Syndicate: <nettime> Milosevic Indictment: Press Conference at HRW

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 18:22:26 -0400
From: Human Rights Watch <donalds@hrw.org>

The Milosevic Indictment
Why It Happened, What It Means

Press conference at 2:30 pm on Thursday, May 27, 1999
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue (Empire State B, 34th floor)

Speakers:

Holly Cartner, executive director of the
Europe and Central Asia Division
"What are Milosevic's Crimes?"

Dinah PoKempner, deputy general counsel
"Following the Chain of Command to Milosevic"

Reed Brody, advocacy director
"International Prosecutions: The Growing Trend"

For more information, please call Skye Donald at 216-1832

May 26, 1999
Kosovo Flash #42
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information contact:
Holly Cartner (New York): 1-212-216-1277
Jean-Paul Marthoz (Brussels): 322-736-7838

REPORTED MILOSEVIC INDICTMENT WELCOMED

(New York, May 26,1999) -- Human Rights Watch today  applauded the
reported indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by
the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia.

"It's about time Milosevic was indicted," said Holly Cartner, Executive
Director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
"His troops are committing crimes against humanity in Kosovo as we
speak. But he must also be held accountable for other terrible deeds:
Vukovar, Sarajevo, Srebrenica -- the list goes on and on.  This
indictment is particularly important because it shows that no political
leader -- even if still in office -- is immune from prosecution for
atrocities," added Cartner.

Throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia -- from Slovenia and
Croatia in the summer of 1991 to the end of the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina
in 1995 -- Human Rights Watch documented the systematic slaughter,
mutilation, rape and forced displacement of the civilian population
by Milosevic's troops. In the worst single atrocity during the war
in Bosnia-Hercegovina, as many as 7,000 Bosniak inhabitants were
slaughtered by Bosnian Serb forces following the fall of Srebrenica
on July 11, 1995.  Again in Kosovo, beginning in 1998 and continuing
to the present, there is abundant evidence that Yugoslav Army and
Serb special police units under Milosevic's political leadership
have been responsible for widespread atrocities, including the
summary execution of civilians, massacres, rape, destruction of
civilian property, and systematic "ethnic cleansing" of the region.

Cartner noted that even if Milosevic himself did not pull any triggers,
he could still be held criminally responsible for crimes committed by
people under his command. The Tribunal would have to show that he gave
the orders to commit the crimes, or that he failed to take necessary and
reasonable measures to prevent such acts or to punish the perpetrators.

Cartner rejected speculation that the reported indictment would make
the search for peace more difficult. She pointed out that the Dayton
Peace accords were signed in 1995, effectively ending the war in Bosnia,
even though the Tribunal had already indicted Bosnian Serb leaders
Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic as war criminals.

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