-~'4_-~~. ~.~~t. End of the line for Milosevic October 02, 2000 Chicago Tribune PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - In March 1991, Slobodan Milosevic ordered tanks into the center of Belgrade to crush massive demonstrations against his rule. In the winter of 1996-97, when protestors again took to the streets, this time for 88 straight days, he hunkered down and outlasted them. Two years later, following 78 days of NATO air strikes and a humiliat ing retreat from Kosovo, the betting was that he wouldn't make it through the winter. But Milosevic circled the wagons and hung tough. He has a knack for outliving his political obituaries. This time, however, it feels dif ferent. Even by the highly suspect figures offered by his own electoral commission, showing him coming in second in last Sunday's election, Milosevic is a beaten man. His sup porters seem dazed and confused. The opposition is energized. Their followers are once again ready to go into the streets. "It seems like the psychological divide has been crossed. They aren't afraid of him anymore," said Louis Sell, a former U.S. diplomat in the Human by Marjorie Miller Los Angeles Times October 02, 2000 LONDON - Although soapbox ora tors have made Speaker's Corner a symbol of free speech for much of the world, their right to hold forth in Hyde Park is not explicitly guaran teed in British law. Similarly, Britain has no equiva lent of the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Prosecutors have been allowed to introduce illegally ob tained evidence in British trials, and police entrapment is not accepted as a defense in court. All of this will change, however, when the Labor government's Hu man Rights Act goes into effect Mon day, incorporating a 50-year-old Eu ropean convention on human rights into domestic law and giving Brit ain what amounts to a bill of rights. This is a legal revolution for Brit ain, with far-reaching political impli cations, say attorneys, civil rights ac tivists and judicial experts. Over night, centuries-old British case law will be superseded by the new bill outlining the right to life, liberty, free speech and a fair trial, plus prohibi tions against torture, slavery and dis crimination. "These are all the sort of rights that America got in its Bill of Rights in the 18th century," said Julian Knowles, an attorney with Matrix, a law firm specializing in human rights law. "The idea that people can actually look up what their basic rights are is pretty revolutionary here," said Francesca Klug, a professor of hu man rights law at King's College, London. It is both substantive and symbolic, she said. "It could, in time, be something the country stands for beyond the empire, the queen and other historic things." But critics say the change will weaken Britain's system of parlia mentary democracy, shifting power from elected representatives to ap- pointed judges. Under the Human Rights Act, Brit ish courts still will not be able to strike down acts of Parliament in the way that the U.S. Supreme Court can throw out a law passed by Congress. But judges will gain the right to over turn government regulations and to tell Parliament when its laws violate European human rights law. While that would not be binding on Parliament, most legal experts be lieve that such a ruling would force Westminster to make changes or risk being taken to court. "There will be a marked shift in power, and I am opposed to that," said former Home Secretary Michael Howard, a Conservative member of Parliament. "You can get rid of us. You can't get rid of judges." region who now heads the Interna tional Crisis Group's office in Kosovo The next few days and weeks will be critical. Does Milosevic still command the loyalty of the police and the army? How they behave toward opposition supporters who have now taken to the streets will provide an important clue, said Sell. Sources within the opposition camp are saying that election returns from both the army and police ran heavily against Milosevic. If true, that's a devastating blow for the re gime. At last Wednesday's huge demon stration in the center of Belgrade, police kept a low profile. "My mes sage to the army and police is that we are one," Vojislav Kostunica, pu tative winner of the presidential election, told the gathering. Next to watch for are desertions from the ruling party. Those closest to Milosevic and his influential wife, Mira, will probably hang tight. Sev eral of them have already been in dicted by The Hague War Crimes Tribunal and, like Milosevic, have few options. But the opposition claims that defections from the lower ranks have already started. Rights law goes into effect in Britain Many legal observers predict that a more activist role for judges will, in turn, raise pressure on the govern ment to come up with a more open and independent system for seating men and women on the bench. Cur rently, judges are appointed by the crown on the advice of the Lord Chancellor - the head of the judiciary, who is appointed by the prime min ister - and can only be removed be cause of misconduct or incapacity. The incorporation of European hu man rights law is also likely to af fect what might be called the country's legal culture - the way in which lawyers make their cases and judges form their decisions. British law schools have taught their stu dents to focus on the letter of the law, but the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, has ruled that the purpose or intent of a law also must be taken into account. This means British lawyers and judges should be more inclined to interpret the law. Critics say the reforms will prove to be what one Scottish judge called "a field day for crackpots, a pain in the neck for judges and a gold mine for lawyers" - not an improvement in the country's legal system. They fear a deluge of lawsuits on behalf of prisoners, illegal immigrants and possibly even right-wing extremists claiming that their rights have been violated. Government officials charge that this is scaremongering. Home Sec retary Jack Straw noted that in Scot land, where the convention was partly incorporated in May 1999, cases brought under the human rights convention have largely failed. He said that in the first year, only 17 of the 587 cases brought were won by the claimant. Critics also view the incorporation of European human rights law as a further erosion of British sover eignty. They see it as part of the un desirable process of subjugating the crown to the European Union. But the human rights convention is not a product of European Union lawmakers in Bnissels, Belgium. It was drafted in large part by Home Office officials after World War 11, and many of its tenets, such as the right to a fair trial, come out of an Anglo-American tradition. The convention was signed by Britain and all members of the Coun cil of Europe - a larger body than the European Union - in 1950. The Eu ropean Court of Human Rights, lo cated in Strasbourg, has served as a high court for human rights com plaints for decades. After running through the British court system, Britons could appeal to Strasbourg, and they often have, bringing about important policy changes back home. The British government was forced to lift its ban on gays and les INOE r LE 9- I Af I r ICIN Another key will be the way the state-controlled media reports the story. State television in particular has always been a powerful weapon in Milosevic's hands, but if it begins to waver in its slavish support of the regime, it would be a sign of power slipping from his grip. For Milosevic, this crisis has arisen seemingly out of nowhere, the result of a major miscalculation in calling for early elections. He had expected an easy victory over a weak and di vided opposition; he hoped the results would lend an aura of legitimacy and invincibility to the regime. But the opposition united behind Kostunica, an obscure and untested constitutional lawyer who is quickly proving his mettle, and the elector ate decided that it had had enough of Milosevic. The magnitude of the de feat has sent the ruling party reeling. "They didn't have a plan for this. They were caught completely un awares," said a senior Western dip lomat. "It says something about Milosevic's judgment that he is so out of touch with reality." By denying Kostunica's first-round victory, and insisting on a run-off election next Sunday, Milosevic is playing for time. He appears to hop ing he can split the opposition on bians serving in the military after the court in Strasbourg piled last year that it was illegal under the right to pri vacy and family life. Caning was banned from all Brit ish state schools in 1986 as a result of a case two Scottish mothers took to Strasbourg. And in 1979, the court whether to participate in the second round, or buy them off with some minor role in the government. Those tactics worked for him in 1997, but this time the opposition seems steadfast. Thus far they are united in their refusal to accept a sec ond round. "(Milosevic) doesn't have any op tions. He does not control the police. He does not control the army," said Milan Protic, a key opposition strat egist. "He is down to bargaining and negotiations. but we are not ready to bargain anything." Its a risky course. Polls indicate that the opposition would win by an ..ven greater margin in the second round, hut a boycott of the Oct. 8 ballot could allow Milosevic to claim victory by default. Also, by calling for street protests and a gen eral strike, they give Milosevic a pretext for calling a state of emer gency and canceling elections alto gether. On the other hand, if the opposi tion agrees to a second round, they are, in effect, being drawn into Milosevic's game -- letting him steal their first-round victory and giving him a chance to try to do it again in the second round. ruled in a key press freedom case, overturning a British ban on the pub lication of an investigation by The Sunday Times newspaper on the ter rihle effects of the drug thalidomide on unborn children. Many Britons felt that hearing such British cases in Strasbourg amounted Is there hope for hemp? Sil DeChellis, 62, is treasurer of the Free Hemp in Alaska campaign. The group is trying to get an initiative passed in the November election to legalize marijuana. to airing the country's dirty laundry in public, and that if the government was going to be overruled it should be in domestic courts. As a candidate for prime minister, Tony Blair argued for incorporating the European convention on moral grounds: Britain supported the rights FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2000 enshrined in the convention it had signed and so the rights should be embodied in domestic law. Soon af ter taking office in May 1997, his government passed the Human Rights Act now going into effect.