Posted on 11/22/2004 8:05:35 PM PST by AncientAirs
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 was an act of aggression rather than an attempt to save ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov told Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial Monday.
Ryzhkov was the first high profile witness to testify for Milosevic since the former Yugoslav president won back the right to lead his own defense earlier this month.
Ryzhkov, like dozens of other witnesses, had initially refused to testify after the court appointed two lawyers in September to defend the former Serb strongman to prevent his ill health causing more delays to the already marathon trial.
Soviet prime minister from 1985 to 1990, Ryzhkov was chairman of a Russian parliamentary commission on Yugoslavia from 1999 to 2003 and visited Serbia shortly after NATO's 11-week bombing campaign started in March 1999.
"It was simply an aggression against a sovereign country," Ryzhkov said in a webcast of a hearing at the U.N. tribunal.
"It was a case of inflicting punishment against a country because it opposed certain aims and aspirations in Kosovo," he said. "It was a case of intimidation of one nation, carried out not to protect the Albanian population in Kosovo."
Milosevic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.
Prosecutors have accused Serb forces under his control of causing a mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in 1999. After a Serb crackdown in the province amid fighting with the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), NATO launched air strikes that eventually forced Milosevic to withdraw his troops.
"TERROR AGAINST SERBS"
Milosevic has accused the tribunal of bias against him and the Serb people, saying it is designed to cover up NATO war crimes in Kosovo. He has refused to enter a plea to the charges and pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf.
Ryzhkov said funding for the KLA -- which he called a "terrorist organization" -- came from Europe and the Middle East, while he accused Germany of supplying their weapons.
"The main reason for the mass fleeing of people was the aggression of NATO," he said, adding 250,000 Serbs also fled.
"The true ethnic cleansing took place in Kosovo only after the international forces appeared there which made it possible for the Albanians to do things which they were doing, terror against the Serbs," he said.
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice repeatedly interrupted Milosevic to complain that he was not sticking to the rules of the court, including failing to provide copies of documents he used to support his case and asking leading questions of the witness.
Presiding Judge Patrick Robinson said he could not continue to "bend the rules" for Milosevic.
"You must organize your examination in chief. You cannot expect to come into court and proceed in this way," he said.
Milosevic, a Belgrade law school graduate, wants to call more than 1,000 witnesses in his defense case including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who he accuses of supporting KLA "terrorists."
We bombed the wrong side. Milosevic was not the enemy.
This sort of spectacle is what happens when we allow the UN and its system to get involved in military affairs.
no duh!!! I hate clinton and that stupid old bi%#$ for attacking Serbs. I was so upset when the bombing was happening. It was all a popularity contest for Clinton in order to make it seem that he supports Arab/Muslim causes as well to make himself appeal to the Islamic World. Boy what a job! stupid bastrd.
Maybe, anyway, Slobo wins another round.
Slobo, just like this "witness", makes speeches. He doesn't present evidence. The Slobo talking points are that NATO bombing caused the refugees. Meanwhile, the court has documents from UNHCR showing one-fifth the Kosvars were displaced before the bombing and statements & testimony from witnesses saying it wasn't the bobming, but it was the Serbs forcing the Albanians out at the point of a gun during the bobming. The turth is coming out in the trial, but none of it supports Slobo.
The only hope The Hague has is that Slobo dies before they finish this trial. They will never live down a verdict and he will haunt them forever if he lives to hear one.
Slobo can cry all he wants from whatever prison cell he winds up in - he can join Noriega in the imprisoned and forgotten former maximum leader club.
This trial isn't about evidence for some. Never was, never will be.
Well, besides being the guy who put the Former into the Former Yugoslavia, he got into wars (Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo) or threatened to go to war (Macedonia) with just about every Former constituent part of that country. Lots of death, misery, and ethnic cleansing associated with his form of extremist nationalism, which also resulted in large-scale refugee flows and potential instability & widening of the conflict to other regional countries including NATO allies Greece & Turkey; thereby making Milosevic's action contrary to our nationlal interest.
Slobo also materially supported our enemies:
Slobo had extensive ties with Iraq. Saddam's Serb Suppliers
That wasn't the only Tivat connection. Earlier in the year, American officials had learned that a team of Yugoslav military officers from the base had spent two weeks in Iraq consulting, it was believed, on air defense. Around the same time, professors from the University of Belgrade were both teaching and consulting with Iraqis about air defense--and, perhaps even more disturbing, offense.
Slobo was also high on the list of Saddam's Oil Voucher Recipients
Yugoslavia
1. Socialist Party 22 million
2. Left Party 9.5 million
The Socialist Party is Milosevic's, and the Left Party is the JUL, which was run by Slobo's wife.
Read this article: Serbia, Iraq want united anti-U.S. front - Tanjug
He was also buds with Qadaffi before Muamar was reoriented by our most recent invasion of Iraq: Gaddafi Given Yugoslavia's Top Medal By Milosevic"
Milosevic was our enemy. So say the facts and so also say Bush I, Bush II, Dole, McCain, Powell, and Rumsfeld.
You win, you lose. You lose, you lose. Slobo dies before verdict, everyone eventually forgets. That is the best you can hope for.
Not with Ryzhkov. He's spouting nonsense.
Thanks, good point.
Hidden Agenda:
U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia
On the other side you have President George H.W. Bush, Senator Dole, Senator McCain, Colin Powell, President George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and every senior military official involved--to include some still serving such as General John Abizaid.
Choose sides!
Careful readers of my post note that I never said the Serbs were blameless.
WE didn't bomb the wrong side................CLINTON did
Sorry, my response was a general comment and not directed at you--my bad!
With the moral support of Governor Bush of Texas as well as funding provided by a Congress comprised of Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. Resolutions supporting the war passed, an attempt to cut-off funding was defeated, and an emergency supplemental funding measure to support the war passed.
Q: Is Milosevic’s defeat a triumph for U.S. military intervention? BUSH: I think it’s a triumph. I thought the president made the right decision in joining NATO in bombing Serbia. I supported him when they did so. I think it worked. I’m pleased I made the decision I made, and I’m pleased the president made the decision he made, because freedom took hold in that part of the world. There’s a lot of work left to be done, however. I don’t think he would have fallen had we not used force. Source: Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University Oct 11, 2000
The Senate, on March 23, 1999 passed, 58-41, S.Con.Res. 21, a non-binding resolution that the President was authorized to conduct "military air operations and missile strikes in cooperation with our NATO allies against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
On April 28, 1999 the House defeated H.Con.Res. 82, 139-290. This resolution would have directed the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from the present operations against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The House on May 6, 1999, by a vote of 117-301, defeated an amendment by Representative Istook to H.R. 1664, the FY1999 defense supplemental appropriations bill, that would have prohibited the expenditure of funds in the bill to implement any plan to use U.S. ground forces to invade Yugoslavia, except in time of war.
Congress, on May 20, 1999 cleared for the President's signature, H.R. 1141, an emergency supplemental appropriations bill for FY1999, that provided billions in funding for the existing U.S. Kosovo operation.
bump
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