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West Seeks to Justify Itself - International Justice - Global Policy Forum West Seeks to Justify Itself
By Pavel Kandel
Moscow Press
July 11, 2001Extradition of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague Tribunal has already split world public opinion. It seems that his trial will stir up passions even more.
Slobodan Milosevic was an autocratic populist leader, his regime being the first model of "post-socialist authoritarianism." Milosevic is no more of a dictator than Boris Yeltsin, Nursultan Nazarbayev, or Eduard Shevardnadze. A good-for-nothing strategist but a brilliant political pragmatist, he stayed in power for more than a decade not so much through violence as through ingenious use of manipulative mechanisms. To all those who have followed Milosevic's performance in office, to all those who are familiar with the circumstances behind the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, there is no doubt that this person is a criminal. Yet just as much blame should be put on Franjo Tudjman, Croatian nationalist leader and first president of independent Croatia; Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian Muslim leader; and Hashim Thaqi, the young commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Meanwhile, neither international justice nor international human rights champions deemed it necessary to call these people to account.
The question arises: Just how independent and democratic was the decision to hand Milosevic over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague? Indeed, President Vojislav Kostunica may not have been even informed about Milosevic's upcoming extradition. After all, he had repeatedly spoken out against that "extradition" in public.
Next, Western powers - participants in the Yugoslavia donors conference - in no uncertain terms predicated the volume and time frame for the release of aid on Milosevic's extradition. Zoran Djindjic was even more outspoken, unequivocally linking the move, which he had earlier described as a "violation of justice," to the pressing need for external economic assistance. Only people who refuse to reckon with facts can doubt that it was a purely commercial deal. It is indicative that apart from its pledges of money, no other compensation has yet come from the West. There have been no signs that the West is withdrawing its support for Albanian separatists although European politicians, who are creating their own Colombia, complete with drug cartels and uncontrolled rebel fighters on the continent, would do well to think of the price they will have to pay for that.
Unfortunately, in the new world order human rights are little more than a means of attaining foreign policy objectives. It is noteworthy that the United States and Great Britain, which were especially vociferous in demanding the extradition of Milosevic, themselves categorically refuse to sign a treaty on establishing an international court patterned on the Hague Tribunal. This strongly suggests that the trial of Milosevic is necessary to justify NATO's military campaign in Kosovo as well as the West's clearly anti-Serbian policy in the Balkans as a whole. True, despite this dubious justification, the policy itself is about to end in a fiasco. Let us single out its main officially proclaimed objectives and see how effectively they are being attained at present.
As is known, one such objective was to build a democratic state in the FRY and preserve the unity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia itself. Meanwhile, the form in which Milosevic was extradited is tantamount, for avowedly democratic President Kostunica, to loss of credibility, and for the democratic authorities as a whole, to loss of moral high ground. Champions of democracy who ignore the constitution can only be described as "democrats." Rulers succumbing to external blackmail have no right to count on political longevity.
As for conservative forces in Yugoslav society, the Socialist Party of Serbia will hardly be able to recover in full: The Yugoslavs have paid too high a price for its stint in office. Yet the international rostrum given to Milosevic for several years to come is good political capital which could prolong its existence.
The Milosevic extradition will hardly produce a positive effect in consolidating the country. Following the resignation of the federal government and the break between the democratic coalition and the People's Socialist Party of Montenegro - the republic's leading political force advocating preservation of Yugoslavia unity - the country's disintegration is becoming ever more likely.
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