Posted on 03/13/2006 4:48:22 PM PST by Proctor
Milosevic deserved justice (Filed: 13/03/2006)
Had it happened anywhere else, commentators would be outraged. If a defendant had died after five years in custody, without having been found guilty of anything, we should complain that he had not received justice.
Yet, for some reason, those who hold forth most warmly against, say, the internment of terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay seem to have no problem with the farcical proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague.
This newspaper was no friend to Slobodan Milosevic or his Communist regime. We were, indeed, among the most enthusiastic supporters of military action against Serb forces. But there should have been evidence enough to try him in Serbia or, failing that, to extradite him to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Either option would have preserved the principle of territorial jurisdiction: that is, the notion that offences are the responsibility of the state where they are alleged to have taken place. It is not as though whisking Milosevic out of Yugoslavia resulted in a fairer trial.
On the contrary, we have had four years of tendentious statements and hearsay evidence, while the accused, who had wanted to conduct his own defence, had a counsel imposed on him by the judges.
The expansion of international jurisdiction has come upon us suddenly. Until recently, international law was confined to such questions as maritime rights and the status of diplomats.
Yet, all of a sudden, we live in a world where Colin Powell will not travel to Germany, where Israeli soldiers will not disembark in Europe, where General Pinochet can be arraigned in Britain on a Spanish warrant for crimes alleged to have taken place in Chile.
The 300-year-old precept that law-makers should be directly accountable to their peoples has been abandoned. Instead, power is passing to a caste of human rights lawyers whose legitimacy derives chiefly from their own moral certainties, and who are able to use international law to impose norms that would not pass through elected national parliaments.
Milosevic was a bad man; but bad men still deserve justice. That he did not get it in The Hague reflects badly on us all.
Milosevic was to be the perfect person to usher in the world wide UN Criminal court. The UN Court he was before was the pilot court before the ushering in of the UN Criminal Court. It was planned to come i nto being when Gore was president.
Milosevic was a head of state and he was before a UN criminal court that does not recognize borders - how perfect! Milosevic had such an awful reputation thanks to Clinton third way leftist propaganda few would dare take his side. Win-Win for the UN court and the internationalists.
Problem is Slobo did not go quiet into the night. They expected a show trial with Slobo allowing UN appointed defenders to cross examine UN coached witnesses while he looked on.
They seemed to have forgotten that he was a lawyer himself and he liked a fight.
Is Milosevic a martyr? No. Not in the Christian sense anyway (he was not religious). If he is to be remembered in a positive way at all is that his 5 year long defense against the UN may have crippled the reputation and even the concept of a UN international criminal court with its own imposed jurisdiction.
That Slobo refused to recognize UN judges held any authority over him - even refusing to call judges 'honors'. Refusing to stand when they came in. Refusing to recognize their imposed authority over him.
That is the only lasting positive thing from his years in a UN jail.
I will leave you with a final thought to ponder:
A state leader died in a UN prison, after five years of isolated imprisonment of deliberate poisoning.
A UN Prison where enemies of the UN die on cue. Think about it.
Proctor, I told you literally yesterday that the World Court has destroyed itself by murdering Milosevic. And now we are seeing that come to pass.
But it's more than that. It's not just Milosevic, but *six*, yes 6 war prisoners have recently died at The Hague's awful jail...including two in the past week alone.
That Milosevic's request for medical aid was denied by this group of elitist Europeans condemns them all.
fyi
Like I said: A UN Prison where enemies of the UN die on cue. Think about it. We actually have a UN prison now. 15 years agoe we would have laughed at that being a prediction.
It was an awesome post on your part. Prescient.
It would be very ironic if Milosevic is remembered for showing the "World Court" to be a brazen farce.
Paul, I think the UN handlers panicked when they found out that letter from Slobo went out to the Russians. He died the next day. I am sorry - Slobo does not posses Jedi mind powers allowing him to end his life on cue.
There you go again... are we reading the same stuff all day or what??
"Milosevic was a bad man; but bad men still deserve justice. That he did not get it in The Hague reflects badly on us all."
This bear repeating I think!
The clintons are in this up to their eyeballs!
Milosevic was a head of state and he was before a UN criminal court that does not recognize borders - how perfect! Milosevic had such an awful reputation thanks to Clinton third way leftist propaganda few would dare take his side. Win-Win for the UN court and the internationalists.
Even better was the possibility of issuing a subpoena to a sitting US President, Clinton, in order to both legitimize and extend the ICC's jurisdiction. Milosevic did us all a favor.
He died on cue all righty, just as his defense was cranking up and the bogus nature of the case against him was being spread all over the web. Milosevic was no choir boy, but he was sure as hell not as bad as the thug who bombed his country so that it could be turned over to the UN, islamists, and the likes of Soros.
I think I missed something. Was there a witness that Slobo was going to call that committed suicide in that same UN prison just a week ago??
LOL
Clinton?
Ironic that one day we may owe our freedom from a UN world govt from Milosevic's defense effort.
i have read that number. have you seen a link describing the 6 and their apparent causes of death? that is a very damning statistic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1595386/posts
"...Milosevic was the sixth war crimes suspect from the Balkans to die at The Hague. A week earlier, convicted former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, a star prosecution witness in the Milosevic trial, killed himself in the same prison."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_re_eu/milosevic
"He was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes, and the sixth war crimes suspect from the Balkans to die at The Hague."
Thank Southack and Banat,
That's what I was thinking of!
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