Democracy Now! August 30, 2001

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:08-9:30 TRIAL OF SLOBODON MILOSEVIC RESUMES AT THE HAGUE Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia today, on charges of crimes of humanity against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. Today was Milosevic's second appearance before the panel at the Hague. It was a status conference hearing on the charges of crimes against humanity that Milosevic faces, which include mass murder and deportation, and violating the laws or customs of war during Serb ''ethnic cleansing'' against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. The chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, said today that she will add charges of genocide in Bosnia and Croatia to Milosevic's charges for crimes in Kosovo. Milosevic will likely go to trial for the combined indictments in the autumn of 2002. Milosevic was arrested last April by Serbian police on charges of corruption and abuse of power during his 13 years as Yugoslavia's president. Belgrade agreed to demands by the U.N. tribunal that he first face international war crimes charges and surrendered him to the Hague on June 28. Dozens of Serb police and army officers have been indicted for the persecution of Muslims and Croats during the Balkan wars in the early 1990's, ended by the Dayton peace accord in 1995 that Milosevic signed. Only one, Radislav Krstic, has been convicted of genocide. He was sentenced to 46 years in prison. The new Yugoslav reformist authorities - who transferred Milosevic to The Hague - remain under Western pressure to do the same with other suspects.Milosevic continues to refuse to recognize the court, and continues to insist that he represent himself. He told judges at today's pre-trial hearing that he was ``in front of a false tribunal for false indictments,'' complained about the conditions of his detention and challenged the court's right to try him. GUEST: JEREMY SCAHILL, Democracy Now Correspondent in Yugoslavia 9:30-9:31 ONE MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:31-9:58 TWO YEARS AFTER THE PEOPLE OF EAST TIMOR VOTED OVERWHELMINGLY FOR THEIR INDEPENDENCE, THEY HOLD THEIR FIRST ELECTIONS TO CHOOSE A CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY The people of East Timor went to the polls today in overwhelming numbers in their first nationwide elections to choose an assembly that will write the constitution for the world's newest nation. Two years ago the East Timorese voted in an historic U.N. supervised referendum for their independence after 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. As soon as the results of the vote were announced, however, Indonesian troops and their militia allies burnt East Timor to the ground, displaced virtually the entire population, and forced hundreds of thousands of people from the country. Tens of thousands remain in squalid refugee camps in West Timor. Voters in the elections today will choose from 16 parties for an 88 member assembly that will write the country's constitution in a just three months. East Timor will become independent sometime next year. The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, or Fretelin, is expected to dominate the balloting. But East Timor is still far from being a truly independent country. 9,000 UN troops continue to occupy the territory. East Timor will celebrate its independence almost wholly dependent upon foreign aid. International agencies such as the World Bank and IMF are creating East Timor's infrastructure almost from scratch, while foreigners already dominate the local economy, which caters to the army of well-paid UN workers and international aid staff who fill the grocery stores and the restaurants priced out of the reach of most East Timorese. And more than two years after they destroyed East Timor and murdered hundreds, not a single Indonesian general has been brought to justice. But after 400 years of Portuguese colonialism and Indonesian occupation, the people of East Timor are on their way to having their own country, poor but proud and free. GUEST: JOSE RAMOS HORTA, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Foreign Minister for East Timor TAPE: GUEST: JOAQUIM FONSECA, with the East Timorese human rights group Yayasan Hak. He is an official observer of the election process, and has been an active part of the NGO working group on the constitution. GUEST: JOHN MILLER, Media and Outreach Coordinator for the East Timor Action Network, a grassroots organization working to support genuine self determination for East Timor. CONTACT: www.etan.org 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS