On Monday 17 November 2003, Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti confirmed an Indictment against Milan Babic.
According to the Indictment, Milan Babic participated in a joint criminal enterprise that came into existence no later than 1 August 1991 and continued until at least June 1992. The purpose of this joint criminal enterprise was the permanent forcible removal of the majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia ("Croatia"), in order to make them part of a new Serb-dominated state through the commission of crimes in violation of Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal."
In addition the Indictment states "Individuals participating in this joint criminal enterprise included Slobodan Milosevic; Milan Martic; Goran Hadzic; Jovica Stanisic; Franko Simatovic, also known as "Frenki"; Vojislav Seselj; General Blagoje Adzic; General Ratko Mladic and other known and unknown members of the Yugoslav People’s Army ("JNA"); the Serb Territorial Defence ("TO") of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro; local and Serbian police forces ("MUP forces"), including the State Security /Drzavna bezbednost ("DB") of the Republic of Serbia, and Serb police forces of the SAO Krajina and the RSK commonly referred to as "Martic’s Police," "Marticevci," "SAO Krajina Police" or "SAO Krajina Milicija" (hereinafter "Martic’s Police"). Milan Babic participated in this joint criminal enterprise until at least February 1992."
The Indictment further states that Milan Babic acting individually and/or in concert with other members of the joint criminal enterprise participated in the joint criminal enterprise in the following ways:
"In his capacity as the President of the SNC and subsequently as President/Prime Minister in the SAO Krajina and the RSK, he formulated, promoted, participated in, and/or encouraged the development and implementation of SDS and SAO Krajina/RSK governmental policies intended to advance the objective of the joint criminal enterprise. Throughout 1991, Milan Babic attended meetings with the Serbian, SFRY and Bosnian Serb leadership defining these policies of the joint criminal enterprise and presented its positions in international negotiations."
Source: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Monday, November 17, 2003
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
South Africa's Ruling Party Struggles Within
Less than six months before South Africa's third presidential election, the ruling African National Congress is embroiled in an internal bloodletting that it seems powerless to stop. Already the volley of charges and countercharges has hurt the reputations of the deputy president and the national prosecutor. With the opening of what appears likely to become a lengthy inquiry into some of the allegations, President Thabo Mbeki may be hurt politically as well. For the last week, the South African public has focused on the juiciest aspect of the affair: the revelation that a white human rights lawyer who seemed to be a comrade in arms in the African National Congress's struggle against apartheid during the 1980's was in fact a spy for the apartheid government.
The lawyer, Vanessa Brereton, went public a week ago on South African television with a tearful confession that she had betrayed black South Africans' struggle for freedom because she was in love with a senior officer in the apartheid government's security police. As intelligence agent RS542, she said, she gave her lover and handler information about three antiapartheid activists, one of whom was later arrested and imprisoned without trial. Now living in England, Ms. Brereton said that she had apologized to those she betrayed and that she did not expect forgiveness.
But Ms. Brereton's role as an apartheid spy is but a sidelight in a poisonous battle for power between Mr. Mbeki's deputy president, Jacob Zuma, and the national prosecutor, Bulelani Ngcuka. Both men are senior members of the African National Congress, which gained more than 65 percent of the vote in the presidential election in 1999.
Mr. Ngcuka said openly in August that he suspected, but could not prove, that Mr. Zuma had benefited illegally from under-the-table dealings in a multibillion-dollar arms contract. Mr. Zuma's supporters struck back in September by accusing Mr. Ngcuka of acting as a spy -- code-named RS542 -- for the apartheid government in the last days of white rule here. That charge led Ms. Brereton to come forward because, she said, she did not want Mr. Ngcuka to suffer for her misdeeds. But Mr. Zuma's supporters have refused to back down, saying they never claimed to know the right code name for Mr. Ngcuka. Nor has the rivalry halted. Mr. Zuma has demanded a new inquiry into Mr. Ngcuka's conduct of the investigation into his role in the arms deal. In response, Mr. Ngcuka said Saturday that evidence against the deputy president would come out at the trial of an associate of Mr. Zuma's who was charged with fraud in the arms deal.
The battle has consumed the party since at least August. Mr. Mbeki's inability so far to resolve it has emboldened his detractors, who say he pays too much attention to his image as a statesman and not enough to problems at home. Mr. Mbeki reacted to the accusations against Mr. Ngcuka in early September by ordering a national commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge, Joos Hefer, to sort out the truth of the matter. That inquiry has bogged down amid reluctance by South Africa's intelligence agencies to fish through their apartheid files. ''So far, the commission is getting nowhere,'' said Shadrack Gutto, director for the Center of African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa. Judge Hefer is faced with a near impossible task, he said, and ''would do the nation some honor by throwing in the towel.'' However, others see the affair as evidence that South Africa's government is strong enough to chase down both corruption and possible abuse of prosecutorial power. ''This kind of thing does not happen in many countries, even in the developed world,'' said Thabisi Hoeane, a doctor of political studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. ''The allegations will be put out in the public eye, and we will eventually know the truth.''
Mr. Mbeki has rebuffed suggestions that Mr. Zuma should resign, saying no public official should be judged on mere allegations. Still, he has twice used his party's newsletter to lecture about the futility of hunting down the apartheid government's spies, saying South Africans closed that chapter of their history in the interest of unity. While there is little doubt that Mr. Mbeki will win re-election next spring, the affair has also given succor to Mr. Mbeki's critics -- long consigned to the status of permanent also-rans.
The leader of the Pan Africanist Congress has suggested that the nation's intelligence agencies are balking at subpoenas because they are protecting former apartheid spies within the government. The leader of the United Democratic Movement has charged that the A.N.C. labels dissenters as apartheid spies to silence them.
Source: New York Times
The lawyer, Vanessa Brereton, went public a week ago on South African television with a tearful confession that she had betrayed black South Africans' struggle for freedom because she was in love with a senior officer in the apartheid government's security police. As intelligence agent RS542, she said, she gave her lover and handler information about three antiapartheid activists, one of whom was later arrested and imprisoned without trial. Now living in England, Ms. Brereton said that she had apologized to those she betrayed and that she did not expect forgiveness.
But Ms. Brereton's role as an apartheid spy is but a sidelight in a poisonous battle for power between Mr. Mbeki's deputy president, Jacob Zuma, and the national prosecutor, Bulelani Ngcuka. Both men are senior members of the African National Congress, which gained more than 65 percent of the vote in the presidential election in 1999.
Mr. Ngcuka said openly in August that he suspected, but could not prove, that Mr. Zuma had benefited illegally from under-the-table dealings in a multibillion-dollar arms contract. Mr. Zuma's supporters struck back in September by accusing Mr. Ngcuka of acting as a spy -- code-named RS542 -- for the apartheid government in the last days of white rule here. That charge led Ms. Brereton to come forward because, she said, she did not want Mr. Ngcuka to suffer for her misdeeds. But Mr. Zuma's supporters have refused to back down, saying they never claimed to know the right code name for Mr. Ngcuka. Nor has the rivalry halted. Mr. Zuma has demanded a new inquiry into Mr. Ngcuka's conduct of the investigation into his role in the arms deal. In response, Mr. Ngcuka said Saturday that evidence against the deputy president would come out at the trial of an associate of Mr. Zuma's who was charged with fraud in the arms deal.
The battle has consumed the party since at least August. Mr. Mbeki's inability so far to resolve it has emboldened his detractors, who say he pays too much attention to his image as a statesman and not enough to problems at home. Mr. Mbeki reacted to the accusations against Mr. Ngcuka in early September by ordering a national commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge, Joos Hefer, to sort out the truth of the matter. That inquiry has bogged down amid reluctance by South Africa's intelligence agencies to fish through their apartheid files. ''So far, the commission is getting nowhere,'' said Shadrack Gutto, director for the Center of African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa. Judge Hefer is faced with a near impossible task, he said, and ''would do the nation some honor by throwing in the towel.'' However, others see the affair as evidence that South Africa's government is strong enough to chase down both corruption and possible abuse of prosecutorial power. ''This kind of thing does not happen in many countries, even in the developed world,'' said Thabisi Hoeane, a doctor of political studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. ''The allegations will be put out in the public eye, and we will eventually know the truth.''
Mr. Mbeki has rebuffed suggestions that Mr. Zuma should resign, saying no public official should be judged on mere allegations. Still, he has twice used his party's newsletter to lecture about the futility of hunting down the apartheid government's spies, saying South Africans closed that chapter of their history in the interest of unity. While there is little doubt that Mr. Mbeki will win re-election next spring, the affair has also given succor to Mr. Mbeki's critics -- long consigned to the status of permanent also-rans.
The leader of the Pan Africanist Congress has suggested that the nation's intelligence agencies are balking at subpoenas because they are protecting former apartheid spies within the government. The leader of the United Democratic Movement has charged that the A.N.C. labels dissenters as apartheid spies to silence them.
Source: New York Times
Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Kebble still pursuing case against Maduna, Ngcuka
Advocate Willem Heath yesterday strongly denied rumours that his principals, Roger and Brett Kebble, had abandoned an investigation into the alleged abuse of power by Justice Minister Penuell Maduna and National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka. "It is completely untrue that we have dropped any of the complaints. I have been instructed by the Kebbles to investigate such abuses of power both nationally and internationally as they intend to pursue these complaints to the fullest extent,” confirmed Heath. The Kebbles hired Heath earlier this year to probe Kebble Snr's November 11, 2002, arrest at Johannesburg International Airport.
At a media briefing in July, JCI chief executive Brett Kebble insisted that gold mining company Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) had bribed police to frame Roger Kebble for fraud. Kebble and his father have a long-running dispute with DRD and its current chairperson and chief executive, Mark Wellesley-Wood, over a series of decisions made by DRD's board in 1999 and 2000. These include a series of share transactions related to the attempted acquisition of Randfontein Estates gold mine, as well as Kebble Snr's removal from the DRD board, where he had been chairperson.
Source: Polity
At a media briefing in July, JCI chief executive Brett Kebble insisted that gold mining company Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) had bribed police to frame Roger Kebble for fraud. Kebble and his father have a long-running dispute with DRD and its current chairperson and chief executive, Mark Wellesley-Wood, over a series of decisions made by DRD's board in 1999 and 2000. These include a series of share transactions related to the attempted acquisition of Randfontein Estates gold mine, as well as Kebble Snr's removal from the DRD board, where he had been chairperson.
Source: Polity
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