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Defiant Milosevic Launches Defense at Trial By Paul Gallagher and Emma Thomasson Aug 31, 2004 THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launched a spirited defense at his war crimes trial on Tuesday, branding the case a "distortion of history" of the blood-stained collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Milosevic, who wants to call more than 1,000 witnesses, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the 150 days allocated to him, stabbed the air with his glasses as he called the tribunal illegal. "Accusations leveled against me are an unscrupulous lie and also a tireless distortion of history," he told the U.N. court in The Hague. "Everything has been presented in a lopsided manner in order to protect those who are truly responsible." Looking relaxed and sitting with his legs crossed, Milosevic started his opening statement with a broad-brush account of what he called "the violent destruction" of Yugoslavia. The former Serb strongman, who has described himself as a peacemaker, accused the West, [the Clinton administration] NATO [Wesley Clark], Kosovo Albanian drug gangs, Islamic militants and the Vatican [Whose silence on those who call the Son of God an abomination is one of the most peculiar behaviors about them - since the time of Christ] of fueling the break-up of the former Yugoslav federation at the end of the Cold War.
During the war many residential areas were on the front line "A multi-ethnic, multi-confessional state was destroyed ... this constitutes the gravest international crime," said Milosevic, who was wearing a dark suit, pale blue shirt and red, blue and white striped tie. "Hundreds of thousands of people were wounded and maimed. Thousands of people fled their homes, mostly Serbs." ANTI-SERB BIAS? Milosevic has accused the court of inherent bias against him and the Serb people, saying it is designed to cover up NATO war crimes in Kosovo sponsored by the United States and Britain. [That doesn't included the involvement of the religions] Quoting from historical texts dating back to the 19th century, Milosevic said he was the victim of ancient anti-Serb propaganda, which charged the Serbian people with an expansionist drive to create a "Greater Serbia." "It is in this institution that the lie of the Greater Serbia grew into a monstrous structure of unprecedented magnitude," he said. SEE} A brief history of the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict A small group of supporters demonstrated outside the tribunal waving a banner reading "Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic." Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch was disappointed Milosevic had not addressed the charges leveled against him. Richard Dicker is not being forth-coming concerning the Islamic provoking on the Serbs.
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"We are hearing an alternative view of history. We're hearing nothing about the specific charges," he said. Prosecutors want judges to impose a defense counsel on Milosevic despite his objections to make sure the most significant war crimes trial in Europe since top Nazis were tried at Nuremberg is not delayed again by his ill health. The court is expected to discuss his health and consider arguments on appointing a defense lawyer after Milosevic completes his opening statement, two-and-a-half years into his marathon trial. Prosecutors rested their case in February after calling more than 290 witnesses. Judges want to conclude the case by October 2005. Milosevic has declined to enter a plea to the charges he faces. Pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf. The Associated Press Reported: By TOBY STERLING THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Slobodan Milosevic launched a defiant defense Tuesday of his conduct during the Balkan wars, accusing his enemies of conspiracies against the Serbs and insisting his countrymen acted in self-defense. "Accusations leveled against me are an unscrupulous lie and also a tireless distortion of history. Everything has been presented in a lopsided manner in order to protect those who are truly responsible," Milosevic asserted. It was the first time he was allowed to speak without interruption since his trial began 2 1/2 years ago, and he signaled he would mount a highly political rather than legal defense. [Milosevic, nor his attorneys are allowed to speak to the media] He unleashed a stream of invective against those he held responsible for Serbia's torment: Croatia, which he accused of genocide against its Serb minority; the United States and Europe for allegedly seeking Yugoslavia's destruction; Islamic fundamentalists for supporting Muslim "terrorists" in Bosnia and Kosovo; and the Vatican, which he said sought the supremacy of Roman Catholicism in the Balkans over the Orthodox church. "They call themselves the 'international community,' but in the territory of Yugoslavia — Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo — they supported a totalitarian chauvinist elite, terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, whose objective was an ethnically pure state. That is to say, a state without any Serbs," he said. Prosecutors accuse Milosevic of orchestrating or condoning murder, the destruction of towns and places of worship and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people in an effort to create an ethnically pure "greater Serbia" stretching across Yugoslavia's former republics. Milosevic said allegations he conspired to create a Serbian superstate were a myth "created by Austro-Hungarian propaganda as far back as the latter half of the 19th century." "The fratricidal war in Yugoslavia was instigated and supported precisely by those who established this court of yours," Milosevic told the panel of three U.N judges hearing his case. [Catholic lawyers write the laws which are called - 'Rome Mandates' - At least Two Muslim judges sit on a panel of 15 judges] Milosevic maintained that in the 1991 war in Croatia he came to the aid of ethnic Serbs who were under threat from an armed rebellion against Yugoslavia. [which they still are] Later in Bosnia, Muslim fighters came from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Morocco "to support the first Islamic state in Europe" — some of them bearing arms that had been supplied by the CIA for the war in Afghanistan, Milosevic maintained. [what was Sandy Berger stuffing in his socks? The Clinton administration trashed government computers the day they left office] Tomanovic, the legal aide, said Milosevic awaited responses from Washington and London to requests to call former President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as witnesses. He apparently wants to confront them with accusations they were responsible for Serb civilian deaths.
During the war many residential areas were on the front line And the 'religious' leaders did not organize marches at that time - to put a stop to it
U.S. Analyst Testifies for Milosevic MARIA LOKSHIN, Associated Press Sept 8 THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A former U.S. policy analyst, testifying for the defense at Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial Wednesday, said part of the groundwork for what became the al-Qaida terrorist network was laid during the Bosnian war in the 1990s break-up of Yugoslavia. The testimony of analyst James Jatras appeared directed at showing the U.S. government likely knew that Islamic fundamentalists were fighting in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war and in the Serbian province of Kosovo in the 1990s. [During the Clinton administration] Milosevic has claimed that the Serbs in Kosovo [Russian Orthodox] and the former Yugoslav republics were fighting wars of self defense against what he described as persecution by Croats [Roman Catholis] and Muslims. In his opening statement last week, he accused the United States of being part of an anti-Serb conspiracy that also included Germany, NATO, Islamic countries and the Vatican. Prosecutors [who use laws called 'Rome Mandates'] allege that Milosevic designed and carried out a complex plan to create an ethnically pure Serb nation by expelling or murdering non-Serbs [which, according to the few news reports at that time...is a lie] in the former Yugoslav republics to carve out a "Greater Serbia." [Muslims were attacking the churches and homes of the Serbs. The Vatican has always had disagreements with the other side of the same house - Russian Orthodox. They are of the same house that split around 1051ad - due to a power struggle for authority. To this day - the jealousies still exist] Jatras, testifying at Milosevic's resumed trial, had compiled several reports on Yugoslavia when he worked for the Senate Republican Policy Committee from 1985-2000. Reinforcing his earlier conclusions, Jatras said the U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States had found that the "groundwork for a true terrorist network was being laid" in 1990s Bosnia. He called it "a small footprint movement" that later became recognized as al-Qaida. Prosecutors protested that Jatras was an analyst with no firsthand knowledge of the wars, but judges allowed him to continue, saying his opinion as an expert was of interest. "I don't see how it could possibly help us," prosecutor Geoffrey Nice said. Jatras was questioned by Steven Kay, a lawyer assigned last week as Milosevic's defense counsel over the defendant's angry objections. The former Serb leader conducted his own defense for two years until doctors ruled that he was in danger of a heart attack if he continued. "I demand that you return my right to self defense," a scowling Milosevic said at one point Wednesday after presiding Judge Patrick Robinson asked him a question. "You took it away from me, and it violates all conceivable international norms, even your own," Milosevic said. But Robinson said the court has "been over that ground. We will not rehearse it," and cut Milosevic off. Chechnya is another area in that same region of the globe that is provoking Russia and then having the 'rights' groups scream "FOWL" when Russia responds. This time, the world is not going to sides with those who take cowardly over-power a bunch of school children, no matter how much the 'rights' groups balk! The bloodshed is coming from false religions.
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