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War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia
The case for an international court grows
The Guardian
April 10, 2000
Slowly but surely, the men principally responsible for mass murder, terror, and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans during the early and mid - 1990s are being brought to justice. Momcilo Krajisnik, a Bosnian Serb leader allegedly involved in planning some of the worst atrocities visited upon Bosnia's Muslims, last week became the biggest scalp to be claimed so far.
Mr Krajisnik was seized during an early morning raid on his home in Pale, the once impregnable Bosnian Serb stronghold, by the Nato-led stabilisation force. Within hours he was on his way to the Hague to join 38 others who are currently in detention or on trial.
Mr Krajisnik's capture was a signal triumph for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Since its creation by the UN in 1993, the ICTY has publicly indicted 94 individuals of all ethnic backgrounds, accusing them of responsibility for war crimes or other serious violations of international law. Additional warrants have been issued under seal. Only 28 of the named indictees remain at large. They include the "big three" - the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, and the former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. These last two have fled to Serbia.
But Mr Krajisnik's detention should help to convince them all that the ICTY is not giving up the chase. They must know by now that for them there is, ultimately, no hiding place. The chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, had further cause to celebrate last week after she secured the full cooperation of Croatia's new president in her quest for justice.
The ICTY's success underlines the desirability of a permanent UN International Criminal Court, as already envisaged by a treaty approved by Britain and 119 other countries in Rome in 1998. Whereas the ICTY only has jurisdiction in former Yugoslavia, the ICC could, in theory, prosecute serious breaches of international law wherever they occur - in Chechnya, for example, or Sudan, East Timor or Iraq. The government described the ICC as "a major advance in international justice" at the time of last November's Queen's Speech, a position which places it at odds with the US and a few others.
Washington believes the ICC will infringe its national sovereignty and inhibit the actions of its armed forces overseas. Some might consider that a welcome outcome. Britain should lead the way by ratifying the Rome treaty without further delay.
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