Seselj: Prosecutors seek 28 years for hate speech

Will Vojislav Seselj, the so-called “chief propagandist of the greater Serbia,” be the first (and only) suspect at the ICTY to be convicted for using hate speech to incite murder?
By Radosa Milutinovic, The Hague
It took six lawyers and three days of hearings this week for prosecutors to wrap-up their case against Serbian chauvinist politician Vojislav Seselj, whose trial is likely the most controversial in the history of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Mostly rehashing their indictment during almost three days of closing arguments, prosecutors surprised nobody by claiming they proved Seselj's guilt for the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia's province of Vojvodina between 1991-93 during the war in the former Yugoslavia.
Even their request that judges sentence Seselj to 28 years in prison was only a minor surprise; Seselj has already spent more than nine years in detention, longer than any other ICTY defendant.
Pieces of the puzzle
Just like their largely circumstantial case, prosecutors’ closing arguments, too, were weaved around Seselj's “hate speech” against Croats and Muslims and his alleged participation in a Slobodan Milosevic-led joint criminal enterprise (JCE) to create a Greater Serbia by violently persecuting non-Serbs from large swaths of Croatian and Bosnian territory.
“The accused was a fanatic propagandist who contributed to an illegal enterprise to achieve his nationalistic goal with all means possible, including through crimes,” prosecutor Mathias Marcussen told the court. “The creation of Greater Serbia was Seselj's raison d'etre” and the “pillar of his Serb Radical Party (SRS) ideology.”
In prosecutors’ words, Seselj--abusing his position as a politician--routinely delivered speeches full of “vicious and relentless hate propaganda”, “denigrating” and “dehumanizing” non-Serbs and calling for their expulsion and “revenge” for crimes committed against Serbs in past wars.
At the same time, acting as a “quasi-military leader”, Seselj was deploying his party's militia of “indoctrinated” volunteers, known as “Seseljevci” (Seselj's men), to the war-torn areas outside Serbia. “Many of the most savage crimes were committed by volunteers recruited, organized and controlled by the accused,” prosecutor Marcussen said.
Words as weapons
Prosecutors presented a two-pronged approach to Seselj's criminal responsibility, first as a direct perpetrator of the crimes. They said he “physically committed [the] persecution” of Croat civilians by his “hate speech” in the Croatian town of Vukovar in November 1991 and in the village of Hrtkovci in Serbia proper in May 1992.
“The accused used words as a weapon”, “poisoning” Serbs and “pounding” non-Serbs “as with a howitzer”, prosecutor Lisa Birsey told judges. “He then made his threat of violence real through his supporters and 'Seseljevci'”.
In other words, after Seselj's inflammatory speech in Vukovar, his militiaman – among others – summarily executed 200 Croat prisoners of war. In Hrtkovci, the majority of Croats “decided they had no choice but to leave”, having been subjected to a campaign of intimidation immediately after Seselj called Serbs to “promptly get rid of the remaining Croats” at a village rally. By invoking hatred and violence, Seselj breached the boundaries of legitimate political speech, contrary to his claims, Birsey argued.
But prosecutors also say Seselj is criminally liable because he was in effective control over his men. Although they admit he did not have “operational command” over his militia once it was deployed throughout Croatia and Bosnia, they do say Seselj bears responsibility for its multiple crimes – including the persecution of “tens of thousands” and the murder of 905 persons, which prosecutors say he “instigated, aided and abetted” as a member of JCE.
Back-tracking witnesses
In establishing the link between those who perpetrated the crimes and Seselj, the prosecution largely relied on incriminating written statements by Seselj’s former closest allies. In one of the many twists in this convoluted case, these witnesses not only refused to testify for the prosecution, but also disowned and repudiated their own statements when they appeared before judges as trial chamber witnesses.
Eyewitnesses and survivors, on the other hand, could only say that crimes were perpetrated by units called, often by themselves, “Seseljevci” or “Chetniks”, but were not able to testify who controlled them.
Prosecutors called 72 witnesses during the 4 and ½ year long trial, nine were called by the trial chamber itself, and Seselj did not call any.
One of the more colorful defendants to grace the chambers of the ICTY, Seselj has been treated recently for heart and other health problems, and he even staged a hunger strike in his early days in custody. He continues, from his jail cell, to be the leader of his radical SRS party. He’s also been sentenced to 18 months in jail for contempt of court for giving out confidential information in a book he wrote.
Seselj, who earlier decided not to present a defense case, is scheduled to lay out his closing arguments next week, which he told judges will be based largely on his books about Serbian nationalism. In an irony of this peculiar trial, he is expected to repeat some of the arguably self-incriminating statements he made during the proceedings.
Seselj, for example, has repeatedly pledged to create a Greater Serbia; he confirmed he was advocating the “retaliatory removal” of Croats from Serbia; and he expressed pride in his volunteers' actions and his speeches. At the same time, he has denied in court any criminality of his own and sought to distance himself from the perpetrators, saying he wasn’t in control at the time they committed the crimes.