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Update From The Hague The so-called "trial" of president Slobodan Milosevic is on a one week break and will resume on 19 May 2003, when the so-called "witness" Fadil Banjanovic will resume his testimony. Banjanovic says that he intends to "look in Milosevic's eyes and remind him of what he had done during the war." According to the May 3rd edition of the Bosnian paper "Dnevni Avaz," Mr. Banjanovic has said that he will use the opportunity of going to the Hague to visit his friend Naser Oric. Naser Oric's men raped underage civilian girls from their own side forcing Muslim women trapped in Srebrenica to cross the battle field and seek the protection of the Army of the Republika Srpska (More Information). Naser Oric also had a taste for filmmaking as evidenced by the following excerpt from the February 16, 1994 edition of the Washington Post: Nasir Oric's war trophies don't line the wall of his comfortable apartment-- one of the few with electricity in this besieged Muslim enclave stuck in the forbidding mountains of eastern Bosnia. They're on a videocassette tape: burned Serb houses and headless Serb men, their bodies crumpled in a pathetic heap. "We had to use cold weapons that night," Oric explains as scenes of dead men sliced by knives roll over his 21-inch Sony. "This is the house of a Serb named Ratso," he offers as the camera cuts to a burned-out ruin. "He killed two of my men, so we torched it. Tough luck." Reclining on an overstuffed couch, clothed head to toe in camouflage fatigues, a U.S. Army patch proudly displayed over his heart, Oric gives the impression of a lion in his den. For sure, the Muslim commander is the toughest guy in this town, which the U.N. Security Council has declared a protected "safe area." Perhaps the time for toughness in Bosnia is nearing an end. The problem, though, is that hundreds of men like Oric who still want to fight dominate all three sides in this 22-month-old war. Nobody controls them; they have access to plenty of weapons and lead many young men. (End Excerpt) Fadil Banjanovic is typical for that so-called "prosecution." This so-called "witness" is best friends with rapists and killers, and he has the gall to come to that political theatre they call a "court," and preach at president Milosevic.
The Farce Continues. .
. The so-called "trial" of President Milosevic resumed at The Hague on Monday. The testimony of Fadil Banjanovic was concluded and the testimony of Runo Delabros was begun. The "judges" issued a "judgement" on Tuessday which allowed the "prosecution" more time to present its pathetic "case". The new deadline is 100 hearing days from 16 May 2003. The conclusion of Fadil Banjanovic was interesting. This self-professed friend of Nasir Oric testified about how 1,822 Muslims (including him) left Kozlok and went to Serbia. In spite of the fact that Banjanovic didn't want to admit it; his testimony demonstrated that the authorities in Serbia behaved in an admirable fashion towards Muslim refugees. The Serbian Police protected the Muslim refugees from criminals who wanted to harm them. The Serbian Red Cross gave the refugees medical treatment and food. The municipal authorities issued passports to people in a timely manner, never taking more than 8 days. In spite of Banjanovic's best efforts to the contrary, his testimony demonstrated that the Government of Serbia treated Muslim refugees in an exemplary manner. After Banjanovic finished the prosecution called Runo Delabros who is purported to be a French "propaganda expert." Mr. Delabros is a wind bag. I couldn't help being reminded of sitting in art class in college, where I listened to seemingly endless prattle from a bunch of pot smoking hippies talking about what their work of art represented, and how it spoke to their version of the truth. It always seemed that the better they could bullshit the better the grade they would be given. Delabros was the same way as this bunch of drug-addicted hippies. He had the ability to run his mouth for long periods of time and still never quite manage to answer the question he was asked. President Milosevic asked him if he regarded his report as a scientific report produced for the so-called "tribunal." The answer to this question is either yes or no. This witness ran his mouth for almost 10 minutes yammering on and on about how he didn't speak Serbo-Croat, and about how some team of people in Belgrade fed him the data that he used in his report. One of President Milosevic's next questions was if this witness had done a content analysis of the Serbian media. Judge, Richard "Dick" May got angry with the question because "the trial chamber didn't understand it." "Judge" Dick, is just playing dumb here (or maybe it isn't an act) because the answer to the question is so obvious. How could this witness, who didn't speak the language, and who had all of his data fed to him by some team, have done any content analysis of the Serbian media, and having not done a content analysis how can he consider his thesis to be scientific? The witness tried to claim that the terms like "Ustasha fighter," "Muslim extremist," and "Albanian terrorist." were all terms designed to degrade Albanians, Muslims and Croats as entire ethnic groups. I don't know how this could be the case since those particular terms suggest individual criminals and not entire ethnic groups. In fact there are numerous examples from Slobodan Milosevic's speeches where he specifically points out that those criminal elements do not represent the ethnic groups of which they are members. During the examination in chief Delabros claimed that memorials held for Serbs killed by the Ustasha was "propaganda." Apparently President Milosevic is guilty of letting the Serbian people remember the sacrifices they made during World War Two. This witness claimed twice not to be an expert on the Yugoslav conflicts. The logical question arising from this would be, how then does he know what is propaganda and what is the truth? What was the Serb media supposed to do if Serbs were attacked, not report on it, lest they be accused of making propaganda? In another absurdity this witness claimed that President Milosevic personally oversaw the content of the Serbian media. I guess that means that the prosecution considers Slobodan Milosevic to have had magical powers which allowed him to be the editor-in-chief for the whole media, while at the same time being the President of the republic, during a very difficult period. Where on Earth did he find the time? |