How to Obtain Justice-9
The importance of crimes in this new world order was highlighted by the
establishment in May 1993 of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY). This tribunal was established by Security Council resolution 827 under its Article
29 which allows it to set up "subsidiary bodies" necessary to fulfill its
peacekeeping tasks. It is more than doubtful that the framers of the United Nations
statutes had a criminal tribunal in mind, and many jurists consider resolution 827 to be
an usurpation of legislative and judicial powers by the Security Council. In fact, this act went contrary to over forty years of study, within the
framework of the United Nations, of the possibilities for setting up an international
penal tribunal, whose jurisdiction would be established by international treaty allowing States to transfer part of their sovereign rights to the
tribunal. The Security Council's ICTY went over the heads of
the States concerned and simply imposed its authority on them, without their consent.
Last April 5, as NATO was bombing Yugoslavia, the ICTY's
presiding judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald (a former U.S. federal judge in Texas) told
the Supreme Court that the Tribunal "benefited from the strong support of concerned
governments and dedicated individuals such as Secretary Albright. As the permanent
representative to the United Nations, she had worked with unceasing resolve to establish
the Tribunal. Indeed, we often refer to her as the `mother of the
Tribunal'".
Because it is also located in The Hague, very many
well-informed people confuse the Tribunal with the International Court of Justice, or at
least believe that, like the ICJ, the ICT is a truly
independent and impartial judicial body. Its many supporters in the media say so,
and so do its statutes. Article 32 of its governing statute says the Tribunal's expenses
shall be borne by the regular budget of the United Nations, but this has been persistently
violated. As Toronto lawyer Christopher Black points out, "the tribunal has received
substantial funds from individual States, private foundations and corporations". The United States has provided personnel (23 officials lent by the
Departments of State, Defense and Justice as of May 1996), equipment and cash
contributions. More money has been granted the Tribunal by financier George Soros' Open
Society Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the United States Institute for Peace,
set up in 1984 under the Reagan administration and funded by Congressional appropriations,
with its board of directors appointed by the U.S. President.
The Tribunal is vigorously supported by the Coalition for
International Justice (CIJ), based in Washington and The Hague, founded and funded by
George Soros' Open Society Foundation and a semi-official U.S. lawyers' group called
CEELI, the Central and East European Law Institute, set up to promote the
replacement of socialist legal systems with free market ones, according to Christopher
Black.
Last May 12, ICTY president Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, in a speech to the Council on
Foreign Relations, said that: "The U.S. government has very generously agreed to
provide $500,000 and to help to encourage other States to contribute. However, the moral
imperative to end the violence in the region is shared by all, including the corporate
sector. I am pleased, therefore, that a major corporation has recently donated computer
equipment worth three million dollars, which will substantially enhance our operating
capacity."
Moreover, during the bombing, Clinton obtained a special $27 million appropriation
to help the Tribunal, especially in collecting anti-Serb testimony from Albanian refugees
along the borders of Kosovo. Finally, Clinton has offered a bounty
of $5 million for the arrest of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
[ Clinton Doctrine ] [ Importance of War Crimes ] [ Humanitarian Realpolitik ] [ Cultural Divides ] [ Scenarios Reach the TV Screen ] [ Abramowitz-Albright Policy For Yugoslavia ] [ How to sabotage the OSCE ] [ How to obtain "Justice" ] [ Unified Empires ] [ History as Melodrama ]
