deutsche Fassung
"I DESERVE CREDIT FOR PEACE NOT WAR!"
President Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague, December 11, 2001
(full transcript)
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
[After the reading of the "indictment" for Bosnia and Herzegovina]
I want to tell you that what we have heard here, this miserable text, is the ultimate absurdity. I deserve credit for the peace in Bosnia, not the war. The responsibility for the war lies with the powers that have been breaking up Yugoslavia and with their agents in Yugoslavia, not with Serbia, not with the Serbian people and not with Serbian policy. This is an attempt. [Here the mike was turned off]
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
[In the debate on unifying the ´indictments´]
All that we have heard today from the so-called prosecution only confirms that the focus here entirely misses the point, but so as to not have the mike turned off again, I will stick to arguments that respond to your question.
It is entirely clear to me why this false prosecution insists on "unifying." It is because of September 11th. They want to divert attention from the accusations against me concerning Kosovo since those accusations inevitably open the question of the Clinton administration´s collaboration with terrorists in Kosovo, including bin Laden´s organization.
Second, regarding what we have heard today, they are conscious that, if they focus on Kosovo, they cannot, regardless of the illegality of this court, avoid having the main perpetrators of the crimes committed against my country and my people, starting from Clinton, Albright and Clark and then also the others, appear before this body, nor could they avoid the appearance here of many peace brokers whose activities and cooperation in searching for peace deny the accusations - I would say, monstrous accusations - that have been made here.
So, their reasons for attempting to "unify" are totally pragmatic and aimed at the protection of those who have committed crimes against my country, and are not, as they claim, intended to ensure an efficient trial since they certainly do not care if I get tired out or not. I have told you before what I think about that.
As for their crowning argument, the accusation that we were motivated by the aim of creating a "Greater Serbia," that argument can be very easily disproved and I think that no reasonable person should dare to use that argument, which they have put forward as the mythical basis for all crimes. Nobody should try any longer to impute, to impose, or to abuse that argument in any way.
Here are irrefutable facts: On April 28, 1992 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. On April 28, 1992, that is, before the conflicts began, before the civil war broke out, that Constitutional Assembly declared, in its official document, our position: that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has no territorial pretensions regarding any of the former Yugoslav republics. This is absolutely enough evidence to totally reject the nonsense that they are trying to impute.
I would remind you as well, that at the very beginning, in May 1993, with our maximum efforts, the Vance-Owen Plan was accepted and was then signed in Athens, including by Serbian representatives. The acceptance of that plan clearly shows that we regarded peace as the greatest goal and highest value for all Yugoslav peoples and refutes this mythical idea.
Finally, during those ten years in Yugoslavia, life itself has entirely disproved these accusations of national or religious discrimination, since the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remained the only part of the old Yugoslavia to preserve its multinational character and in which there was no discrimination on national or religious grounds. Those ten years confirm that. The same goes for Kosovo. Maybe you do not know, but the government of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohia in 1998 and 1999 - that is, during the war, until those who committed aggression installed their mercenaries in power - was formed of Serbs, Albanians, Moslems, Turks, Goranies, Roma and Egyptians. Serbs were a minority in that government. How can the notion that there was national discrimination be reconciled with that fact?!
Our delegation in Rambouillet was comprised of representatives of all these nationalities as well. How does that jibe with this monstrous imputing of national discrimination?! Do you know that in 1998, after ten years of total peace in Kosovo - ten years when no one got killed, ten years when no one got arrested, when tens of daily papers printed in Albanian could be purchased on every corner, when education in primary and secondary schools was in Albanian - when, after ten years, terrorism broke out, organized by foreign secret services out of the outcasts of the Albanian Mafia all over Europe, we formed local Police forces in Albanian villages, where citizens chose their policemen. They carried weapons. All of them were ethnic Albanians. These Albanian policemen, and also Albanian mailmen, Albanian foremen, and other Albanians within the State apparatus, were all targets of threats, attempted murders, assassinations and outright butchery, all committed by Albanian terrorists.
In 1998 Albanian terrorists killed more Albanians than Serbs. It is truly remarkable that in all of our state structures, and in our Socialist Party as well, membership corresponded to the ethnic composition of our citizens - there were Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Romanians, Bulgarians and all the others. Which one of these groups would ever go along with a program of national, religious, or racial discrimination, such as has here been imputed?
These two "indictments," for Croatia and Bosnia, were expressly launched for one purpose only: to drown the "indictment" concerning Kosovo because talking about Kosovo opens up the whole issue of terrorism - this apart from the fact that it is clear that in Croatia and Bosnia we worked for peace, not war. We have assisted our people in order to help them survive rather than becoming, as they did in World War II, a victim of genocide. Many times we have said publicly, and I have said this myself, that we want our people to be free and equal in the territories where it has lived for centuries. But at the same time, this should not be at the expense of any other people.
The example of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its very good interethnic relations during the whole period of conflicts demonstrates this best. During the conflict in Bosnia no Moslem was expelled from Serbia. During the conflict in Croatia no Croat was expelled from Serbia. More than that, during the conflict in Bosnia - look at the records at UNHCR - over 70.000 Moslem refugees found shelter in Serbia. What nation, what tens of thousands of people, would seek shelter among those who had committed aggression against them?
Do you know that more Moslems live in Serbia than in Bosnia and Herzegovina? The Moslems in Bosnia and Herzegovina were pushed into that disaster, into that war, so that those outside forces, appearing as supporters of Muslims, could hide their responsibility for the deaths of many times more - millions of Moslems - in accordance with their interests of enslaving the World and a new colonialism.
Especially, I cannot understand that someone could dare to speak here about Kosovo implicitly as if it were something outside Serbia. Kosovo is Serbia and Kosovo will remain Serbia but the terrible situation in Kosovo and Metohia will continue as long as it is subject to illegal occupation. Illegal because it was made possible based on an abuse of the UN and of Security Council Resolution 1244. This Resolution does envisage the presence of UN security forces; however, the forces in Kosovo have violated their UN authorization, including by allowing further savageries by the Albanian terrorists.
Thousands of Serbs and other non-Albanian residents of Kosovo have been killed and kidnapped, tens of thousands of Serb homes have been burned down, more than a hundred churches have been destroyed and burned down, all under the auspices of the international forces that came there to guarantee safety for all.
And today, after these cartoon-like elections, those fine Serbian MPs come by plane from Belgrade to do their job as deputies and under military escort get into that so-called parliament. This situation will last as long as the occupation. A similar situation under Turkish occupation lasted for all of 500 years. This one won´t last that long, and in the very moment it ends, Kosovo will again be completely under Serbian control, and here we are talking not only about Kosovo, but of Serbia as well, since Serbia too will be ruled again and soon by patriots. Patriots will rule in other countries as well, instead of this scheme of new colonialism and the establishing of various puppet governments.
I think that all we heard here today, which is in total contradiction to the truth, has shown how failed these "indictments" are. I can only understand them as a statement of anger and revenge for the fiasco that NATO has suffered in the attempt to militarily occupy Yugoslavia. I can tell you that I am proud that I commanded the armed forces of Yugoslavia that have stopped NATO, since this has shown that a country, even a small one, having a strong will to defend its freedom and defend the idea of freedom and equality of nations and peoples, can succeed. I am here as a punishment for our standing up against the danger of the biggest tyranny that has threatened mankind.
What of substance can be scraped from these accusations is nothing more than the mud and dregs of a decade-long media war aimed at demonizing both Serbia and the Serbian people, as well as the Serb leadership, and myself, and even my family. Because the media war preceded the real one and had as its goal convincing public opinion in the West that we are villains, regardless of the fact that we never provided any grounds for that.
You have read here today how on April 6, 1992, the European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was done under the influence of the then foreign affairs minister of Germany, Hans Dietrich Genscher, because April 6, 1941 was the day when Hitler started the attack on Yugoslavia and bombed Belgrade. There was a wish, in this way, to communicate that the outcome of World War II had been changed. I would never blame such a desire on the German people, but some politicians have held onto the evil, which we fought against together. In this way, these politicians realized a revenge in greater measure, for they have succeeded in killing us using the hands of our Allies, the Americans, English and French, with whom we fought together in two world wars, against that very same evil. (...)
I have already told you about my relation to this court; no matter that Judge Robinson says my relation to it is of no consequences for you. Therefore, what you are going to do is your business, and I can only tell you that every argument used here to support "unifying" is not true, does not stand, is not correct, and cannot be justified in any way. So, the arguments are false, as the indictment is false; and you will do what you please, and that is your problem.
We have heard many arguments against the idea raised by the prosecution. Everything they bring up, and this will become more apparent as they go on, shows that their entire case stands on glass legs and is taken from the dregs of the media war, not from real facts, especially not from facts that could have some legal weight. The vocabulary and structure of all their arguments entirely matches what we have heard in political pamphlets or the media, which only shows that it was all cooked in the same kitchen, nothing else.
If I were you, I would, personally, regardless of your status, to which I object, a fact which is not unknown to you, reject such ideas. They want to put aside Kosovo only because it opens the matter of collaboration with the terrorists, which does not correspond with current policies. At this moment they are falsifying historical facts for the sake of daily policies, and that is something that even this illegal tribunal should not allow. (...)
I have been informed, in the meantime, that without my knowledge you have nominated some legal advisers whom I have not requested, interpreting my agreement to receive the visits of some people as a request to nominate legal advisors. I have answered the Registry, stating that I do not consider that whoever visits me, and has a Law Faculty degree, must first be nominated by me as legal advisor. And I consider that it would be inadmissible to have limitations to visits by people who wish to visit me, according to the rules you have set, and on the basis of no discrimination, since others who are in this prison have the possibility of receiving such visits.
Second (...) I have only said that I wish that people who want to visit me should be allowed to do it and that is all.
Second, I have heard that you have an infrared camera in my cell. The prison authorities informed me that the reason they finally turned off the regular light in my cell was that they had turned off their camera, but I have not been informed that this one, which your representative referred to publicly, has also been turned off. I ask that this one be turned off as well.
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