‘Last phase’ of Milosevic trial near

To prepare for what defense activists called “the final phase” of NATO’s star-chamber trial of the former Yugoslav president, the U.S. section of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic held a strategy meeting here on Oct. 16 with representatives of the ICDSM from Germany and Serbia.

The main topics of the meeting included: (1) the latest developments in the trial; (2) a project of the U.S. chapter of the ICDSM to publish by the end of this year a newly translated English version of Milosevic’s August 2004 opening defense speech at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Netherlands, where he faces war-crimes charges. The ICTY was specially created by the UN at the urging of then-U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright.

Cathrin Schuetz, an assistant to the legal team in The Hague and member of the German committee, reported on the course of the ICTY proceedings. Schuetz attends regularly, either in the courtroom or working behind the scenes.

Schuetz said that while it was clear the “trial” was in its final phase, no hard dates have been set. Later investigation showed that about two-thirds of Milosevic’s 150 days to present defense witnesses have been used, which indicates the trial should end sometime in the spring of 2006.

“The discussion of the ‘Kosovo war’ is almost over,” Schuetz added. There were no allegations that Milosevic had committed any crimes until May 1999, when the U.S. and other NATO powers used the ICTY to bring additional pressure against the Yugoslav leader as they were in the midst of a 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia that killed hundreds and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure.

Schuetz reported on testimony given by Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, who she said made some of the more important political points in recent months: “One of the main charges against the president was that he was part of a ‘criminal conspiracy’ to work toward a ‘Greater Serbia,’” that is, to expand the boundaries of what had been the Yugoslav Serbian Republic. “Seselj was adamant that his party and only his party, the Radical Party, supported this program. He insisted that Milosevic was opposed to this policy of a Greater Serbia.”

Conditions in Serbia

Vladimir Krsljanin, a former adviser to Milosevic who works with the Serb committee Sloboda, reported by phone from Belgrade about the harsh conditions of life for many people in Serbia five years after the U.S.-backed election/coup that overthrew Milosevic and allowed a virtual foreign takeover of the country.

“All the major industry has either been shut down completely or taken over by foreign capital, with the work force cut in half or less. Close to half the people are bordering on despair,” said Krsljanin.

“There may be few outward demonstrations of the building resentment,” he continued, “but that doesn’t mean the people are content. It can end with a change in the political process at the next vote, which will be next spring, or in an explosion.”

International Action Center co-coordinator Sara Flounders, who chaired the meet ing, turned the discussion to the new book now nearing completion. She thanked Radmila Milentijevic for the “tremendous job she did re-translating the text from the Serbian original” and filmmaker Milo Yeleseyevich, who edited the English translation.

The meeting paid tribute to Harold Pinter, playwright and author and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who was a strong opponent of the NATO-sponsored war that led to the dismemberment of Yugoslavia.

Among those present, besides those mentioned above, were Prof. Barry Litu chy, Heather Cottin, journalist George Szamueley and Serb-American composer Milos Raickovich. Political journalist Greg Elich and author Leonora Foerstel joined the discussion by phone.

John Catalinotto is co-editor with Flounders of the IAC’s 2002 book on the war against Yugoslavia, “Hidden Agenda,” available at leftbooks.com.