M
Mislav
Guest
Well the man tried to be the Hitler of the 90s but instead was taken alive and then found dead in his cell.
Source: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060...MlJVRPUCUl
LONDON (Reuters) - Foes of Slobodan Milosevic said on Saturday the unexpected death in prison of the man they blamed for the bloodshed in the Balkans in the 1990s meant justice had been cheated.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The death of Slobodan Milosevic, a few weeks before the completion of his trial, will prevent justice to be done in his case," said Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the
United Nations war crimes tribunal in
The Hague.
"However, the crimes for which he was accused, including genocide, cannot be left unpunished."
The U.N. tribunal said Milosevic, 64, had been found dead in his cell in the Dutch city, shortly before his four-year-old trial for genocide and crimes against humanity during the violent break-up of old Yugoslavia was expected to conclude.
Milosevic -- once branded the "butcher of the Balkans" -- was widely seen in the West as the main culprit in Europe's worst conflicts since World War Two, which killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted millions from their homes.
"What's important is that the region, and particularly the people in Serbia, now draw a line across Milosevic's past and his life, which was a malign influence ... ," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
But Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, rued the court's rejection last month of a request by Milosevic to travel to Russia for specialist treatment for his worsening health. He had suffered a heart condition and high blood pressure.
"Unfortunately, despite our guarantees, the tribunal did not agree to give Slobodan Milosevic a chance to undergo treatment in Russia," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
REGRET
There was widespread regret that Milosevic died before receiving the court's verdict.
"It is unfortunate and in many aspects unsatisfactory, given the countless victims of the Balkan wars, that justice now will not be able to run its course,"
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.
Former Balkan envoy David Owen said "justice in a way has been cheated."
Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in complex indictments covering bloody conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and
Kosovo as Yugoslavia imploded in the 1990s. He had declined to enter a plea.
"It's a pity that Milosevic did not live through the trial and get his deserved sentence," the office of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said in a statement.
Bosnian Muslim leader Sulejman Tihic, whose country is still struggling to recover from the 1992-95 war that killed at least 100,000 people, took a similar line.
"Because of the victims, truth and justice, it would have been better if he lived to the end of the trial," Tihic said.
In Kosovo, there was shock and dismay among the ethnic Albanian majority that Milosevic died before a verdict had been reached.
"In the end, he went very easily. The people didn't see him get what he deserved," said Arsim Gerxhaliu, a forensics expert who has exhumed hundreds of bodies since the 1998-99 war.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who was secretary-general of NATO during the alliance's 1999 bombing campaign against Milosevic's Serbia over its repression of Kosovo's Albanians, said he had mixed feelings.
"In this moment my thoughts go to the many persons he made suffer -- some are still alive, some are dead," Solana said.
Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, who says Milosevic's security services twice tried to kill him, said he should have faced justice in his home country.
"Milosevic organized many, many assassinations of people of my party, of people of my family," he said.
Milosevic's Socialist Party, reduced to a shadow of its former self after its leader was toppled in a popular uprising in 2000, said he had been "systematically killed" in the Hague court -- a line echoed by his brother Borislav.
"It's a big loss for Serbia and for the Socialist Party," said Ivica Dacic, who heads its main board.
Borislav Milosevic, who lives in Russia, told Interfax news agency: "All responsibility for his death lies on the International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia."
Source: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060...MlJVRPUCUl
LONDON (Reuters) - Foes of Slobodan Milosevic said on Saturday the unexpected death in prison of the man they blamed for the bloodshed in the Balkans in the 1990s meant justice had been cheated.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The death of Slobodan Milosevic, a few weeks before the completion of his trial, will prevent justice to be done in his case," said Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the
United Nations war crimes tribunal in
The Hague.
"However, the crimes for which he was accused, including genocide, cannot be left unpunished."
The U.N. tribunal said Milosevic, 64, had been found dead in his cell in the Dutch city, shortly before his four-year-old trial for genocide and crimes against humanity during the violent break-up of old Yugoslavia was expected to conclude.
Milosevic -- once branded the "butcher of the Balkans" -- was widely seen in the West as the main culprit in Europe's worst conflicts since World War Two, which killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted millions from their homes.
"What's important is that the region, and particularly the people in Serbia, now draw a line across Milosevic's past and his life, which was a malign influence ... ," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
But Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, rued the court's rejection last month of a request by Milosevic to travel to Russia for specialist treatment for his worsening health. He had suffered a heart condition and high blood pressure.
"Unfortunately, despite our guarantees, the tribunal did not agree to give Slobodan Milosevic a chance to undergo treatment in Russia," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
REGRET
There was widespread regret that Milosevic died before receiving the court's verdict.
"It is unfortunate and in many aspects unsatisfactory, given the countless victims of the Balkan wars, that justice now will not be able to run its course,"
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.
Former Balkan envoy David Owen said "justice in a way has been cheated."
Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in complex indictments covering bloody conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and
Kosovo as Yugoslavia imploded in the 1990s. He had declined to enter a plea.
"It's a pity that Milosevic did not live through the trial and get his deserved sentence," the office of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said in a statement.
Bosnian Muslim leader Sulejman Tihic, whose country is still struggling to recover from the 1992-95 war that killed at least 100,000 people, took a similar line.
"Because of the victims, truth and justice, it would have been better if he lived to the end of the trial," Tihic said.
In Kosovo, there was shock and dismay among the ethnic Albanian majority that Milosevic died before a verdict had been reached.
"In the end, he went very easily. The people didn't see him get what he deserved," said Arsim Gerxhaliu, a forensics expert who has exhumed hundreds of bodies since the 1998-99 war.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who was secretary-general of NATO during the alliance's 1999 bombing campaign against Milosevic's Serbia over its repression of Kosovo's Albanians, said he had mixed feelings.
"In this moment my thoughts go to the many persons he made suffer -- some are still alive, some are dead," Solana said.
Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic, who says Milosevic's security services twice tried to kill him, said he should have faced justice in his home country.
"Milosevic organized many, many assassinations of people of my party, of people of my family," he said.
Milosevic's Socialist Party, reduced to a shadow of its former self after its leader was toppled in a popular uprising in 2000, said he had been "systematically killed" in the Hague court -- a line echoed by his brother Borislav.
"It's a big loss for Serbia and for the Socialist Party," said Ivica Dacic, who heads its main board.
Borislav Milosevic, who lives in Russia, told Interfax news agency: "All responsibility for his death lies on the International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia."