Posted on 04/27/2002 10:42:03 PM PDT by Spar
Bush pressures Yugoslavia for greater cooperation with war crimes tribunal
Sat Apr 27, 8:12 PM ET
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) says Yugoslavia's president should cooperate more fully with the U.N. war crimes tribunal and said such help is critical to the country's integration with Europe.
Bush praised recent steps by Yugoslavia "to meet its international obligations" but appealed for President Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites), a moderate nationalist who opposes the tribunal, to do more.
"To continue on the path to European integration, Yugoslavia's full cooperation with the court and your leadership on the issues is essential," Bush wrote in a letter dated Saturday, sent to mark the country's Statehood Day.
White House officials declined to release a copy. Excerpts were provided by a Bush administration official. A translation of the letter was read Saturday evening on Serbian state television.
A law adopted by the Yugoslav government this month allows for the extradition of suspected war criminals to the tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites). Authorities last week delivered a list of suspects to a Belgrade court in preparation for arrests and handovers. Some 24 Serbs are wanted by the U.N. court for alleged Balkan war crimes.
Former army chief of staff Col. Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic pleaded innocent to war crimes charges Friday. Five other Serb suspects have promised to surrender, while 18 other suspects included on the Yugoslav government list now face arrest and extradition.
The United States has threatened to withdraw millions of dollars in badly needed aid unless Yugoslavia extradites the suspects.
Bush typically sends letters to government leaders to mark national holidays, but such letters do not usually carry the kind of demands Bush made to Yugoslavia, an administration official said.
When they do, Bush offers the type of "carrot and stick" approach in Saturday's letter — an expression of gratitude for action on the one hand, pressure for more action on the other, the official said.
In the letter, Bush praised Yugoslavia for "great progress" over the past year and a half.
"Only a short time ago, the leadership in Belgrade was a major source of suffering and war in the Balkans," Bush said. "Today, Yugoslavia is increasingly a force for peace, stability and economic development."
Nonetheless, "Important strides in terms of economic reform need to be matched by progress in such areas as democratic control of the military," Bush said.
The cable was sent while Bush was spending a long weekend on his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Government offices were closed in Belgrade Saturday, and no officials were available to respond.
By "European integration," Bush meant greater links with Europe's economic, political and transportation institutions, and possibly eventual membership in the European Union (news - web sites), an administration official said. There is also financial aid at stake.
Yugoslavia has applied to join the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights-monitoring body, and hopes membership will be approved by this summer. Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia are already members.
This is the first step toward eventual membership in the European Union, and possibly NATO (news - web sites).
Yugoslavia also has outstanding loans from the Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) era and earlier. It is seeking favorable treatment, such as easier repayment terms, from the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites), World Bank (news - web sites) and other major international finance groups.
Bush's letter came two weeks after his administration failed to block the creation of the United Nations (news - web sites)' first permanent war crimes tribunal. Despite U.S. opposition, the tribunal this month received the necessary international backing to come into force on July 1.
The United States fears American citizens would be subject to frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions. It is the only vocal opponent of the court.
The United States campaigned unsuccessfully to exempt U.S. soldiers and officials from the court's jurisdiction. The administration is currently reviewing its position on the court.
By Cliff Kincaid
web posted April 16, 2001
A foreign policy trap has been laid for President Bush that has serious implications for our own liberties. Consider the fact that the U.S. Government formally opposes an International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans, but wants to see a U.N. criminal court go after people from other countries.
The President recently decided to permit financial assistance to continue to the new democratic government of Yugoslavia, after it arrested former dictator Slobodan Milosevic, but is still insisting that Milosevic be eventually turned over to the U.N.'s international criminal tribunal on Yugoslavia, based in the Hague.
This approach, also supported by the editorial board of the Washington Times, is a critical mistake. The operations of the Yugoslavia tribunal violate American constitutional principles. It is illegal even under the international law the U.N. claims to be enforcing.
In an article in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper in Canada, former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bisset points out:
"...[Yugoslavian] President Kostunica has serious misgivings about the independence and impartiality of the Hague Tribunal. He is not alone in this. From its inception there has been doubts about the legitimacy of the Tribunal. It was not established by treaty or by the General Assembly of the United Nations as would normally be required for such a court...Certainly the performance of the Tribunal so far has displayed more of the characteristics of a medieval Star Chamber than an independent judicial body. A number of those who have been secretly indicted by the Tribunal have been kidnapped by armed thugs and transported against their will to The Hague to wait in detention for months or years for trial without benefit of bail. They are then required to face unknown and often hidden accusers before a Tribunal that acts as both prosecutor and judge. There is no jury. If the prisoner confesses while in custody, the confession is presumed to be voluntary. The trial may even be held in secret."
Contrast those facing this tribunal with the fate of President Clinton, who launched the illegal and unconstitutional war on Yugoslavia over Kosovo. He's free as a bird giving speeches at $100,000 a pop. Clinton's CIA-supported allies, the Islamic Kosovo Liberation Army, have launched a new war on Macedonia which should prove beyond doubt to those who supported the Kosovo war that we were indeed on the wrong side.
Remember that Milosevic was once Clinton's partner, participating in the Bosnia peace negotiations on U.S. soil. In order to force Milosevic to the so-called peace table, Clinton had approved the Croatian military offensive against the Serbs in the Krajina region of Croatia. That was the biggest example of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans wars. But Clinton won't get prosecuted for that, either.
Now, President Bush has been maneuvered by the State Department and the media into making demands on Yugoslavia that we as Americans would never accept ourselves. A trial of Milosevic by this illegitimate U.N. court could make him into a martyr and destabilize the country's democratic government. Prosecuting Milosevic before a foreign tribunal could result in his supporters coming back to power in a backlash that could spark another war. Milosevic might even beat the rap because some of the war crimes charges against him, such as involvement in the so-called Racak Massacre, are clearly fabrications. That was a stage-managed event designed to give Clinton and NATO the excuse to bomb people.
The conservative Washington Times supports a U.N. trial of Milosevic, as does the Washington Post and the New York Times. But the Post and New York Times also support an International Criminal Court.
I would rather see our media promote a U.S. Justice Department prosecution of someone like Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, a real dictator who is still in power and who has a long and bloody record of killing Americans. But Gadhafi made a deal with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to escape indictment in the recent Pan Am 103 terrorism trial. And the Washington Times told us that Annan has been doing a good job, has a pro-American record, and deserves another term as U.N. boss. Nonsense.
This is not an insignificant issue. All of the principles and values that we hold dear - freedom, sovereignty, justice and human rights - are at stake. The administration and our fellow conservatives coming down on the wrong side on this important issue have to be told they're dead wrong. If they don't reverse course, it will be hard to argue down the road that we should be immune to the operations of an International Criminal Court that could target Americans. If the sovereignty of Yugoslavia doesn't matter, it will be difficult to argue that ours does.
Cliff Kincaid serves as president of America's Survival, Inc., a public policy organization.
US warns Bosnian Serbs their fate is tied to war crimes fugitives (USA in Service of UN Court)
Precisely the goal of the globalists!
Bump
A suburb of Belgrade for autistic FR rejects?
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