STOP THE AGGRESSION AND THE HAGUE TERROR
AGAINST SERBIA!
SLOBODA/Freedom Association - April 7,
2003
AFTER PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC EXPOSED THE ROLE OF THE HAGUE AND ITS MENTORS IN THE PRESENT TERROR IN SERBIA, TV TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE TRIBUNAL HAVE BEEN TEMPORARILY STOPPED IN SERBIA “DUE TO TECHNICAL REASONS”.
ON THURSDAY, APRIL 3RD, AFTER BEING FOR MONTHS TORTURED BY THE “TRIAL” RHYTHM AND BY THE PRISON CONDITIONS AND FINALLY GIVEN WRONG THERAPY, PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC DEMANDED ADJOURNMENT OF THE TRIAL FOR HIS PROPER MEDICAL TREATMENT, RECOVERY AND APPROPRIATE PREPARATION FOR THE CONTINUATION OF THE PROCESS. HE STRESSED THAT HE RECEIVED 400000 (FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND) PAGES OF MATERIAL FROM THE PROSECUTION. JUST FOR QUICK READING OF 500 PAGES PER DAY, ONE WOULD NEED 800 DAYS!
IN SERBIA, DAYS OF DARKEST POLITICAL TERROR CONTINUE. THOUSANDS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED – TO KILL ORGANIZED CRIME, AUTHORITIES CLAIM. BUT DRUGS ARE STILL IN THE SAME AMOUNT IN THE STREETS, AND ALMOST AT THE SAME PRICE.
AFTER THE MEDIA HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO DIRTIEST INSTRUMENT OF POLITICAL LYNCH, AND AFTER SEVERAL OPPOSITION POLITICAL ACTIVISTS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED, THE ACTION CONTINUES. THEY ARREST GENERALS, LAWYERS (THEY DEFENDED CRIMINALS!), JOURNALISTS! THE WARRANT AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC’S WIFE HAS BEEN ISSUED. THERE ARE RUMORS ABOUT THE TORTURE IN PRISONS.
STOP THIS INFERNAL SEQUENCE!
WE STILL KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE DESTINY OF OUR COMRADES!
IN ALL BELGRADE SQUARES, IN SPITE THE TOTALLY CALM SITUATION ALL THE TIME, ONE CAN SEE UNITS OF GENDARMERIE (POLICE MILITARY UNITS) IN PANZERS, WITH COVERED FACES, WITH MACHINE GUNS, WITH ARMORED VEHICLES AND WITH THE LICENSE TO KILL (ANYONE WHO WOULD RESIST ARREST).
NO MORE US DEMOCRACY IN SERBIA!
STOP THE US UNHIDDEN WAR IN IRAQ AND US HIDDEN WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA!
STOP THE IMPERIAL GLOBAL CRUSADE AGAINST PEOPLE!
FREE MILOSEVIC! FREE SERBIA!
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
ARCHIVE OF RECENT STATEMENTS FROM SLOBODA
OUR PREVIOUS POSTS: that did not reach some of you since our computer was arrested for five days
1. STOP THE POLITICAL ARRESTS IN BELGRADE!
2. ZYUGANOV: STOP THE REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
3. EUROPEAN PEACE FORUM ON SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA
4. ICDSM: POLITICAL MURDER AT THE HAGUE!
5. MILOSEVIC: LAWLESSNESS AND TERROR IN SERBIA!
6. HAGUE PROSECUTION DETERMINES THE DESTINY OF SERBIA!
7. BELGRADE MESSAGE OF PEACE AND FREEDOM
1. STOP THE POLITICAL ARRESTS IN BELGRADE!
Yesterday and today, several members of SLOBODA, SPS and YUL have been arrested. For some of them, home apartments and offices have been searched by the police. At least three of them have been kept in detention. After SLOBODA reacted today with the statement bellow and with a press conference, and some electronic media started quoting our position, the regime ordered all such reports to be stopped. Than, this evening, the police appeared with its statements, announcing that "Mira Markovic is in Russia" and informing that some comrades have been kept in detention. They gave no real explanation. In the case of Bogoljub Bjelica, chairman of SLOBODA they said "Continuing the investigation of the hardest crimes and collecting the evidence in order to arrest orderers, inspirers and assistants, the police arrested for questioning and kept in detention Bogoljub Bjelica, one of the closest associates of the former President of FRY Slobodan Milosevic". In the case of Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic, the police stated that they’ve been kept "as closest political associates of Mira Markovic" due to suspicion that they are "in possession of information that can help the investigation" of the case of Ivan Stambolic, since, according to the statement of the police, Mira Markovic "is suspected to be involved in this murder".
So, we know that Belgrade US/NATO/Hague executioners keep illegally and with no ground nor charges:
STATEMENT OF SLOBODA/Freedom Association
The fiasco of the co-called trial in The Hague caused panic inside the "tribunal", in the regime here, as its Belgrade office, and among their common masters. Except the desperate attempt to threaten the life and health of President Milosevic, forces of aggression against our freedom and our people have not found any mean to confront his magnificent struggle for the truth, which inspires and mobilizes the forces of peace and freedom at home and abroad.
The attempt to use the state of emergency in Serbia, imposed in an illegal way by the illegitimate regime, for an attack to President Milosevic, his family and associates, speaks itself for their stupidity and weakness.
It is against the common reason and cynical, and even from a moral and logical point of view unacceptable, to try to link individuals and groups, proclaimed earlier by the regime as "heroes of the 5th of October revolution", who took part in downing and arrest of President Milosevic, with him and with members of his family.
The official statements sent to the media prove that we are dealing with a totally illegal behavior, lynch and lack of the rule of law. One of the examples is that it is declared that the wife of President Milosevic is in escape, although it is absolutely clear that there is nothing she should run away from and that as a free citizen she has the right to move and travel freely.
The regime that has lost every hope that it can survive free elections tries to prolong its days, which are already counted, by the misuse of the media and by the suppression of the citizen’s rights and freedoms.
This is also an attack on political opponents, free expression of political opinions and fundamental, internationally guaranteed human rights and freedoms.
We demand from the police the immediate release of the President of SLOBODA/FREEDOM Association, Mr. Bogoljub Bjelica, and to stop the persecution and misuse of the media against the members of the family of President Milosevic, arbitrary arrests of the members of our association and other individuals who did not violate any law.
We call upon all democratic political subjects, all domestic and international organizations for the protection of human rights, and all progressive forces and honest individuals to react in the strongest possible way against such a practice of the Belgrade regime.
Send your appeals to the embassies, diplomatic missions and consulates of Serbia and Montenegro in your respected countries. Act publicly!
SLOBODA/FREEDOM Association, Belgrade, March 29, 2003
NOTE THAT ADDRESSES, FAXES AND E-MAILS OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIONS, ONE CAN FIND ON THE WEB SITE OF THE FOREIGN MINISTRY, USING THE FOLLOWING LINK:
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
2. ZYUGANOV: STOP THE REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
PEOPLES’-PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE OF RUSSIA
ALL-RUSSIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Moscow, 31st March, 2003
STOP THE REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
After the assassination of the Prime Minister Djindjic a state of emergency has been imposed in Serbia. Of course, it’s upon the authorities of every country, to decide how they will react to each concrete situation. However, several facts show that the state of emergency is used, first of all, for political purposes. One can observe that in Serbia there is neither chaos nor civic disobedience. The Law and order are respected. There is no outside threat. The investigation of the murder goes without any obstacles. Then what sense at all the imposition of the state of emergency can have?
On the other hand, the freedom of the press is drastically limited. Meetings, rallies and strikes are forbidden. The behavior of the authorities far away exceeds the frames of the murder investigation and of the fight against crime. The police obtained the right to perform arbitrary arrests and searches, to monitor the phone talks, to violate the secrecy of the correspondence. More than two thousand people have been arrested. With a severe violation of Law 35 judges have been dismissed. There is a broad purge in the judiciary. So what kind of connection all these purely repressive measures can have with the search for the assassins? An impression is being created that under cover of the search for the organizers of Djindjic’s assassination, the actual Serbian regime attempts to trounce its personal and political rivals and to suppress every opposition.
Leading organizers of the activities in Slobodan Milosevic’s defense Bogoljub Bjelica, Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic have been arrested. Members of Slobodan Milosevic’s family are under pressure and threats. It is obvious that the "witch hunt" and arrests of the persons who directly assist to President Milosevic in his defense against the false accusations are aimed to save the judicial farce at The Hague, which faces total fiasco.
The Western countries, which allegedly care about "democracy", completely ignore the fact that the fundamental citizens’ freedoms in Serbia are under most serious threat.
The Peoples’-Patriotic Alliance of Russia condemns the use of the state of emergency in Serbia for terrorizing the political opponents of the present regime and calls upon the Government of Serbia to restore as soon as possible the generally recognized citizens’ freedoms.
We intend to raise the issue of the political repression in Serbia at the forthcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
President of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, President of the Peoples’-Patriotic Alliance of Russia
Gennady Zyuganov
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
3. EUROPEAN PEACE FORUM ON SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA
Statement of the Presidium of the European Peace Forum (epf) on the occasion of the anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia and on the „Hague Tribunal“
Meeting of the Enlarged Presidium of the European Peace Forum,
Prague, March 21, 2003
For over a year now the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the president of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the long time president of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, has been going on before the so-called International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. This trial in a court, which was established in violation of the UN Charter, is designed to legitimize in the retrospect the illegal interference of NATO states in the internal conflict of Yugoslavia, their acts commited in order to disrupt the federation of six equal republics, fostering civil war and followed by their aggression against the Balkan country, and to shift the responsibility for the crimes of the aggressors on the shoulders of the aggressed.
Despite the fact, that the chief prosecutor, appointed by NATO, doesn’t lack anything in terms of secret service assistance and obvious partiality of the judges, political support of most of NATO member states and subservient assistance from the rulers in Belgrade, carefully selected and prepared witnesses as well as staff and money – the court so far has spent more than one billion US-Dollars, many times the amount assigned for “immediate assistance” to Serbia and Montenegro – they have not succeeded in bringing Slobodan Milosevic to his heels.
On the contrary, the accused, who became the symbol of resistance against the disruption of Yugoslavia and against the dictate of foreign powers and their war of aggression, despite being subjected to intolerable conditions of prison detainment and court procedures, has become the accuser of NATO. This is mainly, why this trial, which was trumpeted as a war legitimizing show, in the coverage of quite a few media has turned into a sort of secret trial, covering up the debacle of the prosecutors and the sovereign stance of the accused defending himself.
The political objectives to be served with this trial go far beyond the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans. The leading power of NATO patronizing this trial intends to demonstrate to the whole world by way of example, that any resistance against the global ambitions of the US will not be tolerated and will be punished without mercy. States supporting politically the illegal Hague tribunal and also in terms of staff and money, approving and promoting the trial against the former Yugoslav President, are also supporting – willingly or unwillingly – the hegemonial ambitions of the US, their threatening approach towards the “Axis of Evil”, their intention to reshape entire regions of the world according to Washington’s own taste and geostrategic interests. In the same way the war against Yugoslavia has prepared the war against the Iraqi People, the trial against Slobodan Milosevic is meant to create a precedent for the masters of the imperialist globalisation intending to deal with their present and future opponents in a similar way.
Any person, who condemns the US-Government’s plans for world domination – whatever reason one might have for that condemnation – , any person who declares, as recently even did some NATO governments, that it is impossible to accept that the strength of the law is replaced by the law of the stronger one, such a person, if he or she means to be honest, should not be able any longer to support the Hague trial, which is instrumental in the abuse of the international law, replacing it precicely by the law of the stronger one.
The international law can not be split up. It must apply in the Balkans as well as in the Near and Middle East and anywhere in the world. This is, what we are struggling for. Therefore on the eve of the fourth aniversary of NATO agression against Yugoslavia we renew our demands for:
· an immediate end of the trials of Slobodan Milosevic and the other Yugoslavs accused as well as their immediate release,
· the dissolution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia which was established in breach of the UN Charter
· the ratification, as soon as possible, by the United States of America and other states of the Treaty of Rome establishing a legally constituted International Criminal Court and an extension of its jurisdiction in order to apply also to the crime of aggression and other crimes against peace,
· the punishment of NATO leaders responsible for the war of aggression against Yugoslavia,
· war reparations for Serbia and Montenegro,
· compensation for damage for war victims in those countries.
In view of recent political developments in Serbia and Montenegro we strongly condemn, that the the criminal investigations against the supposed assassins of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic are being used as an excuse by the Serbian Government in order to suspend fundametal civil rights.
We demand:
· the immediate stop of the arbitrary and politically motivated arrests,
· the garantee of all democratic rights for the indicted individuals,
· the abolition of the censorship of the media and the garantee of the unimpeded right to obtain information,
· the restauration of the freedom of association, the right of assembly and the right to demonstrate publicly,
· the immediate end of the criminilization of political opposition.
Prague, March 21, 2003
4. ICDSM: POLITICAL MURDER AT THE HAGUE!
Press conference
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
'Political Murder in The Hague'
On Thursday April 3 the ICDSM will hold a press conference on the current crisis in the defence of President Slobodan Milosevic. ICDSM spokesperson Nico Varkevisser will speak and answer questions concerning:
* The state of emergency which marks the end of so-called democracy in Serbia;
* The witch hunt against members of the Sloboda Freedom Association, who assist President Milosevic's defence at The Hague, and against others opposed to the current regime;
* The Hague Tribunal's efforts to prevent Slobodan Milosevic from organizing his defence;
* The remarkable media distortions aimed at justifying the persecution of President Milosevic and his family;
* The efforts to deprive Slobodan Milosevic of fundamental rights and thus crippled his defense;
* The manipulations of the prosecution to enlarge the proceedings;
* The Tribunal's efforts to keep President Milosevic from meeting lawyers and other advisers, with serious consequences for his defence strategy;
* The judges' policy of subjecting President Milosevic to conditions that exacerbate his heart condition and refusing him proper medical attention, thus posing an immediate threat to his life.
The press conference will be at 12.00 noon, in the main conference room at Global Reflexion Foundation, Sloterkade 20 in Amsterdam.
For more information, contact Nico Varkevisser: ++ 31 20 615 1122
Amsterdam, April 2 2003
5. MILOSEVIC: LAWLESSNES AND TERROR IN SERBIA
After couple of days of the unprecedented media campaign in Serbia, spreading the fabricated allegations against President Milosevic and in the first place against his wife Professor Mira Markovic, about the possible involvement in the disappearance and murder of Ivan Stambolic, this morning President Milosevic expressed his position at the beginning of the morning session of the Hague tribunal.
Let us recall some facts: After he defeated politically his bureaucratic rival and earlier close party colleague Stambolic in late 1980s, Slobodan Milosevic provided him with a fine post of the director of YUBMES (Yugoslav Bank for International Economic Cooperation) bank, where he stayed around 10 years, until retired. As a pensioner in late 1990s, until his disappearance, he continued with private business, including oil. He never again played any role in active politics, nor was, as ex-communist, ever truly accepted by that time opposition. In 2000, he was advocating that Goran Svilanovic (today Foreign Minister) should be chosen as common presidential candidate of DOS. On August 10, DOS formally elected Kostunica as a candidate. Stambolic disappeared on August 25, too late to appear even as individual candidate at the presidential elections scheduled for September 24. Since DOS immediately started blaming "Milosevic regime" his disappearance produced only political harm for Milosevic.
Victims of the present campaign are until now, three innocent comrades, who are arrested on purely political ground, to serve as hostages, in order to increase pressure on Milosevic and to weaken his position at The Hague, Bogoljub Bjelica, chairman of SLOBODA/Freedom Association-Yugoslav Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milosevic, as well as Uros Suvakovic and Goran Matic, who are depicted by DOS propaganda as "closest political associates" of Mira Markovic.
Here is what President Slobodan Milosevic said this morning at The Hague:
Richard May: The interpreters haven’t heard what you have said.
President Slobodan Milosevic: I said that I want to express some requests before the witness starts. First of all, I request from you to allow that I’ll be questioned in connection with an unprecedented media campaign, which is being held in Belgrade. This campaign started just before the last weekend, in the conditions of total lawlessness and terror created by the regime…
Richard May: The only things we deal here with, are those linked to this trial. In this moment I don’t see that what you are saying has anything to do with this trial. I f you are concerned that… that thing can affect this trial, or that the Chamber in this trial could be biased because of that, you shouldn’t worry. This Chamber does not take into account, and even does not follow very much what’s printed in the press. So we are here to try on the basis of the facts. If this, what are you telling us, has anything to do with this trial, than you can speak. If not, you know that we can’t listen to that.
President Slobodan Milosevic: It has to do with this trial, Mr. May and therefore I think that you are obliged to listen to me. I find and I will insist on that, that there is a link between this so-called prosecution and the media campaign and the accusations present in that media campaign these days. They are being conducted against my wife and myself in a way that we are through media accused, tried and sentenced. There is no judicial but a media process. The best proof for that is the fact that they haven’t even came to question me, although they loudly announced that and your spokesman confirmed, I saw that on TV, that they can come here and question me. They know very well that it was I who had power and not my wife, but they haven’t approached me, but they attack my wife, which is the best proof that they are not interested in any truth, but that they conduct…
Richard May: Wait, the things we can deal with here are only the things related to this trial. The things regarding your wife are not the matter of this trial.
I will consult my colleagues to see if we have to listen to you further about that subject. What is the relation, according to you, between the Prosecution and those others? If on that you can say anything coherent, we will listen to you, but you are expressing now only some wild allegations.
President Slobodan Milosevic: Mr. May, I consider and I will prove it that the retaliation against my wife and my children is being performed only because of myself and because of the struggle I conduct here. So I claim that this retaliation is orchestrated with this illegal prosecution.
Richard May: Just a moment, just a moment. Mr. Milosevic, we are not going to listen to you any more. What you are talking now is a speech about the Belgrade. It has nothing to do with this trial. We are going now to a closed session in order to examine the following witness.
President Milosevic has not been allowed to finish. He then used the first following opportunity to condemn the illegal arrest of Bogoljub Bjelica and his other associates, as a part of the same pressure, aimed to undermine his struggle for the truth about his nation.
Later today, at the press conference of YUL in Belgrade, the following written message of his wife Professor Mira Markovic, sent from Russia, has been presented:
I follow the untruth, disgusting and with a retaliation against the political opponents motivated accusations against me.
Of course that I am in no relation to any of the crimes in Yugoslavia. Nor I have any relation with any criminal activity at all. I have never been in conflict with the laws of my country. All those who accuse me know that perfectly well. The accusations against me are motivated only by a wish to destabilize my husband at The Hague, to put shadow on his brilliant defense. The accusations against me are a retaliation, a punishment for the beautiful, dignified, clever and remarkable personality of Slobodan Milosevic before the court in The Hague. Him – since he is like that, they want to kill.
They attempt to exhaust him physically and psychically that much, so that he could not appear before the court or die from exhaustion. They commit a crime against him in front of the whole World. About that I write and write and write and speak whereever I can.
The other form of fight against him is myself. The pressures on me are aimed to destabilize him, so that the pain because of the injustice towards me binds his hands. The one who came to such idea and who accomplishes that is someone without any honor, any moral, he is a bastard in the Serbian people and in the human race.
The attacks on me and the intention to liquidate me are motivated with an additional low and inferior motive – some in the rightist government see me as a pretty smart and for that reason dangerous political opponent. Since they can not overspeak me politically, it seems to them easier to pronounce me as a criminal personality and to remove me that way from the public scene.
One who is not in possession of the words, one whose mind is moderate and whose heart is small, turns towards the violence. The violence is a weapon of weak and immoral persons.
I left Belgrade near the end of February for personal and family reasons.
Professor Mira Markovic
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
6. HAGUE PROSECUTION DETERMINES THE DESTINY OF SERBIA
Bellow we give the transcript of the additional remarks President Milosevic made yesterday at The Hague. Except of stressing the destiny of his associates arrested in Belgrade, he also spoke about his health, exposing some more manipulations of ICTY. But in the first place, he underlined the connection between the prosecution and the events in Belgrade. To that, one can add a couple of points. The big actual "Red Berets" story started about a month ago when the Hague prosecution (while questioning Captain Dragan) had shown a video about the visit of President Milosevic to their base in the town of Kula. Somebody perhaps wanted to create a picture in which they feel as a Hague target. Two other curious facts appeared immediately after the campaign against President Milosevic’s family and arrests of his associates started: The Presidency of DOS (Serbian ruling coalition) decided to propose changes to the Law on cooperation with the ICTY which would annul all restrictions for the extradition of the indictees. The very next day, a spokeswoman of the prosecution told the press about a plan to make 35 new indictments, mostly against prominent Serb politicians and generals. But how can all of them be convicted if Milosevic is so successful?
Richard May: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.
President Slobodan Milosevic: Since we are again at the open session and the new witness has not come yet, can I get the floor in relation to my requests?
Richard May: Yes.
President Slobodan Milosevic: So, first of all I repeat my request to allow my questioning and to make it possible to be in public, since it is related to the media campaign that is going on publicly. The retaliation against one’s wife and children is something we remember from the darkest days of the last century, from the darkest years of the last century! I also demand an investigation about the involvement of this illegal prosecution in the fabrication of untruths that are being launched. Besides that…
Richard May: Mr. Milosevic, I have stopped you already once. The events in Belgrade are not something that this court deals with. If that would have any direct influence to this trial, than we would take it into consideration, but nothing you have said up to now shows that it has any influence. You wanted to say something about your health. That’s what we would like to hear.
President Slobodan Milosevic: I will tell you about the health, but direct influence is in their aim to prevent my wife to give me her assistance and support. And above that, I want to inform you that they have arrested several members of the National Committee for my defense "SLOBODA" ("Freedom"), in spite they have no ground for that. Accordingly, we deal here with an orchestrated attempt to put pressure on me and my family since this false Prosecution suffers a fiasco here every day. I consider as your duty to establish the degree of their involvement.
Richard May: That is only your comment. There is absolutely no evidence to support what you are saying. Maybe there are good reasons for some people to be arrested. However, in this moment we will not deal with such allegations. Do you want to say something about your health?
President Slobodan Milosevic: Regarding my health – I have got these papers you’ve discussed last Tuesday in my absence. My first objection is that discussion about me in my absence. Second, it is written here, I will read it to you: "Having in mind that the accused has refused to take the increased dose of the medications recommended by the cardiologist…". So you have created in the discussion here the impression that I refuse to take medications and that by that I deliberately have worsen my health condition, which is a notorious lie. I have discussed, in presence of the director of the prison, with the only medical employee here the fact that I have never refused to take medications. Every medication that has been prescribed to me, I had taken. And the fact that I have drawn the doctors attention to the negative side effects of the medication I’ve been receiving and requested it to be replaced by some more adequate – that was a normal conversation between the doctor and patient – which belongs to duties of a doctor and I guess also to the rights of a patient. I’ve got also the references proving that the medication that has been given to me to lower the blood pressure causes, among other things, two very serious consequences, the symptoms which I had all the time. One consequence is dazedness and another is insomnia.
You would have to admit, gentlemen, that dazedness requires from me additional efforts, additional engagement, additional exhaustion in order to fulfill the job I have to fulfill here. On the other hand, insomnia prevents me to get even a minimum of rest. So I stressed that and I also got references, which I am submitting to you here. The references of the international experts’ institutions underlying these negative side effects. But you have been holding your discussion here as I refuse to receive the medication. And on that very day when you were discussing and expressing the totally untruth allegations, on that very day doctor Vandajham (?), having all this in mind, decided to change my therapy.
Two days after the change of the therapy was the first night when I’ve been able to sleep. That shows that the doctor was right to change the therapy and that your whole discussion here on my alleged refusal to take medications was completely groundless and even in a very evil way interpreted by Mr. Nice. I also have here a signed letter from my doctor, in which he says: vertigo, insomnia, dazedness and gives references. In addition to that he told me – we can even send it to Houston and they will confirm that it is correct. And I think that one needs no better confirmation than the fact that since last Tuesday when you had your discussion here and my therapy was changed – my blood pressure has been settled after two days. And also after two days I have been able to sleep normally.
For tomorrow, Wednesday, April 2nd, the ICTY has scheduled another session on "administrative issues". Again, one of them will be the health of President Milosevic. Another two we know will be discussions on the insistence of the prosecution that witnesses according to the so-called Rule 92bis (those who testify in written) should not appear in the court room for cross-examination and on the demand from the prosecution to significantly prolong the time for its case. One can suppose that President Milosevic would insist on the link between the political repression in Belgrade and The Hague prosecution – the question the judges yesterday avoided to accept as legitimate.
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association
7. BELGRADE MESSAGE OF PEACE AND FREEDOM
On 24th March 2003, a commemorative meeting has been held in Belgrade.
The meeting was addressed by Professor Ilija Vukovic, president of the Patriotic Alliance of Yugoslavia and long-term president of the Alliance of Antifascist Veterans of Yugoslavia, Mr. Dragutin Minja Milovanovic, one of the leaders of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija and Mr. Vladimir Krsljanin, assistant of President Milosevic.
Despite the attempts of the regime to prevent marking the anniversary by the repressive measures of the illegal “State of Emergency”, directed also to prevent anti-war and social protests, around 200 consequent socialists and other patriots have expressed their strong determination to continue defense of the freedom and national dignity.
The meeting has been attended by Professor Oskar Kovac, Dr Zoran Bingulac, Cedomir Zdrnja and other important socialist leaders, antifascists and patriots, as well as war veterans.
The meeting has sent to President Slobodan Milosevic and the public at home and abroad, the MESSAGE OF PEACE AND FREEDOM. Text of the message, together with the concluding speech of Mr. Vladimir Krsljanin, you can read bellow.
Address of Vladimir Krsljanin, Assistant to President Milosevic,
at the Meeting to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the aggression,
in Belgrade, March 24, 2003
Respectful friends,
A War has been declared to the Mankind.
While another proud nation is looking into eyes of the US aggression, victims of previous aggression still suffer. While some nations are being bombed, other nations are being enslaved.
The armed part of another World conflict started as some times before, in the Balkans. Four years ago something that many of us for decades considered impossible took place – war on European soil. Yugoslavia, a sovereign country, an example of tolerance and brotherhood and of social welfare, has been tiered apart, raped, brutally bombed and finally occupied. Warmongers and criminals responsible for that are not punished. As a wounded beast they continue the war against humanity.
In February 2000, leader of our people, President Slobodan Milosevic stated:
“Today, it is Serbia. Than the Middle and Far East. And the entire world at last. The only obstacle that can stand in the way of this crusade can be reason. The reason of the mankind, because this time mankind is the ultimate goal. Today, when danger of global violence is certain, what we need is an organized resistance to violence on a global scale.”
In September 2002, as Dimitrov facing Nazis, President Milosevic faced NATO as prisoner who, advocating sovereignty and dignity of all peoples, turns into a prosecutor:
“There were no “wars” in this territory, only a war, against Yugoslavia. This war has been incited and directed by the greatest powers of the modern world, relying on internal allies and nationalist-separatist cadre dominated by the forces defeated in World War Two. This war was waged by all means: media, political, economic, and military. First it was waged through a decade-long media campaign which abused the monopoly over global information exchanges, then through a diplomatic intervention aimed at creating independent states from Yugoslav republics, then through the many years of cruel economic blockade and sanctions against the FR Yugoslavia – which can only be qualified as genocidal – and finally, through an open military aggression. First in 1995, against the Republic of Srpska and in the operation “Storm”, with NATO forces participating in the largest ethnic cleansing ever recorded, and in 1999, against the FR Yugoslavia.”
In one of his first appearances before the court of the aggressors, President Milosevic pointed:
“I am proud that I commanded the armed forces of Yugoslavia that have stopped NATO, since this has shown that a country, even a small one, having a strong will to defend its freedom and defend the idea of freedom and equality of nations and peoples, can succeed. I am here as a punishment for our standing up against the danger of the biggest tyranny that has threatened mankind.”
Black clouds of deadly planes and missiles covered skies over Belgrade on March 24, 1999. Exactly four years later, they are darkening the skies over Baghdad.
They ended XX century with the attempt to kill one nation. They begin XXI century with the attempt to kill another.
Their MAGNUM CRIMEN must be stopped. As we were once united to stop and defeat fascism, the mankind must unite to prevent today’s threat which is even bigger. The aggressive force has weapons capable to destroy the whole life on our planet.
We must unite around the protection of peace which is the universal value and everyone’s right and around the protection of the sovereignty of every people which is the most powerful tool against the new colonialism.
The lives of the heroes and of the helpless civilians laid on the altar of the Fatherland in the Spring of 1999 were not useless. Nor is the monument built for them by Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague. The resistance of the united people is not forgotten. That resistance inspires today millions of fighters for peace all over the World, it inspires Iraqi and all other peoples threatened by the same evil. NATO disappeared as a threat. It survives its last days as a mechanism of keeping the deprived Central and Eastern Europe in obedience, but even that will not last long. And the grotesque American-British hi-tech machinery of death is being drawn in the Afghanistan gorges and in the Iraqi sands. To the extent that the voices of resistance in the highs of the European and American politics nobody even tries to silence.
Until now, every anniversary of March aggression has been commemorated in Belgrade by an international conference and by a people’s rally.
This year, the conference is forbidden, as well as all demonstrations.
These days in Belgrade, only NATO and its servants can speak publicly.
We thought that the peak of cynicism must be the moment when Javier Solana determined the framework for future servant life to the peoples of Yugoslavia.
But, as unbelievable outrage and disgrace, on March 20-22, in the building of the Federal Parliament in Belgrade, NATO Parliamentary Assembly will hold its seminar. The special guest star will be devil’s advocate in person, Carla del Ponte.
It is an unbearable humiliation.
But it is only a peak of an iceberg.
After the period of Djinjdjic’s dictatorial rule in which the constitutional, legal and moral norms have been blatantly violated in the interest of Western capital, an attempt has been made to formally impose a system of dictatorship in Serbia.
Those who dare to turn Mesopotamia, the cradle of the World civilization and the Balkans, the cradle of European civilization into graveyards and ruins, have been ashamed of the perpetrators of their 5th October orgy. The Serbian state has to become a tool for an inter-mafia skirmish, in which, according to their plans, victims should be the people, its democracy and freedom. So that in the last round of the race the colonial masters would be the nice Kostunica and nice Labus. Of course that no one reasonable can have illusions that the March 2003 is being conducted either by Legija, Siptar and Kum, or by Zivkovic, Batic and Covic. All this people is being maltreated with is conducted by an American bureaucrat, a puppet-master with the experience from Bulgaria, Croatia and Yugoslavia, decorated with the medals of Prince Trpimir and of The Old Mountain and with numerous American awards for setting up democracy in the Central and Eastern Europe, Vietnam war veteran William Montgomery.
No people deserve to be under the unlimited rule of criminals.
I don’t recommend them to try to press Serbian people nor to further violate its freedom and democracy.
They must go.
In one of the earlier conferences commemorating the anniversary of the aggression, it has been stated:
“The Empire has no friends or allies, only the future victims.”
This people comprehends that. And these days even those seduced will understand that we have a problem not because the famous Western “cruise-missile” democracy has not been yet developed, but just because it operates here with the full strength since 5th October 2000.
During only a week of the illegal “State of Emergency”, around 1000 people have been arrested and detained without right for a defense counsel. There is a total censorship of all media. Those media that were only open to opposition views are banned. There are no more TV transmitions from the Parliament. Leaders of ruling coalition call to ban the patriotic opposition parties. Trade union activities and the right of strike have been abolished.
All that on the eve of a hot political spring with a wave of workers’ protests already announced. And with the Movement of People’s Unity almost emerged.
No foreign force should try to back illegitimate Serbian rulers. Every occupation of Serbia can be only temporary. It is high time to end the puppet show in our country. No one is authorized to impose nor to kill puppet rulers here. The attempt that those who are most responsible for the misery and disaster of this country rule as dictators shall not be fulfilled.
At The Hague, there is a seventh break in the process due to a new deterioration of the President Milosevic’s health. The NATO Inquisition remains deaf to appeals from all over the world, including from Russian Duma and dismissed Yugoslav Federal Parliament that the President’s life has to be saved by a period of recovery in freedom.
All this is a proof that the monstrous threat to the mankind does not have only a face of military aggression but has also all other oppressive dimensions we all remember from 60 years ago.
This is a warning and an alarm from Belgrade on 24th March 2003.
Therefore, I suggest that this meeting addresses to the President Milosevic, to the public at home and abroad, the following words:
The consequent socialists and patriots, gathered in Belgrade on 24th March 2003, despite the attempts to silence free word by the spreading of fear, send to the President Slobodan Milosevic, to the domestic and international public the following
MESSAGE OF PEACE AND FREEDOM
1. We will always spread the glory of the heroes of defense and of the victims of aggression.
2. The aggression against our and other peoples must stop immediately.
3. President Slobodan Milosevic, who inspires and leads the freedom fighters in our country and worldwide, must be immediately released from aggressors’ imprisonment, where his life is deliberately imperilled.
4. The State of Emergency in Serbia must be abolished immediately.
5. The Government of the Republic of Serbia must immediately resign since it has no confidence of the people due to its responsibility for abolishing the people’s sovereignty, disastrous situation in the social, economic and security fields, for severe breaches of the Constitution, Law and human rights and for general criminalization of the society.
6. All democratic and patriotic forces are obliged, lead by the standpoints of President Milosevic, to reach the effective cooperation within the Movement of People’s Unity, because only that would guarantee that the will and the interests of the people will be respected after the early elections. The biggest obligation in that sense has the Socialist Party of Serbia.
7. Serbia and Yugoslavia shall be again respected and equal members of the European and World community of nations.
8. We most strongly condemn the Anglo-American aggression against the friendly Iraq, we express the full support to the Iraqi people and leadership in the defense of freedom and national sovereignty and we call upon all free nations to present their effective assistance.
9. We are disgusted by the decision of the Quisling regime in Belgrade to expel two Iraqi diplomats. We demand the decision to be recalled and an apology to be sent to the Government of Iraq.
10. We are solidaire with the mass expressions of the will of peoples all around the World, who demand peace, abolition of the international dictatorship of the financial and military centers of power and democratization of the international relations.
11. We demand that General Assembly of the United Nations, under slogan “United for Peace” condemns all aggressive wars waged by USA and NATO without the UN mandate and obliges the International Court of Justice to decide about that in urgent procedure, including about the demands for war reparations, liberation of all occupied territories in the Balkans and in other parts of the World and abolition of the ad hoc tribunals which became tools of aggression. If this can not be accomplished we call upon all free nations to create a new World organization.
12. Determined to contribute to the accomplishment of these goals by our most intense activity, we call upon all citizens to participate in this struggle, since each day without freedom multiplies the victims and sufferings.
People – united, can never be defeated!
The undefeated spirit of freedom of this people can never be extinguished!
All conscious fighters for peace and freedom should count on that.
We can not betray our martyrs and our history.
The people of Serbia is more than mature and able to determine its future peacefully.
No one can be above the will of the people.
Long live President Slobodan Milosevic!
Long live free Serbia and Yugoslavia!
The only way to the future we have is that united we continue the struggle for freedom.
Until victory!
STOP THE POLITICAL REPRESSION IN SERBIA!
STOP THE EVIL CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC, HIS FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES!
RELEASE BOGOLJUB BJELICA AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
SEND PROTESTS AND APPEALS TO YUGOSLAV EMBASSIES! -find their addresses at http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Worldframe.htm
SLOBODA/Freedom Association