Milosevic lawyer complains of unfairness

Jacques Verges, the French lawyer appointed to defend ex-President of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, has complained that the Hague Tribunal is biased and tendentious.

“Dialogue is impossible when a court functions around donations. Among the donors are the USA, Saudi Arabia and private individuals, such as George Soros, who is not exactly Mother Teresa”, declared M. Verges in an interview with Reuters.

The lawyer defending Slobodan Milosevic is of the opinion that the war crimes case is “not defendable” due to the bias involved. “If the court was independent, it should invite Messrs Clinton, Blair, Schroeder and Chirac, because in Dayton they recognised Mr. Milosevic as a respectable and valid interlocutor”.

Indeed Madeleine Albright stated that with Mr. Milosevic “we can do business”. However, this was in the days before he was dropped and abandoned by all who had used him to broker their individual deals in the Balkans.

The trial against Mr. Milosevic begins on Tuesday. In it, he is accused of crimes against humanity in Croatia (1991) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995) and war crimes in Kosovo (1999).

The legitimacy of the Hague Tribunal is open to question. Its rulings are not accepted by the USA and its jurisdiction over Mr. Milosevic is clouded by the fact that he is held there after an illegal act of international kidnapping.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru