A Comparison of Saddam, Milosevic Trials

[tocqueville]

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer
34 minutes ago

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Both Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic have displayed defiance in the courtroom, tangled with judges and proclaimed their innocence. But the two deposed strongmen are being tried in two very different ways: the former Iraqi leader in a U.S.-backed national court and the former Yugoslav president by a U.N. tribunal.

And if the Milosevic trial is any measure, Iraqis' quest for justice could take years.

Aside from the defiant behavior of Saddam and Milosevic at their opening trial sessions, the parallels between the judicial proceedings in Baghdad and The Hague, Netherlands, could be misleading.

"Although Milosevic and Saddam may have similar personalities, and both don't recognize courts which are trying them, there is a vast difference over the legal proceedings against them," said Branislav Tapuskovic, a former court-appointed lawyer for Milosevic in The Hague.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051020/ap_on_re_eu/saddam_and_milosevic

[RevDev]

1. Hussein trial isn't a legal proceeding...it's a dog and pony show!

And why should Hussein and Milosevic recognize the courts that are trying them? In Saddam's case, there's no way he's going to receive a "fair" trial. His guilt was sealed the day Bush set his sight on Iraq. They might as well just skip the trial and execute the guy already. This trial is nothing more than the Bush administration trying to prove that Iraq is a "success".

We all know that Saddam was a bad guy and probably deserves to rot behind bars. But let's face it, the guy was deposed by an invasion that was launched on false pretenses and outright lies. If you ask me, Bush and his cronies should be sitting right there next to Saddam being tried for the unnecessary murder of tens of thousands of innocent people.