The people of Serbia will look on with deep cynicism as former Yugoslav president and Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milosevic launches his defense against war-crimes charges at The Hague this week.
Milosevic is due to make an opening statement in his self-defense today and the proceedings, as they have been for more than two years, will be broadcast live on TV throughout the Balkan republic.
But the broadcasts long ago lost their appeal in a country that is trying to move on rather than constantly relive the past. To many the proceedings have become little more than a tiresome soap opera starring a man most would rather forget.
Analysts expect few surprises, saying Milosevic will stick to his strategy of challenging the legitimacy of the UN war-crimes court while using the trial as a political platform to speak to the Serbian people.
"He has combined ignoring of the procedural side of the trial and the evidence, addressing more the domestic audience," journalist Nenad Stefanovic said in the weekly Vreme.
"Surely he will not give up such tactics" during his defense time, said Stefanovic, who has been covering the trial for Vreme.
At the start of the trial Milosevic announced that he would summon world leaders including former US president Bill Clinton and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to give evidence about the Balkans wars of the 1990s.
"There is no doubt that he will try [on Monday] to change places with the prosecution as he thinks that the trial should be held against those who have brought him there," Stefanovic said.
Sociologist Dragan Popovic estimated that the resumption of the trial would hardly "glue anyone to the television screen, although his supporters have not disappeared from Serbian soil."
"But even they have now realized that this will be a long process, with almost no chances for Milosevic to return to his homeland," Popovic said.
Last week, on the third anniversary of the former strongman's extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, only several hundred supporters gathered in Belgrade to demand his release.
Public interest in the almost daily TV coverage of the trial has waned from the start of proceedings, when it nearly brought the country to a standstill.
In a bid to revive the ratings of the broadcast on B92 TV, the only station which has constantly transmitted the proceedings, editors decided to combine the trial with "current affairs" programs.
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS