MICHAEL CHOSSUDOVSKY AND THE QUESTION OF A WITNESS BOYCOTT

www.slobodan-milosevic.org - September 10, 2004
 

At the end of the hearing on Thursday, September 9th, Mr. Kay said that they were having "witness difficulties". Kay explained that the next witness on the docket was, Michael Chossudovsky, a professor from Canada who has written a number of very informative reports on the break-up of Yugoslavia.

According to Mr. Kay, Chossudovsky is refusing to testify unless Milosevic gives him permission to testify first.

Mr. Kay says that Chossudovsky will meet with Milosevic on Monday, presumably to decide on whether or not he should testify.

It is logical to assume that other witnesses may now take their cues from Chossudovsky's actions. If Chossudovsky testifies after meeting with Milosevic, then it will be assumed that Milosevic wants all of the other witnesses to testify too. But if Chossudovsky refuses to testify then it will be thought that Milosevic wants witnesses to boycott the trial.

Milosevic can not and has not told witnesses not to testify. If he did, then he could be accused of obstructionism, and the tribunal could take sanctions against him.

Mr. Robinson has said that Milosevic will be "held responsible" if witnesses refuse to testify, although it is unclear whether that refers to the verdict at the end of the trial, or some more immediate form of sanctions, such as the banning of his communications privileges again.

Obviously Milosevic will not tell witnesses to boycott the trial, even though, Milosevic is boycotting the trial himself. He has not put a single question to either of the witnesses who have testified thus far, even though Mr. Robinson offered him the opportunity. He has not participated at all in the trial since the imposition of the lawyers, except to demand that his right to self-representation be returned to him.

By the end of the day on Thursday, Mr. Kay and Mr. Robinson were literally begging the witnesses to come. The tribunal knows that it can't even pretend to have a trial without witnesses. They have already had to cancel the session on Monday because of Chossudovsky's tentative refusal to testify.   

Mr. Kay has put Mr. Chossudovsky is in a very awkward position. If he meets with Milosevic and testifies, then he will serve the tribunal's needs by undermining the current witness boycott. If he meets with Milosevic and refuses to testify, then he runs the risk of getting Milosevic accused and punished for "obstructionism."

Mr. Chossudovsky should consider his position very carefully. The tribunal may be using him to force Milosevic to play his hand, and take a firm position on the question of the witness boycott. Any position that he takes would weaken his position. Milosevic's strongest position is to take no position at all, and leave it to the witnesses to take their own position.

The witnesses who have testified have defeated the tribunal, and the witnesses who are refusing to testify are embarrassing the tribunal. They are basing their refusal to testify solely on the tribunal's illegal decision to deny Slobodan Milosevic the right to self defense.

The witness boycott leaves the tribunal with only two options, to restore Milosevic's right to self defense, or to make him a martyr.
 

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