Slobodan Milosevic: Civilian objects were NATO's main targets

Slobodan Milosevic: I would like not to be interrupted in half an hour, as I have been listening to the charges for two days already. But I would like to use… (the judge breaks in).

Judge Richard May: What would you like to add?

S.M: I have touched upon some juridical problems several times already, but you ignored them. You know, only the court provided by the law may hold a trial, as it is fixed in all international and national documents. The problem of legitimacy of this court has been already touched upon. No response was received. I doubt that the court is legitimate, as it has not been instituted in accordance with the laws; the UN Security Council was not authorized to give the court the right it had not itself. That is why the court can not hold a trial. I expect you to comment on the juridical problems, and, as you have been recommended from outside, appeal to the International court for its advisory opinion. But nothing has been done.

To my mind, this problem is of significant importance for the international right and justice on the whole. That is why it needs to be settled. When I submitted a large text with arguments on the problem, it became a serious reason for it.

One more problem I would like to find out. I have already mentioned the problem of my illegal arrest with participation of a Tribunal representative in Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslavian Constitutions have been violated at that. This became a reason for the Union government to resign. Several criminal cases have been instituted in Yugoslavia for this very reason. Any court is to consider habeas corpus before a trial begins. This fact was ignored, and hearings were initiated. The problem of habeas corpus, I am speaking about, is provided by the declaration for human right and for political rights, the universal, European, American and others, those ones you perfectly know about.

Finally, it is regulated by your own practice, as you have considered problems of illegal arrest in different cases. You were to have held a hearing on my illegal arrest, as I have been delivered here as a result of a crime that is treated as such not only by the legislation of my country, but in the legislation of many other countries, by the international norms and conventions.

Another question of mine that you have ignored. I mean, in this case we can not call the trial honest and equitable. The UN recommendation about public prosecutors of 1990 provides for an objectivity requirement. What we hear at the trial now confirms, the prosecutor is not only biased, but has already made up a sentence for me. The Prosecutor’s Office conducts an information campaign and organizes a parallel trial in mass media, designed for some parallel lynching with a view to proves that it is…(the judge breaks in).

Judge May: Let me interrupt you. Why do you think the Prosecutor has already voiced a sentence for you? S.M: The previous prosecutor (Luise Arbur) during her meeting with Madeline Albright said, they were doing the same work. But she was a representative of the belligerent party. The charges are based on the information provided by the British intelligence and obtained during the war against Yugoslavia. It is well-known, intelligence services provide only selective data, but not those that disagree with their own interpretation. I think some other arguments can be mentioned as well. But the problems were ignored, and no decision was passed. You failed to appeal to the International court as for the legitimacy problem. No hearing was started on the basis of habeas corpus and on the fact that your representative took part in a criminal offense…(the judge breaks in). Judge May: Mr.Milosevic, we have already passed a decision on the problems you mention. Your personal treatment of the tribunal has nothing to do with this case. The decision has been passed, no need to take it up at the current hearings.

The sequel to Milosevic’s speech after film showing in his defense:

What you have seen is, I would say, just an atom, even less than an atom of truth in the ocean of lies and propaganda, used by the mass media as a war instrument against my country. Not Serbian, but German and British tapes have been chosen deliberately. We are not acquainted with those people. You have heard a German general speaking he was ashamed of the government’s actions. As long as you read my correspondence (by the way, I get many letters that must be complicating for your work), you know the letters sent by American officers who are also ashamed of the US government; there are many letters sent by British intellectuals and servicemen, French veterans, all of them are ashamed of their governments’ actions.

When the Yugoslavian problem is touched upon, more and more people appear in the west as well, who appreciate the truth more than the comfort guaranteed by humiliating implementation of the political bosses’ instructions. It is to be mentioned here, the western mass media and global information networks have been used as a war instrument to tell the lies to the people. I am sure, the truth will be restored there, those people who lied about Yugoslavia, who turned the information war into a frontline war troops with many victims, will be held up to shame.

Now I would like to touch upon the problem I have been wishing to say for seven months already.

Within the two last days the prosecutors have been saying they were judging an individual person. The three prosecutors mentioned, not the nation, but an individual person was on trial. But they accuse the whole of the nation, starting with Serbian intellectuals. A war against the Serbian intellectuals with the Serbian academy of science and arts at the head was launched. A memorandum of the Serbian Academy of science and arts has been already cited, the memorandum is said to have been an ideological platform for the crimes against Albanians. It was the memorandum in which Serbian academicians described the situation of a 15-year prescription and mentioned the situation in Kosovo. But not only the intellectuals of Kosovo have been accused. The Kosovo battle was also accused. One of the prosecutors said, he knew nothing of the fact, why two million people came to the Kosovo field to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the battle we had lost. The prosecutor does not know (although he accuses the Serbian history and the Kosovo battle) that it was a battle for Serbia and Europe, for Serbia as well for Europe.

But not only the Serbian intellectuals, the Academy of science and arts and the Kosovo battle have been accused. The whole of Serbia’s institutional system that rendered assistance to me has been accused, I mean the parliament, political organizations and mass media. The people who supported me and voted for me at multi-party elections have been accused as well. The only point we coincide in, is that my behavior was a realization of the people’s will. But the people have been accused of this support rendered to me. I say, even my conduct here is a manifestation of the people’s will. The army and police, volunteers and territorial defense, named “Serbian forces” have been accused. The Serbs outside the country and people in Serbia, everyone who has supported me and supports now, are accused. The whole of the nation is accused at that.

This has been said within two days already, but now we hear that an individual person is accused only. Then the person, I mean myself, has been proclaimed to be a superman with superhuman power, influence and authority even beyond the limits of the state, perhaps it is some magic power, even a godlike one. At the same time my emotional state, my opinion about the events and my thoughts are of special concern now.

Americans go across the world to struggle against terrorism. It is considered to be logic and normal. But an anti-terrorism struggle inside the country is considered to be a crime. Does it mean that we have no right to react to terrorism in our own home? I can prove the connection between this and that terrorism.

The false accusation goes further than any imagination could even reach. It is said, I have caused NATO aggression, the war against Yugoslavia and sufferings of millions of people on purpose to get a reason for killing Albanians. I am asking myself: “Could not they have invented some other, more probable explanation?” Yesterday we heard that I ignored every limits, except for the boundary between Serbian and non-Serbian. Although, Serbia has been the only country on the territory of the former Yugoslavia that managed to preserve its ethnic structure over the whole period of the Yugoslavian crisis. It remains the same it was 12 years ago when the crisis broke out.

The reality in Yugoslavia denies the shocking thesis and the lie itself. And we will have to listen to such obscure statements and ignore the Yugoslavian reality, that is the reality of not the present-day moment, but the reality of more than decades; it is so precise that completely denies such nonsense. Serbia and I personally are said to be carrying out a genocide policy outside Serbia. But there is no genocide policy in Serbia, for which territory I am responsible as the president. They want to shift on me the blame for the crimes they have committed.

They say, our heroic defense against NATO aggression was just a cover for crimes against Albanians. But you are insulting the whole of the nation. The facts known to the planet – about 24-hour bombing of Kosovo within 78 days – are attempted to be abolished with witnesses’ help. The witnesses will be forced to say they had to escape from “the Serbian forces”, as you call the army and police. The facts well-known to every citizen on the planet will be denied by some witnesses who are expected to come here and say: “We escaped not from NATO bombing, but we escaped from Kosovo because of the Serbian forces.”

You have just seen the tapes from the west and heard the generals deny the facts. There are other witnesses who wish to come here and say, what is true and false in the construction you offer. The whole of the construction is false.

The escape, that you consider to be a deportation, coincides with the bombing. The dates fixed in the charges coincide with the dates of bombing. Here is one more evidence of manipulation with the facts and attempts of shifting the responsibility for the crimes on the victim. NATO bombed and organized mass killing of the Albanians, who did not obey to the orders of the Kosovo liberation army to escape, the people beaten and killed because they did not want to escape. Such was the concept voiced by Madeline Albright: Serbs oust Albanians; Albanians are consequently to leave Kosovo to prove the thesis that we oust them.

After bombing leaflets in Albanian with appeals to leave Kosovo fell down from the planes. The Kosovo liberation army, as well as its ally, did the same and killed everyone who tried to resist. Nevertheless, Albanians did not wish to escape and got back to their villages. Certainly, people from the areas of hard battles had to escape and they did. Serbs escaped to Hungary, the Serbian Republic (on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina). May of the people who had left the place during the war, got back to the Serbian Republic; they have been probably ousted by “the Serbian forces”, as the accusation says. It seems as though something of the kind can be invented in ten years to shift the blame for one’s own crime onto other people.

I am asking a question: is there a court capable to cancel the 24-hour bombing within 78 days only based on the evidence of so-called witnesses, who say they have been ousted by “the Serbian forces”? I am sure, it is a crime for the Prosecutor to use this lie. By the way, probably it would be better to allow such statements of the Prosecutor and make the planet watch this farce. Intellect of a normal human is insulted by the statements made here. Yesterday it was said: crimes accompany deportations always. But the truth is, when a collision with a terrorist group or bombing occur, the population does escape. The way you treat the situation presents the collisions with the terrorist group and bombing you saw on the tape as crimes committed by “the Serbian forces”, and escape of the population is treated as a deportation. I say once again, the Kosovo liberation army forced the people to leave the place with orders, assault and murders, and then NATO joined with bombing and appeals for escape. This is the truth about your deportation stories.

I would like to say a fact known to everyone in Serbia. The Serbian tradition says, a prisoner of war and an unarmed man are a relic, anyone who attempts at it is to pay for it. Neither army, nor police did it. I do not mean that this could not be done by some separate groups or individuals. I only mean, the police and army have not been involved in it; they only protected the country. Some separate people can commit crimes in any country of the world, they are accused and persecuted everywhere. To me mind, army and police, state, government and nation can not be accused of such crimes.

Military men and police know better than anybody else, how many terrorists escaped among the civilians. It was easy to discern terrorists among the civilians as they took off the uniform and had only the underwear on to escape. It was a safe way for the terrorists to escape, as the police and servicemen could not open fire when civilians could be wounded or killed as well. It is an open secret that many terrorists escaped this way. US representatives in Kosovo knew about it. The terrorists knew about the instruction not to open fire in the crowds with civilians. We have already discussed it, but the instruction was still in force.

Thus, the top-priority task of the army and police was to neutralize the terrorist organization of the Kosovo liberation army and protection of the civilians. Do you think any mass deportation could be organized without any command or special preparation? The witnesses you saw on the tapes yesterday, said they would not confirm the lies. during the break they were asked by journalists as for comments to the tapes. The people answered they were not going to testify. Do invite these witnesses for us to hear what they have to say. Anyone, who speaks truth, will say the line of my government and myself was honest. Lots of things have been enumerated as proofs. I do not think they are bad. Yesterday the decorating of three generals was mentioned. I do not think it is bad to decorate the generals who defended the country. Yes, thousands of people have been decorated for the courage during the NATO aggression. We are the only country that shook down a NATO stealth-technology plane. When I saw the plane in the base, Mr.Holbrook told me, the construction cost $2,5 billion. When the head of the military base told me the place cost, let us say, $40 million, Mr.Holbrook whispered to me: “Do not believe. They understate the spending, the plane costs not less than $250 million.” This plane, that can not be seen, was shoot down in our country. I think the man who did it, deserves a decoration, even fifty decorations for the act.

Everyone who shook down a plane or a cruise missile will be decorated.

To be continued