Will Milosevic walk?

"When UN prosecutors opened their case against Slobodan Miloscvic two years ago, they set out to get him convicted of genocide," noted a February 29 AP news analysis. "The consensus today is, they failed."

Milosevic was delivered to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 2001, over the strenuous objections of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. A genuine anti-Communist and ardent admirer of the U.S. Constitution, Kostunica insisted that the former Serbian ruler should stand trial in Belgrade for crimes committed against his countrymen. However, the Clinton and Bush administrations, working on behalf of the UN, blackmailed Serbia into surrendering Milosevic. One particularly potent weapon used by the Bush administration was a threatened cutoff of aid.

In their eagerness to create sweeping precedents, UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and her comrades attempted to depict Milosevic--a relatively small-caliber thug--as Hitler reincarnated. "Legal experts at the UN war crimes tribunal have assembled solid evidence on lesser charges against the former Yugoslav president," notes the AP. "But acquittal on the genocide charge the crime of all crimes, experts say--would have far-reaching implications." For instance, it would unravel the tidy little morality play concocted by the international establishment in which the Serbs, alone among the numerous parties involved in the tragic and horrifying Balkan civil wars, were deemed guilty of aggression and horrible atrocities.

In recent months, notes trial observer Neojsa Malic, "the Prosecution's witnesses were seemingly random men and women dragged into the courtroom to offer baseless allegations and fourth-hand hearsay, [even] though one would expect a strong case to save its most damaging witnesses for the very end." British legal affairs commentator Neil Clark points out that despite the incredible latitude the UN prosecution granted itself in presenting its case, "things have gone horribly wrong for Ms. Del Ponte.... [N]ot only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic's personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the nature and extent of the atrocities have also been called into question."

Milosevic, a lawyer, has defended himself, and "has made mincemeat out of the Prosecutors' case by himself," contends Malic. This, despite the fact that the UN prosecution has been funded extravagantly, has "witnesses willing to make things up as they go, the ability to make up procedures on the fly, and [a] three-judge panel [that is] firmly on their side...."

It's entirely possible that the UN's "trial" of Milosevic will end as it was intended to, with the erstwhile strongman decreed guilty of crimes against humanity. But the exercise has served a useful purpose by exposing, for all to see, the patent absurdity and corruption of the UN's Soviet-style "justice" system at work.