Selective justice

An unpopular truth

[Reprinted from Issues & Views July 23, 2001]

The dictionary defines hypocrisy as a semblance of having publicly approved attitudes or principles that one does not actually possess. If you’re looking for a synonym, it’s the chorus of self-congratulations that greeted the news of Slobodan Milosevic’s extradition . . . .

Slobo is right not to recognize such a court. The Hague court is nothing more than an arbitrary creation of the bogus "international community," which is a precursor to Big Brother, the One World Government of the future. Make no mistake about it, this is just the beginning of a plan for powerful governments such as that of the United States and its satellites to kidnap and bring to trial anyone thought to be an impediment. The most bitter joke of all is that Milosevic’s arrest was achieved by bribery, one billion greenbacks worth of aid to repair the damage done to Serbia by the so-called international community’s own war machine. . . .

The biggest single ethnic cleansing of the Balkan wars was suffered by the Serbs in the Krajina region of Croatia, but no one is about to be arrested for that one. Which brings me to the point I’m trying to make. Selective justice—like justice delayed—is victor’s justice. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was set up by the United Nations, as corrupt an institution as there is . . . .

Everybody knows that NATO will not do to Moscow what it did to Belgrade because Moscow has a few nuclear weapons up its sleeve. Beijing tortures Falun Gong members to death, executes petty criminals and sells their vital organs, shoots down student protesters. Is NATO about to do to Beijing what it did to Belgrade? Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean dictator, instructed a battalion of troops trained by North Korea to murder and pillage in Matabeleland in the mid-80s. Is the Hague court about to arrest him and try him? And what about Ariel Sharon? He was as involved in the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian women and children as Milosevic was in the Kosovo massacres by Serb troops. Will Sharon visit the Hague anytime soon? Will Clinton and Albright appear there for bombing innocent civilians in Serbia? In the Sudan and in Afghanistan?

Let’s face it. A World Tribunal beyond political control, operating under abstract principles, is far worse than any crime allegedly committed by Milosevic.

-- Taki, from "Slobodamnation," New York Press, Volume 14, Issue 28.