Not even Roland Freisler had such a switch, when he tried the anti-Hitler conspirators in Berlin in 1944. -- David Irving, commenting on the British judge trying Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague

London, Friday, February 15, 2002

---

Justice

ON THE first day of the show trial of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, spoke of the "medieval savagery" of the "'war crimes" he is alleged to have ordered or failed to stop. For those who work for that mysterious entity, the "International Community", and gather at the Bar of World Opinion, the word "medieval" is a common term of abuse.

Is medieval savagery, perpetuated by identifiable people caught up in the blood-thirsty frenzy of civil war, worse than modem savagery, in which people are targeted by mathematical calculation and blown to hit by bombs dropped from a height of 50,000 feet by anonymous airmen?

If Milosevic is guilty of "war crimes", although he may have personally killed no one, what about Clinton, Blair and others responsible for the shameful and treacherous war against the Serbs in 1999? When will they be brought to trial at The Hague?

The "international justice" Del Ponte speaks of so smugly is a parody of justice. It is a manoeuvre dressed up in fine words, for furtherance of the "One World" policies of the "International Community". Only those who have somehow got in the way of those policies will ever risk being brought to trial. Others can commit acts of medieval, modern or future savagery as they please and still go free.

David Irving writes: "Peter Simple" was originally the pen name of Michael Wharton, whose regular column in The Daily Telegraph represented all that was conservative and right about England. He retired many years ago, but still contributes an occasional column to the newspaper, like today's, expressing all the views that their conformist journalists are too frightened to voice for themselves. Readers who might wish to let him know that he is not alone can write to him at Forge Cottage, Forge Road, Naphill Common, Bucks., HP14 4SU, England. As an Englishman I am distinctly uneasy about the trial now proceeding at the Hague. It is as lopsided as the 1945-1946 "International Military Tribunal" at Nuremberg -- which was neither International, nor Military, nor a Tribunal. Britain was one of the NATO powers which conducted the criminal bombardment of Milosevic's capital (it was for the bombing of Belgrade in April 1941, incidentally, that we hanged Hitler's field-marshal Alexander Löhr after WW2). So what business do a British judge and British prosecutor have in this neutral court-room? It is a scandal on which no English newspaper has yet dared to voice comment -- let alone the fact that this "neutral" judge has a switch, which he readily uses, to cut off the microphone of the defendant when he says things that are not acceptable to the court. Not even Roland Freisler had such a switch, when he tried the anti-Hitler conspirators in Berlin in 1944.

Robert Harris: Why I have a sneaking sympathy for Milosevic