Murdoch owned Australian newspaper lies again about Serbs despite being Sued!!

[4International]

Murdoch-owned "The Australian" newspaper lies again about Heroic Serbs despite being sued for defamation!!

[Please note the reporter's cunning use of the word "finding" instead of "allegation" in order to convince the reader that The NATO-owned Hague ICTY allegations are established fact instead of accusations yet to be proved in a proper and legitimate court of law]

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No proof of Vasiljkovic's Serbian war crimes: bishop

James Madden | April 24, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

THE head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Australia yesterday described accused war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic as "an honest humanitarian" and said there was a lack of evidence to support claims that the ex-soldier was involved in criminal behaviour.

Bishop Irinej Dobrijevic told the NSW Supreme Court that Mr Vasiljkovic, who in 1991 returned to Serbia from his home in Melbourne to fight in the civil war in the Balkans, had in the wake of the war helped thousands of non-Serbs and Muslims "without discrimination".

"He is an extremely equitable man," Bishop Irinej said.

Mr Vasiljkovic, 54, is suing Nationwide News for defamation over an article published in The Australian in September 2005, which detailed his alleged activities while a commander of a Serbian paramilitary unit in the Balkans in the early 1990s.

In July 2007, a jury found the article contained several meanings that were defamatory of Mr Vasiljkovic, including that he condoned the rape of women and girls, was a mercenary and a "death squad" commander.

One month earlier, in June 2007, the International Criminal Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia had made an adverse finding against Mr Vasiljkovic, ruling that he "participated in the furtherance of the common criminal purpose" of the forced removal of the non-Serb population from the disputed territory of Krajina. The finding, made in an ICT judgment against war criminal Milan Martic, implicated Mr Vasiljkovic in acts of violence and intimidation towards Croats and other non-Serbs during the civil war.

Counsel for Nationwide News, Tom Blackburn SC, repeatedly asked Bishop Irinej yesterday whether he "could accept" the "serious criminal findings" made by the ICT against Mr Vasiljkovic. Bishop Irinej said that, although he "was aware of the allegations" made by the ICT against the ex-soldier, he did not necessarily view the findings as fact. "I have no way of judging it or ascertaining (the findings)," he said.

Asked what further proof was needed to convince him that the ICT's findings were correct, Bishop Irinej said "perhaps there was more evidence to come to light". He said he knew that Mr Vasiljkovic was "hurt and upset" by the article in The Australian in September 2005.

Mr Blackburn asked Bishop Irinej if his "view (of Mr Vasiljkovic) was tainted by an obvious bias towards the Serbian side of things". "I don't think that's a fair assessment," he said.

The hearing will resume on Monday, when the defence will call several witnesses who claim to have been beaten by Mr Vasiljkovic -- or by one of the men directly under his command -- in the fortress or the prison in Knin, in the former Yugoslavia.

The court is also expected to hear testimony from a woman who claims she was raped by Mr Vasiljkovic in a motel in Bosnia in May 1992.

Mr Vasiljkovic was arrested in Sydney in January 2006. Following the defamation hearing, he will be extradited to Croatia, pending an appeal, where he is wanted for questioning in relation to his alleged war crimes. .

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25377971-26040,00.html