The trial of Milosevic: is the past or the future being judged?
An interview with Michel Collon, author of several books on NATO and Yugoslavia / Procès Milosevic : juge-t-on le passé ou l’avenir? Interview de Michel Collon, auteur de livres sur l’Otan et la Yougoslavie
Feb. 14, 2002
By Michel Barile
Q: You just came back from The Hague [Netherlands]. In your opinion, is the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) respecting the law? People are beginning to pose this question. Does such a juridical approach seem pertinent to you?
Michel Collon. Yes. It is right to ask if an accused person has the right to a fair trial. And if the elementary principles of law should be respected. In this case [that of Milosevic], the response is manifestly "no."
This tribunal is not neutral, it is political and it violates the law. Besides this, a great number of people, whatever they think of Milosevic, could ask themselves what are the true motives of those who are directing this trial. And understand that it involves a dangerous precedent for all the wars that George Bush and Company are preparing.
Q: "Not neutral," the ICTY?
Michel Collon. Not at all. Listen, if you yourself had an ongoing conflict with an "enemy," and that enemy was financing the tribunal, would you accept it? Now, the ICTY is financed by the U.S. government, by U.S. multinationals and by the multi-billionaire speculator George Soros. He has financed with hundreds of millions of dollars, in Yugoslavia and other Eastern European countries, media that attacked Milosevic and foundations to promote capitalism. He also financed Albanian separatists. Can you be at the same time judge and party to the trial?
Q: You accuse the ICTY of being a political instrument. ...
Michel Collon. It isn't I who accuse it, it's Jamie Shea, spokesperson for NATO himself. The ICTY, he said, will not investigate [NATO's crimes] unless we let it. Recall that the president of the tribunal also thanked [former U.S. Secretary of State] Madeleine Albright for her help and characterized her as the "Mother of the tribunal." Finally, Louise Arbour, the prosecutor who had drafted the charges against Milosevic, had gone a little earlier to get her instructions from [U.S. President] Clinton and [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair. She has taken part in public activities with the NATO generals. She belongs to the editorial committee of an important U.S. conservative revue, along with General Wesley Clark, who commanded the bombardment of Yugoslavia. This revue, to be sure, praises NATO.
You should know that I studied law. It's true it was a long time ago, but all that [occurring at the ICTY] violates the principles accepted by all jurists. The penal code says that one can disqualify a witness who, for example, dines with an accused. Remember that in Belgium, Judge Connerotte had been removed from the case of the disappeared children because he had taken part in a spaghetti dinner for the association of parents.
Q: What juridical rules does the ICTY violate?
Michel Collon. It can use anonymous witnesses. Or CIA reports as proof without informing the defense about them. It can refuse to admit this or that lawyer. All practices formally forbidden by traditional codes.
Q: Milosevic introduced a suit in a Dutch court affirming that he had been kidnapped and was being held illegally. ...
Michel Collon. On this point too, he is correct. Look at the laws prevalent all over the world regulating extradition procedures. They are strict: only a tribunal can decide on the extradition of a citizen to another country. If not, you are in a completely arbitrary situation.
Now, the Supreme Court of Belgrade had declared the extradition of Milosevic illegal. To make sure this decision didn't hold, the Serbian government led by Mr. Djindjic forced Milosevic aboard a plane. Now, the Serb government is not even recognized internationally-it's only one of the sub-governments, if I could put it so, in Yugoslavia. Imagine that the highest Belgian court refused permission to extradite someone, but that the Flemish government or that of Brussels carried out the extradition nonetheless. That's exactly what happened. Besides, everyone knows that the Djindjic government carried out this transfer in exchange for a reward that the United States didn't even pay him. We return to the justice of the U.S. Far West, bounty-hunters and kidnappings.
Q: For you, this trial is linked to the violation of rights of the Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo?
Michel Collon. Absolutely. It's the new style. Bush violates the rights of prisoners of war, he installs dictatorial military tribunals. These could judge tomorrow any opponent or liberation movement of the Third World. The Council of Europe has begun to follow Bush by itself promulgating laws that could be used to hit any trade unionist or anti-globalization demonstrator, calling them terrorists.
If we don't react, the United States will eliminate all traces of international law. Laws disturb them. In the 1980, the International Court of Justice condemned President Reagan for having mined the ports of Nicaragua with the goal of destabilizing the leftist Sandinista government there. What did the U.S. do? It stopped recognizing the court! And at present when there is talk of an International Court that could judge war crimes of any country, how is Bush reacting? He announces that it is out of the question that any U.S. citizen ever be charged for crimes he may have committed and that the U.S. Marines would go and rescue him by force no matter where in the world that trial would be taking place!
Q: What U.S. war crimes are you thinking of?
Michel Collon. For example, those NATO committed bombing Yugoslavia. First, the UN Charter forbids recourse to war to resolve conflicts. Then, to bombard in 1999 Belgrade TV to silence it [16 technicians and journalists killed], is a crime pure and simple with respect to the Geneva Conventions. And to bombard electrical enterprises and installations to make the population suffer is expressly forbidden. Some 2,000 civilians were killed, often willfully marked as targets.
Q: Willfully?
Michel Collon. Exactly. The families of the victims have begun a suit in Germany against the bombardment of the Varvarin bridge. There was no military target at all, no soldier, just civilians bombed while they were crossing a bridge. And the plane came back to bomb a second time: 10 civilians killed, 17 seriously wounded. These are the obvious crimes that the ICTY refuses to follow up on.
Q: Thus, you see in the trial at The Hague only the law of the stronger?
Michel Collon. Yes-the masters of the world claim they are judging Milosevic, but refuse to judge [Chile's General Augusto] Pinochet or [Israel's Ariel] Sharon. The latter can illegally occupy Palestine, practice apartheid, ethnic cleansing by steps and terror, yet he continues to receive billions and billions of dollars and euros, and Europe doesn't raise its little finger.
In fact, Milsevic has been attacked not for crimes he might have committed but because he resisted the IMF and the multinationals that wanted to control his country. For me, it is the most important dimension of this trial at the moment when Bush is threatening more and more countries that are "rebellious": [North] Korea, Iraq, even Iran, [guerrillas in] Colombia, Philippines and tomorrow still others. The goal of this trial is to intimidate all the Third World leaders who follow a course of resistance to the multinationals. In this trial, they are not judging the past, but all the resistances to come. It is a trial of intimidation.
Q: Curiously, they have begun again to treat Milosevic as a "communist."
Michel Collon. Yes, that struck me during the sessions. [Chief Prosecutor Carla] Del Ponte began by justifying the fact that they had incessantly cut off Milosevic's microphone, accusing him of transforming the trial into a political debate. But immediately after, she and her aide proceeded with a political analysis (pro-Western, of course) of his orientation and of his activity as leader. And they used the term "communist" all over the place to attack him with.
It is a debatable point. Personally, like many observers, I think at starting from 1989, Milosevic's ideas tended on the contrary to be for introducing capitalism to Yugoslavia, all the while hoping to "control" it.
The true discussion is over what IMF-style capitalism has brought to Yugoslavia today? The colossal price hikes, homes deprived of electricity, massive loss of jobs. The DOS government's popular support has fallen to less than 10 percent. Even President [Vojislav] Kostunica has demanded early elections. These NATO will evidently stop from happening.
But why have they now restarted using the term "communist"? Clearly because Bush has begun a demonization campaign against North Korea and the multinationals are dreaming of putting a definitive end to socialism in China.
Q: You often hear the objection: "Yes, but you still have to try Milosevic."
Michel Collon. For me, if someone has committed crimes, he should certainly be tried. And I think that in Bosnia, terrible crimes were committed by the militias of the three opposing sides. Who controlled them? That's another question. But I would like to add three essential remarks:
1. Don't believe all that they tell you about the Serbs. The media lies have been as enormous here as during the Gulf War [of 1991].
2. I accuse the United States of having utilized Islamic terrorists from Bin Laden's movement to break up Yugoslavia and to divide the peoples: In Bosnia, in Kosovo and in Macedonia also. One cannot understand the Milosevic case if no one answers the question: Why did the United States support this terrorism?
3. I agree that one must put criminals on trial, but then on the condition that there is equal judgment of all the participants. That includes Clinton, Blair, [German ex-Chancellor] Helmut Kohl and the U.S. and German secret services for their clandestine work in Yugoslavia. But this trial in The Hague, it is as if Sharon is judging [Palestinian Premier Yassir] Arafat.
Q: What should be done now?
Michel Collon. Denounce the military tribunals and the Far West justice prepared by Bush and Company for their future wars. Demand the dissolution of the ICTY because it is illegal. Milosevic should be able to return to Yugoslavia and it is for the Serbian people to resolve its own affairs. The rich countries have no right to impose their rule on the planet in the judicial arena, the rich countries are not the solution for the problems that they themselves have created.
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