The New School Practicum in International Affairs December 2006 Presented by: Sri Peddu Nina Arron Julie Wilkinson
The Project: Weighing the Evidence Milosevic’s Indictment and Trial
Goal of Human Rights Watch “To produce a document that shows why such exercises as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia are necessary and valuable, but also draw some ‘lessons learned’ about trials of this scale for current and future war crimes prosecutions.” From HRW initial project brief
Goal of the New School Consultants Track paramilitary movements, patterns of attack, types of actions, and any links to Milosevic concentrating particularly on the Red Berets and Arkan’s Tigers. Document the effects of Milosevic’s indictment and trial on politics in Macedonia and Serbia. Goals
Our Concerns at the Start of the Project What if we did not agree with Human Rights Watch’s position? Could we meet the tight timeframe? Would we recognize the significance of specific evidence? Concerns
Yugoslavia Formation Formed after WWII under the communist leadership of Tito (Josip Broz). Consisted of six republics and two additional provinces. History of Ethnic Tension Area of Bosnia occupied by Turks during the Ottoman Empire with many converting to Islam. Croats sided with Germany during WWII and killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Roma. Yugoslavia Background
Yugoslavia Tito’s Leadership Masks and Accentuates Ethnic Rivalries Tito transforms Yugoslavia from an impoverished agrarian society to a thriving middle income economy. The communist state gives dominant positions to Serbs while granting limited autonomy to the republics. Rapidly deteriorating economic conditions and increasing autonomy of republics follow Tito’s death in 1980. Milosevic rises to power by playing on Serb insecurities. Yugoslavia Background
Yugoslav Wars 1991 – 1999 Displacement 900,000 – 1.2 million refugees flee Bosnia. 500,000 Serbs and 150,000 Croats made refugees. 800,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians were expelled Jan – June 1999. In Kosovo 230,000 Serbs, Roma and others not of Albanian ethnicity have fled since the end of the 1999 NATO war. Yugoslav Wars
Yugoslav Wars 1991 - 1999 Destruction War damage in Bosnia USD$50 billion. Ultra-hyper inflation in Serbia from Oct 1993 to Jan 1994 it reached 500 trillion percent. Death Toll 1995: 156,000 to 200,000, additional 7,000 men missing and 81,500 combatant deaths. Operation Allied Force: About 500 civilians died from NATO bombing. Yugoslav Wars
Milosevic 1941 – Born in Pozarevac, Serbia. 1962 – Father commits suicide. 1963 – Graduates University of Belgrade. 1965 – Marries Mirjana Markovic. 1972 – Tito purges Serbian leadership. 1972 – Milosevic’s mother commits suicide. 1980 – Tito dies. Milosevic Background
Milosevic 1986 – Backed by Ivan Stambolic, Milosevic becomes president of the League of Communists of Serbia. 1987 – “No one will beat you again.” 1987 – Milosevic sidelines Stambolic. 1997 – Become president of the FRY. 2001 – March: Arrested by FRY authorities. June: Transferred to Hague. 2006 – Died. Trial not concluded. Milosevic Background
Importance of Milosevic’s Indictment and Trial Milosevic was the first former president to be brought to trial and “marked the end of the era when being a head of state meant immunity from prosecution”. HRW Report Milosevic died before a verdict was reached. Milosevic chose to run his own defense throughout the trial. This was the first trial to cover evidence relating to all three conflicts - Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Milosevic's Trial
Trial Transcripts Methodology Reviewed trial transcripts and other files prescribed by HRW to: Track the actions of specific paramilitary groups throughout the war. Identify any links between Milosevic and paramilitary groups, particularly the Red Berets and Arkan’s Tigers. Collated information related to both points in a series of spreadsheets. Trial Transcripts
Overview of Information Collected Tracked movements/actions of paramilitaries by location, date and by the players involved. Recorded details of actions in a separate sheet. The information we could draw from the transcripts was limited by the scope of the data reviewed. Trial Transcripts
Sample Paramilitary Data Sheet: timeline of actions Trial Transcripts
Conclusions Willful blindness of Milosevic about the action of paramilitaries Article 4 of FRY Law “The President of the Republic shall command the Army in war and peace”. The duty of paramilitaries to be subordinated to the army was based on a “decision of the Presidency of the SFRY in order to prevent chaos in the field”. Borisav Jovic “Arkan would always say that without orders from the DB, the state security, the Tigers were not deployed anywhere.” Witness B-129 Trial Transcripts
Conclusions Milosevic acting as his own lawyer opened up the opportunity to bully witnesses and sidetrack the trial. Milosevic to witness “…I didn’t ask you whether it was a good year for plums or whether anyone had come visiting.” Judge “Mr. Milosevic, that’s a totally unfair comment…” Witness “Had you asked me about plums, I would have told you about the plum situation….” Judge “General, don’t. You’ll only keep things going.” Trial Transcripts
Effect of Milosevic’s indictment and trial on Serbia and Macedonia Effects
Methodology Literature Review Interview with a native of Kosovo Effects
Data examined American Journal of International Law East European Constitutional Review Institute for War and Peace Reporting The Social Science Research Quarterly Association of Independent Electronic Media The Christian Science Monitor Effects
Effects on Macedonia No evidence showing that the indictment and trial impacted the Macedonian conflict in the summer of 2001. Our evidence suggests that diplomatic pressure from the West on both the Macedonian government and Albanian rebels forced both sides to reach an agreement. Effects
Effect on Serbian Politics Some Serbs acknowledged their country’s role in war crimes. The majority remain in denial about the extent of atrocities and Milosevic’s plan to build a Serb dominated state on the ruins of the former Yugoslavia. The failure of those staging the trial to engage the Serb public, and Milosevic’s manipulative defense strategy created a largely cynical public. Effects
Context of Milosevic’s Indictment Ongoing NATO bombing campaign resulting in thousands of Serb casualties. 20 percent fall in industrial production in the previous year, 25 percent unemployment, the most limited political and press freedom in the whole of Europe. Effects
Impact of Milosevic’s Indictment Some commentators contend that Milosevic’s initial indictment caused him to resort to political repression to maintain his grip on Serbia. “Milosevic lost his head because of the ICTY indictment, demonstrated by his increasingly desperate repression of the opposition, and the closing of independent media.” Milorad Roganovic, program director of Studio B. More directly, Milosevic’s downfall resulted from a coordinated campaign by Serbia’s opposition which received carefully orchestrated support from Western political consultants. Effects
Conclusions Concerning Impact of Indictment and Trial Those staging the trial did not explain the proceedings to the Serb public. The trial examined the worst atrocities years into the proceedings when most Serbs had lost interest. The trial cemented support among Milosevic hard liners (7 percent voted for Milosevic in 2003 even though he was on trial). The trial did cause some Serbs to acknowledge their government’s role in war crimes. Effects
What Human Rights Watch gained by our involvement An additional “lesson learned” that courts should keep in mind the importance of making the proceedings meaningful to the communities most affected by the crimes. Our findings supported the comments made by other researchers, and some of the people interviewed by HRW. Highlighted the near impossibility of proving Milosevic controlled the paramilitaries despite this clearly being believed by some of the trial witnesses. Conclusion
What We Learned Yugoslavia and its recent history. The workings of Human Rights Watch. Gained some familiarity with the workings of the International Criminal Tribunal. Writing is a powerful tool with the potential to contribute to what others are doing in the field of human rights. Conclusion
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