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Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic and the Corruption of International Justice | 
 enlarge | Author: John Laughland
Creator: Ramsey Clark
Publisher: Pluto Press
Category: Book
List Price: $38.50
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 583916
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0745326358
Dewey Decimal Number: 341.690268
EAN: 9780745326351
ASIN: 0745326358
Publication Date: January 12, 2007
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Product Description
In 2006, Slobodan Milosevic died in prison in the Hague during a four-year marathon trial for war crimes. John Laughland was one of the last Western journalists to meet with him. Laughland had followed the trial from its beginning and wrote extensively on it in the Guardian and the Spectator, challenging the legitimacy of the Yugoslav Tribunal and the hypocrisy of "international justice." In this short book, Laughland gives a full account of the trial---the longest trial in history---from the moment the indictment was issued at the height of NATO's attack on Yugoslavia to the day of Milosevic's mysterious death in custody. "International justice" is supposed to hold war criminals to account, but---as the trials of both Milosevic and Saddam Hussein show---the indictments are politically motivated and the judicial procedures are irredeemably corrupt. Laughland argues that international justice is an impossible dream and that such show trials are little more than propaganda exercises designed to distract attention from the war crimes committed by Western states. "Study this story. . . . The truth is hard to find, but in John Laughland we are fortunate to have a man blessed with the desire to find the truth."
---Ramsey Clark, from the Foreword
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Travesty in Hague February 22, 2007
Andre Pascal (California)
29 out of 36 found this review helpful
This book is definately the best yet to come out on Milosevic's trial in Hague. Although it is short (208 pages for such a long trial), this book is all about facts and substance. It is full of quotes, links and footnotes-it shows the trial, how it went, what was done and all irregularites and bias that was involved ( as i said all this is constantly supported by lots of evidence mostly from trial itself). It also uncovers The Tribunal itself, explains who are the judges, how court was established, who funds it and why....Great, great stuff all together! Oh and yes, the foreword by Ramsey Clark, the Ex-attorney General of USA is extraordinary- it explains in brief the reasons for break up of Yugoslavia, how Germany and later USA did this and it goes all the way to Milosevic's trial and his misterious death in Hague. If you are a lawyer, proffessor, student or just somebody genuinely interested in this topic, do not miss this book...It is a must read!!!
Fascinating account of NATO's show trial of Milosevic August 8, 2007
William Podmore (London United Kingdom)
29 out of 34 found this review helpful
John Laughland, author of The tainted source: undemocratic origins of the European Union, has written a brilliant denunciation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
After the counter-revolutions in the Soviet Union and Eastern European, Yugoslavia stayed independent and unwilling to join NATO or the EU. So the USA, Britain and Germany acted to carve Yugoslavia into easily controlled devolved regional statelets. The Yugoslav leadership tried to keep their country independent and united, and to defeat the terrorist secessionists.
So the NATO powers demonised the Yugoslav leadership: Blair lied about Serbian `racial genocide' of Kosovans, but after the war the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY reported that 2,108 bodies had been found, not enough to constitute genocide.
The NATO powers made the UN Security Council set up the ICTY "for the sole purpose of prosecuting persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia" (Resolution 827, 25 May 1993). Not `allegedly responsible', but `responsible', assuming all defendants' guilt. Laughland notes that the United Nations Charter grants no power to the Security Council to create a criminal court.
On 24 March 1999, US and British forces started bombing Yugoslavia, without UN authorisation, an illegal aggression. At the height of NATO's assault, on 27 May 1999, the ICTY issued its indictment of Slobodan Miloseviae for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In February 2002, it started the first criminal trial by an international tribunal of a head of state. The Court's rules and procedures were stacked against the defendant. The four-year trial, the longest criminal trial in history, paraded hundreds of prosecution witnesses, in an unavailing effort to prove Miloseviae guilty.
During the trial, Miloseviae became ill. Sick men are not usually tried, but the Court continued the trial and refused Miloseviae suitable medical treatment, the Prosecution alleging that he was feigning illness. Instead, the Court used his illness as an excuse to take the unprecedented, and therefore illegal, decision to impose a defence lawyer on Miloseviae, stopping him from defending himself. The trial ended when he died prematurely on 11 March 2006, aged only 64. Did he feign his death too?
NATO claims the right to intervene to `defend human rights' and to respond to `threats', including `ethnic and religious rivalries, territorial disputes, inadequate or failed efforts at reform ... the dissolution of state ... acts of terrorism ... the disruption of the flow of vital resources'. Of course, all these claims are illegal under international law, whose cornerstone is national sovereignty.
The NATO powers, not Slobodan Miloseviae, committed a war crime by attacking a sovereign country. NATO and its creature Court held a show trial to cover their guilt.
Finally, The Long Suppressed Reality is Out November 26, 2007
George C. Thomas (Wisconsin, USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
During the Yugoslav wars, only highly Serbophobic, one-sided accounts and analyses were allowed. It was strictly the "Evil Serbs Versus the Good Everybody Else" that found publication outlets and became highly profitable bestsellers. Attempts by distinguished academic scholars, journalists and observers to contradict these dishonest and exaggerated views were all denied. John Laughland's book is among the best of the new wave of suppressed voices in journalism and academia that have now rewritten the tragic events of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. See also my edited book "Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention" (Lexington Books, 2004) with contributions by distinguished scholars which shed a different light on the Yugoslav tragedy.
Raju G. C. Thomas
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
America's coverups January 24, 2008
S. Jovanovic (Adelaide, Australia)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Through his critical and analytical overview of "the trial of the century" John Laughland emmaculetaly displays the coverups, lies and propaganda of America and its NATO allies with regards to the only president brave enough to challenge them. From the systematic violations of international law to the lawlessness and arrogance with which the NATO controlled and administered court conducted itself, Laughland exposes the court and trial for what it really is: a puppet facade court created in order for NATO to justify its illegal war and horrendous war crimes committed against the innocent and defenseless people of Serbia.
An important analysis February 19, 2008
Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
In this important book the tragedy of international justice is brought to light. With a forward by Ramsey Clark this book points out just how much 'justice' was hijacked. The book shows how the media and the international community was able to tar and feather Serbia as the 'bad guys' in a war in which all were to blame. 500,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Bosnia and Croatia but in the end only Serbs were charged with war crimes. After Milosevic, who was a tyrant, was driven from power he was handed over the the international criminal court. This was a travesty in itself. A court derived its power from the people, from the consent of the governed but in this case a court which is accountable to no one was established to put on trial only one side at the behest of Nato and Europe.
The book examines how the court was biased and how it exceeded its jurisdiction and even violated international law. Eventually it was unable to get a conviction and kept Milosevic in prison until he died. Unlike nuremburg it did not actually prove anything but simply waited for the accused to die so that it could say 'we convicted him.' A very fascinating book that dares to show the other side to the Balkan wars.
Seth J. Frantzman
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