The Milosevic trial is a travesty

The Guardian (UK) ^ | Thursday February 12, 2004 | Neil Clark

[Destro]

The author means we got involved becuase of economic and military interests in Yugoslavia not that we were responsible for the war in total.

[Oplenac]

Kosovo poses a different problem than that of the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia. In Kosovo, Serbia exerts historical, and many would say, legal rights; whereas in the latter, Croatian and Bosnian Serbs were left with little or no assurance of guaranteed rights. Fragmenting along ethnic lines is a failure, leading only to stunted growth and stagnation, where parties exist as failed statelets, depending on charity to live, while resources are privatized to global profiteers. Much more needed to be done to prepare the new independent states: assurances put into law, compromises from high to low, options to break down mistrust. There is fault for everyone, including the external Powers who should have used their weight more fairly.

[ehoxha]

Ultimately Abdic garnered more votes, and Hoplite is correct "in some wheeling and dealing" Abdic the moderate alternative to Iztbegovic was displaced.

Instead of supporting Abdic, Clinton supported Iztbegovic.

Abdic and his 10-20,000 soldiers, later on fought allied with the BSA against Iztebgovic extremism.

===============

As for the Lisbon Agreement, Zimmerman didn't advise that signing was a good way to prevent a destructive civil war ( as every other observer was advising )..........Zimmerman's support of breaking the (unratified) Lisbon Agreement is merely another indication of how we sided with the extreme rather than moderate voice every single time.

Every single peace plan was rejected by Clinton White House. Finally the Dayton Agreement was forced upon the unelected Iztbegovic government. At Dayton, Clinton basically screwed Iztbegovic.

Iztbegovic had to abandon every last War Aim he had. Under Dayton, Iztbegovic achieved less than under Lisbon, less even less than under Vance-Owen, less than under every other serious peace plan made.

Clinton supported Bosnian extremists, pushed them into extreme positions, and then ditched them at the end.

He did the same in Kosovo and Metohija when Clinton effectively took the KLA from a couple of dozen nutcases, promoted their cause, legitimized them, and sent them guns etc. Instead of supporting the moderates in Kosovo and Metohija, Clinton backed the KLA.

After the bombing, Clinton then screwed the KLA with UNSCR 1244 & the MTA. Bush finished the job by chucking virtually the entire KLA into prison.

[greenwolf]

Kosovo poses a different problem than that of the conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia

That seems obvious enough: Nothing in Croatia or Bosnia could be construed as a precedent for the UN to demand that the United States hand California over to Mexico.

[Int]

For those that are interested, Radio Netherlands is broadcasting a phone-in/email discussion show in the next few hours on this topic: Radio Netherlands: The Amsterdam Forum "Show trial or justice?"

[DTA]

The best comment I've read for a while:

It is beyond embarrassing for Del Ponte and her supporters that despite their millions of dollars in funding, hundreds of zealous lawyers and investigators, cases of intelligence files, hundreds of witnesses willing to make things up as they go, the ability to make up procedures on the fly and that the three-judge panel is firmly on their side, they have suffered a defeat after defeat at the hands of an elderly man with a heart condition, imprisoned, cut off from his family and friends, under constant surveillance and lacking any money or power. On October 6, 2000, Slobodan Milosevic was a political washout with a questionable legacy, accused of war crimes. Three years later, thanks to the Hague Inquisition, he can justifiably claim to be a champion of truth.

[vooch]

despite their millions of dollars in funding

hundreds of millions

the ICTY's budget is $100 million per year. They've been after Milosevic since 1995.