President Milosevic's right to a fair trial in jeapardy

President Milosevic's right to a fair trial in jeapardy

OPEN STATEMENT -
From : International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (Irish Section).

Contact June Kelly - Coordinator ICDSM(Irish Section)
email: cdsmireland@eircom.net
Mobile: 086 1963134
Tel/Fax: 044 45787

The International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (Irish Section) gives support wholeheartedly to ICDSM lawyers and representative of the Sloboda/Freedom Association who will hold a Press Conference today at The Hall: De Statenzaal in the Crowne Plaza Den Haag, Promenade hotel, Van Stolkweg 1, 2585 JL Den Haag, tel: 0031 (0) 70 3525161-
Mobile for Vladimir Krsljanin, Sloboda/Freedom Association and foreign relations assistant to President Milosevic and Coordinator of ICDSM whilst in The Hague is +381 638862 301 24 Hour TelFax to Sloboda Association in belgrade is +381 11630 549 - email: slobodavk@yubc.net (five minutes walk from the ICTY building).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SLOBODA | FREEDOM

udruzenje | association

Member of the World Peace Council

YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE FOR THE LIBERATION OF

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

Belgrade, Rajiceva 16, tel./fax +381 11 630 549

Belgrade, 09 February 2004

TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS TO ALL ITS ORGANS, AGENCIES AND BODIES;

TO THE GOVERNMENTS AND PARLIAMENTS

OF ALL UN MEMBER STATES;

TO ORGANIZATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, LAW AND PEACE;

TO POLITICAL PARTIES, MEDIA AND GENERAL PUBLIC

Freedom Association from Belgrade, acting as National Committee for the Liberation of President Slobodan Milosevic has honour to submit to your attention the document entitled “MEASURES TAKEN ONLY AGAINST SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC IN THE SCHEVENINGEN PRISON AND AT THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL, IN CONTRAVENTION OF THEIR OWN RULES, GUARANTEES AND RIGHTS” written by our organization and by the family of President Milosevic.

For the sake of peace, human rights, legality and justice, in the name of the International Law and democracy in the international relations, respecting the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments protecting human rights and principles of judiciary and for the pure humanitarian reasons, we expect your immediate reaction to the facts described in the document.

We call upon the UN Security Council to act now against the severe violations of human rights performed by its subsidiary organ, ICTY. We will welcome all reactions aiming to accelerate such a move of the Security Council.

Please inform us about your reactions. Our contacts: phone: +381 63 88 62 301; fax: +381 11 630 549 and e-mail: slobodavk@yubc.net are 24 hours available also for obtaining additional information.

With due respect, on behalf of the Freedom Association Managing Board

www.wpc-in.org www.sloboda.org.yu www.icdsm.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MEASURES TAKEN ONLY AGAINST SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC IN THE SCHEVENINGEN PRISON AND AT THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL, IN CONTRAVENTION OF THEIR OWN RULES, GUARANTEES AND RIGHTS

Obstructing and avoiding visits of physicians.

Banning the physicians from publishing their findings on his health condition and on the causes of its deterioration.

Preventing the family from visiting in the duration allowed to all other detainees (between 7 and 15 days a month) and reducing it to 3 days a month.

Refusing almost all visits of the world public figures, acquaintances, friends, politicians etc.

Censoring and restricting visits from Yugoslavia of friends, Party colleagues, SLOBODA National Committee members engaged in defending Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia.

Preventing the members of ten different national committees for the defence of Slobodan Milosevic that have been established in the world, as well as the members and the leadership of the International Committee for his defence from contacting and visiting

Preventing the family from being alone with him, which is not otherwise a practice when other detainees are concerned.

Banning the family from visiting at the time of the Serbian elections.

Banning all telephone communications before, during and after the Serbian elections, except with the family.

Obstructing contacts and the work with lawyers.

Listening in to conversations with the lawyer.

Deliberately keeping him for many hours within the court building with the explanation that “the transportation was being late”.

Unannounced alterations in the sequence of witnesses.

Closing the proceedings for the public during the examination of witnesses who might compromise NATO and the Tribunal.

For nearly two years the trial is being held day in and day out. Such a practice has never been recorded in the history of the judiciary since it came into existence. Only as of a month ago the trial was being held for three days a week, after the physicians had emphasized that he cannot withstand it, but he is hardly withstanding even that effort, because his health has been severely damaged in prison.

On account of the whole-day sojourn at the court, he has no time at all to rest during the trial days, nor to go out and have some fresh air and walk (exercise), nor to have regular meals.

He has no conditions for work and trial preparations either. His cell has been swamped with trial materials, often received in the evening, on the eve of a trial day. This excludes the possibility of a timely and proper preparation for the trial. At the same time, such practice is in contravention of the Tribunal’s rules.

He has been often given materials in English, although according to their own rules each detainee has to be given materials required for his defence in his mother tongue.

The trial materials are of such volume that he would need another 50 years to make a full use of it.

Preventing the Defence from preparing, as compared to the preparation of the Prosecution. The preparation of the Prosecution lasted at least 4 years, he was allotted 3 months to prepare! In addition to this, the Prosecution was being prepared by several hundreds of people, and him alone is to prepare the Defence.

Moreover, he has been brought to The Hague by force, illegally and in contravention of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The materials had been handed over to him, requiring by its volume a multi-year labour of a large expert team, as was the case with the Prosecution, prepared for at least 4 years with the logistic, financial, organizational and personnel support of the governments of NATO member states. The Prosecution’s case has been prolonged several times, and he was allotted three months to prepare his defence alone, in prison, without personal and telephone contacts and with no time nor conditions for medical treatment. A large number of witnesses were employees of the Prosecution, which is in contravention of their own rules. Even larger number of witnesses was bribed or blackmailed people. Without adjudication, the Tribunal reached a decision to prevent his Party from contacting him at the time of the elections, which is a direct interference of an institution otherwise illegitimate with the politics and the internal affairs of a sovereign state and in this case with its citizens’ will. Visits and contacts assessed as unsuitable by the Tribunal are banned with no explanation, again in contravention of their own rules. Slobodan Milosevic has been brought to The Hague with poor health condition, and in the Scheveningen prison it has been ignored, inadequately treated and drastically deteriorated under the inhuman treatment (for several months, cameras and spotlights had been constantly on in his cell) and by the lack of medical treatment during his stay there. Nothing has been done to improve his health condition, quite the contrary. The Tribunal banned all the physicians, the Yugoslav as well as the Dutch ones, from publishing their reports on his condition. Only after the physicians’ warning that his life has been directly threatened the workload at the Tribunal itself was reduced. For what reason such savage and inhuman measures were taken consciously and deliberately under the auspices and in the name of the United Nations?

For what reason his defence has been prevented so obviously and brutally? Why ONLY he has the right to visits for just three days a month when all other detainees at The Hague have 15 days each month? Why the Tribunal officials have to be present ONLY at his visits? Has the United Nations given the mandate to the Tribunal and entitled it to interfere also with the internal Yugoslav politics and even with the election? If The Hague Tribunal is a UN institution, is this organization aware of the treatment given in its name to a human being, a sick man, a former head of state? As a founder of The Hague Tribunal, the Organization of the United Nations is directly responsible for the operations, operating procedures and methods applied by its institution. Therefore, it bears responsibility also for any wrong done and harm caused by its institution to any one man and people in general. The Organization of the United Nation is obliged to provide public answers to these questions.

The UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva has not done much for the protection of human rights over the past years, but while “protecting” this heritage it has caused a lot of misfortune throughout the world. We demand for this institution to speak out now in relation to the illegal, inhuman treatment of Slobodan Milosevic in their own institution. How is justice being defended by the United Nations with publishing every word presented by the Prosecution and its collaborators and at the same time hiding and censoring everything coming from the Defence? Complete testimonies of the witnesses for the Prosecution have been published, blackmailed and corrupt as a rule and mainly untruthful individuals, and the public has been denied the expounding of Slobodan Milosevic, a brilliant defence admired by anyone who heard it. On this occasion we are not raising a question of the rationale and legitimacy of The Hague Tribunal, because it has no legitimacy, its rationale is nowadays already clear to everybody and it will go into history as black as it is, together with all its protagonists. We demand for the UN and the UN Commission for Human Rights, as well as all international organizations for the protection of human rights to react to a crime that was being perpetrated against Slobodan Milosevic in its most brutal form, unknown to modern civilization.

In Belgrade, 09 February 2004

SLOBODA/Freedom Association National Committee for the Liberation
of President Slobodan Milosevic
and
the family of President Milosevic

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM AND TRUTH ABOUT THE SERBIAN PEOPLE AND YUGOSLAVIA IS IN THE CRUCIAL PHASE. NATO AND ITS SERVICES IN BELGRADE AND THE HAGUE HAVE NO INTEREST TO SUPPORT IT.

SO IT TOTALLY DEPENDS ON YOU!

A SMALL TEAM OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC'S ASSISTANTS, WHICH IS BECOMING INTERNATIONAL, HAS TO HAVE CONDITIONS TO WORK AT THE HAGUE IN THE TIME OF INTENSIVE PREPARATIONS FOR THE FINAL PRESENTATION OF TRUTH AND DURING THAT PRESENTATION.

TO DONATE, PLEASE CONTACT SLOBODA OR THE NEAREST ICDSM BRANCH, OR

find the instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm

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.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM)
http://www.icdsm-us.org/ (US section of ICDSM)
http://www.icdsmireland.org/ (ICDSM Ireland)
http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council)
http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center

___________________________
www.icdsm.org
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO DEFEND SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

The ICTY Prosecution will end its case in disgrace on 19 February 2004, more
than two years after it started. Nothing has been proved against Yugoslav
President Milosevic. On the contrary, dishonesty and crimes of the
destroyers of Yugoslavia and of their quasi-court puppets and racist
persecution of the Serbian people have been in large extent exposed by the
heroic defense of the truth, performed by Slobodan Milosevic. Their panic is
expressed in the attempt to silence the truth by putting President Milosevic
's life at stake, by putting him in total isolation and by making the
preparations for his case almost impossible.

ICDSM ANNOUNCES ITS PRESS CONFERENCE

Tuesday, 17 February 2004, 13:00 at The Hague

Press will be addressed by the ICDSM lawyers:

Professor Velko Valkanov (Bulgaria), Founder and Co-chairman of ICDSM,
Chairman of the Bulgarian Committee for Human Rights, Honorary Chairman of
the Bulgarian Antifascist Alliance,

Mr. Jacques Vergès (France), attorney, counsel of President Milosevic out of
ICTY and

Ms. Tiphaine Dickson (Québec/Canada), attorney,

who will give their assessment of the Hague process, announce further
actions of ICDSM and answer journalists' questions.

The press conference will be attended also by Mr. Vladimir Krsljanin
(Serbia/Yugoslavia) of Sloboda/Freedom Association, foreign relations
assistant to President Milosevic and Coordinator of ICDSM.

VENUE The hall: De Statenzaal in the
Crowne Plaza Den Haag
Promenade Hotel
Van Stolkweg 1, 2585 JL Den Haag, tel.: 0031 (0)70 3525161
(five minutes of walk from the ICTY building)

ALL MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES ARE WELCOME!

SLOBODA urgently needs your donation.
Please find the detailed instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm

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.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM)
http://www.icdsm-us.org/ (US section of ICDSM)
http://www.icdsmireland.org/ (ICDSM Ireland)
http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council)
http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)

Home