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immediate release from cana: christians against nato aggression (april 12,2001)
Tel/fax 00 44 (0)20 8376-1454 canauk@blueyonder.co.uk
Newsletter 4 - April 12, 2001
Newsletter 5 - September 29, 2001
Newsletter 6 - April 7, 2002
CANA News Letter Issue 4 is concerned with the deteriorating political/military situation in the Balkans.
"The News Letter tries to address basic problems caused by the change in the balance of power as a result of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
It seems that NATO is likely to be sucked into a regional war which could last for years.
In the years since Dayton there have been relatively few casualties among the international troops deployed in Bosnia & NATO casualties were only avoided in the 1999 air war versus the FRY by the expedient of treating the Serbs as fuzzie wuzzies before Maxim guns - bombarding them from a great height, knowing they were powerless to resist.
But that period of minimal loss for NATO is probably coming to an end.
The challenge to NATO comes not from the Serbs but from Nato's own allies, the Croats & the SAS trained KLA terrorist force.
CANA deplores the short sighted military & political strategy pursued by NATO-EU for strategic rather than humanitarian goals, which revived a terrorist movement after its defeat in July 1998 by the Yugoslav military & now places NATO troops involved in the ongoing quasi-colonial occupation of the region at risk of hostile action from their own clients & surrogates.
We ask for a full enquiry into the helicopter 'accident' reported Monday.
We have doubts whether the British MOD is telling the truth about this incident.
We deplore the fact that British troops have become involved in a centuries long feud where no UK interests are engaged, while the US has opted out of the peace keeping aspects of the operation, their troops cowering behind the defences of Camp Bondsteel.
We deplore the existence of Camp Bondsteel.
The purpose of the US intervention was to make a military base in Kosovo.
This has now been done, but at what cost?
We accuse NATO war leaders of destabilising the Balkans as a result of their criminal & illegal aggression against the FRY of March 1999.
As more truth emerges about the horrifying events surrounding the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs & other minorities from Kosovo following NATO's entry into the Province so there is a need to apportion responsibility.
Nato said its mission was to stop ethnic cleansing: in fact Nato became the instrument of ethnic cleansing.
Ethnic cleansing has happened in the region before, but never with the active connivance & enouragement of international forces, who did nothing to protect the old & the sick, women & children, but in effect handed them over to their Executioners & Torturers.
We demand that the British Government Ministers responsible for the Days of Terror in Kosovo to now give an account of their stewardship.
Why did they lie to the British people?
Are they now proud of what they have done?
Do British Government Ministers have consciences or is everything a matter of presentation?
UK troops were given orders from the MOD (Ministry of Defence) to ignore the Security Council resolution which authorised them to enter the province on the basis of a mandate to protect all sections of the community.
These MOD orders were ultra vires & expose the MOD officials & the Ministers who drafted & approved them + the Commanders who carried them out to war crimes prosecution.
In the forthcoming elections in Britain for many of us there is only one issue - do we want war criminals to continue in Government?"
ends: Comment from William Spring cana director
ends
The full text of the CANA News Letter follows:
From CANA - 1 Scales Road, London N17 2HB, UK
Tel/fax 0044 (0) 20 8376-1454
April, 11th 2001
Dear
Friends/
This is Cana News Letter Number 4: the last one was sent December
12th 2000 & this one is sent for the Western Easter.
Easter, whichever Easter you choose, coincides this year with the Balkans crisis getting considerably worse:
1. since the last News Letter the main event for CANA was our One Day Conference @ The Friends Meeting House Euston Rd London.
I felt rather intimidated by the sudden recognition that our campaign for justice for the peoples of Yugoslavia is beginning to obtain some support, at least numerically, compared to the small group which gathered for our first one day Conference in 2000 @ the same venue.
Of course we were very much helped this year by the fact that the Conference was held in association with Justice Yugoslavia (CJPY).
The assistance of David Roberts, Peter Edmonds, ALL those who helped chair sessions etc & helped in catering etc was & is very much appreciated & we were particularly grateful to the speakers who gave such enlightening contributions, and to Washington lawyer Walter Rockler, US counsel at the nuremberg war crimes trials, who sent us a prerecorded video.
2. CJPY was originally set up at a press conference sponsored by CANA together with Justin & Planning for Peace last June 28th.
The precise modalities of co-operation between Justice Yugoslavia & our different groups have still to be worked out - but we are getting somewhere.
For details re Justice Yugoslavia write dave@saxonbooks.co.uk
You can take it that whoever joins cana is automatically a member of Justice Yugoslavia - although this is not necessarily the other way round.
The only problem is we don't as yet have any joining mechanism or criteria for either group, having been too busy campaigning to worry about constitutional arrangements, but this may change, as progress is limited, at last in terms of fund raising , while our structures are so amorphous.
But I should point out that cana does at least have a treasurer - Catherine Danceney.
Any donations are gratefully received & cheques/postal orders should be made out to cana.
Although I'm cana's director I don't have any financial connection with the project other than
(a)
paying money into Lloyds Bank, High Rd, Tottenham London N17
AC number 0094920 sort code 30 98 70
(b) receiving (on an erratic basis) contributions towards cana
expenses (which have been heavy).
I usually jog to the bank, extraordinarily most of the way through open land.
To assist keeping me fit keep us sending money.
There are about 2 miles of open common & park land between this houses & the bank & I also go past a large 16th century Elizabethan house, known locally as "Bruce Castle".
None of this rural idyll quite fits the media image of Tottenham, but then no-one should believe the media.
3. For me personally the main event since the last News Letter was going to Belgrade to attend The Belgrade Forum from March 20th to 25th.
This was the first time I had been in Serbia.
Flying in I realised, although I had learned an awful lot about diplomatic history etc in the last couple of years, actually I was ignorant of geography.
I knew Belgrade was on two rivers, but which ones? And somehow I hadn't connected The Danube with Belgrade ...until saw this enormous meandering river stretching from horizon to horizon & thought ... could this be The Danube?
4. The
most significant thing for me @ the Belgrade Forum was
discovering more of the truth about the Kosovo Terror in the
Presence of International Forces - one of the worst episodes in
the history of European civilisation. This involved supposedly UN
mandated troops refusing to fulfil their mandate, & actively
encouraging the KLA to tear Serbs to bits in front of their eyes.
Each of the cases I heard about was heart breaking.
One young man used his mobile phone on a fading battery to inform a Serb officer present at a KFOR post that he was in a house 500 metres away, that the house was surrounded by Albanians, that he was in one room, & had had no food & water for several days.
Could KFOR escort him out of the house? The answer came back: no. He is now posted as missing.
The role
of General Jackson, the architect of Bloody Sunday, was actually
despicable.
In one small village surrounded by the KLA during the transition
the same Serb officer requested that the British move tanks up so
that the Albanians would be discouraged from attacking.
After this request was made all KFOR troops were withdrawn from
the area & a massacre of men, women & children resulted.
There are innumerable such incidents as reported in "Days of
Terror in the Presence of International Forces" published by
the Centre for Peace & Tolerance in Belgrade which lists the
dead & missing, many of them elderly women, on 15 pages of
close print on A4 sheets, & that is just for one period from
10th June 99 until 30th November 99.
Such a deliberate refusal/manifest failure by KFOR to fulfil its
mandate to provide security for all citizens makes the Commanders
of KFOR accessories to the crimes committed in the province.
No wonder they are making a fuss about Milosevic.
Jamie
Shea personally encouraged the killers by justifying their crimes
as revenge killings.
I believe there is a need for criminal proceedings to be brought
against the MOD whose instructions to General Jackson conflicted
with those of the Security Council.
In an ideal world, where justice wasn't bought & sold for an
aid package, The then UK C in C Charles Guthrie + sheep killer
Jackson would be brought to Court for their role in Kosovo,
together with their political masters.
5. Jared Israel's contribution to the Conference was particularly memorable, as was Fulvio's, an Italian journalist, who walked out of Italian state television after 17 years on March 24th 1999, when the broadcaster handed down its directive to its news team that nothing critical should be said against the NATO war.
Nobody in the BBC has got that sort of guts.
But then, maybe the BBC doesn't give its editorial instructions in the same way - it's just a nudge & a wink. "Do you want that job Tony (Hall) @ the Opera House. Be a good boy...Don't rock the boat."
6. Going to Belgrade makes one realise the sheer irresponsibility & criminal waste of "The West" sending missiles into the middle of such a metropolis.
Two hours journey from London. This is Western Europe's chosen form of relationship towards Eastern Europe -war, sanctions, threats, media control, the installation of satellite governments, & ecological pollution.
7. I was very pleased to meet the Russians -the Russians know exactly what is happening . Formerly they ran quite a successful Empire themselves in Eastern Europe & know the moves in the chess game.
They know that the fate of Yugoslavia & the fate of the Soviet Union will shortly be the fate of The Russian Federation - unless they do something to arrest the Nato advance into Eurasia.
8. The NATO-EU countries are ruled by a criminal economic-military elite, who have no regard for democratic or legal scrutiny, who take over countries & destroy them as asset strippers take over companies.
Who paid
for the posters all over Belgrade attacking Milosevic?
Answer - we did.
Isn't it
a farce that HMG pays for Opposition groups in Serbia, but not
for me, here in UK?
9. If your want to read our Belgrade Declaration go to the CANA
web web site which is
http://canauk.human-rights.org
(Please
note this web site address has slightly changed, in that you
don't need to add "cana home htm" any more , but can go
straight into it.)
I've been able to get this web site up at last thanks to Andrew
Yiannides the founder of UK based *human-rights* the Non
Governmental Organisation.
Andrew@human-rights.demon.co.uk
who was the first to conceive this brilliant idea of having human
rights web sites all over the country and the world. Access http://www.justice-uk.human-rights.org for the invitation to join the
human-rights.org Community On Line. Read of his concept and how
we, the citizens can help create a better and fairer world.
Well
actually they are not here - we are outside the UK jurisdiction,
so the plug can't be pulled on us quite so easily by HMG.
There are links to other sites, including the original cana web
site
http://home.btclick.com/cana-kososvo
The site
http://crookjudges.human-rights.org
has
nothing to do with cana! But does by implication explain why, as
a victim of rapacious lawyers, who have "legally"
stolen an entire inheritance from our family, I feel sympathy for
the Serbs also victims of the same unprincipled gang.
10.
Beware of governments which consist of lawyers spouting
human rights vocabulary.
In
Sunderland this week a market trader was given a criminal record
for selling fruit in imperial measures.
He is to be discouraged from appealing by the threat of costs.
So no-one
any longer in UK has protection or the right to legal
representation or access to an appeal system even in vexatious
criminal cases, because you are supposed to fund your defence
yourself, however poor you are.
The Human Rights Act is purely cosmetic - there are no rights in
Britain any more, or rather such rights as we have are
diminishing by the day.
See also http://antiukfascism.human-rights.org
Though still under construction this is where I plan to illuminate the Nato-EU fascist philosophy, bearing in mind always the slogan: "UK fascism is Blairite fascism".
New
Labour = New Nazis.
People don't just wake up in the morning & on a caprice bomb
countries.
Behind
the attack on Serbia was a malevolent set of ideas propagated by
"men without chests", to quote CS Lewis.
People like Blair & George Robertson & Clinton are
outside "The Tao" - they operate with post modern
ethics divorced from normal restraints & the moral consensus
inculcated through religious systems which have imposed a
coherence on human behaviour over the millennia.
A symbol of the NATO war was the attack on the Serbian state television station.
I went to see the still ruined building. There were three wings to the building, two empty of civilians.
NATO targeted the wing where they knew civilians were working.
A little Russian Orthodox Church is next to the tv station.
While I was in Belgrade the priest at that church went on television & said how he had seen mutilated bodies spattered over the outside of his church - pictures evidently not shown in the West, (how could they be , when the objective of the attack was to stop television transmission from Belgrade to NATO-EU audiences?)
To me it is but a symbol of the crucifixion - not only of the cruxifixion of the Orthodox Faith, but of all decency in the world.
VIDEOS:
of our 24th February Conference are now available -
there are 3 types of video
1. The
Walter Rockler tape of approximately 13 minutes: £5 + £1
postage if in UK
2. An edited version of about 180 minutes costs £10 + postage
£1 for UK
For overseas rates please contact cana.
Send postal orders/cheques made out to cana. No order will be processed unless we first have prepayment.
Walter
Rockler was part of the US prosecution team at The Nuremberg
Trials.
FOLLOW UP MEETING:
We are planning a follow up meeting to our Feb 24th Meeting to be held in Islington.
We will
send further details as they become available.
Message to CANA from the Most Reverend Bishop Hamlett; Metropolitan of the Holy Catholic Church, (Western rite):
The bishop sent this message to be read out at the CANA Conference, but because of the confusion @ the end & time limits, we weren't able to do it:
"You may not have heard of our Church. We are not numerous in this country, having some twenty parishes & missions here. We are more numerous in The Americas, in South Africa & India. We also have a diocese in New Zealand, missions in Spain & Korea & an Archdeaconry in Sweden. We hold to the faith of the undivided church of the first millennium.
"Although we are western in our origin & rites we hold our doctrines in common with the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
"I am greatly concerned by the almost unremarked change of NATO & its EU component from being a purely defensive alliance into an aggressor power, or powers with few limits to their ambitions & no effective accountability.
"I
share your concern for the evils suffered by the peoples of the
former Yugoslavia - both those arising from internecine strife
(fostered from outside ) & those inflicted by the aggression
of NATO & the EU.
"I pray that your efforts may contribute towards the
reassertion of real peace & true justice to the peoples of
that land."
A telephone number for the Most Rev Leslie Hamlett is 01782 336361
We appreciate the support of the Bishop, & indeed all church based support, particularly though from the Monastery at Brookwood, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, & monks & clergy from Brookwood attended our Conference & blessed the food.
Reflections:
(a) As a professing Christian I believe prayer is essential if
the current oppression of the Serbs is ever to be lifted.
That the
Serbs are oppressed is very evident to anyone visiting there.
When a government has a knee jerk reaction to a demand by a
foreign power to deliver someone up to a court outside its own
jurisdiction, we can say that country has lost its independence.
The student movement which helped bring the ruling coalition to
power in Belgrade, consists of EU subsidised High School
kids/crypto-fascist juvenile delinquents who for a Saturday job
get up to all the old Mosleyite tricks, smash up meetings/ hit
opponents over the head with chair legs etc. (Although I didn't
actually see any of this in Belgrade but so I am told!)
I think it's really bad luck for the Serbs that they live where they do. An island is easier to defend.
But to return to the Christian element, prayer is essential but unfortunately countries do not secure & retain their independence only by prayer - force is also sometimes necessary, which explains why we have standing armies.
Oliver Cromwell, c in c of an illustrious ancestor of mine, Sir William Spring, had a saying: "Trust in God & keep your Powder dry" & if the Serbs ever want to get rid of Nato & Tony Blair's prissy meddling interference I'm afraid the only arbitrement at the end of the day will be force.
Americans only leave places where they are unwanted, such as Somalia, Beiruit, or Vietnam, because of violence.
That the
USA, together with Sweden, Canada etc, has been able to establish
a colonial empire in the Balkans with such minimal loss of life
to them, so far, is a truly remarkable phenomenon; but it's
doubtful whether this low cost operation will remain so.
But I don't think Serbs need to do anything about it, they've had
enough war, so the KLA & the Croats will probably do the job
for them.
But it would be ironic if Nato forces were targeted in a guerrilla war by the very terrorist forces Nato has encouraged.
I sent out Monday April 9th a press release dealing with the anti Milosevic campaign over the BBC, including this phrase:
"critics of Government foreign policy demand from the BBC proper air time, to respond to Government lies & fabrications, as we finance the BBC & it is ordinary people who will bear the loss when the body bags start coming back."
Then a few hours ago I heard the news of the UK helicopter crash in Kosovo, with two dead.
A most regrettable 'accident' according to the MOD, who will put the blame on the dead pilot.
As to the Americans locked away in Camp Bondsteel, no peace keeping jobs for them!
In practical terms they have already run out on Tony Blair's humanitarian venture, putting us all in the shit, as we knew they would.
Isn't it ridiculous that UK troops should be "interdicting the KLA" in the mountains of Kosovo, trying to explain to the KLA why they aren't allowed to kill Macedonians, (while the UK SAS still trains the KLA in the politically corrrect option, that of killing Serbs).
(b) From all the above you may have gathered CANA is not a peace group.
Peace cannot be established on the basis of injustice.
That is why in so many parts of the world where there has been war Commissions of Justice & Peace have been set up following the conflict to analyse the past in a constructive mode.
Not so with The Balkans.
Here we are stuck with is a manky political Court run by a corrupt prosecutor.
(I have it that Carla del Ponte is being blackmailed in Switzerland, & consequently she is in turn blackmailing NATO - threatening to begin war crimes prosecutions against Nato leaders if they don't get her out of her jam. If anyone has further info on that, the Swiss scandal, please mail us.)
(c) An argument over the status of the Hague tribunal has been going on in The Daily Telegraph letters column for some days, with Noel Malcolm assuring DT readers that it operates on the basis of strict rules of evidence.
GNW Locke has been one combating this malice & foolishness.
I have also sent a couple of letters. I enclose a copy of one of them @ the end of this newsletter.
It has not been published so far, maybe because it's too long, but I have since sent a shorter version
(d) Us & Milosevic:
As people may have gathered I was rather upset over the arrest of Milosevic.
This has nothing to do with politics.
My late wife's mother always judges people on one criteria & that is "is he polite?" - which explains why the British are so extraordinarily gullible about foreign dictators.
(In 1980 I had a conversation outside Hampstead Heath station. "Oh, you are going to Zimbabwe - isn't that where that nice man is?"
A reference to Mr Mugabe, who speaks perfect English, & is the epitome of courtesy. He only has the misfortune to be a psychopath.)
By my
mother in law's test Mr Milosevic passed it easily -
we found him extremely relaxed & convivial & extraordinarily well informed when we visited him in his villa, a week before DOS 'bounders' tried to break in, trying to bypass not his own private bodyguard, as reported, but The Yugoslav Army.
I have the greatest admiration for the disciplined JNA troops I met guarding Mr Milosevic & had there been another attack I think the DOS terrorists (who conversed in a foreign tongue) would have paid dearly.
I found Mr Milosevic in command of his brief, to use a legal phrase.
It makes me question whether there is any mileage for Nato in transporting him to the Hague, as the end result of any trial will be to make Nato look even more idiotic & criminal than it already is.
Mr Milosevic is quite capable of defending himself in any Court anywhere without a lawyer.
As it whether he is guilty of any the crimes he is charged with under Serbian law the presumption of English law is that a man is innocent until proven guilty.
But that is not the presumption of most media reporting about the case. It is a political prosecution & nothing else.
I would add the detention of Mr Milosevic is not the only political detention: the former Head of Serbian State Television is also held - for the curious crime of causing the death of his own staff by a NATO missile.
Yet those who sent the missile are feted by the Government.
Does the Serbian Justice Ministry really think the rest of the world is as mad as they seem to be?
Others were picked up in Belgrade when I was there.
In fact an under-reported low profile Reign of Terror is going on in the FRY as NATO opponents are isolated, picked up, or just knocked over on pedestrian crossings, as has happened recently to a number of members of the late Arkan's Serbian Unity Party.
The NATO powers & their stooges in Belgrade have brought international law into disrepute & subverted the legal system of the entire planet by their preposterous 13th century witch hunts: no-one with historical knowledge can put the exclusive blame for the Balkan wars on Milosevic, as so many hired hacks ( such as Alec Russell in The Telegraph) have done.
In fact , at least one of the Yugoslavian Wars, that in Bosnia, was almost entirely the responsibility of Douglas Hurd.
If anyone, it is this mild mannered man + his German counterpart at the time, Herr Genscher, who should be delivered to The Hague, as they both deliberately sacrificed the peace of SE Europe by agreeing to the premature recognition of Slovenia & Croatia against the wishes of the Bosnian leadership, who warned them that war would result if they made such a move.
I have
received the following e mail from George in Florida to which I
have replied:
George first quotes a part of my press release, below, where I
complained about a BBC programme on 24 Hours Television last
Saturday:
"The
commentator was one David Shukman.
In 3 minutes he managed to say or suggest the following about Mr
Milosevic (& /or his family).
1st - that he will be inside a long time
2nd - that he is an embezzler
3rd - that he murders journalists
4th - that he is a drugs smuggler, dealing in heroin
5th - that he has secretly shipped gold & cash abroad to
avoid exchange
regulations
6th - that his whole family took advantage of opportunities to
plunder the
state treasury & that his son is also a criminal.
George replies:
"I have just received your bulletin
from a friend. Everybody has right to
write any text, whether it gives correct or wrong information.
However, I
found your bulletin a propaganda tool of a regime that brought a
lot of
problems to the Serbian people as well as to other peoples of the
former
Yugoslavia. But let me comment on what David said.
1. I hope
he will stay behind the bars for ever, for the crimes he
committed
in 13 years.
2. He is definitely an embezzler, who organised a mafia-style
government. His
cronies, including his son & daughter, became rich, while the
great majority
of the Serbian people are poor.
3.He murdered the owner of a newspaper, tried to kill Draskovic.
What
happened to his ex comrade, who disappeared without trace? Just
to mention a
few cases.
4. Well, I have no idea about this.
5. It is known that not only gold, but also foreign currencies
were smuggled
to offshore banks.
6. How do you explain Marko's & Marija's considerable wealth?
David's
assertions are totally correct. The rest of your bulletin is a
repetition of the lies Milosevic & his gang were spreading
for years.
George Vukovich, Miami, FL "
My reply to George Vukovich is as follows:
"Basically I don't give a damm what he did.
It's not my business. It's not Tony Blair's business either, or the FBI's.
It's the business of the Serbian people & their own judicial system.
He is now being brought to Court purely & exclusively as a political act in order for the FRY to qualify for aid, when in fact the US owes the FRY enormous amounts of money in war reparations!
We have not seen in Europe such a medieval approach to justice since the end of Tournaments at Ashby de la Zouche.
This idea that Mr Milosevic should be held as a ransom for the supposed sins of his people is crazy.
Of course in the USA you may be able to say what you like, which could explain the culture being so violent.
In the UK someone who is facing criminal proceedings is entitled to freedom from prejudicial press comment.
We take that principle quite seriously, which is why a high profile trial here the other day was abandoned at the cost of £8 million to the taxpayer because one jury member had read one headline in a newspaper commenting on the case.
Nato's support from its associated organisations, such as CNN & the BBC has already prejudiced Mr Milosevic's trial, (if there is to be a trial, that is, if the Russians don't unexpectedly turn up), wherever it may be held, to such an extent that any competent lawyer can now plead vigorously for acquittal.
Which is probably what NATO wants to happen.
The whole thing is a farce, a bungling tragedy, with not a few glimpses of black humour.
As to the rest of the press releases being a repetition of lies I am interested to know what you refer to.
I did make the suggestion that Russian special forces spring Mr Milosevic from his Belgrade gaol.
My reasoning is "if he's a bastard, then he's their bloody bastard & they should bloody well get him out."
Even Hitler looked after Mussolini.
But a Serbian General told us at the Belgrade Forum the Russians are wimps.
They asked Russia for arms & all they got was Chermonydin instead.
So a Freddy Forsyth movie with Russians extricating the prisoner is not a likely scenario.
But less dramatic, (& at the very least), the Russians could stop all co-operation with The Hague Tribunal.
My view is very simple & consistent: all war criminals & all politicians against whom one can build a prima facie case of war crimes should be brought to justice, first in their own jurisdiction, but necessarily before independent Courts following the provisions of Article Six of the Strasbourg Convention.
The politicians I would like to see thus arraigned include
Clinton, Albright, Holbrooke & the UK PM & Cook etc
About these politicians I am absolutely sure, & know as a certain fact upon irrefutable evidence, that they have already committed serious war crimes & crimes against peace, in their attack on Yugoslavia, & have violated the laws of England, for which reason I went to Magistrates Court to indict them in May 1999.
The NATO war was a deliberate war of aggression.
By contrast Mr Milosevic's wars were wars thrust upon the Yugoslav people, largely as a result of outside interference, & as I do not know the details of his alleged crimes, I will assume he is innocent of whatever he is accused of, until proven guilty in a fair trial, which I do not believe is possible now.
LAST POINT:
We are preparing a "tract"/ pamphlet to distribute near polling stations etc.
If you want any copies contact us.
Any donations towards printing costs can also be sent to cana or cjpy (Justice Yugoslavia) but it should be made clear in any covering letter that the money is for printing costs.
A happy Easter to everyone who receives this transmission.
William
Spring
Cana Director
ends: copy of letter to Daily Telegraph follows.
To The
Editor
The Daily Telegraph
From William Spring 1 Scales Road, London N17 2HB
April 5th 2001 Tel: (020) 8376 1454
Dear Sir, Noel Malcolm insists (DT April 4th 2001) that Slobodan Milosevic should "be brought to face the real world, in the Hague".
If that's where the real world exists, in the curious procedures of thirteenth century jurisprudence, God help us all.
The International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia is a post modern Court, value free. It violates natural justice & positively rejoices in this fact. Its 1994 Year Book says that it "does not need to shackle itself with restrictive rules, which have developed out of the ancient trial by jury system."
Instead it operates on the basis of closed hearings, secret trials, & a system of sealed indictments, so no one knows if they have been charged until police arrest them. Also any "suspect" (someone not indicted) can be detained for up to 90 days without charge.
Rule 92 says confessions shall be presumed to be free & voluntary unless the contrary is established by the prisoner. (After 90 days?)
Witnesses can testify anonymously, or not be shown in Court. There is no presumption of innocence. It is impossible to prove you have no case to answer, as a charge cannot be laid without one of the trial judges approving the indictment on the basis that a prima facie case exists!
Detention is automatic, there is no bail, mail is censored, media information is censored. There is no proper system for defendants to be represented, as The Registrar of The Tribunal can veto the defendant's choice of counsel for all sorts of reasons, including being unfriendly to The Tribunal, & the Court inflicts large fines on any counsel who speaks out of turn.
The Tribunal has conspicuously failed to investigate NATO war crimes, & has no mandate to investigate crimes against peace, which include the preparation & execution of aggressive war - so what actually happened at Rambouillet is conveniently shoved under the carpet.
Money for
the Tribunal comes from private institutions such as George
Soros's Open Society Institute, & the Rockerfeller Foundation
& from companies such as Time-Warner, & also from the US
Government.
All this is contrary to Article 32 of The Tribunal's Charter,
which says the expenses of The Tribunal should come from the
regular budget of the United Nations.
The existence of this Tribunal on Dutch soil calls into question the commitment of The Royal Netherlands Government to the European Convention of Human Rights, in that it is allowing a bogus Court to operate with impunity out of The Hague, an institution which does not dispense free & impartial justice, but has its own sinister agenda of political persecution & racist stereotyping.
That the Secretary-General of the United Nations condones this grisly farce reflects badly upon him personally.
Yours sincerely
William Spring
Director CANA
Christians Against Nato Aggression