Posted on 12/29/2002 10:25:02 PM PST by kosta50
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Serbia's justice minister has demanded the top U.N. war crimes prosecutor resign, accusing her in an open letter Sunday of being biased against Serbs.
Justice Minister Vladan Batic said Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has indicted only Serbs in her investigation of the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo despite "abundant proof" that ethnic Albanians also committed atrocities.
Del Ponte "must apply same standards for all potential suspects, regardless of their ethnicity," Batic said in the public letter.
"It would be fair that you to resign. Somebody else in your place would ensure that justice be served and that Serb victims of the wars can rest in peace."
Batic is part of the leadership that ousted Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and extradited him to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The former Yugoslav president is now on trial for alleged war crimes in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.
Del Ponte's spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, said the tribunal does not consider ethnicity in indictments. She dismissed the accusations as a "game aimed at public opinion in countries who don't want to comply with international law."
"They should understand that the rule of law is the rule of law. They cannot remove (Del Ponte) and hope the law will disappear," she said.
Del Ponte is the court's chief prosecutor. The tribunal was founded a decade ago to prosecute atrocities committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. So far, it has indicted more than 100 suspects, mostly Serbs.
Batic claims Del Ponte promised to indict three ethnic Albanian leaders for atrocities against Serbs: Hashim Thaci, Ramush Haradinah and Agim Ceku.
Thaci and Haradinah are legislators in Kosovo's assembly and the heads of separate political parties. Ceku is the head of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a civilian organization of former rebels.
"We have provided you with abundant proof about the war crimes against Serbs ... even an apprentice prosecutor would be able to bring charges with that," Batic said in his letter to Del Ponte.
"By not acting, you become an accomplice and allow the three to continue holding high positions in the current Kosovo administration."
Kosovo has been run by United Nations and NATO since the 1999 NATO air campaign to stop Milosevic's crackdown on Kosovo's rebellious ethnic Albanians. The three Kosovo leaders have refused to comment on the accusations.
Hartmann said the court was investigating some crimes in Kosovo.
"Our mandate is only to investigate the most important breaches of international humanitarian law," she said. "We don't adjust our investigations because a politician says he might like a little more of this or that."
Del Ponte has repeatedly accused Belgrade of not fully cooperating with the court. Several Serb suspects remain at large, and Serb authorities have refused to provide prosecutors full access to state archives. Batic and other Serb leaders say the republic has cooperated as best it could.
Batic criticized Del Ponte for her demands that Serbia immediately hand over its outgoing president, Milan Milutinovic, who is wanted on war crimes charges. Milutinovic served his last day on duty Sunday and Serbia has promised to extradite him once his diplomatic immunity has expired.
Florence Hartmann's genius is made that much more obvious when she repeats what her mommy and daddy taught her to say, calling Batich's accusal a "game aimed at public opinion in countries who [?] want to comply with international law." Huh? Is it possible that "want" was supposed to be a "won't?" As for the countris "who"...let's just leave it at that. The woman is on a 3rd grade level.
Even more brilliant was her response, equally repetitive and mindless, when she says that "They [I suppose those countries "who"] should understand that the rule of law is the rule of law. Thye cannot remove (Del Ponte) and hope the law will disappear."
Can anyone believe this is an official spokeswoman for a UN tribunal? Batich simply accused Del Ponte of playing the ethnic card, and for a good reason: there seems to be a disproportionate number of indictments of Serbs, as compared to others, especially when ample evidence seems to point in that direction.
Batich does not question the sanctosanct "rule of law" (to which the West, especially the US, often finds a way around it), but Del Ponte's impartialilty! The spokeswoman apparently could not grasp that. She could only fire pre-recorded messages that make no sense and betray her disconnect with reality.
Hay Florence, it's really simple if you pay attention: Batich did not ask for the law to "go away;" rather, he asked for Del Ponte to leave.
I second his call, and say -- add Ms. Hartmann to the list!
KOCTA
I am glad you have reliable and, I suppose, precise statistics that show Serbs as having committed exactly 90% of the crimes -- or is it just your "shoot-from-the-hip-can't-think" semi-educated guess? Let's see the numbers genius.
Serbia still harbours many war criminals
Now this is precious! You can think with only one side of your brain, don't you? So, what's the point you are trying to make, or did you lose your thought half way through the process?
Of course Serbia harbours (accused) war criminals (Mladich)! So does Croatia (Bobetko), Bosnia (Oric), Kosovo (Thaci), and so on...they all are.
Now, the Yugoslav Army may be guarding their man, Ratko, but Bobetko, Oric and Thaci are guarded by the governments of Croatia and Bosnia, and by the NATO occupation troops, which is as good as government!
Maybe you need to wait a little, get organized, and ask around, before you commnent. Maybe you can actually make a point next time.
I assume the presumption of innocence exists with those 3 Stooges and guilty til proven otherwise for the Serbs. This gets worse as Milosevic proves the frugality of the indictments with each hour. What is next? Milosvic sits down on his toilet too hard, therefore is abusing NATO property!
SuperDupe,it is so obvious that many things are beyond you"...so,spare us your "pearls of wisdom" please!
BTW,how`s your hero Mirko Norac doing in Siroki Brijeg,Hercegovina?Enjoying protection of Fascist Catholic priests and Croatian Security Services???Is he OK??Send him our regards,please!
You are so cute...in civil warS? Let's see some data, there...I asked you that before, and you are stalling.... Maybe not exactly 90% but somewhere around there Well, do you mind changing your mind one more time...how much is it 95%, 78% or what. Besides how do you know what I know? It's that Croatian logic again?
Vladan Batich is not an idiot -- he is just "a typical primitive serb" like myself who's sick of primadonna's at the Hague and their imbecil spokespeople.
We "typical primitive serbs" at least know that even Croats are spelled with a capital letter, but we shall let that one go -- not to lose the meaning of the brilliant point you make.
As for the balija and the siptar I haven't researched enough into their alleged crimes to comment on them...
You are just too precious! And who, pray tell, is that "balija?" Could that be Naser Oric by some chance? Last time I checked, he was a Bosnian Muslim. If you haven't "researched" their "alleged crimes" you are way behind the power curve -- except when it comes to us "primitive serbs."
By contrast you must be a "civilized Croat" (is than not an oxymoron?), of course. Maybe that's why they let Hashim Thaci do the dirty work in Croatia for them. Tell you what: when you guys develop your own language, so that it is fit for literature instead of just for simple poetry, maybe you won't hate yourself for having to use Serbian for reading and writing, and maybe you will stop being so sensitive and insecure, and you can then really be civilized.
You think charges against Bobetko are exaggerated? Could you please specify which of those charges are exaggerated and why? Do you think you can answer that without going off the subject? let me repeat: Which one of those charges is exaggerated and why?
I would have asked you that in Croatian, but I don't speak cakavski.
Unlike you,my Mostar family didn`t belong to your Ustashe fascists ...and didn`t have to escape to Canada to peddle more rascist fascist filth!
So ,just shut up,for everybody`s sake!
And,watch your diet,OK?
What do you think of our "civilised Canadian Croat" and his posts?Aren`t they soooooooooo typical for good ,old ,Croatian(racist) thinking:Serbs are primitive;Bosniak`s are "Balias" appart when they had to use them in order to extermiinate Serbs!Then they were "Croatian Flowers"!And,Albanians are "siptars",of course!What are the Slovenians,Macedonians,Montenegrins,Jews,Gipsies then????
Maybe we`ll find out soon,when SuperGuzica "does some research"?!That will be the day!
BTW,why do you debate with him?Do you know who he is?For Gods sake,he is a Neo Fascist teenager with morbid eating habbits...I can bet my life that he isn`t even from Mostar but some of the periferal willages,where a favourite past time is Gospa,gange songs and dreams of slicing Serbian throats!!!Intelligence on the level of kenjac(Hercegovina donkey)...Even Croats from Croatia proper can`t stand them !
And you debate with him??Have nothing better to do for hollidays?
Any way,sretna Nova Godina,prijatelju!
BTW do you know that they,Croats,use to be a most feared mercenary soldiers during perpetual European wars in XV-XVI centuries,because of their cruelty and viciousness...they had a caracteristic scarfs tied arround their necks that became known as Croata and hence the name Kravata !And,that`s about it!A great Croatian contribution to the world of fashion!
BTW,SuperDupe doesn`t speak cakavski,he is st(r)okavac!
Why do I "debate" with him? He has the right to post his views, and I couldn't care less how morbidly obese he might be. That's not relevant. Besides, it's good to know what the other side thinks.
Well, if he doesn't speak cakavski, then he needs to learn it, because that's the only true Croatian language, from the 11th century onward.
Those Croats who speak shtokavski could not have been Croats forever. Sorry to burst their bubble. No tribe speaks three languages, especially if one of those languages is the same as that of the other tribe! Tribes that speak the same language usually belong to the same people, like all Serbs speak shtokavski, hence it's a Serbian language by default. What does that make Croatians who speak three languages? Confused, maybe, which is sometimes very obvious.
A religious determinant of nationality is of a more recent date, created by Austria. Shtokavski does not appear in Croatia until the 15th century, and is used by Papal agents who were tasked to convert shtokavski-speaking population around Dubrovnik...convert them from what to what? From Orthodoxy to Catholicism, of course! So they used thier own language -- Serbian -- because Dubrovacki Srbi did not speak cakavski!
Let me just bring up one more detail: the Independent State of Croatia, of which I am sure Supercooldude is mightily proud, was called Nezavisna. That, my friend, is a Serbian word. The Croatian equivalent of that is Neovisna.
My point is: what they speak is a bastardized form of Serbian, something like the southern talk in the US, a dialect that tears ones ears but not a different language. The reason they don't use cakavski is because cakavski is primitive and unfit for sophisticated literature, just as that borrowed Slovenian dialect called kajkavski is.
Croats would love to have their own language but the one they do have is not mature enough to be of much use for literature, so they are forced to use a foriegn tongue as they always have -- Latin, Hungarian, German and Serbian. I think therein lies their uneasiness, because after all a tribe that doesn'a have a langueb of its own ain't much of a tribe. So, my fellow Croatians -- learn your language (cakavski) and be at peace.
A word of advice: Ease up a bit on your hate speech. A lot of people all around the world read this forum and there isn't enough Croats that post here. People are going to think all Croats are still Nazis. Not only that, hatred kills from within. You're doing yourself much more damage than good.
Oh, and good luck with the cakavski lessons. I'm sure you'll stop speaking shtokavski now that you know that the language is actually Serbian.
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