Slobodan Milosevic is a very bad man. Apart from participating in and supporting the violent fragmentation of Yugoslavia, Milosevic viciously suppressed pro-democracy movements in Serbia, forced his people to live under crippling sanctions for a decade and allowed the same people to be bombed in a ruthless 79-day bombing campaign that destroyed much of their country. Yet, despite all this, most of the charges against Milosevic at the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague are bogus, and the tribunal itself is clearly biased.
Recently, the tribunal suspended Milosevic's right to defend himself and imposed a court appointed lawyer, Steven Kay, to defend his "best interests." As a result, dozens of Milosevic's defense witnesses, including many prominent politicians, ambassadors and experts from the United States and Europe, have refused to testify.
James Bissett, former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia, in a letter to the court said, "I have from the outset had serious misgivings about the legitimacy of the tribunal. It is a political court rather than a judicial body operating in the interests of truth and justice. I have not presumed the guilt of Mr. Milosevic ... although it would seem the tribunal from the beginning has assumed his guilt." Witnesses such as Ambassador Bissett have refused to testify as a result of The Hague Tribunal's unwillingness to grant Milosevic the fundamental legal right to defend himself.
In addition to this evident injustice, other facts further confirm the bias of the court. Milosevic is the only former head of state to be charged before the tribunal, despite a great deal of evidence confirming war crimes committed by President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic. In fact, in the indictment of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, who has yet to be captured and extradited by the Croatian Government, it explicitly states that Gotovina, "acting individually and/or in concert with others, including President Franjo Tudjman, planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of persecutions of the Krajina Serb population."
Though biased, the tribunal managed to admit Tudjman's participation in these war crimes, yet it did not take the necessary steps to bring him to justice. Furthermore, there is no mention of genocide in any of the court's references to the atrocious campaign of the Croatian army, even though it killed thousands and displaced over two hundred thousand Serb and other non-Croatian refugees from the U.N.-"protected" Krajina region.
Unlike Tudjman, who was not charged at all, Milosevic was indicted for both war crimes and genocide. What is interesting is that Tudjman had direct control over the Croatian forces committing these heinous crimes, yet Milosevic, according to The Hague Tribunal, is being indicted for giving financial and logistical support to Serbs fighting in Bosnia and Croatia.
But let us examine the genocide charge against Milosevic. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, genocide is "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group." The fact that Milosevic had influence over and financed ethnic-Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia, who, much like their Croatian and Bosnian adversaries, did commit war crimes in this bloody civil war, does not constitute genocide induced by Milosevic.
If one does consider such actions to amount to genocide, then Tudjman and Izetbegovic are guilty of genocide as well. Yet, as stated previously, the Croatian and Bosnian Muslim leaders were not indicted by The Hague Tribunal for any war crimes, let alone genocide. Such double standards demonstrate the incredible bias of the tribunal. There is no evidence that Milosevic intended to exterminate entire Croatian and Bosnian Muslim populations. Indicting Milosevic for this crime undermines the tragedy of such real genocides as Hitler's systematic murder of over six million Jews during World War II.
The timing of Milosevic's indictment by The Hague Tribunal is questionable as well. The civil war in Yugoslavia officially ended in 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, in which President Clinton and other western leaders referred to Milosevic as a "man of peace." How did Milosevic go from being a man of peace to being the "Butcher of the Balkans" only four years later?
Charges against Milosevic were brought against him in March of 1999. This was about the same time that the United States and NATO decided to bomb Serbia because of Milosevic's overly aggressive campaign in Kosovo, which was aimed at rooting out a separatist military organization named the Kosovo Liberation Army. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make the connection that Milosevic was indicted by The Hague Tribunal in order to justify the U.S.-led bombing campaign against him.
But in reality, the 79-day bombing campaign was not against Milosevic; rather, it appears to have been against the Serbian people. The U.S. and its allies attacked and destroyed civilian bridges, television stations, public water supplies, oil refineries, energy plants and even hospitals. Under the Geneva Convention, "combatants must distinguish between civilian and military objects and attack only military targets."
Clearly, the bombing of civilian targets in densely populated cities hundreds of miles away from any sort of combat is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention. This is, in fact, a war crime. How else do you characterize bombing civilian bridges in broad daylight, targeting heating and water plants and deliberately destroying a television station that killed seventeen innocent journalists? According to the concept of command responsibility, President Clinton and the leaders of those countries involved in the bombing of such targets should also be indicted by The Hague Tribunal for war crimes.
Apart from committing war crimes, those involved in the bombing of Serbia were in clear violation of international law. This U.S.-led coalition bypassed the UN Security Council and attacked a sovereign nation that had not attacked or threatened any of its neighbors. Sound familiar? The indictment of Milosevic is being used to justify U.S. intervention in the Balkans, much like President Bush's indictment of Saddam Hussein was used to justify his unlawful and immoral invasion of Iraq.
By failing to hold the United States, NATO and other local leaders involved in war crimes accountable, The Hague Tribunal completely loses its legitimacy, and it does not hold the ethical right to prosecute Slobodan Milosevic.
Daniel Vajdic is a freshman whose major is undeclared.
