London public meeting report: March 30, 2005
(posted: April 11, 2005)
The meeting, addressed by Misha Gavrilovic and British writer John Laughland, was held close to the 6th anniversary of the 1999 NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
Mr Gavrilovic, of the British-Serbia Alliance, recalled how, during the West’s campaign against his country during the 1990s, he encountered abuse for the first time ever on the basis of his nationality “not by football hooligans but by the likes Tony Blair and John Major before him.”
One reason why Serbia was singled out, he explained, was that it dared, following the collapse of East European socialism, to declare: “This part of Yugoslavia, which refuses to dissolve itself, is not for sale.”
Yugoslavia’s destroyed bridges, its bombed TV centre and the sanctions against the country were sold to Western audiences as being attacks on “one person – Slobodan Milosevic,” he added.
“Yet what is being tried at The Hague is really a country and a people – the West’s victims – using Slobodan Milosevic’s name as a vehicle.”
Mr Laughland exposed the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for “behaving in a lawless fashion,” particularly for breaking its own charter when stripping Milosevic of the right to conduct his own defence.
This “ridiculous and disgraceful ruling” went against all established principles of international law, he added.
“It is of the greatest possible concern to everybody with an interest in international law and civil rights” to expose what is happening at the ICTY, said Mr Laughland.
The meeting, hosted jointly with SOAS James Connolly Society, is to be followed by a further event in the autumn to which Guardian and New Statesman columnist Neil Clark will be key speaker.
Pól O Geibheannaigh (SOAS James Connolly Society)
Misha Gavrilovic (British-Serbia Alliance)
Ian Johnson (CDSM UK)
John Laughland (journalist/campaigner)
