Communist Party of The Russian Federation
Central Committee. Presidium
_______________________________________________
The Murder of Milosevic is A Crime of Imperialism
Statement by the Presidium of the CC CPRF
The former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Honorary Chairman of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, died in his cell at the Hague Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Saturday, March 11, 2006.
We reject the assertion that he died from "natural causes". A crime has been committed. Milosevic was effectively killed in prison. During four years of a grueling trial his health was exposed to tremendous overload. And he was regularly denied access to qualified medical assistance.
International councils of physicians repeatedly declared that Milosevic's life was in danger and insisted on urgent specialist treatment. The Bakulev Cardiovascular Surgery Center sent him an official invitation to come for treatment. The Russian State issued corresponding guarantees of his return to the Hague. But the court refused to temporarily free Slobodan Milosevic. Because the court knew about the threat to his life, denying him a chance to go for treatment in fact means complicity in a premeditated murder.
An attempt to condemn communism is being mounted in Europe today. We maintain that what is taking place in Europe is revival of fascism. Hitlerites also used courts to make short work of communists. But Georgy Dimitrov emerged from his trial with acquittal and with his head held high. The NATO Tribunal at the Hague has destroyed a political prisoner and patriot.
Slobodan Milosevic died unconquered. He was not defending himself. He was defending the people of Yugoslavia.
Losing out in the court contest, the enemies of Milosevic decided to physically eliminate him. The blame for his death rests with the judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as with the leaders of the NATO countries. It also rests with the present rulers of Serbia who, in violation of the constitution, handed over President Milosevic to be tried.
This is not an International Tribunal. It is a NATO kangaroo court, designed to seal the results of the 1999 NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. Practically all the political forces of Russia except the more pro-Western forces, are one in the opinion that the ICTY is an openly anti-Serbian body. And the main "guilt" of the victims of the "tribunal" is that they are patriots of their country and champions of friendship and cooperation with Russia.
This dishonest "tribunal" was established illegally, contrary to the UN Charter. The whole history of its existence is a series of gross violations of universally accepted norms of international law. The "tribunal", whose upkeep costs hundreds of millions of dollars every year, is an instrument of pilfering the budget of the UN.
The CPRF resolutely condemns the activities of the ICTY which discredits the very idea of international justice.
We call on the authorities of the Russian Federation as a permanent member of the Security Council to demand that the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia be dissolved, all the cases pending before it be handed over to national courts and the UN Security Council set up a commission to inquire into the circumstances of Milosevic's death.
The judges and prosecutors of ICTY should be charged with deliberately denying medical assistance to a person in a grave condition. After they serve their sentences they should all be forbidden to practice law in the future.
As a first step, the financing of the ICTY should be suspended. Simultaneously, we demand an immediate release of Vojislav Seselj and other Serb patriots who are still languishing at the UN prison at the Hague.
We lower our banners in memory of our dead comrade.
The CPRF calls on all the left-wing and patriotic parties and organizations to express vigorous protest against the destruction of Slobodan Milosevic.
Gennady Zyuganov
Chairman of the CC CPRF
Moscow, March 15,2006