Выдержка из стенограммы
заседания Гаагского трибунала

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Выдержка из стенограммы заседания Гаагского трибунала
29 ноября 2005 года
(Слушания по возможности разделения процесса на Косовскую и Боснийскую части)

Слободан Милошевич зачитывает суду Заявление Группы членов Российской ассоциации международного права

JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic, there's a matter in which I think you can help us.
6 You have 37 or 45 witnesses outstanding for Kosovo. How, in the light of
7 the remaining days left for your case, do you plan to manage your case so
8 as to complete Kosovo as well as Bosnia and Croatia? And, please, I don't
9 want to hear the refrain that this merely shows how little time or how
10 inadequate is the time that has been allocated to you.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] What I was saying was this: Mr. Robinson,
the question of time you seem
14 to be placing in first place, so I assume you won't have anything against
15 me having comments to make with respect to that issue.
16 I should like to remind you, Mr. Robinson, that a certain amount
17 of time ago, I did indicate the need to give me adequate time. Had you
18 personally -- and that you personally said at the time that it was too
19 early to discuss the matter, that is to say, to give me adequate time.
20 Now, to carry on from where you interrupted with your comment that
21 I should use imposed counsel, let me present my position and you do with
22 it what you will and make your own conclusions as you desire. But I don't
23 think you'll be able to topple that position.
24 It is my right to represent myself, and that right emanates from
25 international law and is contained in your Statute as well. Therefore,
1 you are duty-bound to enable me to make effective use of that right. That
2 right cannot be made up for by some sort of assigned or imposed counsel.
3 It is my right to be able to present my own Defence, and it is grounded in
4 the documents that are well known to you all. So it is your duty to
5 enable me to use that right effectively and not some fictitious right
6 which is accorded me in formal terms whereas it is withheld in realistic
7 terms. If I have that right, then you must enable me to use it
8 effectively and to avail myself of that right.
9 And the comment that I don't have to proof witnesses myself is the
10 same as saying that I don't have to avail myself of the right accorded me
11 and that I have chosen to use my right to my own detriment. So the
12 substance of the matter is that I should be allowed to use that right
13 effectively.
14 Now, with regard to the question of time, once again, Mr. Nice
15 quoted different documents and so you'll allow me to do the same, to quote
16 from various documents. And I have sufficient examples for you, although
17 in Serbian because it is a Serbian translation, it is a statement by a
18 group of members of the Russian Association of International Law for
19 Monitoring the Process of the Prosecutor versus Slobodan Milosevic in the
20 International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which a few days ago was
21 published by the Moscow Journal of International Law and it was translated
22 from that Moscow Journal. It is the largest and most important forum of
23 that nature in Russia, and the most important journal for international
24 law in Russia as well.
25 Among others, in point 1, which they discuss, it is the right of

Page 46682
1 the accused to have sufficient time. Now, this term "sufficient time"
2 means for the preparation of his Defence. That has been extracted from
3 "international documents," and this is what it says:
4 "After the signing of the first indictment raised against
5 S. Milosevic by the Prosecutor up until the start of the Prosecution case,
6 two years elapsed and eight months. Throughout that time, time was used
7 to prepare the indictment. Preparations of the indictment went on eight
8 months after the accused was in prison. Now, for the preparation of the
9 Defence case, Slobodan Milosevic was given three months."
10 And then they go on to quote your order concerning the preparation
11 and presentation of the Defence case of September 17th, 2003.
12 "After an extension of the time limit with respect to the
13 accused's health, the Defence case, as a whole, amounted to six months,
14 but that extended time was not used to prepare the Defence because the
15 Registry of the Tribunal denied Milosevic the right to meet with witnesses
16 in connection with his health. It is quite clear that the time for the
17 preparation of the Defence case in the most complex international crimes
18 contained in 66 charges and 1.000 events in prison conditions is
19 inadequate. In keeping with the principle of fair play and equality of
20 arms, the accused must be accorded at least as much time for his Defence
21 case as the Prosecution had for the Prosecution case from the time the
22 indictment was signed until the case went to trial. In conformity with
23 giving the accused sufficient time for preparation of his Defence case,
24 and taking into consideration the complexity of the case itself,
25 S. Milosevic must be given adequate time, and six months cannot be termed

Page 46683
1 adequate time. The request by the accused to be granted more time was
2 turned down by the Appeals Chamber as well, who said that, 'choosing to
3 represent himself, the accused has given up the right of enjoying the
4 benefits of the Defence team set up for him,' and that he himself, 'will
5 bear the brunt of not accepting the services of assigned counsel.'"
6 That is the decision of January 2004. In this connection, the
7 Appeals Chamber referred to four decisions made by national courts, but it
8 forgot to refer to the norms of international law which are in force, and
9 the most senior Chamber of the Tribunal, which was duty-bound to protect
10 the rights of the accused, confirmed the unlawful decision by the Trial
11 Chamber to the detriment of the accused for having opted to represent
12 himself without providing legal arguments in sufficient scope.
13 "Apart from that, this right is part of the rights that do not
14 have a time limit," and it says, "see Article 3 of international --
15 covenant of international laws where everybody has the right, as a
16 minimum, to the following guarantees and conditions." And the conclusion
17 is, of this group, that is to say, the group of the Russian International
18 Law Association, is that: "The Tribunal has violated the rights of the
19 accused to be given sufficient time to prepare his defence case."
20 I won't continue quoting. I will ask you to take up this
21 decision, and I'm sure your translators will be able to translate it into
22 English for you. They contain many other points, but I think it would be
23 beneficial for you to read it.

24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Did I understand you correctly to read from the
25 Journal of International Lawyers that this right is part of the rights

Page 46684
1 that do not have a time limit? Is that what you read?

2 THE INTERPRETER: Statute of limitations, interpreter's note.

3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I read what it says exactly in that
4 statement. I'll go back to that. Let me just see.

5 JUDGE ROBINSON: What right are they referring to? Is it the
6 right to a defence? Is it the right of an accused to put up his defence?

7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The right of the accused, and then
8 they quote "to have sufficient time and possibility for preparation of his
9 defence." That is point 1, which I quoted.

10 JUDGE ROBINSON: And is that the right which they say is without a
11 time limit? I'm trying to understand what you just read.

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, Mr. Robinson, they don't say
13 that it has a time limit. What they say is, the amount of time that was
14 necessary and accorded to the opposite side for writing the indictment,
15 and claim that I must be given that same amount of time. And they quoted
16 exactly when the indictment was signed and how long it took them to
17 prepare for the Prosecution case to go ahead with the trial. So it's no
18 fluid category that we're dealing with here, without boundaries. They are
19 talking and comparing the time that the other side had at its disposal and
20 the time accorded to me by you. And those six months, or barely six
21 months, cannot be compared to a period of three years, let alone compared
22 to the fact that I am managing my Defence myself, whereas Del Ponte and
23 Nice have an enormous machinery at their disposal, including all their
24 services and experts and so on and so forth.

25 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.

Page 46685
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And when I mentioned -- Mr.
2 Robinson, when I mentioned the NATO pact officers, let me remind you,
3 since Mr. Nice is talking about proof and evidence, I would like to remind
4 you that their military expert, Mr. Theunens, said here on behalf of the
5 whole group working on the subject matter, that they studied thousands of
6 documents, and I asked him here, "Do you have any document of mine?" if
7 you remember, Mr. Robinson, and he said, "Yes, I do." And I asked him to
8 place it on the overhead projector.

9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Milosevic --

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Do you remember that?

11 JUDGE ROBINSON: -- I can understand the submission that an accused
12 person is entitled to sufficient time, but I do not accept a submission
13 that there is no time limit for putting a defence. You're entitled to a
14 reasonable time. If your Russian association of lawyers said that there
15 is no time limit in putting a defence, and if by that they meant that an
16 accused person would be entitled to put a defence ad infinitum, I utterly
17 reject that. You're entitled to a reasonable time to put your Defence.
18 Continue.

19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Robinson, in responding to your
20 question, I precisely said that that is not what they claim, that the
21 accused has limitless rights. All they claim is that the accused must be
22 given the same amount of time as given to the Prosecution for preparing
23 the indictment. And they were able to establish that time in quite exact
24 terms by comparing the date in which the indictment was raised and the
25 date when the trial started here, and that was a period of time that was

Page 46686
1 exactly established, let alone the fact that before they actually wrote
2 the indictment, they had to have done some preparatory work as well.
3 So you did not understand the explanation and quotation that I
4 read out to you properly, so I suggest that you take this report and read
5 it for yourself, because I think that they are leading international
6 lawyers who took part in writing it, and I wish to add to this that we are
7 not only speaking -- although this is a statement by the International
8 Russian Federation legal minds, but of course there is a series of broad
9 circles of experts for international law from other countries, including
10 those countries who wrote the petition to Kofi Annan with respect to your
11 conduct towards me from some 30-odd countries that signed it and went to
12 visit the Secretary-General of the Security Council. So this is a
13 position that is widespread in the world, and it would suffice, if I were
14 in your place, if I were to read this position elaborated by the experts
15 from the Russian Federation that rank among the top professionals in the
16 world in their field.
17 As I was saying - let me continue - the present situation is the
18 direct result of a megalomaniac ambition by the other side and most
19 probably by the desire to have the quantity of material replace any
20 serious proof and evidence against me. Quantity over quality. Because
21 you cannot have evidence and valid proof for untruths. And you have
22 supported the other side through your tolerant relationship with them, and
23 asking them to be limited in their scope.
24 I am the main victim of having been bombed by various documents,
25 material witnesses, and so on, that the opposite side has been allowed to

Page 46687
1 present with the go-ahead from you. I think that this is a form of
2 torture and a form of cynicism to put that burden of responsibility upon
3 me, all the more so if this is linked to my health situation, which has
4 been significantly impaired because of the torture I have been exposed to.
5 And I would like to remind you that when General Stevanovic testified
6 here, in some context or other - it's not important now; we can look at
7 the transcript if we want to see the exact context - I said that the
8 opposite side served over a million pages of material on me. Mr. Nice
9 intervened at that point and said it was only 600.000, and with respect to
10 the others it was copies supplied twice.
11 Now, without entering into whether I was served double copies, and
12 would have to read through all the material to see whether that was true,
13 and there's no justification for that either, but nonetheless it's an
14 enormous amount of material. And that every participant in this trial had
15 to read 500 to 1.000 pages per day every day over the space of three and a
16 half years, without exception and without all their other obligations.
17 And a normal human being is quite certainly not able to read even a small
18 portion of that. And as I believe that nobody could claim to be a
19 superpowerful human in any sense here, then we come to the conclusion that
20 the situation is quite unrealistic and in this hall for three and a half
21 years we have had a group of people taking part in something that we can
22 call or is called a trial, whereas none of the participants in the
23 proceedings knows what it says in the files on the basis of which the
24 discussions are being held here.
25 Please, to a certain extent, it is not only that that people don't

Page 46688
1 know about; they don't know what the other side is prosecuting me for. I
2 would particularly like to highlight the issue of a Greater Serbia in that
3 context. This was represented by the other side four years ago when they
4 asked for a joinder of trials, that that was the red thread bringing all
5 parts of the case together, and the Trial Chamber agreed to that. So then
6 you cannot talk about severing the case without dealing with the destiny
7 of that particular issue.
8 On the 25th of August this year, Mr. Nice, after three and a half
9 years of trial, said that he was not prosecuting me on account of a
10 Greater Serbia, and he ascribed that idea to me from the very outset, from
11 his introductory remarks and then through the testimony of almost half or
12 even more than half of his witnesses who -- his witnesses, who spoke of a
13 Greater Serbia as my objective and answered questions put by him to them
14 in that context.

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