"Idag, som aldrig tidigare, ser vi internationell rättvisa i handling"

Carla Del Pontes inledningsanförande vid rättegången mot Slobodan Milosevic den 12 februari 2002

Your Honours, 

he Chamber will now begin the trial of this man for the wrongs he is said to have done- to the people of his own country and to his neighbours. How simple that statement is to make today;how easily those words pass into the record of these proceedings; and yet how remarkable it is that I am able to speak them here. Today, as never before, we see international justice in action. 

Let us take a moment at the start of this trial to reflect upon the establishment of this Tribunal and its purpose. We should just pause to recall the daily scenes of grief and suffering that came to define armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The events themselves were notorious, and a new term, “ethnic cleansing”, came into common use in our language. Some of the incidents revealed an almost mediaeval savagery and a calculated cruelty that went far beyond the bounds of legitimate warfare. The international community was shocked to witness the vicious disintegration of a modern State, and the Security Council of the United Nations was quick to recognise the grave threat posed by the serious crimes it believed were being committed. This Tribunal is one of the measures taken by the Security Council, acting for all Member States of the United Nations, to restore and maintain international peace and security. That is our purpose, and our unique contribution is to bring to justice the persons responsible for the worst crimes known to humankind. 

The crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and the other crimes within the jurisdiction of this Tribunal are not local affairs, and their prosecution may be beyond the capability of national courts. Crimes of the magnitude of those in the indictments before the Chamber affect all of us throughout the world. The law of this Tribunal - international humanitarian law - is the concern of people everywhere. These crimes touch every one of us, wherever we live, because they offend against our deepest principles of human rights and human dignity. The law is not a mere theory or an abstract concept. It is a living instrument that must protect our values and regulate civilised society. And for that we must be able to enforce the law when it is broken. This Tribunal, and this trial in particular, give the most powerful demonstration that no-one is above the law or beyond the reach of international justice. 

s Prosecutor, I bring the accused Milosevic before you to face the charges against him. I do so on behalf of the international community and in the name of all the Member States of the United Nations, including the States of the former Yugoslavia. The accused in this case, as in all cases before this Tribunal, is charged as an individual:he is prosecuted on the basis of his individual criminal responsibility. No State or organisation is on trial here today:the indictments do not accuse an entire people of being collectively guilty of the crimes, even the crime of genocide. It may be tempting to generalise when dealing with the conduct of leaders at the highest level, but that is an error that must be avoided. Collective guilt forms no part of the prosecution case, it is not the law of this Tribunal, and I make it clear that I reject the very notion. I do of course intend to explore the degree to which the power and influence of the accused extended over others, but I stress again that the accused is brought before you to answer for his own actions and for his personal involvement in the crimes alleged against him. 

Your Honours, while I bring the indictments as Prosecutor in the international public interest, I do not mean to ignore the victims of the crimes committed during the conflicts. Much of the development of the law since the Second World War has been designed to prevent members of the civilian population from coming to harm in times of armed conflict. The law itself exists to protect ordinary people not engaged in hostilities. Even so, as Prosecutor I do not directly represent any individual victim. I do, however, consider it to be part of my function in presenting the case to allow the voice of the victims to be heard. No court can experience the events as the victims themselves did, and no court can be expected to do so. Many victims cannot come before you because they did not survive. Nor is it possible, in the proof of crimes on such a scale as those in the indictments, for any prosecutor to bring all the surviving witnesses to give evidence in court. Despite that limitation, I am confident that the prosecution case will present to the Chamber a full picture of the circumstances of the crimes and of their impact on the people against whom they were directed. 

The case against the accused will be complex. It will be broad in its scope, reflecting the nature of the charges, and yet it will be detailed, as criminal cases must be, where specific features of the evidence require to be explored in depth. This case will certainly test the criminal justice process itself, and will challenge the very capacity of a modern criminal court to address crimes which must extend so far in time and place. I fully accept the responsibility that falls upon the Prosecutor to bring forward evidence to support the indictment. 

A trial of this nature requires the Chamber to hear evidence from many sources:from individuals; from organisations; and from State officials. The Chamber will receive testimony from high-ranking military figures, diplomats, Government representatives, and other persons of rank and function who, for different reasons the Chamber will understand, cannot be named today. Such persons do not commonly appear in the criminal courts, and receiving their evidence challenges equally the witnesses and the court. 

The witnesses must find in themselves the individual courage to give their accounts in public. I will seek to match their strength by obtaining for them all appropriate measures of protection available under the Tribunal’s rules. Organisations and Governments must also find the institutional resolve to place before the Chamber information – sometimes sensitive information – in their possession. In this regard the trial will test the co-operation of all States, not simply the States of the former Yugoslavia, some of which in the past have obstructed the work of this Tribunal and its Prosecutor. Peoples throughout the world following these proceedings will be watching to see the extent to which their own leaders are committed to achieving the aims of international justice in this forum. 

his is a criminal trial. It is unfortunate that the accused has attempted to use his appearances before this Chamber to make interventions of a political nature. I can assure the Chamber that in the case before us the prosecution will not allow itself to be drawn into any such exchanges. This is a Trial Chamber, not a debating chamber. I should also make it clear that in the performance of my duties towards this Chamber I shall not allow myself any advantage from the fact that the accused has chosen not to be legally represented. Under the Statute of the Tribunal an accused is entitled either to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing. He is fully entitled to exercise that choice and to elect to conduct his own defence. By doing so he does not change the trial process in any way, and the onus upon the Prosecutor, to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, remains unaltered. 

That is the position even where a prosecutor confronts a defence of defiance, or where an accused refuses to recognise the court, or in some way attempts to undermine the solemnity of the proceedings. I speak for each of the counsel on this side of the table when I say that, as the Chamber will be aware, the prosecution has scrupulously discharged its obligations at all pre-trial stages of this case. We regularly consider, and will continue to consider, with the Chamber and with the amici, whether mechanisms can be applied to reduce any risk adverse to the accused resulting from his attitude to the court. 

I can further undertake to the Chamber that, in their conduct of the trial, prosecution counsel, in the highest traditions of their profession, will do everything possible, despite the absence of defence counsel, to assist the Chamber to identify the issues as the evidence unfolds. 

Your Honours, permit me to say a further general word about the context in which the witnesses who may come before the Chamber will give their evidence as this trial progresses. It has been said many times that my mission as Prosecutor is to bring before this institution the persons who are believed to be the most responsible for crimes in the former Yugoslavia. The international community expects persons at the very highest levels of command and leadership to be brought to justice here in The Hague. That task is the very definition of my mandate as Prosecutor, and it is the essence of the purpose of the Tribunal. With the trial of this particular accused we reach a turning point for this institution. The proceeding upon which the Chamber embarks today is clearly the most important trial to be conducted in the Tribunal to date. Indeed, it may prove to be the most significant trial that this institution will ever undertake. It is thus a trial that must inevitably mark the path towards the conclusion of the work of this Tribunal, even although that day is still some way off. 

The trial also marks a change, as the Court will discover, in that many people who have inside information are making the decision that it is right and better for them to assist the Tribunal by giving evidence and by making their mark in the record of humanity. 

recognise that this trial will make history, and we would do well to approach our task in the light of history. Sadly, ours is not the first enquiry into atrocities committed in the Balkan region. Listen to the words of the Chairman of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars. Baron d’Estournelles de Constant is writing of the Wars of 1912 and 1913. He makes the point at the conclusion of his introduction to the Report published in 1914 that the real culprits are not the Balkan peoples, and he goes on to say this:

“The true culprits are those who mislead public opinion and take advantage of the people’s ignorance to raise disquieting rumors and sound the alarm bell, inciting their country and consequently other countries into enmity. The real culprits are those who by interest or inclination, declaring constantly that war is inevitable, end by making it so, asserting that they are powerless to prevent it. The real culprits are those who sacrifice the general interest to their own personal interest which they so little understand, and who hold up to their country a sterile policy of conflict and reprisals. In reality there is no salvation, no way out either for small states or for great countries except by union or conciliation. ”

Your Honours, no words could better set the scene for the matters this Chamber will now try. 

xcellent tacticien, piètre stratège, Milošević n’a fait que poursuivre son ambition, au prix d’indicibles souffrances imposées à celles et à ceux qui s’opposaient à lui ou représentaient une menace pour sa stratégie personnelle de pouvoir. Car tout, chez l’accusé Miloševic, est instrument au service de sa quête de pouvoir. Ne cherchez pas d’idéaux derrière les actes de l’accusé. Au delà du prétexte nationaliste et de l’horreur du nettoyage ethnique, derrière la rhétorique grandiloquente et la langue de bois obsolète, c’est bien la recherche du pouvoir qui motive Slobodan Milošević. Ce ne sont ni les convictions personnelles, ni, moins encore, le patriotisme ou l’honneur, ni même le racisme ou la xénophobie qui animent l’accusé, mais bien la recherche du pouvoir, du pouvoir personnel. 

Le procès qui s’ouvre aujourd’hui évoquera le sort tragique de milliers de victimes croates, bosniaques et albanaises de Miloševic. La lecture des souffrances endurées par ces innombrables victimes et survivants est insoutenable. Mais l’accusé Milošević a aussi fait d’autres victimes. Je pense aux Serbes, ces Serbes réfugiés de Croatie, de Bosnie, du Kosovo, abusés par Miloševic, dont les peurs ont été nourries, amplifiées, manipulées pour servir les plans criminels de Miloševic. Beaucoup ont perdu la vie, la plupart ont perdu leur foyer et leur avenir. Ces hommes et ces femmes sont à compter de plein droit parmi les victimes de Milošević, de même que les citoyennes et citoyens de la République fédérale de Yougoslavie, qui doivent désormais reconstruire le pays exsangue que leur a laissé l’accusé.

L’Histoire de la désintégration de l’ex-Yougoslavie et des conflits fratricides d’un autre âge qu’elle entraîna est un processus complexe qui nécessite une écriture à plusieurs mains. Ce Tribunal n’en écrira pour sa part qu’un chapitre, le plus sanglant, le plus navrant aussi, celui de la responsabilité individuelle des auteurs de violations graves du droit humanitaire international. C’est à d’autres instances qu’il conviendra de poser le diagnostic moral, historique, ou psychologique de l’accusé, et d’analyser les dynamiques sociales, économiques et politiques qui constituèrent la trame de fonds des crimes sur lesquels nous allons nous pencher. L’engrenage apparemment inévitable de la peur et de la haine, la manipulation politique, le rôle funeste de certains médias, mais aussi l’héroïsme des résistants, des opposants, dans tout l’espace ex-yougoslave, la survie de la dignité, du civisme, de l’humanité enfin, sont autant de mécanismes qu’il importe d’analyser, de disséquer et d’expliquer. Car il est impératif de répondre à l’exigence de vérité des victimes, dans l’acception la plus large de ce terme, et d’amoindrir les risques de répétition d’un semblable scénario, ailleurs dans le monde et dans les Balkans en particulier. Mais ici, plus modestement, c’est la responsabilité personnelle de Slobodan Milošević que l’accusation entend démontrer pour les crimes qui lui sont imputés, rien que cela, mais tout cela. C’est la contribution de la justice, et nous souhaitons l’apporter en toute sérénité, en rappelant ces mots d’Ivo Andric, prononcés au cimetière juif de Sarajevo, « l’Humanité, si elle veut mériter son nom, doit organiser en commun sa défense contre tous les crimes internationaux, dresser un barrage sûr et châtier vraiment tous les meurtriers des hommes et des peuples ». 

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