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."
Except that with the collapse of the U.S.S.R., we have little national interests in staying in NATO at all. And BTW, Greece strongly opposed KFOR.
Greece has had soldiers in KFOR for years; they are currently in the American sector. And regardless of Greek public opinion, the government of Greece agreed to the bombing of Serbia in 1999. NATO requires consensus to operate.
.....bears repeating!
NATO is nothing more than a military tool of those evil forces attempting to impose an unelected and faceless world government upon all the nations of the world, and it will, IMO, supplant what is now the United Nations with its own army of bureaucrats.
Kosovo is now UN property.
The first geographic land mass completely under UN control. Provided, of course, we don't take into account the world's national parks and historical landmarks deeded over to the UN - so that it can of worms can use the real estate to float their loans to pay for its own excesses.
Check out the signs as you enter America's - scratch that - the UN's parks and historical sites in the United States.
The United States - a bastion of national sovereignty!!! Not any more!!! This land is our land - only in title.
The thing about debtors is they don't call the shots. Worst yet, a debtor nation is subject to the push/pull of its creditors. This is the primary reason Congress finds itself in a financial straight-jacket - the actual reason they just raised the debt level another 800 billion dollars. Otherwise, the money spigot would have run dry, and we'd be in a can of worms that would make the Great Depression look like a one day bank holiday.
Want a heart attack? Ask the US Treasury who is holding IOU's, and what percentage of the annual tax collection is paid on just the interest of our total debt. I triple dare you!!!! How much is paid on the actual debt? That's a ZERO, a big fat GOOSE EGG.
We, our Congress and our administrative branch, have put a financial ball and chain on generations of unborn Americans who escape the abortion mill.
Every inch of federal land, and every American asset is in hock. American government functions only because of the flow of foreign capital supplying our national, state and local budgets.
America wouldn't have enough cash to fuel up Air Force One if it weren't for the Saudi's, the Chinese, the Japanese, the English, the Dutch and German money lenders.....among others.
This is, IMO, the REAL reason for our big push to secure a single western hemispheric government - to get it done while we still have some leverage. If that takes place, I wouldn't doubt that we will lock up and hock every natural resource and government held land within every country to the north and south of us.
Yes, they participated, which was strange because they were strongly against it until the last minute.
No offense, but didn't the same guy refer to Greeks as Grecians?
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