Posted on 06/15/2005 7:53:23 AM PDT by Destro
As trial drags on, Milosevic sticks to his story
By Marlise Simons The New York Times
TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2005
But Milosevic's old mind-set remains intact. Day after day, he has tenaciously stuck to his vision of history, the evolving version he delivered during his 13 years in power that triggered three wars and led to more than 250,000 dead. Serbs were not responsible for the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, he contends, but were forced to defend themselves from aggression.
Yes, people died, but they were fighting, or were bombed by NATO. He, as Serbia's leader, led Serbs in self-defense.
"You can expect I will be asking for a prolongation," Milosevic told the judges recently. "My aim is to present the truth and that takes time."
The trial's current focus is the 1999 war in Kosovo, a Serbian province, and Milosevic has devoted much time and effort to Kosovo because as president of Serbia, he can be held directly accountable for any proven atrocities by its army and police force.
"We want to show that yes, there were crimes, but it was not our policy and the authorities reacted and punished them," said Branko Rakic, a legal adviser to Milosevic.
But no link to Milosevic has yet been established. The videotape has not been entered as evidence in court because to do so, the prosecution must seek permission to reopen its case and it must show the provenance and authenticity of the edited tape in which dates are missing and voices are scrambled.
Asked why Milosevic was disturbed, Rakic, his lawyer, offered this explanation: "This is clearly part of a media campaign. We think this film was designed to shock the public, not to prove something."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Have there been any trials over the murders at the school in Beslan?
Not to equate the massacres, just curious.
The International Kangaroo Court is having a hard time convicting the old man.
Clinton's legacy.
Yes.
No trial of course for war criminals BJ Clinton and Mad Cow Albright, who murdered 3000 innocent Serb civilians in indiscriminate air bombings.
The ridiculous nature of this trial should make it the last of these "international" fiascos. If Milosevic was to be tried, he should have been tried in Serbia (just as Saddam should be tried in Iraq).
The rejection of the EU (let's hope) fits into a broader rejection of unaccountable entities placing themselves above nation-states.
Agreed 100%
Stalin was much better at running show trials.
Yeah, the deal was that, if you confess, your wife and all your children and grandchildren will not be tortured to death.
IMO and Rush Limbaughs' and Ann Coulters', the NYTs must always be read with suspicion as being opposite the truth.
Re Milosevic, the ' film was to shock the public, not to prove something'.
You can't blame the writer Simmons for her subtle sandbagging. IMO most, if not the NYT writers are marching in step as directed. Their objective is to destroy what the US stands for.
These sellout writers are in a box, voluntarily.
Deal with it.
You can complain about the venue all you want, but if you can't refute the evidence presented against him already, who gives a rat's ass what you think?
Your whining is irrelevant.
Suck it up.
See #12.
Typical idiocy.
How boring.
Slobo's toast, and his supporters are fools. Deal with it.
So were the Poles after the Nazis and Russia invaded and they had to deal with it.
That's what we're doing here, dealing with 'it'. 'IT' being the truth.
Sadly you and the NYT have no respect for the truth.
Save his victims amount to more than Ron and Nicole, or a handful of kids.
His victims count in the tens of thousands.
Still, all he's ever had to do was be smarter than his supporters.
Which given the evidence presented hereabouts, isn't very smart at all.
You and your friends demonstrate, duckln, that if you either can't recognize the truth, or operate under the delusion that you can deny it, that you assume you don't have to worry about dealing with it.
Whatever.
Well finally you got something right, I suppose by accident.
Both trials were exploited by the 'press' to the point that the truth was lost. The judges and prosecutors were ambitious hacks engaging in 'public' manipulation.
But it didn't work, the juries had the final say. IMO, they screwed up on OJ and were on the money with Jackson.
OJ's trial I recall lasted less than 6 months while Jacksons was about a month.
What's taking so long with Milosevics trial, now more than 3 years? Don't have a case do you?
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