Milosevic on Trial (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews

Tight distillation of Hague trial

[Turfseer · 8/10 · 4 May 2008]

"Milosevic on Trial," presented at the Tribeca Film Festival, offers a riveting distillation of the events that unfolded during the Hague trial of Slobodan Milosevic. The documentary skillfully weaves together interviews and testimonies, including insights from the lead prosecutor, to delve into the complexities of the trial and the troubling atrocities that occurred during the Balkan wars.

The film portrays Milosevic as a fascinating character, leaving viewers questioning the extent of his denial about his personal responsibility and the actions of the Serbian Army and para-military forces. As the documentary unfolds, one cannot help but wonder whether Milosevic was consciously lying during his testimony or if he had convinced himself that his narrative was true, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The impression that Milosevic was extremely arrogant and believed himself above questioning becomes evident. It is ironic that Serbians, who were victims of the Nazis during World War II, would employ similar strategies to justify their actions against their opponents. Just as the Jews were dehumanized and grouped together by the Nazis, the Serbians justified atrocities by labeling their opponents as 'terrorists.' This allowed them to justify even massacres of Bosnian women and children by linking them to terrorists or blaming shadowy 'mercenaries' for the acts.

The film sheds light on how the Serbian public, too, deluded themselves into believing that their Army could do no wrong and that they were victims of misunderstanding from the 'West.' However, a turning point came when a video surfaced exposing the atrocities committed by the ruthless para-military force, the 'Skorpions,' akin to SS units of World War II.

While condensing thousands of hours of footage into a short documentary is challenging, some viewers may have desired additional scenes, particularly testimonies from victims and further information about the actions of Milosevic's subordinates. Nevertheless, "Milosevic on Trial" is a well-constructed and troubling documentary that sheds light on a dark chapter in world history.

The film explores the unsettling themes of denial, manipulation, and the lengths to which those in power will go to justify their actions. It serves as a stark reminder of the horrors of war and the importance of seeking accountability for those responsible for heinous crimes.

Overall, "Milosevic on Trial" is an impactful and thought-provoking documentary that provides valuable insights into an extremely troubling period in world history, inviting viewers to contemplate the dangers of unchecked power and the urgent need for justice and truth in the face of atrocities.

An accessible and engaging account of the trial that uses court footage and contributions really well

[bob the moo · 10 March 2007]

During the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, Slobodan Milosevic was President in Serbia. During these wars 250000 people were killed and more than 3 million fled. In 2001 Milosevic was charged by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for 66 counts including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The trial lasted for four years and was the longest war crimes trial in modern history.

Based on 2000 hours of tribunal footage, this film does an impressive job of delivering so much material in less than two hours but never making me feel like I was missing something or having everything simplified to a point where it was without value. The footage is really well edited together and makes the film flow in this way without ever getting sucked down into the detail but still making you feel like you have seen a good section of the trial (which of course we haven't!). The reason this works is that the footage is well supported by footage and interviews shot around the trial while it was ongoing, particularly with the prosecution legal team. We all know where the trial ended up of course but yet this is still engaging and interesting throughout.

Quite what the message of the rather downbeat affair is I'm not sure but as a document on the trial, the film is an accessible and brisk account that provides plenty to inform without ever lingering on the detail or making the film reflect the fact that the case dragged on for as long as it did. Understandably a documentary with limited appeal, nonetheless it is interesting and an important record that can be watched without wading through four years of court records.

File Under Propaganda

[f-lopez1978 · 1/10 · 5 November 2010]

The people who made this movie are obviously unfamiliar with the evidence in the Milosevic trial. I could site numerous examples of where they misrepresented or lied about the evidence, but I'll just mention a couple of the more glaring examples.

The video that was purported to be an execution of Muslims from Srebrenica was never an exhibit in the Milosevic trial. And no evidence was ever presented that Obrad Stevanovic commanded the Scorpion unit depicted on that tape either, on the contrary Milan Milanovic testified that he was responsible for that unit, but they left that out of the movie because it severs any link between those executions and Milosevic.

The film makers also seem to be unaware of the fact that there were two groups of so-called "Red Berets". The Red Berrets that Milosevic was seen greeting in the video from 1997 were a unit of the Serbian police called the JSO, which is completely different from the Knindza unit that was active in Croatia. The JSO and the Knindza's both wore red berets as part of their uniform and both were nick-named the "red berets" but they weren't the same unit. They didn't even exist at the same time.

The JSO wasn't established until 1996 -- a year after the war in Croatia was over. So the unit Milosevic was seen inspecting were never in the Croatian war. Ironically, the JSO is the police unit that arrested Milosevic in 2001.

Several witnesses were called about Racak, but the only one we see in the documentary is William Walker, we never heard any of the other witnesses, nor was any mention ever made of the forensic evidence in Racak showing that the purported "massacre victims" had gun powder residue on their hands indicating that they were firing weapons, or that the bullet wounds they sustained weren't consistent with death by execution. Nor did we hear the Albanian "eyewitnesses" talking about people having their hearts cut-out with knives by the Serb police only to have the forensic investigation prove that nobody in Racak had their heart cut out.

Nothing is said about Walker's murky past either. Nothing about his alleged involvement with death squads in El Salvador or his involvement in the Iran Contra scandal. The guy has CIA spook written all over him, but you'd never know that from this film.

The film also neglects to mention that all of the charges related to Racak were dropped by the Tribunal in the "Kosovo 6" trial.

There was nothing in the documentary about the circumstances surrounding Milosevic's death either. They say he "died of natural causes" but they never mentioned the fact that he died of a heart attack two weeks after the court denied his request for heart surgery.

As another reviewer pointed out, the trial testimony has been doctored by the film makers. They've edited the movie so the witnesses are saying things that are different from what they actually said in court.

This movie is propaganda pure and simple. It's not a documentary. It's a propaganda film for the Hague Prosecution pure and simple.

Unfortunate...

[umberto_scalli · 13 March 2008]

The climax of this is without a doubt the Obrad Stevanovic segment which is the "gotcha" moment when Milosevic has been effectively checkmated by the prosecution. What a pity that this effect was achieved by doctoring the footage.

Stevanovic was a general in the Serbian Ministry of the Interior Police and the issue was his diary that described a meeting having to do with the war in Kosovo. Specifically, the diary contained the line "no bodies, no crimes". According to the trial transcript, he says...

"At that meeting...one of the representatives of the security forces, whether it was the military or the civilian security, I don't know, warned against perfidious action by terrorists, namely that they are removing the corpses of their victims and the casualties of anti-terrorist actions only to gather them again later and place them in mass graves in order to blame these mass graves later on Serbian forces."

Unfortunately, he is made to say "the military or the civilian security, I don't know in effect that they are removing the corpses of their victims and the casualties of anti-terrorist actions only to gather them again later and place them in mass graves in order to blame these mass graves later on Serbian forces."

Then they claim that Stevanovic commanded an armed group called the Skorpions and they show them shooting people supposedly as part of the Srebrenica massacre.

They don't show that Milosevic proved in reexamination that Skorpions were under RS Krajina command, and that the shootings in the video happened nowhere near Srebrenica.

This trial footage ends with Judge Robinson chewing Milosevic out during the Stevanovic reexamination and ending it. It does not explain the reason for that, which was that Milosevic was using the issue of Srebrenica in order to push his government's contention that the massacre was the work of the 10th Sabotage Detachment under foreign control. The judges wanted to cut off this line of questioning, Milosevic then asked the witness a question about it, and then the judge snapped.