2. Abolition of the ICTY, as it is a criminal tool against Yugoslavia
and Serbian people and an insult to law and justice.
SERBS AND OTHER HONEST CITIZENS OF EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA GATHERED IN
THE INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATIONS AT THE HAGUE ON 8 NOVEMBER 2003