Milosevic banned from electioneering
The UN war crimes tribunal today slapped a 30 day gag order on Slobodan Milosevic who is running in Serbian elections later this month, citing rules that forbid detainees from communicating with the media.
Despite being on trial for 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, Milosevic is a candidate for the Socialist Party in Serbia’s parliamentary elections on December 28.
The war crimes tribunal in The Hague said Milosevic violated the rules when he used a phone on December 3 at the UN detention unit to record an broadcast on Serbian radio.
In the broadcast he promised to create new jobs and “turn around this sad chapter in Serbia’s history,” apparently referring to the pro-democratic government which ousted him in 2000 and ordered his extradition to the Netherlands for trial.
Even though the Socialists stand little chance of returning to power, its allies are likely to become the largest party in Serbia’s 250 seat parliament.
Another war crimes suspect held at the tribunal’s detention centre outside The Hague, Vojislav Seselj, is leader of the Milosevic allied Radicals.
The court said Milosevic and Seselj cannot have any communications for the next 30 days, except with lawyers and family, and only then on condition they do not pass on messages to the media.
Telephone conversations would be monitored during the gag period, it said.
“The facilities provided by the detention unit are intended for the well-being of the accused and not for purposes that frustrate the tribunal’s function to assist in establishing peace and security in the former Yugoslavia,” the court said in a statement.
No legislation in Serbia bans war crimes suspects – including those indicted or standing trial – from running in elections.
Uros Suvakovic, an official in Milosevic’s Socialist Party, denounced the tribunal’s decision to cut off Milosevic’s communications.
He said it was prompted by ”the departing political oligarchy in Serbia which is in hysteria because of the public support and the jump in his ratings” before the upcoming elections.
He said The Hague decision was “immoral and discriminatory.”
