| Ivo Skoric on Fri, 23 Jul 2004 20:20:02 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> ivogram x9: iraq/kosovo, libel/law, srebrenica, sanctions, refugees, sacirbey, 'voluntary interviews,' |
[digested @ nettime]
"Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Iraq - Kosovo
CALLS FOR REFORM OF CROATIAN LIBEL LEGISLATION
Srebrenica: Serbia's Agressive Denial
Violating Sanctions Against Yugoslavia...
European Refugee Crisis Missed by American Press
skinheads
Re: Fw: Sacirbey Bail Scandal
ADC Update: Contact ADC if Approache
Croatia: Rule of (Bad) Law
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 10:04:32 -0400
Subject: Iraq - Kosovo
The jury is still out on which model of occupation is better suited
for the "failing states" - the EU or the US one. The EU favors UN
nominal control and NATO military protection. The US likes to do
everything by themselves. Kosovo is under international occupation
for past 5 years. Before that it was under minority imposed martial
law. Not surprisingly the majority of elected representatives in
Kosovo parliament voted that they should be let to rule their own
country. Only Kosovo, unlike Iraq, has never been a country. However,
while everybody knows that it is a joke, and that the US military
still controls Iraq, the Americans administratively let Iraqis govern
themselves in slighly more than a year since the occupation. While
Iraqis were given a blank check by the US in the country at the edge
of the civil war, the Kosovars are still told by the Europeans that
"they must first meet internationally mandated standards before there
can be movement toward clarifying Kosova's final status." The two
different approaches extend to other legal matters as well: while the
US still keep the custody of Saddam Hussein, they are letting the
Iraqi court put him on trial. In contrast with that, Europeans insist
that Slobodan Milosevic must be tried by the International Court,
which may as well let him walk soon, in absence of conclusive
evidence and due to his poor health.
ivo
___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 129, Part II, 9 July 2004
KOSOVA'S PARLIAMENT SET TO CHALLENGE UN'S AUTHORITY
By Patrick Moore
Kosova's parliament voted on 8 July to adopt several
constitutional changes, including one establishing the right to hold
a referendum on independence. Other approved measures call for
switching responsibility for international relations and public
security from the UN civilian administration (UNMIK) to Kosova's own
officials.
UNMIK has repeatedly warned the parliament that it is not
competent to make changes to the Constitutional Framework. Only the
UN
Security Council, which adopted Resolution 1244 in 1999, has the
authority to make such changes, UNMIK stresses. One unnamed
international official called the parliament's vote a waste of time.
But in the wake of the ethnically motivated unrest in March,
many political leaders in Kosova have called for speeding up the
transfer of authority from UNMIK to Kosovar officials. In a
well-publicized editorial, publisher Veton Surroi suggested in the 17
June issue of "Koha Ditore" that the next head of the international
administration would do well not to bring any grand plan along.
Instead, he should simply let the elected Kosovar officials get on
with governing, intervening only when absolutely necessary.
In fact, many Kosovars argue that the violence showed that
the province is a time bomb waiting to explode so long as the status
issue remains unresolved. They stress that time has come to end what
is essentially a colonial administration in a postcolonial world,
moving toward independence based on self-determination and majority
rule, as has been the standard in the post-1945 process of
decolonization.
These and other scenarios regarding Kosova were discussed on
17 and 18 June at an off-the-record conference in Berlin sponsored by
the German Foreign Ministry, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the
Munich-based Center for Applied Policy Research, titled "Rethinking
the Balkans."
Many of the Western participants at that gathering stressed
that the Kosovars must first meet internationally mandated standards
before there can be movement toward clarifying Kosova's final status.
Serbian participants, for their part, were generally keen to
note the importance of all minority rights, including freedom of
movement and the right of all refugees and displaced persons to go
home. Several Serbs stressed that they will measure the Albanians'
sincerity by the extent to which they protect the Serbs' rights,
adding that few Serbs are optimistic on this score following the
March
violence.
Instead, many Serbs argued for some form of administrative
partition. One Serb said that dividing Bosnia into two ethnically
based entities in 1995 might not have been a perfect solution, but it
has worked. Besides, he wondered, how can one charge that Bosnia is a
weak state when it has the might of the international community
behind
it?
Some of the Kosovar Albanian participants took the opposite
approach, arguing that one reason for the frustration that led to the
March violence was the tendency of UNMIK to try to build a
multiethnic
society on the basis of ethnic divisions. Instead, Hashim Thaci of
the
Democratic Party of Kosova (PDK) told "RFE/RL Balkan Report" on the
margins of the conference that Kosova needs a solution resembling
Macedonia's 2001 Ohrid agreement, which would reconstruct Kosova on
the civic principle rather than on an ethnic basis. This, Thaci
continued, would mean an end to enclaves and parallel structures by
treating Kosova as a single country. Serbs would have the right to
dual Serbian and Kosovar citizenship and to contacts with Serbia.
Their cultural and historical monuments would be protected, Thaci
stressed.
But at least some of the Westerners at the Berlin conference
called for recasting rather than ending the foreign administration in
Kosova. Some participants close to Germany's opposition Free
Democratic Party (FDP) repeated their party's call for replacing
UNMIK
with an EU administration, while maintaining NATO's security
presence.
One FDP member of the German parliament told "RFE/RL Balkan
Report" on the margins of the conference that the EU is more
knowledgeable about Kosova's affairs than are many international
officials from Africa or Asia, adding that the EU is in the best
position to offer the Kosovars incentives to meet the necessary
standards. When asked what the EU would do if the Kosovar Albanian
majority wanted a political as well as a military role for the United
States, the FDP legislator replied, "We'll see."
For their part, many Serbian participants eagerly leaned
forward in their seats when the subject of EU rule in Kosova was
raised.
But the Kosovar Albanians tended to be skeptical, sensing
that the project is more an attempt by some in the EU to show that
Brussels can solve Balkan problems than something that will truly
benefit Kosova. One Kosovar remarked that it seems strange that
foreigners want to leave Iraq at the first sign of violence, but when
unrest breaks out in Kosova, some foreigners seem more intent on
staying than they were before.
______________________________________________________________________
__
______________________________________________________________________
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:55:22 -0400
Subject: CALLS FOR REFORM OF CROATIAN LIBEL LEGISLATION
OSCE MISSION CONCERNED OVER PRISON SENTENCE FOR LIBEL, CALLS
FOR REFORM OF CROATIAN LIBEL LEGISLATION
http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?ut=2&id=4229
ZAGREB, 13 July 2004 - The OSCE Mission to Croatia has expressed concern
that a Croatian journalist was yesterday sentenced to prison for libel.
The Split Municipal Court sentenced journalist Ljubica Letinic to a
two-month suspended prison term. The verdict is now open to appeal.
"It is unacceptable that journalists should face prison sentences for
their work," said OSCE Mission Spokesperson, Alessandro Fracassetti.
In another case, the editor-in-chief of the former Novi Brodski List has
refused to pay a fine and consequently will be serving a prison term in
accordance with Article 200 of the Croatian Criminal Code for libel.
"The possibility of prison sentences being imposed on journalists may have
a chilling effect on the freedom of the media," Fracassetti said.
The OSCE Mission, echoing recent statements by the OSCE Representative on
Freedom of the Media, is again calling on the government to remove libel
and defamation from the criminal code to the civil code, or at least start
by removing incarceration as punishment for these offences.
Changes to the Croatian Criminal Code currently being discussed in
Parliament do not fully decriminalize libel.
The Croatian Journalists' Association fully agrees with the process of
decriminalisation of libel.
----------
Alessandro Fracassetti
Spokesperson
OSCE Mission to Croatia
14f7ebd.jpg
Florijana Andraaeca 14
10000, Zagreb
Croatia
GMT +1
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Tel.: +385 1 309 66 20
+385 91 1988 904 (mobile)
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Fax: +385 1 309 62 97
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E-mail: <mailto:pau@oscecro.org>pau@oscecro.org
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 10:50:15 -0400
Subject: Srebrenica: Serbia's Agressive Denial
Dear WIB supporters, letters of support can be sent to wib belgrade
at: stasazen@eunet.yu.
Subject: Srebrenica 2004
by Jasmina Tesanovic
10th July
http://www.b92.net/galerija/pics/2004/07/55872873440f06cf16184e4327077
79.jpg
It was my daughter s birthday, twentieth, a rather important date for
a person who grew up a in Milosevic s Serbia, born on the date of
his wife Mira Markovic, who incessantly celebrated the fortunate
event that made all of us rather miserable not only politically but
in my case personally too. I had a feeling that even that rather rare
moment in my private life has been snatched away from us a private
persons and made a matter of public charade if not crime: so why
bother to celebrate it, considering that my daughter was born in
1984, Orwell science fiction dark year which turned somewhat true in
Serbian history, we developed in my family this habit to share this
private date as a public issue.
This year as every beginning of July was a ritual standing of Women
in Black in the Square of Republic for the victims of Srebrenica, 9
years after the massacre, in occasion of the burial of new 338
identified bodies, now more that thousand out of 8000 which have
disappeared.
We regularly reported our standing, got he official permission, yet
once we were there we realized that the square was already occupied
by two very loud and commercial events, so we had to retire under the
famous Ljilja's clock (our activist) where in the past few months we
have been collecting the signatures for, first the abolition of the
law supporting the Hague war criminals, then for our recently elected
presidential candidate Boris Tadic. Before we even managed to spread
our banners, a woman from the usual onlookers stepped forward and
started screaming incessantly; traitors, whores, CIA agents, AID
patients, the usual repertoire...The police standing by our side was
passive; the woman ran into our crowd of fifty, and started hitting
random, she hit Ljilja, Cica, Stasa and Slavica; she did it fast and
strong. The police finally stopped her while our Women in Black were
trying to respond but not particularly surprised, it happened before.
It happened only two months ago when three of our activists were
beaten repeatedly and nobody was arrested afterwards and of course
several other times during the Milosevic s regime.
We organized ourselves rapidly in the usual circle with our pacifist
and antimilitarist and antinationalist banners asking
for the responsibility of the former and present regime for the
massacre in Srebrenica. That triggered some others to join the
combative woman. Other few women and some men. I recognized one from
the last time our activists were beaten and the other from the famous
gay lesbian pride march back in 2001 when the 15 activists were
incessantly persecuted and beaten and spitted by 900 hooligans as
well as members of the Obraz (nationalist) organization.
We stood for one hour listening to their threats and offences,
extremely radical this time: they threatened to skin us next
time, to bring weapons, to take us to the court of traitors...to rape
us ...They sang "Ko to kaze ko tolaze Srbija je mala" (nationalist
song) and they shouted the names of their heroes, Seselj, Mladic
Karadzic Milosevic...The police wrote down their id-s as well as
those of attacked women in black women and then stood in silence.
After the standing we closed our banners and took a seat in the
nearby Gradska kafana (restaurant): we did not want to leave one by
one, and we had foreign guests who were visibly upset. We hoped the
harassers would leave first, instead they gathered around us waiting
...After some time we stood up and asked to police to protect us by
making the aggressors leave...Instead the police asked us to leave
because they claimed they could not protect us even though we were in
a bigger number then the hooligans, even though we have all the legal
and moral right to be where we were and do what we did. Even though
the next day the democratic candidate was to be proclaimed the
official president of Serbia, even though... We were summoned into
cabs and denied to right to walk down the streets, some of us were
furious, some scared but most of us, I guess used to it. Srebrenica
is a bad word for modern Serbia, even worse then feminism, and the
Women in Black put the two together...
The next day, early in the morning we went to Srebrenica for the
ritual standing in the memorial valley where the victims are buried.
Our women friends greeted us and gave us the first row so that our
banner Women in Black from Belgrade can be visible for the mass
auditorium, press...and it never fails to be noticed, because it is
important, for them, for us...paradoxically these last years for us
it became safer and more significant to stand in Srebrenica 11the of
July than to assist the first democratic president we supported with
all our might to be elected while he was anointed the very same day
in Belgrade: why did we have to chose and given the choice, how come
only few of us were in Srebrenica...and why the obvious fact such as
8000 missing people from Srebrenica some of which found buried in
Serbia proper never ever becomes a reality in Belgrade.
I had a wish for the maturity birthday of my daughter next year: that
the 338 wrapped bodies passed from hand to hand in
Bratunac by relatives of the survived, if any, were passed here in
the republic Square by our so called decent citizens and policemen
who every year now just watch us silently while the war criminals and
their loud supporters make the rules according to which we all are
their hostages, willing or milling. I know my wish will never come
true, but I also know that if we stop wishing we may get what we
really want, as an English proverb says. And god forbid what that may
be when it comes to Serbia whose favourite proverb is: one can fool
around with everything but never with police or army...
PS Why the nature becomes so beautiful wherever the crime is
committed, said my friend. She was right; I never pay attention to
the nature unless I am obliged to. The Srebrenica valley is demanding
it: the intensive green colours, the soothing sounds of the wind and
birds, the blazing sun which heats without hurting...the design of
the clouds...the neat border lines of the place of the crime. On one
side the abandoned railway tracks, the barracks the weeds...the
barbed wire...in the same condition as 9 years ago; there the male
victims were held once separated from the families...Later on they
were executed somewhere else they say...it is a Auschwitz atmosphere
that side of the valley triangle, it strikes for its organized
efficiency, so many people executed in so few days, the technology
bothers me, and images of general Mladic throwing chocolates to the
children behind the barbed wire...
The other side is a hill, not very steep, today covered with humble
even graves of the identified recovered victims...the third side is a
steep hill with a tree or two, where usually we come and stand during
the ritual prayers. And in the middle, the memorial erected last
year, a construction resembling a tent a cupola under which the
bodies are assembled in rows, where the priest and speakers address
god or commons. It is not an even side triangle, it does not resemble
justice or beauty, it is even slightly sinister when the shadows
start creeping in the late afternoon, it has no running water and has
a lot of dust, but somehow every year I have a catharsis there, even
though I am not a Muslim, I am not a man who prays and I am not even
a foreigner anymore there. The place has the captive beauty of a
place of a crime: there where men have wronged, the nature
rebels.
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 10:55:45 -0400
Subject: Violating Sanctions Against Yugoslavia...
Bobby Fischer, former world chess champion, was arrested in Japan for
trying to leave the country without a valid passport. The US passport
he holds, was not renewed perhaps because there is an arrest warrant
against Fischer in the US - he faces charges for violating economic
sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition
match there in 1992 (re-match against Boris Spassky, where BF won
$3M). He will probably be extradited to US. It will be interesting to
see how this will play here. It was interesting to see how he got
lured out of his 20 years isolation by an enterprneurial Serbian
banker, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/17/international/asia/17fisc.html?th
ivo
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:16:44 -0400
Subject: European Refugee Crisis Missed by American Press
Incredibly, the US press completely missed this one! CNN, New York
Times, everybody. Controversial German high-seas-roaming humanitarian
organization Cap Anamour, that devotes itself to the rights of
refugees and, particularly, the "boat people", a month ago, right
about at the time Anan and Powel met in Sudan, rescued 37 Sudanese
refugees from a sinking dinghy between Malta and Sicily. Then the
German boat sailed right into Porto Empedocle with an intention to
unload its human cargo on Italy. Italian authorities did not allow
them to dock for 18 days, furthering the humanitarian and health
crisis among the exhausted refugees on board of the humanitarian
ship. Italy argued that the refugees should be taken to Malta,
because they were saved closer to Malta's territorial waters. Maltese
authorities played dead. German authorities also behaved as if they
never heard for Cap Anamour or their ship, that sailed brazenly into
Italian territorial waters with the unwanted cargo. The internal EU
relations were threatened by the refugee crisis at the Southern tip
of the alliance. Italian Green party members of parliament went on
hunger strike to coerce the government to let the ship dock. They
took the issue to EU Human Rights court at Strassbourg. Eventually,
Italian government gave in and let the ship dock. Refugees were taken
into detention. Captain and the humanitarian organization
representative were arrested and interrogated by the Italian
authorities. Local Italian Green party leader voluntarily spent a
night in prison with them. They are released now. Sudanese refugees
are still in custody, having their claim processed. It is unclear
what fate awaits Cap Anamour's ship, which is now impounded by
Italians. Italians would like to destroy it. Germans, despite the
Green foreign minister, did not raise official objection. But the
entire Europe is ruffled with the issue, that became suddenly more
imminent than Iraq. Since, there are no news about this in the US,
you can follow the developments through the reports by the Italian
News Agency.
ivo
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407121949-1195-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407151212-1044-RT1-CRO-0-NF11
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407131711-1181-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407141752-1215-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407081409-1122-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407071848-1190-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:16:46 -0400
Subject: skinheads
http://www.glas-javnosti.co.yu/danas/srpski/B04071802.shtml
With the recent discovery of two ageing former Nazi collaborators in
Croatia by the Simon Wiesenthal's Center's Ephraim Zurof, Croatia's
neo-nazi skinhead scene got busy. Something that calls itself "Anti-
jewish movement" sent threatening letters to Ephraim, and to several
Croatia's prominent human rights workers, and Jewish leaders.
ivo
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 14:25:37 -0400
Subject: Re: Fw: Sacirbey Bail Scandal
In 1902 the territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina was ruled by the Austro-
Hungarian empire. How can the treaty with Serbian kingdom in 1902
then apply to Bosnia-Hercegovina today? His lawyer should argue that
Bosnia-Hercegovina NEVER was a part of Serbian kingdom, and
consequently treaties with Serbian kingdom should be deemed
irrelevant in this case. Until 1878, Bosnia was a province of Ottoman
Empire. Then it fell under Austrian rule, and became a full-fledged
Austrian Empire province in 1908. Following the WW I, Bosnia-
Hercegovina was divided in cantons that became the part of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later of Yugoslavia). It was
never part of that kingdom as Bosnia-Hercegovina. During the second
world war it was annexed to Nazi ruled Independent State of Croatia.
And after the WW II it was a constituent republic of the Yugoslav
socialist federation, which energically objected to any enforcement
of old Serbian kingdom obligations. If there is no any example of use
of that 1902 treaty after 1945, State Department should not have the
case. Do they believe he is Al Qaeda to hold him, a US citizen, in
prison for 15 months, awaiting trial on white collar charges brought
against him by a toddler country?
ivo
On 19 Jul 2004 at 13:12, Ian Williams wrote:
MaximsNews.com Weekly Column
Bosnian U.N. Defender Locked Up
by Ian Williams
Ian Williams is a journalist and U.N. Correspondent for The Nation and a
weekly columnist for www.MaximsNews.com [See his Bio. See Ian Williams'
email: uswarreport@igc.org ]
UNITED NATIONS -- 7 July 2004 / www.MaximsNews.com / Saddam Hussein
is on trial, as is Slobodan Milosevic. Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic, the dynamic duo who gave the world the siege of Sarajevo and
the slaughter of Srebrenica, are still at large but being sought.
And the U.S.'s part in this movement for international justice and
accountability has been to hold former Bosnian Foreign Minister
Muhamed Sacirbey for fifteen months in a four by ten foot shared cell
in a Federal Prison in New York awaiting extradition to Sarajevo on
communist-era charges of "abuse of powers" while he was the Bosnian
Mission to the UN.
So why would a State Department that has expended so much diplomatic
credit on keeping entirely hypothetical U.S. citizens out of the
clutches of the International Criminal Court be so eager to hand over
an actual living U.S. citizen like Sacirbey to a country where the
State Department's annual reports regularly excoriate the political
pliability of the judiciary and the danger to inmates in its prisons.
Its reports said of Bosnia and Hezegovina last year, "The legal system was
unable to protect the rights of either victims or criminal defendants
adequately because of its inefficient criminal procedure codes and
ineffective trial procedures.
"The judiciary remained subject to influence by political parties.
"Judges and prosecutors who showed independence were subject to
intimidation, and local authorities at times refused to carry out
their decisions."
Understandably, Sacirbey says his refusal to return to Sarajevo to
answer charges is because of his lack of trust in the judicial system
there, especially in the face of the political vendetta against him.
If he were a GI awaiting extradition from, say Iraq , to an
air-conditioned cell in The Hague under accusation of torture, the
Pentagon would be plotting a rescue mission for him!
As it is, either spectacular incompetence, or equally spectacular malice,
are the only explanations for the behavior of the U.S. State Department and
Justice Department, who, say Bosnian sources, have been pressuring the
judge there to maintain the charges, to the extent of drafting his letters
to the U.S. Federal Court to smooth over the gaping differences between
Bosnian and U.S. procedures.
The U.S. has also hindered attempts by prosecutors of the
International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia to interview Sacirbey
to help in the trial of Milosevic.
It seems an odd way to repay the man who did so much to help set up
the Tribunal which is now trying Milosevic.
Finally, last Friday, on July 1 the Federal magistrate Maas , embarrassed
at holding someone who, as he had said a year ago, would have been let out
on bail immediately if charged with similar offences in a U.S. court,
allowed bail for Sacirbey - under punitive conditions of five million
dollars surety and house arrest in Sacirbey's Staten Island home.
He only did so because the Prime Minister of Bosnia over-rode the
local judge in Sarajevo , and wrote a letter stating that his
government had no objection to bail. The U.S. Justice Department has
opposed bail from the beginning.
Sacirbey was arrested last year just as the invasion of Iraq began,
and has been held ever since under an extradition warrant executed
under a treaty signed with the U.S . in 1902 by "The Kingdom of
Servia" (sic) which the State Department considers to be valid with
Bosnia & Herzegovina through four changes of name and political
system.
However the Department chose not to invoke Article 5 of this antique
document, which states baldly that neither state "shall be bound to
deliver up its own citizens," and Sacirbey is a U.S . citizen.
In fact, the Sarajevo Cantonal Court judge has admitted that there was no
indictment in the case: the request is to interview Sacirbey, which the
former Foreign Minister is very happy with - if it were in the U.S.
Sacirbey's legal advisor in the U.S. , American University law
professor Paul Williams, maintains that under American law and under
the extradition treaty with "Servia," "There is no provision for
extradition for investigation, only when actual charges are filed.
"The State Department should have bounced this right back to the
Bosnians, not passed it on to the Department of Justice," he
explains.
There were early suspicions by Sacirbey and his family that there were
political motivations behind the execution of the warrant, based firstly on
the timing of his arrest with the start of the war on Iraq and strong U.S.
attempts to get Bosnia to sign up both for the "Coalition" in the war
against Iraq, and for the so-called Article 98 exemption for U.S. citizens
being extradited to the International Criminal Court.
Indeed State Department official, Janet Bogue, was in Bosnia the same
week that Sacirbey was arrested, pressuring Sarajevo to sign such a
bilateral agreement.
While the Bosnian press has rehearsed all sorts of allegation against
Sacirbey, the actual U.S. warrant from the Southern District DA's office in
Manhattan, which appeared to regard "Bosnia and Herzegovina" as two
separate requesting states., says the charge is "the crime of abuse of
position or powers."
But what led to the charges to begin with?
In effect Sacirbey is charged with taking money from the UN Mission's
accounts and using it for "unauthorized" purposes.
The inference drawn by many in Bosnia was that he used the money to
maintain an affluent personal life style and the Bosnian press, which
often makes the Supermarket tabloids seem like papers of record in
comparison, was happy to weigh in with irrelevant but colourful
stories about his life style and demeanour.
Sacirbey denies the charge.
He says he paid out money on the Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic's
orders in support of the ICTY at The Hague and for the ICJ case brought by
Bosnia against Belgrade for aggression and genocide.
Ironically the person who refused to authorize this spending was
Momcilo Krajisnik who is now in prison at The Hague for genocide.
Izetbegovic died while Sacirbey has been in prison.
The Dayton Agreement, masterminded with the same American constitutional
expertise now in progress in Iraq , brought the Bosnian's Serbian enemies
into the office, determined to sabotage many of the public relations and
legal initiatives the Bosniaks had previously undertaken.
People who worked with Sacirbey at the Mission during the days when he was
worth several divisions to the beleaguered Bosnians, point out that he put
in immense amounts of his own money to start the Bosnian Mission to the
U.N. and keep it going over the years.
Ambassador Diego Arria, who represented Venezuela on the UN Security
Council when the Bosnian war raged says "he was fundamental in
bringing the attention of the Security Council and the international
community to the massacres and genocide going on in his country.
"He was an ardent and forceful advocate of human rights and the
Tribunal.
"I never had any doubt of his integrity or devotion."
If there were any substance to the accusation, there is nothing to
stop criminal charges being laid against Sacirbey in the U.S. courts.
But no one has tried that route.
Extradition in fact represents an Ashcroftian black hole in the
justice system on a par with Guantanamo .
Under existing law, the Federal Magistrate's position is simply to
certify that the documentation is in order, and then to hand the
papers on to the State Department for a political decision on whether
to extradite the prisoner - the same State Department that began the
tragicomedy originally by passing the extradition request on to the
Justice Department!
One almost worries about publicizing the details in case John Ashcroft
does an end run round the Supreme Court decisions on U.S. citizens
held as terrorists.
All he has to do is to get an unsavory client regime to request their
extradition and pop goes habeas corpus!
It also highlights the peculiar ideological and totemistic thought
processes of the administration.
It is prepared to confront all its closest allies on the ICC, which has so
many safeguards that no sane jurist ever envisages an American official
ever facing it, but is working assiduously to keep a real American citizen
in prison for a year and send him to a place where he may not survive
incarceration and will find it impossible to get a fair trial.
Go figure.
Oh, and in case you had forgotten, where is Osama Bin Laden?
Ian Williams' email: uswarreport@igc.org
Ian Williams
333 E 30th St #10J
New York, NY 10016, USA
Tel: +1 212.686 8884
email uswarreport@igc.org
website www.ianwilliams.info
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 23:13:29 -0400
Subject: ADC Update: Contact ADC if Approache
"voluntary interviews"? that's marvelous. we had that in yugoslavia.
i went to about a dozen of them. the state security service there
called it "informative discussions". they even offered not to
handcuff you if you went with them peacefully. later you were
supposed to come on your own. finally they would try to make you feel
like an informant. however, this was all part of my political asylum
case, I mean measures like that in other country judged by the court
in this country were enough to grant me political asylum from that
other country. Now this country is introducing the same things that
did not work elsewhere. This is an evolution from the
http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=2233, where ADC gives advice to
people to contact FBI if victims of hate crime. Now they are to
contact ADC if approached by FBI. What is next?
ivo
------- Forwarded message follows -------
ADC Update:
Contact ADC if Approached by the FBI
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has noted a recent
wave of reports from across the country indicating that FBI agents are
contacting Arab and Muslim Americans, including citizens, for what has been
described as voluntary interviews. ADC would like to remind members of the
Arab, Muslim, and Arab-American communities that equal protection and due
process rights are afforded to everyone, including non-citizens, in the
United States.
Unlike previous initiatives, the FBI has not communicated to ADC any plans
to conduct such interviews. ADC urges anyone who is contacted by the FBI to
contact the ADC Legal Department and provide details of the incident by
calling (202) 244-2990, sending a fax to (202) 244-3196, or via email to
legal@adc.org.
Upon request, ADC will do its best to provide third party observers, in
cases where potential interviewees would want such additional safeguards.
Additional useful "Know Your Rights" information can be found on the ADC
website at: http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=275 .
ADC offers the following guidelines to anyone who is contacted by the
FBI or other law enforcement agencies.
1) Make sure an attorney is present at all times during any voluntary
interview the person may choose to attend. It is important to note that
everything you say to an FBI agent or other law enforcement representative
is recorded, nothing is 'off the record,' including immigration
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 11:20:12 -0400
Subject: Croatia: Rule of (Bad) Law
In Croatia people do not go in jail for corruption. They go in jail
for writing about corruption. Ashcroft should send a team to Croatia
to study the system that would keep his bosses in power, while
draining all F911 revenues on court costs.
In Croatia, there is a defamation law, carried on from the ancient
communist regime through the Tudjman's country, and it is still on
the books, two regime changes later. The defamation law is there to
protect high ranking fat cats from criticism.
High level corruption is always secretive and hard to track down. And
something that newspapers publish, is immediately public and easy to
document. So, while corrupted officials may easily deny wrongdoing,
the journalists who write about corruption find it hard to defend
themselves against acusations of defamation.
That makes it easy for corruption to continue and flourish regardless
of the changes of government. A court in Split, southern
Croatia, sentenced state television and radio journalist Ljubica
Letinic to a two-month suspended prison term for defamation of Jozo
Parcina, a local businessman.
Letinic, had accused Parcina of corruption during a talk show that
aired on the main television station on 18 March 2002. Meanwhile,
Croatia has its own version of Dick Cheney in the person of Miomir
Zuzul.
Miomir Zuzul used to be a psychology professor at the University of
Zagreb, Croatia. There, he was also a high-ranking member of the
Communist Party. One of the young cadres, slated for pampered future.
But, Yugoslavia collapsed, and he became a high-ranking member of the
nationalist Croatian HDZ party - opposing communists.
Chosing the winning side, under Tudjman he got the coveted post of
Croatian Ambassador to the United States. Once in the U.S., guided by
his opportunism, he quickly got onto the payroll of the U.S. military-
industrial complex. Not Halliburton, though, but Bechtel. During
Racan's government, Zuzul worked as a "consultant" for Bechtel in
Croatia. His job was to lobby for Bechtel's contracts in the country.
Under the new HDZ government led by Ivo Sanader, Zuzul became
Croatia's foreign minister. Like Cheney, who claims to have broken
the ties with Halliburton since becoming the vice-president, Zuzul
claims not to be working for Bechtel any more, as he took the #2
position in Croatia's government.
Just recently, however, Bechtel was awarded a contract worth $257M to
build 37 km of highway South of Split (Dugopolje - Šestanovac)
WITHOUT public tender. Zuzul swears he did not help. Just as
Haliburton miraculously won the contract in Iraq, with no help of
Cheney.
If, however, someone writes in Croatian media that Zuzul is, perhaps,
a corrupt official serving his American corporate masters, rather
than the people of Croatia, that someone would be liable for
defamation, and could expect a suspended prison sentence by Croatian
courts at best.
That policy is wrong and must be changed.
ivo
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________
ALERT - CROATIA
15 July 2004
Journalist given two-month suspended jail sentence
SOURCE: Reporters sans frontičres (RSF), Paris
(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has expressed shock after a court in Split, southern
Croatia, sentenced state television and radio journalist Ljubica
Letinic to a two-month suspended prison term for defamation of Jozo
Parcina, a local businessman.
Letinic, who is also an RSF correspondent, had accused Parcina of
corruption during a talk show that aired on the main television
station on 18 March 2002. Her case will now go before the Split
Appeals Court.
RSF said the sentence conflicted with United Nations and Organisation
for Security and Co-operation in Europe recommendations that press
offences not be punishable by prison sentences. "As Croatia became an
official candidate for European Union membership last month, this
sentence goes against all progress in press freedom in the past few
years," the organisation said.
In its 2004 annual report, RSF highlighted the fact that Croatia had
carried out major but often controversial legislative reform of the
media, with a view toward European integration. The country's
defamation law remains out of line with European and international
standards.
The last prison sentence for a press offence was given to Ivo Pukanic
on 23 December 2002. The former editor-in-chief of the weekly
"Nacional" received a suspended two-month sentence for threatening
Ivic Pasalic, a former political advisor to late president Franjo
Tudjman.
For further information, contact Soria Blatmann at RSF, 5, rue
Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 65, fax: +33
1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: europe@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.rsf.org
The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of
RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please
credit RSF.
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