Milošević's old allies celebrate his "innocence"
The Hague Tribunal's verdict in the Karadzic trial (March 24,
2016)
states, at page 1303, paragraph 3460:
With regard to the evidence presented in
this case in relation to Slobodan Milošević and his membership
in the JCE, the Chamber recalls that he shared and endorsed the
political objective of the Accused and the Bosnian Serb
leadership to preserve Yugoslavia and to prevent the separation
or independence of BiH and co-operated closely with the Accused
during this time. The Chamber also recalls that Milošević
provided assistance in the form of personnel, provisions, and
arms to the Bosnian Serbs during the conflict. However, based on
the evidence before the Chamber regarding the diverging
interests that emerged between the Bosnian Serb and Serbian
leaderships during the conflict and in particular, Milošević’s
repeated criticism and disapproval of the policies and decisions
made by the Accused and the Bosnian Serb leadership, the Chamber
is not satisfied that there was sufficient evidence presented in
this case to find that Slobodan Milošević agreed with the common
plan.
Based on this paragraph, long-time
supporters of Milošević have claimed that the Hague Tribunal
declared him innocent of war crimes in Bosnia
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Milošević doesn't deserve exoneration for war crimes Claims that
the ICTY "exonerated" Milošević contribute to the commonplace denial of
genocide and war crimes in Serbia, where convicted war criminals are publicly
lauded as heroes. By William Marsden, The Ottawa Citizen, September
7, 2016
Exonerating Milošević:
A Futile, Destructive Cause of Global "Anti-Imperialists" The author
picks apart the voices of self-imagined anti-imperialists such as Andy Wilcoxson,
Neil Clark, and John Pilger, who take fragments of the ICTY's Karadzic judgment
out of context to create a false narrative of the exoneration of Milošević.
By Refik Hodzic, The Balkanist, August 27, 2016
No exoneration
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) strongly condemns statements the purpose of
which is to deny the facts about the wars in the former Yugoslavia and to
restore Milošević’s policy.
The role
of Slobodan Milošević and the Serbian leadership in the wars of the 1990s can be
seen in numerous ICTY judgments, including the Radovan Karadžić judgment, but it
cannot be inferred by selective reading of individual sentences and paragraphs,
only by an overall assessment of the evidence and judicial facts. Thus,
any conclusions about Milošević’s innocence and the alleged validity of his
policy are contradicted by citations from other ICTY judgments (such as in the
cases
Milan Martić
in which he is described as a participant in various joint criminal enterprises
in the wars in the former Yugoslavia, as well as by judicially established facts
in the Karadžić case about the role of the state of Serbia (led by Milošević at
that time) in helping the wartime leadership of the Republic of Srpska
throughout the entire war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One can see in the
judgment, for instance, that Karadžić maintained regular contact with Milošević
during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that Serbia sent help to the
Bosnian Serb army in the form of money and fuel, as well as special police units
such.
In addition, a lot of evidence was presented during the trial of Slobodan Milošević on charges of crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Kosovo, which pointed to his role in the crimes for which he was allegedly
exonerated by the Karadžić judgment. After the prosecution had presented its
case, the Trial Chamber dismissed the motion of the amicus curiae for Milošević
to be acquitted at that stage of the proceedings. In the
Decision
on the Motion for Judgment of Acquittal
of June 16,
2004, it is stated that "there is sufficient evidence that the accused (Milošević)
was a participant in a joint criminal enterprise“ which included the
perpetration of genocide and other crimes against Bosniaks in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
During the trial of Slobodan Milošević, ample evidence that "the
war was financed from Belgrade" was presented, as also that the Serb armies from
Bosnia and Krajina were constantly paid from Belgrade while they were committing
crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that they
had logistic support from the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of the Interior and
other authorities of Serbia and FRY. There is one piece of evidence in
particular, which was presented during the trial of Milošević, and that was a
statement made by Radovan Karadžić in May 1994, in which he stated that
“there could be no war without Serbia, we do not have the resources and we would
not be able to wage the war."
The statements
by ministers Dačić and Vulin, represent on the one hand an attempt to whitewash
the wartime past of Slobodan Milošević, and also to reduce their own
responsibility for the sufferings during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, in
view of the fact that they were his political and/or party associates. On the
other hand – and this is far more dangerous – the aim is to justify and
decriminalize Milošević’s politics, and re-legitimize the idea of a Greater
Serbia. Particularly disturbing is the fact that the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, as one of the key government officials in negotiations on the accession
of Serbia to the European Union, calls out „Western politicians“ because of
their unwillingness to comply with the conclusion about the innocence of
Milošević and his leadership for waging the war and committing crimes during the
wars of the 1990s. By
Časlav Ninković,
Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, August 19, 2016
Ex-Hague prosecutor upset over "rehabilitation" of Milošević Radio B92,
August 17, 2016
Milošević's old allies celebrate his "innocence"
Disputed claims that
the Hague Tribunal said that Milošević was innocent are being trumpeted by
Serbian ministers and other propagandists trying to whitewash the country's
wartime past. By Balkan Insight/Balkan Transitional Justice, August 16, 2016
There has been no exoneration of Milošević
(Scroll down the target page for this letter.) The former Canadian
ambassador to Yugoslavia, who knew Milošević first-hand, found him to be a
ruthless autocrat who would stop at nothing to to retain personal control over
the Serbian state. By Raphael Girard, The Ottawa Citizen, August
16, 2016
What Hague Tribunal said about "exonerating Milošević"
Neil Clark made
his allegation based on the guilty verdict on Radovan Karadzic, which does not
explicitly mention Milošević's role in the crimes committed in Bosnia. Radio
B92, August 15, 2016
Milošević "Exonerated"? War-Crime Deniers Feed Receptive Audience
Milošević
was not a party to the Karadzic trial referred to here. But the tanks
of his army attacked Sarajevo in April 1992, the beginning of his 1000-day siege
of that city - a fact not mentioned in Andy Wilcoxson's article in
Counterpunch, which takes one paragraph from the Karadzic verdict out of
context. Wilcoxson's manipulation of the facts has been promoted by Neil
Clark, a long-time war-crimes denier who has also supported Russia in its
aggression against Ukraine. By Gordana Knezevic, August 9, 2016