POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Milosevic’s Trial Provokes A Mixed Reactions

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Feb 18 2002 (IPS) - The trial against former leader, Slobodan Milosevic, that opened last week before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has invoked a mixed reaction in his homeland.

Both Milosevic’s adversaries and supporters agree that it is a historic trial. However, their views differ sharply when it comes to the substance of process and the effects it might have for the country’s future.

“It was high time that Milosevic faced justice that is to speak in the name of victims and many Serbs who were also the victims of his politics,” said Vojin Dimitrijevic, professor of the international law at Belgrade University.

After a decade of rule, Milosevic was toppled from power in October 2000 and extradited to The Hague – based ICTY last June. In May 1999, the ICTY charged him for war crimes in Kosovo. He is also facing charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in wars in Croatia and Bosnia in the 90s.

The wars resulted in deaths of more than 200,000 people and displacement of at least two million people. Former Yugoslavia, that disintegrated in those wars, was a country of some 23 million people.

In Serbia proper, Milosevic’s defiant politics meant the unprecedented isolation and poverty, topped with the traumatic and destructive 11 weeks of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1999.

Milosevic’s supporters remain firm in their stand that their leader is at the trial only because he stood up against the most powerful nations in the world.

“The substance of Serb nation is at trial in The Hague,” said Mirko Marjanovic, top official of Milosevic’s Socialist Party. “Milosevic represents what is best among Serbs, the peace loving and brave spirit and the only reason for facing the charges is his defence of his own people against the aggression of NATO.”

The six day opening phase of the trial included the statements of prosecution and Milosevic and was directly aired by five out of 15 big televison stations in Serbia.

Many Serbs, mostly elders, were glued to their TVs, but many simply had no time to watch the long transmissions.

The short and quick surveys of public opinion by several agencies showed no rise in sympathies for Milosevic, but a certain rise in anti- Western feelings that ebbed with his downfall in October 2000.

“This was the result of the re-telling of the recent history both by prosecution and Milosevic,” said Srbobran Brankovic from Belgrade branch of Gallup Institute. “Many people we surveyed said that it was the re-writing of the recent history, Western way. But many also said that it is a trial against many illusions they had.”

Legal experts dub the trial historical, but a confusing one too.

“Besides being historical, this is at least a confusing trial,” says Milan Paunovic, another professor of the international law. “Milosevic is being at least irresponsible. He does not recognise the court, but decides to defend himself alone. Once again, it is his nation that can feel the long term consequences of such behaviour”.

According to Paunovic and other legal experts, if Milosevic is found guilty for the charges of genocide, it means that the whole state apparatus stood behind such politics. Consequently, they say, the state of Serbia can be sued for war damages by Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The charges would go before the International Court of Justice, also in The Hague.

“Generations would have to pay for that,” Paunovic says.

Legal experts say that it is the reason why Milosevic should not be left to defend himself alone, but have doubts that he would change his mind.

Foreign Minister, Goran Svilanovic, said on Sunday that “the state will send a legal observer to follow the trial,” but would not elaborate on who would that be or when he or she would go to The Hague.

Somewhere between, the new Serbian administration makes preparations for further extraditions. Top government official who insisted on anonymity told IPS that two out of four former aides of Milosevic, who share Kosovo indictment with him, would be transferred to The Hague by the end of this month.

“This is the only way to put the bad past behind… We expect no disturbances in the public. Nothing happened when Milosevic was extradited nothing will happen now. Both (former Milosevic’s right hand Nikola) Sainovic and (former police minister Vlajko) Stojiljkovic were so unpopular among Serbs” the official said.