Ivo Skoric on Fri, 23 Jul 2004 20:20:02 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> ivogram x9: iraq/kosovo, libel/law, srebrenica, sanctions, refugees, sacirbey, 'voluntary interviews,'


     [digested @ nettime]

"Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
     Iraq - Kosovo
     CALLS FOR REFORM OF CROATIAN LIBEL LEGISLATION
     Srebrenica: Serbia's Agressive Denial
     Violating Sanctions Against Yugoslavia...
     European Refugee Crisis Missed by American Press
     skinheads
     Re: Fw: Sacirbey Bail Scandal
     ADC Update: Contact ADC if Approache
     Croatia: Rule of (Bad) Law

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 10:04:32 -0400
Subject: Iraq - Kosovo

The jury is still out on which model of occupation is better suited 
for the "failing states" - the EU or the US one. The EU favors UN 
nominal control and NATO military protection. The US likes to do 
everything by themselves. Kosovo is under international occupation 
for past 5 years. Before that it was under minority imposed martial 
law. Not surprisingly the majority of elected representatives in 
Kosovo parliament voted that they should be let to rule their own 
country. Only Kosovo, unlike Iraq, has never been a country. However, 
while everybody knows that it is a joke, and that the US military 
still controls Iraq, the Americans administratively let Iraqis govern 
themselves in slighly more than a year since the occupation. While 
Iraqis were given a blank check by the US in the country at the edge 
of the civil war, the Kosovars are still told by the Europeans that 
"they must first meet internationally mandated standards before there 
can be movement toward clarifying Kosova's final status." The two 
different approaches extend to other legal matters as well: while the 
US still keep the custody of Saddam Hussein, they are letting the 
Iraqi court put him on trial. In contrast with that, Europeans insist 
that Slobodan Milosevic must be tried by the International Court, 
which may as well let him walk soon, in absence of conclusive 
evidence and due to his poor health.

ivo


___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 129, Part II, 9 July 2004


KOSOVA'S PARLIAMENT SET TO CHALLENGE UN'S AUTHORITY

By Patrick Moore

 Kosova's parliament voted on 8 July to adopt several
constitutional changes, including one establishing the right to hold 
a referendum on independence. Other approved measures call for 
switching responsibility for international relations and public 
security from the UN civilian administration (UNMIK) to Kosova's own 
officials.
 UNMIK has repeatedly warned the parliament that it is not
competent to make changes to the Constitutional Framework. Only the 
UN
Security Council, which adopted Resolution 1244 in 1999, has the
authority to make such changes, UNMIK stresses. One unnamed
international official called the parliament's vote a waste of time.
 But in the wake of the ethnically motivated unrest in March,
many political leaders in Kosova have called for speeding up the
transfer of authority from UNMIK to Kosovar officials. In a
well-publicized editorial, publisher Veton Surroi suggested in the 17
June issue of "Koha Ditore" that the next head of the international
administration would do well not to bring any grand plan along.
Instead, he should simply let the elected Kosovar officials get on
with governing, intervening only when absolutely necessary.
 In fact, many Kosovars argue that the violence showed that
the province is a time bomb waiting to explode so long as the status
issue remains unresolved. They stress that time has come to end what
is essentially a colonial administration in a postcolonial world,
moving toward independence based on self-determination and majority
rule, as has been the standard in the post-1945 process of
decolonization.
 These and other scenarios regarding Kosova were discussed on
17 and 18 June at an off-the-record conference in Berlin sponsored by
the German Foreign Ministry, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the
Munich-based Center for Applied Policy Research, titled "Rethinking
the Balkans."
 Many of the Western participants at that gathering stressed
that the Kosovars must first meet internationally mandated standards
before there can be movement toward clarifying Kosova's final status.
 Serbian participants, for their part, were generally keen to
note the importance of all minority rights, including freedom of
movement and the right of all refugees and displaced persons to go
home. Several Serbs stressed that they will measure the Albanians'
sincerity by the extent to which they protect the Serbs' rights,
adding that few Serbs are optimistic on this score following the 
March
violence.
 Instead, many Serbs argued for some form of administrative
partition. One Serb said that dividing Bosnia into two ethnically
based entities in 1995 might not have been a perfect solution, but it
has worked. Besides, he wondered, how can one charge that Bosnia is a
weak state when it has the might of the international community 
behind
it?
 Some of the Kosovar Albanian participants took the opposite
approach, arguing that one reason for the frustration that led to the
March violence was the tendency of UNMIK to try to build a 
multiethnic
society on the basis of ethnic divisions. Instead, Hashim Thaci of 
the
Democratic Party of Kosova (PDK) told "RFE/RL Balkan Report" on the
margins of the conference that Kosova needs a solution resembling
Macedonia's 2001 Ohrid agreement, which would reconstruct Kosova on
the civic principle rather than on an ethnic basis. This, Thaci
continued, would mean an end to enclaves and parallel structures by
treating Kosova as a single country. Serbs would have the right to
dual Serbian and Kosovar citizenship and to contacts with Serbia.
Their cultural and historical monuments would be protected, Thaci
stressed.
 But at least some of the Westerners at the Berlin conference
called for recasting rather than ending the foreign administration in
Kosova. Some participants close to Germany's opposition Free
Democratic Party (FDP) repeated their party's call for replacing 
UNMIK
with an EU administration, while maintaining NATO's security 
presence.
 One FDP member of the German parliament told "RFE/RL Balkan
Report" on the margins of the conference that the EU is more
knowledgeable about Kosova's affairs than are many international
officials from Africa or Asia, adding that the EU is in the best
position to offer the Kosovars incentives to meet the necessary
standards. When asked what the EU would do if the Kosovar Albanian
majority wanted a political as well as a military role for the United
States, the FDP legislator replied, "We'll see."
 For their part, many Serbian participants eagerly leaned
forward in their seats when the subject of EU rule in Kosova was
raised.
 But the Kosovar Albanians tended to be skeptical, sensing
that the project is more an attempt by some in the EU to show that
Brussels can solve Balkan problems than something that will truly
benefit Kosova. One Kosovar remarked that it seems strange that
foreigners want to leave Iraq at the first sign of violence, but when
unrest breaks out in Kosova, some foreigners seem more intent on
staying than they were before.




______________________________________________________________________
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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:55:22 -0400
Subject: CALLS FOR REFORM OF CROATIAN LIBEL LEGISLATION

  OSCE MISSION CONCERNED OVER PRISON SENTENCE FOR LIBEL, CALLS
  FOR REFORM OF CROATIAN LIBEL LEGISLATION

http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?ut=2&id=4229


ZAGREB, 13 July 2004 - The OSCE Mission to Croatia has expressed concern
that a Croatian journalist was yesterday sentenced to prison for libel.

The Split Municipal Court sentenced journalist Ljubica Letinic to a 
two-month suspended prison term. The verdict is now open to appeal.

"It is unacceptable that journalists should face prison sentences for
their work," said OSCE Mission Spokesperson, Alessandro Fracassetti.

In another case, the editor-in-chief of the former Novi Brodski List has
refused to pay a fine and consequently will be serving a prison term in
accordance with Article 200 of the Croatian Criminal Code for libel.

"The possibility of prison sentences being imposed on journalists may have
a chilling effect on the freedom of the media," Fracassetti said.

The OSCE Mission, echoing recent statements by the OSCE Representative on
Freedom of the Media, is again calling on the government to remove libel
and defamation from the criminal code to the civil code, or at least start
by removing incarceration as punishment for these offences.

Changes to the Croatian Criminal Code currently being discussed in 
Parliament do not fully decriminalize libel.

The Croatian Journalists' Association fully agrees with the process of
decriminalisation of libel.

----------
Alessandro Fracassetti
Spokesperson
OSCE Mission to Croatia
14f7ebd.jpg
Florijana Andraaeca 14
10000, Zagreb
Croatia
GMT +1
14f7f0d.jpg
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Tel.: +385 1 309 66 20
+385 91 1988 904 (mobile)
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Fax: +385 1 309 62 97
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E-mail: <mailto:pau@oscecro.org>pau@oscecro.org

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 10:50:15 -0400
Subject: Srebrenica: Serbia's Agressive Denial

Dear WIB supporters, letters of support can be sent to wib belgrade 
at:  stasazen@eunet.yu.
 
 Subject: Srebrenica 2004
 by Jasmina Tesanovic
 10th July

http://www.b92.net/galerija/pics/2004/07/55872873440f06cf16184e4327077
79.jpg

It was my daughter s birthday, twentieth, a rather important date for 
a person who grew up a  in Milosevic s Serbia, born on the date of 
his wife Mira Markovic, who incessantly celebrated the fortunate 
event that made all of us rather miserable not only politically but 
in my case personally too. I had a feeling that even that rather rare 
moment in my private life has been snatched away from us a private 
persons and made a matter of public charade if not crime: so why 
bother to celebrate it, considering that my daughter was born in 
1984, Orwell science fiction dark year which turned somewhat true in 
Serbian history, we developed in my family this habit to share this 
private date as a public issue.

This year as every beginning of July was a ritual standing of Women 
in Black in the Square of Republic for the victims of Srebrenica, 9 
years after the massacre, in occasion of the burial of new 338 
identified bodies, now more that thousand out of 8000 which have 
disappeared.
 
We regularly reported our standing, got he official permission, yet 
once we were there we realized that the square was already occupied 
by two very loud and commercial events, so we had to retire under the 
famous Ljilja's clock (our activist) where in the past few months we 
have been collecting the signatures for, first the abolition of the 
law supporting the Hague war criminals, then for our recently elected 
presidential candidate Boris Tadic. Before we even managed to spread 
our banners, a woman from the usual onlookers stepped forward and 
started screaming incessantly; traitors, whores, CIA agents, AID 
patients, the usual repertoire...The police standing by our side was 
passive; the woman ran into our crowd of fifty, and started hitting 
random, she hit Ljilja, Cica, Stasa and Slavica; she did it fast and 
strong. The police finally stopped her while our Women in Black were 
trying to respond but not particularly surprised, it happened before. 
It happened only two months ago when three of our activists were 
beaten repeatedly and nobody was arrested afterwards and of course 
several other times during the Milosevic s regime.
 
We organized ourselves rapidly in the usual circle with our pacifist 
and antimilitarist and antinationalist banners asking
 for the responsibility of the former and present regime for the 
massacre in Srebrenica. That triggered some others to join the 
combative woman. Other few women and some men. I recognized one from 
the last time our activists were beaten and the other from the famous 
gay lesbian pride march back in 2001 when the 15 activists were 
incessantly persecuted and beaten and spitted by 900 hooligans as 
well as members of the Obraz (nationalist) organization.
 
We stood for one hour listening to their threats and offences, 
extremely radical this time: they threatened to skin us next
time, to bring weapons, to take us to the court of traitors...to rape 
us ...They sang "Ko to kaze ko tolaze Srbija je mala" (nationalist 
song) and they shouted the names of their heroes, Seselj, Mladic 
Karadzic Milosevic...The police wrote down their id-s as well as 
those of attacked women in black women and then stood in silence. 
After the standing we closed our banners and took a seat in the 
nearby Gradska kafana (restaurant): we did not want to leave one by 
one, and we had  foreign guests who were visibly upset. We hoped the 
harassers would leave first, instead they gathered around us waiting
...After some time we stood up and asked to police to protect us by 
making the aggressors leave...Instead the police asked us to leave 
because they claimed they could not protect us even though we were in 
a bigger number then the hooligans, even though we have all the legal 
and moral right to be where we were and do what we did. Even though 
the next day the democratic candidate was to be proclaimed the 
official president of Serbia, even though... We were summoned into 
cabs and denied to right to walk down the streets, some of us were 
furious, some scared but most of us, I guess used to it. Srebrenica 
is a bad word for modern Serbia, even worse then feminism, and the 
Women in Black put the two together...
 
The next day, early in the morning we went to Srebrenica for the 
ritual standing in the memorial valley where the victims are buried. 
Our women friends greeted us and gave us the  first row so that our 
banner Women in Black from Belgrade can be visible for the mass 
auditorium, press...and it never fails to be noticed, because it is 
important, for them, for us...paradoxically these last years for us 
it became safer and more significant to stand in Srebrenica 11the of 
July than to assist the first democratic president we supported with 
all our might to be elected while he was anointed the very same day 
in Belgrade: why did we have to chose and given the choice, how come 
only few of us were in Srebrenica...and why the obvious fact such as 
8000 missing people from Srebrenica some of which found buried in 
Serbia proper never ever becomes a reality in Belgrade.
 
I had a wish for the maturity birthday of my daughter next year: that 
the 338 wrapped bodies passed from hand to hand in
Bratunac by relatives of the survived, if any, were passed here in 
the republic Square by our so called decent citizens and policemen 
who every year now just watch us silently while the war criminals and 
their loud supporters make the rules according to which we all are 
their hostages, willing or milling. I know my wish will never come 
true, but I also know that if we stop wishing we may get what we 
really want, as an English proverb says. And god forbid what that may 
be when it comes to Serbia whose favourite proverb is: one can fool 
around with everything but   never with police or army...
 
PS Why the nature  becomes so beautiful  wherever the crime is 
committed, said my friend. She was right; I never pay attention to 
the nature unless I am obliged to. The Srebrenica valley is demanding 
it: the intensive green colours, the soothing sounds of the wind and 
birds, the blazing sun which heats without hurting...the design of 
the clouds...the neat border lines of the place of the crime. On one 
side the abandoned railway tracks, the barracks the weeds...the 
barbed wire...in the same condition as 9 years ago; there the  male 
victims were held once separated from the families...Later on they 
were executed somewhere else they say...it is a Auschwitz atmosphere 
that side of the valley triangle, it strikes for its organized 
efficiency, so many people executed in so few days, the technology 
bothers me, and images of general Mladic throwing chocolates to the 
children behind the barbed wire...
 
The other side is a hill, not very steep, today covered with humble 
even graves of the identified recovered victims...the third side is a 
steep hill with a tree or two, where usually we come and stand during 
the ritual prayers. And in the middle, the memorial erected last 
year, a construction resembling a tent a cupola under which the 
bodies are assembled in rows, where the priest and speakers address 
god or commons. It is not an even side triangle, it does not resemble 
justice or beauty, it is even slightly sinister when the shadows 
start creeping in the late afternoon, it has no running water and has 
a lot of dust, but somehow every year I have a catharsis there, even 
though I am not a Muslim, I am not a man  who prays and I am not even 
a foreigner anymore there. The place has the captive beauty of a 
place of a crime: there where men have wronged, the nature
rebels.

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 10:55:45 -0400
Subject: Violating Sanctions Against Yugoslavia...

Bobby Fischer, former world chess champion, was arrested in Japan for 
trying to leave the country without a valid passport. The US passport 
he holds, was not renewed perhaps because there is an arrest warrant 
against Fischer in the US - he faces charges for violating economic 
sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition 
match there in 1992 (re-match against Boris Spassky, where BF won 
$3M). He will probably be extradited to US. It will be interesting to 
see how this will play here. It was interesting to see how he got 
lured out of his 20 years isolation by an enterprneurial Serbian 
banker, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/17/international/asia/17fisc.html?th
ivo

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:16:44 -0400
Subject: European Refugee Crisis Missed by American Press

Incredibly, the US press completely missed this one! CNN, New York 
Times, everybody. Controversial German high-seas-roaming humanitarian 
organization Cap Anamour, that devotes itself to the rights of 
refugees and, particularly, the "boat people", a month ago, right 
about at the time Anan and Powel met in Sudan, rescued 37 Sudanese 
refugees from a sinking dinghy between Malta and Sicily. Then the 
German boat sailed right into Porto Empedocle with an intention to 
unload its human cargo on Italy. Italian authorities did not allow 
them to dock for 18 days, furthering the humanitarian and health 
crisis among the exhausted refugees on board of the humanitarian 
ship. Italy argued that the refugees should be taken to Malta, 
because they were saved closer to Malta's territorial waters. Maltese 
authorities played dead. German authorities also behaved as if they 
never heard for Cap Anamour or their ship, that sailed brazenly into 
Italian territorial waters with the unwanted cargo. The internal EU 
relations were threatened by the refugee crisis at the Southern tip 
of the alliance. Italian Green party members of parliament went on 
hunger strike to coerce the government to let the ship dock. They 
took the issue to EU Human Rights court at Strassbourg. Eventually, 
Italian government gave in and let the ship dock. Refugees were taken 
into detention. Captain and the humanitarian organization 
representative were arrested and interrogated by the Italian 
authorities. Local Italian Green party leader voluntarily spent a 
night in prison with them. They are released now. Sudanese refugees 
are still in custody, having their claim processed. It is unclear 
what fate awaits Cap Anamour's ship, which is now impounded by 
Italians. Italians would like to destroy it. Germans, despite the 
Green foreign minister, did not raise official objection. But the 
entire Europe is ruffled with the issue, that became suddenly more 
imminent than Iraq. Since, there are no news about this in the US, 
you can follow the developments through the reports by the Italian 
News Agency.
ivo

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407121949-1195-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407151212-1044-RT1-CRO-0-NF11
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407131711-1181-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407141752-1215-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407081409-1122-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407071848-1190-RT1-CRO-0-NF51

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:16:46 -0400
Subject: skinheads

http://www.glas-javnosti.co.yu/danas/srpski/B04071802.shtml

With the recent discovery of two ageing former Nazi collaborators in 
Croatia by the Simon Wiesenthal's Center's Ephraim Zurof, Croatia's 
neo-nazi skinhead scene got busy. Something that calls itself "Anti-
jewish movement" sent threatening letters to Ephraim, and to several 
Croatia's prominent human rights workers, and Jewish leaders.

ivo

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 14:25:37 -0400
Subject: Re: Fw: Sacirbey Bail Scandal

In 1902 the territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina was ruled by the Austro-
Hungarian empire. How can the treaty with Serbian kingdom in 1902 
then apply to Bosnia-Hercegovina today? His lawyer should argue that 
Bosnia-Hercegovina NEVER was a part of Serbian kingdom, and 
consequently treaties with Serbian kingdom should be deemed 
irrelevant in this case. Until 1878, Bosnia was a province of Ottoman 
Empire. Then it fell under Austrian rule, and became a full-fledged 
Austrian Empire province in 1908. Following the WW I, Bosnia-
Hercegovina was divided in cantons that became the part of the 
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later of Yugoslavia). It was 
never part of that kingdom as Bosnia-Hercegovina. During the second 
world war it was annexed to Nazi ruled Independent State of Croatia. 
And after the WW II it was a constituent republic of the Yugoslav 
socialist federation, which energically objected to any enforcement 
of old Serbian kingdom obligations. If there is no any example of use 
of that 1902 treaty after 1945, State Department should not have the 
case. Do they believe he is Al Qaeda to hold him, a US citizen, in 
prison for 15 months, awaiting trial on white collar charges brought 
against him by a toddler country?
ivo

On 19 Jul 2004 at 13:12, Ian Williams wrote:


MaximsNews.com Weekly Column

Bosnian U.N. Defender Locked Up

by Ian Williams 

Ian Williams is a journalist and U.N. Correspondent for The Nation and a
weekly columnist for www.MaximsNews.com [See his Bio.  See Ian Williams'
email:  uswarreport@igc.org ]

UNITED NATIONS -- 7 July 2004 / www.MaximsNews.com /  Saddam Hussein
is on trial, as is Slobodan Milosevic.  Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic, the dynamic duo who gave the world the siege of Sarajevo and
the slaughter of Srebrenica, are still at large but being sought. 

And the U.S.'s part in this movement for international justice and
accountability has been to hold former Bosnian Foreign Minister
Muhamed Sacirbey for fifteen months in a four by ten foot shared cell
in a Federal Prison in New York awaiting extradition to Sarajevo on
communist-era charges of "abuse of powers" while he was the Bosnian
Mission to the UN. 

So why would a State Department that has expended so much diplomatic
credit on keeping entirely hypothetical U.S. citizens out of the
clutches of the International Criminal Court be so eager to hand over
an actual living U.S. citizen like Sacirbey to a country where the
State Department's annual reports regularly excoriate the political
pliability of the judiciary and the danger to inmates in its prisons. 

Its reports said of Bosnia and Hezegovina last year, "The legal system was
unable to protect the rights of either victims or criminal defendants
adequately because of its inefficient criminal procedure codes and
ineffective trial procedures. 

"The judiciary remained subject to influence by political parties. 

"Judges and prosecutors who showed independence were subject to
intimidation, and local authorities at times refused to carry out
their decisions." 

Understandably, Sacirbey says his refusal to return to Sarajevo to
answer charges is because of his lack of trust in the judicial system
there, especially in the face of the political vendetta against him. 

If he were a GI awaiting extradition from, say Iraq , to an
air-conditioned cell in The Hague under accusation of torture, the
Pentagon would be plotting a rescue mission for him! 

As it is, either spectacular incompetence, or equally spectacular malice,
are the only explanations for the behavior of the U.S. State Department and
Justice Department, who, say Bosnian sources, have been pressuring the
judge there to maintain the charges, to the extent of drafting his letters
to the U.S. Federal Court to smooth over the gaping differences between
Bosnian and U.S. procedures. 

The U.S. has also hindered attempts by prosecutors of the
International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia to interview Sacirbey
to help in the trial of Milosevic. 

It seems an odd way to repay the man who did so much to help set up
the Tribunal which is now trying Milosevic. 

Finally, last Friday, on July 1 the Federal magistrate Maas , embarrassed
at holding someone who, as he had said a year ago, would have been let out
on bail immediately if charged with similar offences in a U.S. court,
allowed bail for Sacirbey - under punitive conditions of five million
dollars surety and house arrest in Sacirbey's Staten Island home. 

He only did so because the Prime Minister of Bosnia over-rode the
local judge in Sarajevo , and wrote a letter stating that his
government had no objection to bail. The U.S. Justice Department has
opposed bail from the beginning. 

Sacirbey was arrested last year just as the invasion of Iraq began,
and has been held ever since under an extradition warrant executed
under a treaty signed with the U.S . in 1902 by "The Kingdom of
Servia" (sic) which the State Department considers to be valid with
Bosnia & Herzegovina through four changes of name and political
system. 

However the Department chose not to invoke Article 5 of this antique
document, which states baldly that neither state "shall be bound to
deliver up its own citizens," and Sacirbey is a U.S . citizen. 

In fact, the Sarajevo Cantonal Court judge has admitted that there was no
indictment in the case: the request is to interview Sacirbey, which the
former Foreign Minister is very happy with - if it were in the U.S. 

Sacirbey's legal advisor in the U.S. , American University law
professor Paul Williams, maintains that under American law and under
the extradition treaty with "Servia," "There is no provision for
extradition for investigation, only when actual charges are filed. 

"The State Department should have bounced this right back to the
Bosnians, not passed it on to the Department of Justice," he 
explains.

There were early suspicions by Sacirbey and his family that there were
political motivations behind the execution of the warrant, based firstly on
the timing of his arrest with the start of the war on Iraq and strong U.S.
attempts to get Bosnia to sign up both for the "Coalition" in the war
against Iraq, and for the so-called Article 98 exemption for U.S. citizens
being extradited to the International Criminal Court. 

Indeed State Department official, Janet Bogue, was in Bosnia the same
week that Sacirbey was arrested, pressuring Sarajevo to sign such a
bilateral agreement. 

While the Bosnian press has rehearsed all sorts of allegation against
Sacirbey, the actual U.S. warrant from the Southern District DA's office in
Manhattan, which appeared to regard "Bosnia and Herzegovina" as two
separate requesting states., says the charge is  "the crime of abuse of
position or powers." 

But what led to the charges to begin with? 

In effect Sacirbey is charged with taking money from the UN Mission's
accounts and using it for "unauthorized" purposes. 

The inference drawn by many in Bosnia was that he used the money to
maintain an affluent personal life style and the Bosnian press, which
often makes the Supermarket tabloids seem like papers of record in
comparison, was happy to weigh in with irrelevant but colourful
stories about his life style and demeanour. 

Sacirbey denies the charge. 

He says he paid out money on the Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic's
orders in support of the ICTY at The Hague and for the ICJ case brought by
Bosnia against Belgrade for aggression and genocide. 

Ironically the person who refused to authorize this spending was
Momcilo Krajisnik who is now in prison at The Hague for genocide. 

Izetbegovic died while Sacirbey has been in prison. 

The Dayton Agreement, masterminded with the same American constitutional
expertise now in progress in Iraq , brought the Bosnian's Serbian enemies
into the office, determined to sabotage many of the public relations and
legal initiatives the Bosniaks had previously undertaken. 

People who worked with Sacirbey at the Mission during the days when he was
worth several divisions to the beleaguered Bosnians, point out that he put
in immense amounts of his own money to start the Bosnian Mission to the
U.N. and keep it going over the years. 

Ambassador Diego Arria, who represented Venezuela on the UN Security
Council when the Bosnian war raged says "he was fundamental in
bringing the attention of the Security Council and the international
community to the massacres and genocide going on in his country. 

"He was an ardent and forceful advocate of human rights and the
Tribunal. 

"I never had any doubt of his integrity or devotion." 

If there were any substance to the accusation, there is nothing to
stop criminal charges being laid against Sacirbey in the U.S. courts. 


But no one has tried that route. 

Extradition in fact represents an Ashcroftian black hole in the
justice system on a par with Guantanamo . 

Under existing law, the Federal Magistrate's position is simply to
certify that the documentation is in order, and then to hand the
papers on to the State Department for a political decision on whether
to extradite the prisoner - the same State Department that began the
tragicomedy originally by passing the extradition request on to the
Justice Department! 

One almost worries about publicizing the details in case John Ashcroft
does an end run round the Supreme Court decisions on U.S. citizens
held as terrorists. 

All he has to do is to get an unsavory client regime to request their
extradition and pop goes habeas corpus! 

It also highlights the peculiar ideological and totemistic thought
processes of the administration. 

It is prepared to confront all its closest allies on the ICC, which has so
many safeguards that no sane jurist ever envisages an American official
ever facing it, but is working assiduously to keep a real American citizen
in prison for a year and send him to a place where he may not survive
incarceration and will find it impossible to get a fair trial. 

Go figure. 

Oh, and in case you had forgotten, where is Osama Bin Laden? 

    Ian Williams' email:  uswarreport@igc.org 


Ian Williams
333 E 30th St #10J
New York, NY 10016, USA
Tel:  +1 212.686 8884
 email uswarreport@igc.org
website www.ianwilliams.info

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 23:13:29 -0400
Subject: ADC Update: Contact ADC if Approache

"voluntary interviews"? that's marvelous. we had that in yugoslavia. 
i went to about a dozen of them. the state security service there 
called it "informative discussions". they even offered not to 
handcuff you if you went with them peacefully. later you were 
supposed to come on your own. finally they would try to make you feel 
like an informant. however, this was all part of my political asylum 
case, I mean measures like that in other country judged by the court 
in this country were enough to grant me political asylum from that 
other country. Now this country is introducing the same things that 
did not work elsewhere. This is an evolution from the 
http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=2233, where ADC gives advice to 
people to contact FBI if victims of hate crime. Now they are to 
contact ADC if approached by FBI. What is next?
ivo

------- Forwarded message follows -------
ADC Update:
Contact ADC if Approached by the FBI

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has noted a recent
wave of reports from across the country indicating that FBI agents are
contacting Arab and Muslim Americans, including citizens, for what has been
described as voluntary interviews. ADC would like to remind members of the
Arab, Muslim, and Arab-American communities that equal protection and due
process rights are afforded to everyone, including non-citizens, in the
United States.

Unlike previous initiatives, the FBI has not communicated to ADC any plans
to conduct such interviews. ADC urges anyone who is contacted by the FBI to
contact the ADC Legal Department and provide details of the incident by
calling (202) 244-2990, sending a fax to (202) 244-3196, or via email to
legal@adc.org.

Upon request, ADC will do its best to provide third party observers, in
cases where potential interviewees would want such additional safeguards.
Additional useful "Know Your Rights" information can be found on the ADC
website at: http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=275 .

ADC offers the following guidelines to anyone who is contacted by the 
FBI or other law enforcement agencies.

1) Make sure an attorney is present at all times during any voluntary
interview the person may choose to attend. It is important to note that
everything you say to an FBI agent or other law enforcement representative
is recorded, nothing is 'off the record,' including immigration

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From: "Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 11:20:12 -0400
Subject: Croatia: Rule of (Bad) Law

In Croatia people do not go in jail for corruption. They go in jail 
for writing about corruption. Ashcroft should send a team to Croatia 
to study the system that would keep his bosses in power, while 
draining all F911 revenues on court costs.

In Croatia, there is a defamation law, carried on from the ancient 
communist regime through the Tudjman's country, and it is still on 
the books, two regime changes later. The defamation law is there to 
protect high ranking fat cats from criticism.

High level corruption is always secretive and hard to track down. And 
something that newspapers publish, is immediately public and easy to 
document. So, while corrupted officials may easily deny wrongdoing, 
the journalists who write about corruption find it hard to defend 
themselves against acusations of defamation.

That makes it easy for corruption to continue and flourish regardless 
of the changes of government. A court in Split, southern
Croatia, sentenced state television and radio journalist Ljubica 
Letinic to a two-month suspended prison term for defamation of Jozo 
Parcina, a local businessman.

Letinic, had accused Parcina of corruption during a talk show that 
aired on the main television station on 18 March 2002. Meanwhile, 
Croatia has its own version of Dick Cheney in the person of Miomir 
Zuzul.

Miomir Zuzul used to be a psychology professor at the University of 
Zagreb, Croatia. There, he was also a high-ranking member of the 
Communist Party. One of the young cadres, slated for pampered future. 
But, Yugoslavia collapsed, and he became a high-ranking member of the 
nationalist Croatian HDZ party - opposing communists.

Chosing the winning side, under Tudjman he got the coveted post of 
Croatian Ambassador to the United States. Once in the U.S., guided by 
his opportunism, he quickly got onto the payroll of the U.S. military-
industrial complex. Not Halliburton, though, but Bechtel. During 
Racan's government, Zuzul worked as a "consultant" for Bechtel in 
Croatia. His job was to lobby for Bechtel's contracts in the country.

Under the new HDZ government led by Ivo Sanader, Zuzul became 
Croatia's foreign minister. Like Cheney, who claims to have broken 
the ties with Halliburton since becoming the vice-president, Zuzul 
claims not to be working for Bechtel any more, as he took the #2 
position in Croatia's government.

Just recently, however, Bechtel was awarded a contract worth $257M to 
build 37 km of highway South of Split (Dugopolje - Šestanovac) 
WITHOUT public tender. Zuzul swears he did not help. Just as 
Haliburton miraculously won the contract in Iraq, with no help of 
Cheney.

If, however, someone writes in Croatian media that Zuzul is, perhaps, 
a corrupt official serving his American corporate masters, rather 
than the people of Croatia, that someone would be liable for 
defamation, and could expect a suspended prison sentence by Croatian 
courts at best.

That policy is wrong and must be changed.

ivo


IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT - CROATIA

15 July 2004

Journalist given two-month suspended jail sentence

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontičres (RSF), Paris

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has expressed shock after a court in Split, southern
Croatia, sentenced state television and radio journalist Ljubica 
Letinic to a two-month suspended prison term for defamation of Jozo 
Parcina, a local businessman.

Letinic, who is also an RSF correspondent, had accused Parcina of
corruption during a talk show that aired on the main television 
station on 18 March 2002. Her case will now go before the Split 
Appeals Court.

RSF said the sentence conflicted with United Nations and Organisation 
for Security and Co-operation in Europe recommendations that press 
offences not be punishable by prison sentences. "As Croatia became an 
official candidate for European Union membership last month, this 
sentence goes against all progress in press freedom in the past few 
years," the organisation said.

In its 2004 annual report, RSF highlighted the fact that Croatia had
carried out major but often controversial legislative reform of the 
media, with a view toward European integration. The country's 
defamation law remains out of line with European and international 
standards.

The last prison sentence for a press offence was given to Ivo Pukanic 
on 23 December 2002. The former editor-in-chief of the weekly 
"Nacional" received a suspended two-month sentence for threatening 
Ivic Pasalic, a former political advisor to late president Franjo 
Tudjman.

For further information, contact Soria Blatmann at RSF, 5, rue 
Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 65, fax: +33 
1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: europe@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.rsf.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of 
RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please 
credit RSF.

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