Serbian shenanigans

Sinisa Djuric reports from the Milosevic trials at the Hague (from Sobaka):

Vojislav Seselj continues his testimony in the Milosevic trial at The Hague. With the beginning of cross-examination by the prosection, Seselj has reached the peak of his theatrical appearence.

Already in the beginning of his testimony two weeks ago, Seselj was warned several times by the presiding judge to lower his tone, to adjust his decibels to the decibel levels of the interpreters. He ignored the judge and continued shouting. Seselj explained that this is his "normal" way of talking, that he has spoken this way "since birth". When the prosecutor, Mr. Geoffrey Nice, complained about Seselj's loud voice as well, Seselj replied that if he was to speak with Mr. Nice's tone of voice, his wife would probably leave him. Later in the trial, Judge Robinson remarked that Seselj's shouting may be a consequence of psychological problems, to which Seselj protested by insisting that he's not mentally ill.

On the first day of cross-examination, the prosecutor has come up with another explanation for Seselj's performance - that his theatrical appearence is directed at a half-literate crowd at home. The prosecutor quoted a statement of Vuk Draskovic, to whom Seselj allegedly stated once that as long as there are a million illiterate people in Serbia, his political career is guaranteed. Seselj replied that Draskovic is a liar. However, regardless of whether Draskovic is liar or not, Seselj did state something similar on another occasion, as it can be seen at the beginning of my article "Radically Better Doom" - "As long as there are fools in Serbia, I don't have to worry about my political career." I've been told that the statement may be taken out of context, but since this is a single sentence with a pretty clear meaning, the context is irrelevant.

Further on the prosecutor tried to show that Seselj is an extremely vulgar man who has complete disrespect for the Tribunal, in order to discredit him as a witness. That wasn't very hard to achieve. The prosecutor quoted Seselj's statement calling the chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Carla del Ponte, a prostitute, or in literal translation a "whore". He also called the president of the Tribunal, Theodore Meron, "a genocidal Israeli diplomat" (some of Seselj's supporters deny that he's an anti-Semite). Seselj confirmed all these statements. He added that he didn't draw a caricature of Carle del Ponte as a witch standing in front of the Sheveningen prison with a sign proclaiming "Arbeit Macht Frei," because he can't "draw such nice caricatures".

The culmination of the testimony came when the prosecutor asked Seselj about certain vulgar words in his letter to the Secretariat of the Hague Tribunal. Seselj then asked the prosecutor to read the letter entirely, and after he refused, Seselj read it himself. Here is the text of that letter, which depicts Seselj character in rather colorful words and pretty much helps the prosecutor to make his point:

"I inform you that I have again scheduled a visit from my legal advisor Aleksandar Vucic, this time for 8, 9, 10 and 11 March 2005, and you can again ban him from visiting me and again show what sort of criminals and shit in human form you are.

"Nevertheless, sooner or later you will have to allow Aleksandar Vucic to visit me, because without him I cannot prepare the opening part of my defense, considering the fact that Vucic, by my instructions, will compile a three-hour-long documentary film based on video material at my disposal.

"Aleksandar Vucic is not coming to visit me in the function of a member of the Serbian Radical Party, but as my accepted legal advisor. I accepted him as my legal advisor, and you, members of the Secretariat of the Hague Tribunal, can only accept to suck my dick.

"My legal advisors are not my attorneys and therefore they don't have to satisfy legal requirements that are necessary for attorneys. They only have to satisfy my requirements, and you just continue to obstruct the preparation of my defense, and in the end you will have to eat all the shit that you crapped out.

"I will screw all your mothers, beginning with Hans Holzius, including that scoundrel Tjard van der Spul."