Milosevic's death marks 'total defeat' for UN tribunal, prosecutor says

[ECH1969]

Slobodan Milosevic's death is a 'total defeat' for the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, says the chief prosecutor at his trial.

Carla Del Ponte made the comments on Sunday, a day after the former Yugoslav president and Serbian nationalist was found dead in his cell at the UN detention centre in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague.

Massive outpouring of grief in Serbia

Thousands of people lined up to light candles and sign books of condolences on Sunday throughout Serbia, where many people regard Milosevic as a hero who tried to preserve Serbia's place as the dominant Yugoslav republic.

http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2006/03/12/milosevic-autopsy-060312.html
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I joked last year the trial was taking so long he was going to die on the stand before they are even half way though with the thing.

[NYC]

1. Since people can be tried in absentia,

can they be tried after they are dead? Just curious.

[saigon68]

2. Yes and so can animals like dogs and horses

[NYC]

3. In the U.S?

Can dogs and horses be tried in the U.S? (What a country.)

[saigon68]

4. NO ---- see link

http://www.animalcriminology.com/


The execution of the sow of Falaise (Normandy) in 1386. The pig was tried in the town's tribunal and found guilty of committing human infanticide. But, before her execution was carried out, the townspeople dressed her in man's clothing. In medieval Europe, animals were frequently tried and executed for their "crimes" against people. These trials were taken very seriously, and defense counsel for the accused animals was provided at public expense.

[NYC]

5. Thanks. It's good to prepare, since we seem to be headed

for the 14th century.

[daleo]

7. Then there was this elephant

Topsy, Electrocuted by Edison
Died 1903 - Coney Island, New York

...
But Topsy had a temper. She killed three men in three years, the last a drunk trainer who had fed her a lit cigarette. Topsy had to go. But how? The authorities fed her carrots laced with cyanide. She wolfed them down without effect. Topsy was one tough elephant.

Thompson & Dundy, who owned Luna Park, decided to turn Topsy into a moral issue -- and to make a profit at the same time. They announced that man-killer Topsy would be publicly hanged for her crimes. The ASPCA protested: Hanging was cruel and inhuman punishment. After all, hadn't New York State just replaced the gallows with a modern electric chair?

All right, said Thompson and Dundy. Coney Island has a powerful electrical plant -- we'll FRY Topsy! But to pull it off, they needed top-shelf technical support. And that's where Thomas Edison came in.
...
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/topsy.html

On edit: Here's another elephant execution:

"They had a time getting the chain around her neck. Then they hooked the boom to the neck chain, and when they began to lift her up, I heard the bones and ligaments cracking in her foot. They finally discovered that she'd not been released from the rail, so they did that."

It doesn't seem surprising that the chain from which Mary hung snapped shortly after she was raised off the ground. It was, after all, just a 7/8" chain, and Mary weighed 10,000 pounds. She hit the ground and sat upright, immobilized from the pain of a broken hip.

"It made a right smart little racket when the elephant hit the ground," says eyewitness George Ingram, with admirable understatement.

http://www.blueridgecountry.com/elephant/elephant.html

[TankLV]

6. Hopefully, they'll get a second chance with bunkerboy.

Milosevic's fate would be a lot better than I constantly hope and pray for our own WAR Crimnal.

[Skink]

8. Looks like W's next in line.

[rfkrfk]

9. perhaps this tribunal should put Saddam on trial ... n/t

[spindrifter]

10. Carla screwed up.

Actually, she screwed up in many ways, particularly when she was trying to hog the show with the genocide trials from Rwanda and had to be extracted from them. She tried to do too much, which is partly why this case got so out of control.

[reorg]

11. yeah, right

next thing the judges will state that they did all they could do to save Milosevic's life. They even attempted to stop him from defending himself, so much concerned about his health had they been!

BTW, he was not a "Serbian nationalist" nor did he try to "preserve Serbia's place as the dominant Yugoslav republic". That's what the propagandists of the Balkan pipeline war were telling us at the time and should not be confused with reality.

And yes, it was to be expected that he was going to die before the trial's end. There were quite a few who openly accused the Hague Tribunal of doing their part of achieving exactly that. Not as a joke though, or for freeperish satisfaction that irritatingly seems to crop up everywhere, lately.