Let the Circus Begin
Dr Radovan Karadzic, a psychiatrist by profession, knows too much about the shameful role West has played in the Balkans, Bosnia in particular, James Bissett noted. He won't be let out of the Hague alive, Dr. Trifkovic said.
The Hague Circus Gets to Perform Another Day
BBC interview with Srdja Trifkovic
BBC: The fact that Karadzic could face trial at The Hague is causing consternation among those who consider the court to be anti-Serbian. Srdja Trifkovic is one of them. He is an American historian, journalist and political analyst, and an expert on Balkan politics.
TRIFKOVIC: It would be a hugely significant moment if it were to be followed by a fair and just trial that would seek to establish the facts of the case, not only on Srebrenica but also on what came to pass in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. However, in Serbia many people – including those who favor the new, pro-European government – have a very jaundiced view of The Hague Tribunal, especially since the release of Naser Oric, the wartime commander of the Muslim garrison in Srebrenica, came just before the capture of Karadzic. In fact, in Belgrade The Hague Tribunal is universally regarded as a politically motivated tool for providing quasi-legal justification of political decisions made by the powers-that-be back in the early 1990s.
BBC: What about the indictment against Mr. Karadzic? Do you think the war crimes were committed?
TRIFKOVIC: The war crimes were committed, absolutely. What remains to be seen is to what extent the war crimes committed by the Serbs will continue to be treated as uniquely more substantial, more evil and more massive, than those committed by the other two sides. What we have witnessed in the case of Naser Oric in particular, is a truly egregious failure by The Hague Tribunal to connect the commander of Srebrenica with the war crimes which the Tribunal itself does not deny have taken place: thousands of Serbian civilians in the surrounding areas were killed between 1992 and 1995. For Serbia's "European perspective," for Serbia's ability to come to terms with the past in the way that does not provide grounds for fresh resentment and revisionism, this trial would need to mark a new beginning by The Hague – and yet I have no reason to believe that such a beginning will indeed be made.
BBC: And yet this individual, who is charged with such heinous crimes, needs to be brought to justice, even if – as you argue – there are others still out there who haven't been brought to justice. But here's one opportunity to deal with one set of crimes, surely?
TRIFKOVIC : The problem is that dealing with "one set of crimes" in connection with "one individual" is not fulfilling the function of the Tribunal as stated at the time of its establishment in 1993, which was to establish an equivalent of an international "truth and reconciliation commission." Quite the contrary, in the case of Serbia The Hague Tribunal has only generated fresh controversies and provided fresh grist for the mill of the nationalist wing of Serbia's body-politic, which keeps claiming that the cards are stacked against the Serbs' favor.
Interview with Srdja Trifkovic titled "Karadzic and the Hague" was broadcast by the BBC Radio 4, within the special "The World Tonight," on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 22:14 BST
The highest state of alert was declared in Serbia since Tuesday, when it was announced Dr. Radovan Karadzic was arrested. Belgrade riots, July 22, 2008 (riots are continuing for the third day).
The Verdict is Already Written
"Radovan Karadzic will be found guilty of genocide, because the verdict is already written," Dr. Trifkovic, expert witness in a separate trial in The Hague told Russia Today. “I don’t think he will come out of jail alive,” he said [watch video].
Former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bissett spoke about his meeting with Dr. Radovan Karadzic in Sarajevo and shared his impressions of a man declared guilty way before the sham trial has even begun. Interview (RAM file, 10:19), also available from CBC.ca Listen Again web page.
Recommended: The Real Face of Evil, by Nebojsa Malic (GrayFalcon Blog); Has Lord Ashdown Heard of the Phrase: "Innocent Until Proven Guilty"?, by Michael Huntsman (Brussels Journal); Collection of Interviews Spanning Radovan Karadzic's Political Career, Slobodan-Milosevic.org; Karadzic's Lawyer Speaks about Arrest, Slobodan-Milosevic.org; Belgrade protests against the new government's appalling inaugural move -- arrest of Dr. Karadzic, YouTube: The New Day is Dawning, Part 1; From Topola down to Ravna Gora, General Draza Mihailovich's song, Part 2; Radovan Karadzic!, Serbia Betrayed!, Part 3; Christ Our Lord, Song of Serbian Heroes, Part 4; Tadic Boris, Save Serbia -- Kill Yourself!, Part 5; Ivica, fagot!, Part 6; Riot police gets in, Part 7
Comments
Couple of very interesting and spooky articles indicating how our nightmares are just beginning:
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5351.3646.0.0
Spain Heads for Recession, Periphery of Europe Following
July 25, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com
Europe’s smaller nations are in trouble; who will they look to for a way out?
By Robert Morley
http://www.russiatoday.com/
Asteroid heading our way
Astronomers are battling to work out the trajectory of an asteroid that will cause havoc if it hits the Earth in 2036. Called Apophis, the giant meteor is hurtling through space at 10km per second. Scientists are warning that an impact would be far more devastating than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Posted by: bud | July 25, 2008 03:11 PM
On international trials, you may like to see what happened with the ICTR for Rwanda.
back in 1997:
'Hourigan's commander, Jim Lyons, arranges a phone briefing with Arbour. The call takes place in the US embassy in Kigali on a "secure" US embassy line. Later, Hourigan will rue the call.
"I never realised that we may be compromising the investigation. I didn't understand the politics of the region. I didn't realise that Paul Kagame had been trained by the US, supported by the US. I thought that we were keeping the call discrete from the French and the Belgians. I never thought of the US. It was a blunder."
But on the other end of the phone, Arbour sounds excited.
"She said it corroborated some other information she had just received. She was concerned about our safety and the security of the information."
A few days later, Hourigan flies out of Kigali airport, bound for The Hague.
He has no idea that the fate of his investigation is most likely already decided.
Arbour is one of the more prominent residents in a city that promotes itself as the "centre of international justice and peace". The former ICTR chief and Canadian Supreme Court judge is now the UN's Human Rights Commissioner. The role demands a public presence.
But Hourigan says he is still waiting for her to publicly explain why she told him to shut down the plane crash investigation in early 1997 after he handed her his memo.
Arbour's version of these events is not known, despite efforts by this newspaper to secure them. Her spokesman did not return questions emailed by The Age.
Hourigan offers his version of the events with fearsome clarity: "She was aggressive and negative. She had done a 180-degree turn. She effectively told me that my inquiry was at an end."
Hourigan says Arbour claims his team exceeded its jurisdiction, a point he still disputes. He insists the crash is well within the ICTR's mandate.
"I was speechless. I thought about all I had seen and done in the tribunal and learning about the UN's complicity in the genocide. I couldn't believe that we as a tribunal were being compromised as well. It gutted me. I had put a year and a half of my life into this and my team had risked their lives and our informers had risked their lives to tell this story. And it was going to be swept under a rug. I couldn't believe it."
In the city of justice and peace, Hourigan decides to quit the ICTR.
After a further six-month secondment with the UN's oversight office in New York — where he creates a second memo outlining his frustrations with the UN in Rwanda — he resigns. He has never found out what happened to his team's three informants.
etc
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/02/09/1170524298439.html
Similar shennanigans were carried out against Carla Del ponto years later...She too was dropped when her work was opposed by the US.
'Chief UN Prosecutor del Ponte in 2003: “ Rwanda ’s Leaders Guilty of War Crimes”
In the summer of 2003, Chief Prosecutor for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda (ICTR), Carla del Ponte, publicly announced that she would soon begin prosecuting members of Kagame’s Government for the same kinds of crimes charged in the French and Spanish warrants. But, nearly 5 years later not one case has been filed against one member of Kagame’s government, nor against Kagame himself.
The del Ponte announced prosecutions did not go forward because she was replaced, within 90-days of her announcement, by Abubacar Jallow, a US/UK-approved Prosecutor who pledged not to prosecute on Kagame’s side….no matter what the del Ponte and the European judges’ findings! Prosecutor del Ponte’s long-time press-aide, Florence Hartmann, published a book in Paris in September 2007, that explains exactly how del Ponte was replaced.
Chief UN Prosecutor del Ponte was called to Washington just after her 2003 announcement and threatened with removal from office by Bush’ “war-crimes ambassador”, Pierre Prosper, because of the political quid pro quo between Washington and the Kagame regime that is spelled out in detail in the book. (Ironically, Prosper was a former ICTR prosecutor under del Ponte, and must have had access to the same information motivated her announcement) . When she refused to ignore her UN-mandate, to prosecute all crimes committed during the 1994 Rwanda War, she was sacked by the U.S. and U.K. [2]
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8137
Posted by: brian | July 25, 2008 06:57 PM