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Back to Brecon Discussion Group
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic is one of the great dramas of our time, raising questions of enormous importance both in relation to the specific history of the Balkans and of the role played in that history by ourselves - the 'international community'. Yet - at least from the moment it became clear it was not going to be a simple process of humiliation of the accused - the press, at least in Britain and America, have had almost nothing to say about it, except from time to time to complain that the process is being abused by Mr Milosevic through his insistence on defending himself. But wherever one's sympathies lie in the Balkan dispute, Slobodan Milosevic's self defence must rank as a stirring example of individual human resilience, and is obliging a much more thorough exploration of the events under dispute than would otherwise have been possible, partly because he is refusing to act as a simple defendant in a criminal case and is insisting on treating the problem as - like all questions of war and peace - essentially political. The intention of this site is to present the trial in a more easily accessible form, to serve at the very least as an index. It is heavily dependent on synopses prepared, from April 2003 onwards, by Milosevic's supporter, Andy Wilcoxson for his own website, http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org where, however, they are rather hidden in a wealth of a valuable collection of general news and discussion items relating to the trial and also to wider questions such as the condition of Serbs living outside Serbia. They are reproduced here with Andy Wilcoxson's permission. Ideally they should be read in conjunction with the transcripts. These can be accessed through Wilcoxson's site or directly at the tribunal's own site. They are, however, rather difficult to decipher. I hope some time to make some of them available in a more easily readable form. An alternative collection of synopses, written by Judith Armatta from an anti-Milosevic viewpoint, can be found at the website of the George Soros financed Coalition for International Justice and may be accessed here. Passing from one to the other sometimes rather like straddling two parallel universes. Wilcoxson finds everything that is favourable to Milosevic, Armatta finds everything that is unfavourable. Without better knowledge of the course of the trial I am myself ill placed to form a definitive opinion. This site can be seen as a work in progress towards obtaining that knowledge.
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