Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
President Milosevic was not present at the proceedings today. He is still out sick. No witnesses were called today was only a status conference. A cardiologist issued a report on the status of President Milosevic's health. According to the medical report Milosevic is suffering from extreme exhaustion, fatigue, and high blood pressure caused by stress.
The cardiologist made a recommendation that the "trial" should go on for 3 days a week, and that the other 4 days should be set aside for President Milosevic to rest. The "tribunal" accepted these recommendations and has pledged to alter the hearing schedule accordingly.
The medical report is proof that President Milosevic is really sick. He is not pretending to be sick as has been suggested by some anti-Milosevic propagandists. His medical condition is genuine. There is no doubt on this score since even the tribunal's own medical staff confirms this.
Being the weasel that he is, prosecutor Geoffrey Nice suggested that President Milosevic was inflicting his ill health on himself. Nice suggested that because Milosevic had taken on the task of defending himself that he was the only one to blame for the stress he is under. Nice also suggested that the "court" should ban President Milosevic from smoking. Nice even went so far as to compare Milosevic to a drunkard who is unfit for trial because he has a hangover.
First of all, the "tribunal" has no right to ban President Milosevic from smoking. If he wants to smoke then by God he should be allowed to smoke. Other prisoners can smoke. As any smoker knows forcing somebody to quit smoking would only inflict more stress on them, and Nice knows this damn well. He could just ask his chain-smoking comrade Carla del Ponte and she could tell him how difficult it is to quit.
Secondly, it is absurd for Nice to suggest that Milosevic is smoking in order to make himself sick and force a delay of the "trial." Slobodan Milosevic is a Serb, anybody who has been to Serbia know that everybody in Serbia smokes. Smoking is something that most Serbs do.
As far as stress is concerned, it is Nice and the OTP that are causing unnecessary stress on Milosevic. They are the ones who are always changing the order in which the witnesses are scheduled to testify. This farce of a "trial" has gone on for 250 days already. The prosecution only has 36 more days to present its case and they still have not submitted a final witness list. President Milosevic still doesn't know who is going to testify against him, because not all of the witnesses have been identified, and this makes it difficult for Milosevic prepare his defense and cross-examination.
Another practice employed by the prosecution is that when witnesses are on the schedule the prosecution will drop them, thus wasting any time that Milosevic and his associates may have spent preparing for them.
In an effort to "expedite the trial" Nice suggested that the examination in chief of certain witnesses should be videotaped and that Milosevic could watch the tape while resting. This is the height of stupid ideas. First of all this would cause more stress and not less for Milosevic, although I suspect this is the idea.
First of all, you can not raise an objection to a videotape that you are watching on your TV set. If Milosevic has an objection he will have to hash that out after the fact in order to get parts of the tape excluded. This will take more time, not less. Not to mention the fact that the witness would have to be recalled anyway in order to be cross-examined.
Secondly, the "trial" can be hard to follow. The participants frequently lose track of what the line of questioning is about, or which document is being referred to. If Milosevic finds himself in that situation while watching a tape locked in his cell, then he will have no way to ascertain what is being referred to, whereas if he is present for the questioning he can simply ask. This type of thing can only cause him stress.
Thirdly, Milosevic wouldn't be resting if he had to watch a tape of that nature. He would be working, and this would totally defeat the recommendation of the doctors.
Another bright idea that Mr. Nice came up with was to impose legal assistance onto President Milosevic against his will. Slobodan Milosevic has repeatedly rejected the imposition of counsel on him.
When asked by Mr. Robinson what legal basis Nice had for suggesting all of this; Nice suggested, without even blinking, that a legal basis could be established if the judges would simply consent to altering the rules in the middle of the "trial."
This is a useful opportunity to expose just what sort of "legal institution" that the Hague Tribunal really is. The rules are worthless. According to Rule 6 the rules can be changed by the judges in mid-trial. In this case, Mr. Nice wanted Article 21 of the Statute of the Tribunal to be altered since that article gives an accused the right to be tried in his own presence, and the right to defend himself. Both of which are rights that Mr. Nice is scheming to take away from Milosevic.
It is obvious that the prosecution does not want Milosevic to defend himself. Why you ask? Because Milosevic is doing such a spectacular job of destroying the prosecution's case that's why. Not one witness has gotten the better of Milosevic. President Milosevic has successfully compelled all of them to either tell the truth, or else he has exposed them as liars. The prosecution knows that no lawyer could possibly do such a spectacular job as Milosevic is doing, and so they are desperate to find any way they can to deny, even if only in part, President Milosevic's legitimate right to defend himself.
The problems with an imposed lawyer are obvious. First of all, the lawyer can't possibly know what Milosevic knows, and therefore can't possibly mount a defense as effectively as Milosevic can. Moreover, the lawyer could get the defense strategy wrong all together. Such attempts to impose legal assistance on Milosevic can only been seen as an attempt to sabotage the brilliant defense that he is putting forward on behalf of the Serbian people, who are as a group the real "accused" at this so-called "trial."
The most important reason not to impose a lawyer on Milosevic is that he doesn't want one. I will leave you now with President Milosevic's previous remarks on this topic, because afterall he can explain his position better than anybody.
On page 2, line 3 of the transcript at his first appearance at the "tribunal" President Milosevic said, "I consider this Tribunal a false Tribunal and the indictment a false indictment. It is illegal being not appointed by the UN General Assembly, so I have no need to appoint counsel to illegal organ." In spite of numerous pleas from the so-called "judges" and the so-called "prosecution" to change his mind an accept a lawyer, President Milosevic's position has not changed one iota.
On December 11, 2001 the tribunal attempted to foist Ramsey Clark and John Livingston off onto Milosevic as his "legal advisors" which was rejected flatly by Milosevic here is that exchange:
[BEGIN EXCERPT]
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: I have been informed in the meantime that without my request, you have assigned certain advice that I did not ask for, interpreting my agreement to receive visits by certain individuals as a request for legal advice. My response to that has been addressed to the registry that I do not consider that whoever visits me and has a law degree should be appointed as my legal counsel, and I don't think it would be permissible for visits to continue to be restricted, visits by persons who wish to visit me in accordance with the Rules that you have established and on a nondiscriminatory basis, since other people in that prison are allowed such visits.
RICHARD MAY: Mr. Milosevic, if you don't want advice from Mr. Clark and Mr. Livingston, which we understood you did, who do you want it from?
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] No, I'm not asking for any advice from anybody.
[END EXCERPT]
The next time this issue came up was on November 11, 2002 here is what Milosevic said on that occasion:
[BEGIN EXCERPT]
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] Well, first and foremost, I would like to say that I know very little about these ideas of yours, but as far as I was able to gather, that side over there, the opposite side, is trying to take away my right to speak here and to impose some sort of lawyers, counsel on me, and it has no right to do so. So I should like to remind you that according to the International Pact on Civilian and Political Rights, it is Article 14.3(D), and pursuant to the American Convention, chapter 8.2(D), Article 8.2(D), and the European Convention Article 6.3(C), and according to the Statute of the Court of Rome Article 68.1(D), nobody can be refused the right of defending themselves. And you yourselves have provided for that possibility in your Rules and regulations, although I don't consider this Tribunal of yours to be legal. But as you yourselves do, then I assume you adhere to the Rules you laid down yourselves.
Therefore, this position on the part of the opposite party I consider to be completely illegal, absurd, and ill-intentioned, and I don't think it deserves any further explanations at all, nor can anything along the lines of what they have proposed be acceptable.
And as far as the position goes, a position that I just briefly saw contained in the letter signed by Mr. Kay, the amicus, I said earlier on, gentlemen, at no price whatsoever would I leave the fight I'm fighting here and from this political process -- trial. Therefore, I think that they have rightly stressed that you ought to set me at liberty, set me free, that you ought to give me time, lege artis, to see to my health and to be given sufficient time to take a look at the 200.000 pages that have been amassed and all the tapes alongside the documents, and you yourselves know full well that I would not run away. Therefore, if you want to speak of any kind of fair treatment, fair play, then I think that that is the approach that should be taken, because without a doubt, the existing conditions do not allow me in any respect to take care of all these things in the proper manner. And I shall take a closer look at what I have here, and if I consider that I wish to make some more comments, I shall do so in due course.
MR. MAY: We will consider what's already been said, but meanwhile, Judge Kwon wishes to add something.
MR. KWON: Mr. Milosevic, there may come a time when you have to prepare your Defence case. You have to prepare the examinations, and you have to present your witnesses to the Court. How are you going to manage without the assistance of lawyers in the court? It will be very difficult for you to meet the witnesses in advance and to prepare the examinations.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] Well, it is you who are placing me in that position, gentlemen, to make it difficult for me. It's not up to me. It's up to you.
If the circumstances were such that I would be able to function normally, to take care of my health normally and to prepare myself for all those piles and piles -- well, look at what they've just brought me for the coming witness. Look at all those binders. There are seven of them, these books, the covers. So if the right conditions existed and the circumstances to give me sufficient time, then this would be no problem for me at all. No health problems or the problems of the documents. This is not something that the lawyers can do, because they know far less about it all than I do. So nobody treated their health with the help of lawyers, nor was anybody able to place what he knows into the heads of lawyers.
And there's another matter of principle. In view of the fact that I don't recognise this Tribunal, I do not wish to have an appointed Defence counsel before this Tribunal which I do not recognise, and I have explained that on several occasions previously.
MR. KWON: What do you think about the idea that your associates sit in the court and assist you in preparing the examinations or sorting out the documents, et cetera?
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] I don't need them. I don't need my associates sitting up here with me.
MR. MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you should reflect on that. You are undertaking the conduct of a very lengthy and very complex case. Your health is not good, as we now know, and you should consider carefully in your own interests and the interests of your health, whether you wouldn't be assisted, as Judge Kwon says, by having somebody to help you in the court.
It's not only the difficulty which you have, naturally, in conducting a cross-examination in a case of this sort with the amount of material which you have to deal with, it is the number of witnesses which remain to be cross-examined. And then as the Judge says, there's the question of your own case. You need to be thinking about that. If you wish to call evidence, you've got to consider how that's to be done in a practical way.
And so the suggestion simply is -- we will, of course, consider the proposal of the Prosecution that Defence counsel is ordered but you have said you object to that and we will consider that too, but the suggestion is that you merely have somebody in court to help you with the papers and anything else that you need help with.
Now, we don't expect you to deal with that now, but you may like to consider it as a way forward in your own interests. Not in the interests of anybody else, but in your own interests in helping you conduct your case as effectively as you can and also in conserving your health.
MR. ROBINSON: Can I just say that the magnitude of the task that you have undertaken, Mr. Milosevic, can be illustrated by a look at the team that the Prosecutor has -- is using. By my count, and Mr. Nice can correct me, the Prosecutor has so far used, I think, seven or eight counsel in the conduct of its case, and you are by yourself. For that reason, I endorse the comments made by my brothers and hope you will take them to heart.
MR. NICE: In light of His Honour Judge Kwon's observation, it may be of assistance if I make available to the Chamber and also to the accused and the amici the fairly well-known case of McKenzie which gave rise to the acceptance of the appropriateness of using something called a McKenzie friend. That's the second judgement of Lord Justice Sachs which is perhaps most helpful on the point. If I can just make that available.
MR. MAY: Yes. If the usher would be kind enough to hand that round, we'll all have a look at it and we can reflect on it. Mr. Milosevic, it's for you to think about it. We don't need a -- yes, a copy to the amicus, a copy to the accused, please.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] Mr. May --
MR. MAY: You can have a read of this case -- yes?
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] As -- despite my referring to all these international pacts and covenants, European, American, Roman, et cetera, the opposing party is now once again referring to court practice and is offering up McKenzie versus McKenzie. I am also going to provide you with something. It is a copy from a court case, and it is Faretta versus California, the United States Court, where quite clearly once again it excludes the possibility of having anybody impose a Defence counsel or lawyer to anybody unless the accused wishes to appoint one himself. So I think it is useless to carry on a discussion of this kind.
[END EXCERPT]