PIJANA CARLA

[Gość: TIMOTHY]

DEL PONTE DECLARES MILOSEVIC GUILTY! (BEFORE TRIAL BEGINS)

Carla del Ponte, the Swiss lawyer acting as the chief prosecutor of the Hague
tribunal, which is not recognised by the United States of America, has been
hounding Yugoslav ex-President Slobodan Milosevic and the members of his regime
implacably, showing a degree of venom mixed with personal spite, which raises
suspicions as to whether there is more to this vendetta than meets the eye.

Carla del Ponte was behind the illegal kidnapping of Slobodan Milosevic after a
hurried meeting of part of the Yugoslav cabinet decided to spirit the ex-
President out of the country during the night, so as to be eligible for the
international aid package, conditional on Milosevic’s detention.

It was thus that Slobodan Milosevic arrived at the International penal Court at
The Hague, whose juridical status is not recognised by many countries, among
them the USA. Accused or war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity,
Slobodan Milosevic is, under international law, innocent until he is proven
guilty.

However, Carla del Ponte declared in an interview with the BBC Today programme
on Thursday that “Milosevic is guilty…he is responsible for all these horrible
crimes that were committed”. Such a declaration, in public, from someone who is
supposed to be a lawyer, is a personal disgrace and an insult to the
profession.

Furthermore, Carla del Ponte made political statements, calling Yugoslav
president Vojislav Kostunica “a big obstacle” to the arrest of General Ratko
Mladic, Chief of Staff of the Republika Srpska forces in Bosnia. The fact is
that while Kostunica is acting within the letter of the law, Carla del Ponte is
not.

President Kostunica declares that co-operation with The Hague will be
forthcoming, but naturally within the framework of existing legislation. Where
such legislation does not exist, new laws must be made, under the norms
stipulated in the Constitution. For this reason, he terms Milosevic’s
extradition to the Netherlands “unconstitutional”, given that the ex-President
was kidnapped against the ruling of the Supreme Court of Serbia.

Carla del Ponte, frustrated that she did not manage to convince the presiding
judge to join the cases against Milosevic together in one, now vents her rage
that the political and military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic
and General Ratko Mladic, are still at large.

She insinuated that the Yugoslav authorities are protecting the latter “It is
scandalous that Mladic can move freely in Belgrade”, claiming that he had been
seen days previously in a restaurant, with a military escort, and derided the
NATO peace-keeping forces in Bosnia for not catching the former, saying
she “cannot accept” that it is beyond their abilities to find and arrest
Karadzic.

Next time Carla del Ponte visits Belgrade, where she must be as welcome as a
drunken intruder at a funeral, she would do well to take some lessons in
international law from President Kostunica.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY