"Voice of Russia" (Moscow) December 1,1998 - Motive for this comment is the recently passed resolution of the UN Security Council in which SR Yugoslavia is condemned for alleged refusal to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal. That cooperation practically boils down to the request to have citizens of SR Yugoslavia charged with war crimes extradited to the Tribunal as well as to let investigative arbiters of the Tribunal enter Kosmet in order to organize investigation of conceivable war crimes in the Province.

I remind you that this special Tribunal was established in 1993. During five years of its existence, at least two circumstances caused very cautious relation toward it. First, there are great suspicions about its legal legitimacy. As it is known, the Tribunal was founded by the decision of the Security Council that was not confirmed by any wide international forum.

However, the Charter of the United Nations clearly states that this organization in any way may not violate the sovereign right of each country to try by itself its citizens for criminal acts and according to its own laws. Besides, the Tribunal itself determined its status and set the procedure of work, which are far from being perfect.

Second, the activity of the Tribunal in the past period gave numerous examples of biased and subjective initiation of legal proceedings thanks to obviously double standards and attempt of the so-called demonization of Serbs. Thus it is not strange that analysts and observers in many countries consider that the Hague Tribunal is not a legal institution but a political stage acting in the interest and in accordance with the regimen of the West.

Recently the clerks of the Hague Tribunal have been requesting their jurisdiction to be extended to Kosmet as well and they do not give any convincing reason for that. However, Kosmet was not even mentioned in the decision for establishing this ad hoc Tribunal, or in the Dayton Agreement.

The following detail is very indicative: During the first trial in the Tribunal, against Serb Dusan Tadic, "Voice of America" the long consideration of the character of occurrences between 92 and 95 years justified by the necessity to determine whether the accused acted in the conditions of the civil war or, possibly, interstate aggression. In the first case, it was said in the broadcast, the tribunal would not be competent for continuation of the trial, while in the second case it would have that right.

But I hope that even the Hague arbiter would not dare to assert that occurrences in Kosovo are interstate war. Then, it is an attempt for interfering into the internal affairs of a sovereign country, which defends its entirety from the attack of separatists and bandit terrorism.

In spite of that, the representative of the U.S.A. in UN openly said that the aim of the latest resolution is to force Yugoslavia to unconditionally cooperate with the Tribunal and to confirm officially that Kosovo, as well as other parts of the country are under its jurisdiction.

In the opinion of Western politicians it is obvious that the problem of the Tribunal is one of the trump cards in blackmailing and forcing Yugoslavia to accept the American recipe for solving the crisis in the Balkans. Upon utilization of this trump card, the new one will appear.

• Basic principles of the international law violated
• Tribunal is a framework for political goals of the powerful
• Legal and moral credibility of the Tribunal in Hague
• The Hague Tribunal and the crimes on Kosmet - Orwellian fantasy of powerful people
• Democracy Development Fund Sends Letter to Gabriella Kirk McDonald, Judge of the Hague Tribunal
• Hague Tribunal trump card for blackmailing
• Verdict in Celebici case is political sentence to FR Yugoslavia and Serbs
• Deceiving Role of Prosecution in Celebici Case
• Delalic's Acquittal Closes the Path to Izetbegovic
• Yugoslav Army in municipality of Konjic wasn't involved in the conflicts
• Dragan Gagovic - another Serb secretly accused and killed, without a right to defend himself