The Convenient Death of Slobodan Milosevic
By Mary Mostert (03/14/06)
Slobodan Milosevic, the last communist head of state for the former Yugoslavia, after four years of a trial conducted by the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia), died in his cell at the Hague, unattended and after much debate with his captors over his health problems. His trial for his alleged crimes has been going on for four years and was supposed to be coming to an end in a matter of weeks.
His death is being viewed as rather convenient by those who might have been embarrassed had he won the case. A Dutch news agency, citing an unidentified “adviser” to the Tribunal, reported that traces of a drug used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis, which would block medications prescribed for Milosevic’s heart disease and high blood pressure, were found in his blood. His attorney, Zdenko Tomanovic told reporters that his Milosevic feared he was being poisoned and requested that an autopsy take place in Moscow. The Tribunal refused that request as it did a recent request to allow Milosevic treatment in Russia for health problems.
During the past 10 years I’ve done a lot of research on the issues involving the break up of Yugoslavia. The disintegration of Yugoslavia was caused by a civil war that reminded me a great deal of America’s own Civil War of 1861-1865. The outbreak of America’s civil war was not caused by any one person, but arose largely because of a fundamental disagreement between the North and the South over what the U.S. Constitution says and over the slavery issue.
The South believed the Constitution limited federal sovereignty, and that the States retained their sovereign rights. The North believed Constitution made the federal government the keeper of the nation’s sovereignty.
The second fundamental disagreement arose as the Northern States, all of which allowed slavery at the time of the Declaration of Independence, gradually eliminated slavery either because of moral concerns or simply because, in the economy of the North, it was impractical and expensive to maintain.
In American history, the President of the country who believed that the preservation of the Union was more important than states rights was Abraham Lincoln Although the Civil War was the bloodiest war in American history and left anger and resentments that have haunted America every since, today Lincoln is considered one of America’s greatest presidents because he managed to preserve the Union.
On the other hand, Slobodan Milosevic’s efforts to preserve the unity of Yugoslavia after the death of communist dictator Tito did not succeed - although it might have if US and British Air Forces had not bombed the Serbs for 79 days 1999.
Abraham Lincoln did not, all by himself, create the situation which led the Southern States to secede from the Union and Slobodan Milosevic did not, all by himself, create the situation which led first Slovenia and Croatia to secede from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991 or Bosnia and Herzegovina to secede from Yugoslavia on October 15, 1991. As a matter of factTito preserved Yugoslav unity by harshly putting down a Croatian separatist movement in 1972 without any outside assistance.
In 1990 in the first multi-party election to be held in Serbia after World War II Slobodon Milosevic was elected President of Serbia. On July 23, 1997 he was elected President of all of Yugoslavia. He lost the election of October 5, 2000, after NATO had bombed the country for 79 days and on April 1, 2001 he was arrested on a charge of corruption and was imprisoned without specific charges.
On June 28, 2001 without any trial on charges in the arrest warrant, the newly elected Serbian leadership handed the previously elected president over to the ICTY to be imprisoned at the Hague.
This would be somewhat comparable to European powers arresting President Abraham Lincoln and hauling him off to Europe for trial. And, had it not been for the diplomacy of Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William H. Seward, that might have happened over the Trent affair. The Confederacy had appointed two former US Senators as ambassadors to France and Britain during the Civil War. They went to Havana, caught the British mail steamer Trent for Europe. A Union frigate San Jacinto commanded by Captain Charles Wilkes halted and boarded the Trent, removed the two new Confederate ambassadors and took them to Boston, where they were tossed in prison.
This was considered an act of war by Britain, which promptly demanded reparation and an apology. Seward recommended just that to keep the British from declaring war on the United States. Had that happened, the Union probably could not have won the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln would probably not be honored as a great American president.
From time to time over the past 4 years I’ve read some of the ICTY trial transcripts which are posted on my website along with other information on issues involving the former Yugoslavia. Frankly, it was becoming obvious to me that the prosecutors in the case had very poor arguments that were being regularly refuted by Milosevic and his defense lawyers. Although CNN reported and President Clinton believed that Milosevic had killed “over 100,000 Albanians,” scores of forensic experts never found the bodies that the Albanians claimed were buried in “mass graves” in Kosovo.
With Milosevic now dead, the ICTY is “unable” to pronounce a verdict. Technically, there can BE no “guilty” verdict. Under American law, he would have to be considered innocent, since no court of his peers ever declared him guilty. Milosevic is the third Serb to die while imprisoned at the Hague. If he had been a terrorist and the Hague was an American prison, the world media would be up in arms demanding an investigation.
Of course, that won’t happen. Anyway, the Serbian Unity Congress (SUC) says the death of Slobodan Milosevic, “together with the passing of two other leaders responsible for the Yugoslav carnage, Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic, will lead to the final closing of an unfortunate chapter in Serbian, Yugoslav and world history.” All three men were signers of the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995 that was supposed to solve the Balkan problem..
SUC also observed Kosovo Albanian leaders of the most recent Balkan bloodbath are still at large. Former Prime Minister Ramush Hardinaj resigned when indicted for war crimes, and Agim Cheku, who was recently nominated to be Kosovo’s prime minister, awaits his indictment for war crimes.
As long as key leaders of the Balkan bloodbath expect to be rewarded for their crimes by being given possession and made leaders of Kosovo, I rather doubt the chapter is closed on this story.
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