YUGOSLAVIA: INTERNATIONAL COURT OF THE HAGUE, BILJANA PLAVSIC AND THOSE WHO ARE MISSING

Biljana Plavsic decided to present herself before the International Court of the Hague, which purports to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and “international crimes” objectively. There has yet to appear any defendant to answer a case against war crimes against Iraqi civilians due to the illegal use of weapons in the Gulf War and exactly the same case could be brought against Javier Solana and company, limited, in NATO’s latest (manic) incursions in the Balkans, in which weapons were again used illegally, contrary to all international laws of engagement, as has been reported in Pravda.Ru’s pages so often in recent weeks. Exactly what gives this court the right to dictate what is or is not acceptable makes it indeed the target of justified criticism that it is a partial, subjective, political body and certainly anything but an impartial, objective, judicial one. Missing are the perpetrators of the bombing against the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, those responsible for attacks against Iraqi civilians in the last ten years, those responsible for the use of DU weapons in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, to speak only of the last decade. Regarding the Yugoslav situation, the situation is as follows: Of the 44 people already presented before the court, four have been condemned (one already released), ten are awaiting an appeal, after having been condemned at the first hearing, two were released without being sentenced, twelve cases are currently running and sixteen are waiting for their cases to start. Twenty-seven people are on the “wanted” list, including Slobodan Milosevic, Milan Milutinovic, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. Unless a “Texas Ranger” is sent in to capture these people, they are probably as worried about the Hague Court as those responsible for war crimes in the Balkans, tried and condemned by a Belgrade Court in their absence, are of being brought to justice in Belgrade. Now that the world is set on becoming “politically correct”, let us call in those responsible for exterminating the American Indians for crimes against humanity, genocide, and any other labels one chooses to use. The case is more obvious.

TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY Pravda.Ru, Lisbon