Posted on 06/21/2002 7:14:49 AM PDT by konijn
Serb Ex-TV Boss Jailed Over NATO Bombing Deaths
June 21, 2002 09:09 AM ET
By Beti Bilandzic
BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Serbian court jailed the former head of state television for nine-and-a-half years on Friday for failing to protect 16 workers who were killed when NATO bombed the TV station in 1999.
The court ruled that Dragoljub Milanovic had not ensured the safety of his staff, even though he knew the television building could be hit by NATO during its 1999 bombing campaign.
Families of the victims have accused the regime of then-president Slobodan Milosevic of deliberately sending the workers into mortal danger in order to score a cynical propaganda coup against NATO should they be killed.
Milanovic was sentenced to an additional six months jail for an unrelated financial infraction.
In the 78-day air war over Yugoslavia's repression of Kosovo Albanians, NATO declared the studios of Radio Television Serbia (RTS) a legitimate target on the grounds that its broadcasts were part of Milosevic's "war machine."
Milanovic was tried on charges of "provoking general danger" by failing to evacuate the building, which was hit by NATO on April 23, 1999.
"He failed to act according to regulations governing the safety of RTS even though he was aware this could provoke danger for the lives of the people because NATO aggression had already started," presiding judge Radmila Dragicevic-Dicic said.
When she finished reading the sentence, Milanovic stood up and said he had known in advance what the verdict would be and repeated his Thursday final statement that he was innocent and that documentary evidence against him was forged.
REAL DANGER
The judge said there had been a real danger that the state television building could be bombed, as well as an official order of the federal defense ministry to move the broadcast operations to another location.
"It was not up to you to assess the danger, there was an order and you should have acted upon it," she said.
Two of the supporters of Milanovic, who is a high official of Milosevic's Socialist party, loudly left the courtroom during the sentencing, warning that the reformist government now in power would not survive upcoming elections.
Reformers ousted Milosevic in October 2000 and last year handed him over to the U.N. war crimes court where he stands trial on charges of war crimes in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia.
The families of the dead workers sat silently as the sentence was read.
"He sentenced himself when he assumed the right to decide the lives of others. He should have thought about this when he put them up for sacrifice," said Zanka Stojanovic, whose son Nebojsa was killed.
Milanovic's defense attorney Branimir Gugl branded the verdict "shameful" and said they would appeal.
The judge stressed this sentence did not mean that Milanovic was responsible for the bombing itself.
"I am not amnestying NATO as the direct perpetrator of a serious criminal act against humanity," Dragicevic-Dicic said.
...and the NY Times, and the Washington Post...
Hague Tribunal prosecutors seem also to see Milanovic as guilty.:
Carla Del Ponte, the Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor, said last year that Mr Milosevic’s Government had known the station’s headquarters could be attacked.
Read the rest in UK Times article
It didn't bother perp German General Naumann as he brushed it off under cross examination by Milosevic. Also seems like it's okay with Abrit.
snip......
The families argued that Nato was also responsible for the deaths and sought unsuccessfully to sue the military alliance at the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that the bombing of the station violated the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly their right to life and freedom of expression
The reverberations of Clinton's crimes will be haunting us for years to come.
What do you think about Kfor having now arrested & cashiered virtually the entire KLA leadership for attacks on their fellow Albanians ? Sorta appears that Kfor now agrees with Milosevic's POV.
Yes, but the "judges" from "International Community" seem to think like ABrit:
The case was dismissed on the ground that the convention did not apply to Yugoslavia because it was not a member of the Council of Europe.
( UK Times article , it was not a member because it got arbitrarily excluded).
The taste of NWO justice.
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