BBC Bigotry and Bias in Reporting Milosevic Trial

The BBC’s coverage of the Milosevic Trial is as grossly biased as was their coverage of the illegal war against Yugoslavia – biased towards Catholic Croatia and Muslim Bosnia, despite both “States” having had as their leaders two of the biggest clerical religious bigots in Europe – Franjo Tujman and Alia Izetbegovic.

“Genocide is a natural phenomenon commanded by the Almighty in defence of the only true faith” Franjo Tujman, Former President of Croatia

“I must admit that I have been obsessed with the criminal character of the Independent State of Croatia. Even the Germans were appalled by the crimes committed in it.” The Nazi Hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, 1990

“There can be no peace or co-existence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic institutions… The Islamic movement must and can take power as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough, not only to destroy the non-Islamic power but to build up a new Islamic one…Turkey, as an Islamic country, used to rule the world. Turkey as an imitation of Europe, represents a third rate country.” Alia Izetbegovic

The trial in the Hague has been a disaster for the prosecution with not one single piece of evidence linking Milosevic to any assumed “atrocity” – and certainly no actual atrocity. When the prosecution’s star witness appeared he DENIED any link and said he had been tortured to admit such a link. The greatest atrocity is the presence in (multi ethnic) Serbia and Montenegro of 1 million refugees ethnically cleansed over the last 14 years by NATO’s (and in particular Germany’s) allies – Bosnia, Croatia and Albanian Kosovo (all fascist allies in the second world war!).

We have quoted here two BBC reports of the trial and commented in italics on their contents. The deliberate smearing of a decent and distinguished academic – Professor Smilja Avramov, is one of the most despicable acts of journalism of which the BBC has been guilty.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3633364.stm
Last Updated: Tuesday, 7 September, 2004, 09:28 GMT 10:28 UK
First Milosevic witness testifies

Milosevic is refusing to co-operate with his new lawyers. The first defence witness has started testifying at the trial of the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague’s UN tribunal.

Smilja Avramov, a retired Serbian law professor and ultra-nationalist, said
Western-trained “terrorists” had worked to break up the former Yugoslavia.

(This is the kind of bigoted biased comment typical of the dramatic fall in standards at the BBC. As the UN and NATO have recently had to admit their allies in the Yugoslav wars, the Albanian KLA – whom Milosevic was fighting much as the British Government was fighting the IRA but with fewer deaths! – were and are a terrorist group. Professor Smilja Avramov is not an “ultra nationalist”. She is a distinguished academic lawyer who, like most Serbs, believes in the democratic rights under international law of her own nation state – a nation state illegally destroyed by those very forces who illegally kidnapped Milosevic and put him on trial, not at the international court in the Hague but in a politically constructed tribunal)

Mr Milosevic said two British lawyers appointed to defend him represented the court and he refused to meet them. Mr Milosevic, who has heart trouble, tried again to defend himself. But the presiding judge, Patrick Robinson, cut off Mr Milosevic’s microphone when the former Yugoslav president denounced his court-appointed defence as
“a legal fiction”. “I don’t want to hear the same tired refrain,” Judge Robinson said.

(This is not the kind of biased remark any civilised court would accept from a judge. Mr Milosevic is rightly complaining here of the gross illegality, something of which this kangaroo court – the kind of “special court” specifically outlawed in international law – should daily be reminded.)

Lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins are overseeing proceedings on behalf
of Mr Milosevic, who has been deemed unfit to defend himself. The ex-leader faces 66 charges of war crimes during the 1990s Balkan wars.

Ill health

Mr Milosevic had represented himself since the beginning of the trial in February 2002. But his frequent bouts of ill health caused months of delay to the trial, prompting prosecutors to accuse him of “manipulating this tribunal” with his ailments.

(In that case why are they now saying he is really ill – so ill that the law has to be broken to impose lawyers on him? As the former Amicus Curiae at the Hague Tribunal) Branislav Tapuskovic, rejecting his own imposition on Milosevic, said:

“I have respected the provision of Article 21, point 4/d of the Statute of the ICTY, according to which every defendant has the guaranteed right TO BE TRIED IN HIS PRESENCE AND TO DEFEND HIMSELF IN PERSON.”

Began February 2002
Milosevic faces more than 60 charges
Prosecutors’ case rested February 2004
Court already heard from 295 witnesses

Timeline: Milosevic trial

Doctors said his heart condition could become life-threatening if he continued to represent himself. (Note how it was a much less ill General Pinochet who was excused trial altogether in Britain on the grounds of ill health!) Mr Milosevic will be able to question witnesses, but only after they have been examined by the defence.

Ms Avramov was an adviser to Mr Milosevic during the 1990s and took part in
negotiations between Croatia and Serbia.

She said “terrorist groups” trained in Germany, the United States, Canada
and Australia were active in the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. (Note how often the BBC uses the termterrorist in other contexts without using inverted comas or adding “so called” before the word!)

Mr Milosevic wants to call more than 1,000 witnesses, but it is unlikely they will all be able to appear during the 150 trial days allotted for his defence, the BBC’s Geraldine Coughlan reports from The Hague. This month, the former Greek and Russian prime ministers are due to appear, as well as prominent figures from the US, Canada, France and Serbia.