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<P><SPAN class=DocumentTitle><A
href="http://www.spiked-online.com">http://www.spiked-online.com</A>
Friday 29 June 2001<BR><BR>MORE TO IT THAN MILOSEVIC -<BR>by Mick
Hume</SPAN></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR class=NetscapeDummy>
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<TD class=bodypintro>Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic may be
guilty of many crimes. No doubt there will be time enough to sort through
the facts in the long months before he stands trial at the International
War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>For now, however, let us question a couple of conclusions
to which many commentators appear to be leaping.<BR
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<TD class=bodyp>First, Milosevic is not single-handedly responsible for
the wars that have torn apart what was Yugoslavia over the past decade.
The lion's share of the blame actually belongs to the Western powers,
whose interventions have exacerbated the Yugoslav crisis at every
stage.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>Second, whatever Milosevic has or has not done, the war
crimes tribunal is not the place to hand down justice. It is less a court
of international law than a creature of global power politics.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>Ever since at least 1992, when the German-led EU
recognised the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia, and the USA
recognised the independence of Bosnia, the interference of outside powers
has provided the spark to set the Yugoslav tinderbox ablaze. Time and
again international intervention has only helped to perpetuate and
intensify the Balkan conflict, as it spread from Croatia through Bosnia to
Kosovo and now Macedonia.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp>Milosevic's Serbia was usually held up as the major
villain of the piece. But in truth it is hard to see how he was much
different from the other
Stalinist-bureaucrats-turned-nationalist-politicians engaged in a local
power struggle in the Balkans. Yet the Serbs alone were singled out as
'the new Nazis', and bombed by NATO.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>So it is that Milosevic becomes the first-ever head of
state to be brought before an international war crimes tribunal. However
the trial turns out (and the odds are clearly stacked against him), it
will be highly questionable whether justice has been done.<BR
class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp>The issue of war crimes has always been politically
loaded. One man's act of war is another's atrocity. Whether or not an
action becomes defined as a war crime by the West tends to depend less on
the numbers killed or the methods employed than on whose finger was on the
trigger. <BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>So far Milosevic has been charged with committing crimes
against the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo. His regime's record of repression
in that province is certainly grim. But the issue of war crimes in Kosovo
remains shrouded in the smoke of propaganda. <BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>In order to justify NATO's war against the Serbs in 1999,
we heard claims that up to 100,000 Kosovo Albanians had perished. After
its extensive investigations, the tribunal now reports having found a
total of 'almost 4000 bodies or parts of bodies' (a figure that includes
combatants and civilians, Albanians and Serbs).</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD></TR>
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<TD class=bodyp>After recent reports of some more graves, the figure of
'up to 100,000' Albanian dead has been bandied about once again, with
claims that the Serbs hid and destroyed the bodies. The truth of these
claims remains to be tested. We might recall, however, that shortly after
the Kosovo war we were told that the Serbs had been burning thousands of
bodies in the Trepca mine complex - 'the Serb Auschwitz', as one paper
called it. The tribunal subsequently discovered no evidence of any bodies
or remains at Trepca.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
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<TD class=bodyp>Not only are the facts in doubt, but the broader question
remains: should the war crimes tribunal at The Hague sit in judgement on a
former head of a sovereign state?<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>It is arguable that the existence of this Tribunal is
itself an infringement of international law. It was set up by the major
powers that sit permanently on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
- the USA, Britain, France, Russia and China - in contravention of the
UN's own principle of non-intervention in the affairs of member states.
<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>The tribunal has been justified on the bogus basis that
the Yugoslav struggle was not a civil war but an international conflict.
In truth, the only thing that internationalised that rolling civil war was
the intervention of the permanent members of the UNSC.<BR
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<TD class=bodyp>Alongside unresolved questions about the legality of the
tribunal, there are also problems with the procedures it has employed.
There are no juries, and things have been permitted during trials at The
Hague - like hearsay evidence and anonymous witnesses - that have no place
in a just system.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>But then, the primary purpose of the tribunal has always
seemed to be more political than legal. It embodies the right of the
international powers to sit in judgement on the world, and to draw a line
between the civilised West and the rest. The double standards behind the
kind of justice such a body dispenses has become clear in plans to
establish a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC).<BR
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<TD class=bodyp>NATO secretary general Lord Robertson (UK defence
secretary during the war with Serbia) has suggested that most defendants
at the ICC would probably come 'from countries with no super power
support'. Last year, the then-foreign secretary Robin Cook spelt it out
even more bluntly, announcing on BBC's <I
xmlns:script="urn:my-script-blocks">Newsnight</I> that 'If I may say so,
this is not a court set up to bring to book prime ministers of the United
Kingdom or presidents of the United States'.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
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<TD class=bodyp>There is no danger of any of the NATO leaders responsible
for the bombing of civilian targets in Serbia or Kosovo - like, say,
Robertson or Cook - being hauled before an international tribunal. <BR
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<TD class=bodyp>The speed with which Milosevic was handed over by the new
Yugoslav government, apparently in defiance of its own constitutional law,
reflects the degree of authority that the West (aka 'the international
community') now exercises over global affairs. In return for a few favours
and handouts of aid, the USA, EU and NATO now seem capable of recreating
any society in their own image, all in the name of justice and
democracy.<BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR class=NetscapeDummy></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=bodyp>Meanwhile, back in the real world, more trouble is brewing
across the Balkans. With Milosevic gone, the Western governments will have
to find some new bogeymen to blame for the mess that is largely of their
making. <BR class=NetscapeDummy><BR
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