Posted on 02/28/2006 3:00:11 PM PST by Robert Drobot
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Lawyers representing Slobodan Milosevic have asked the U.N. war crimes tribunal to issue a subpoena to force former U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify at his trial, documents showed on Tuesday.
"In his position as former president of the United States, Mr Clinton had a continuous role and unique knowledge of events relevant to the indictment," the lawyers said in a written request filed last week but only made public on Tuesday.
Lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins said his evidence was needed to make sure the trial was "informed and fair".
They said Milosevic had written a personal letter to Clinton asking him to testify but had not received a response. They added the U.S. embassy in The Hague had written to them last year explaining the opposition of the U.S. government to the request.
Milosevic, who has argued that he was a peacemaker in the 1999 Kosovo conflict and that the West committed war crimes, has also asked the court to subpoena retired U.S. general Wesley Clark to appear as a witness in his defense.
Clark directed NATO's bombing of Kosovo in an 11-week campaign led by Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to halt Serbian repression in the region.
Judges decided last year not to call Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, German Chancellor at the time of the bombing, as witnesses.
Milosevic has been on trial for four years on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He has used up more than four fifths of the 150 days allotted for his defense, which suggests the case could be wrapped up in the next few months.
Clinton will want a big fee to appear and say "I don't recall."
this has been going for 15 years. Clinton is not the one on trial in this instance.
And that's a damned shame, really.
The U.N. war crimes tribunal can go pound sand. No US President should have to respond to them.
No need in putting Slick under oath. That doesn't slow him down at all.
And if he goes it would be a hugely craven act.
But then he's prone to doing craven acts.
Hey, Clinton cannot be at that trial when he is going to be in court in Los Angeles in Peter Paul's civil suit.
**** FREE SLOBO! ****
The times change, but The New York Slimes just stays the same...
Willie is a proven liar, even on the stand. What good would come from putting an ex-president on the stand. He'll just lie again and again.
If Clinton responds to this, before long Saddam will be demanding G.H.W. Bush testify... he'll claim that we were his allies, hence partners in crime, etc. etc.
All he is doing is postioning himself to be UN Secretary General. Kofi's term is up later this year and who better to be UN General than His As&holeness. GOD save us all cause we have BIG problems ahead.
Exactly. Slippery Slope Alert.
Sorry to hear that but we can dream can't we.
Maybe Clinton will be arrested for war crimes when he gets there. (Bombing people from 30 thousand feet.)
But yet we support the Tribunal in its authority of other Sovereign Nations, what are we afraid of? If it works for them why not us?
Hey, during his infamous appearance before the Senate in the 1970's, didn't John Kerry admit that he had committed war crimes?
Ship him to The Hague!
Well since it is a circus, why not add another clown to the roster?
"Ah did not have diplomatic relations with that war criminal!"
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