Word: serb
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...international law but to the power of the U.S. The indictment that the Hague tribunal issued two years ago would be a dead letter today--and "international justice" an empty phrase--were it not for American power. It was the NATO bombing of Kosovo--overwhelmingly American--that expelled Serb forces, devastated Serbia and utterly discredited Milosevic...
...snaring of Milosevic was a triumph for the eight-year-old court and its chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, who spent months barnstorming through Western capitals demanding his transfer. The tribunal has gone after Serb, Croat and Muslim suspects and successfully prosecuted 19 defendants, but until now has yet to bring to dock the supreme commanders of the Balkan wars. American officials who pressed the Yugoslav government to give Milosevic up, conditioning aid on his handover to the U.N., also claimed vindication. "Today's unfolding events demonstrate the wisdom of our position," crowed Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Senate...
Even in the dock, Slobodan Milosevic is going to be a headache for world leaders. The deposed Serb strongman marked his first appearance before an international tribunal in The Hague - and the first-ever international indictment for war crimes of a former head of state - with predictable defiance. He snarled at the judge and challenged the right of the U.N.-mandated court to try him, insisting that the proceedings were simply a propaganda exercise to rationalize what he termed "war crimes" by NATO against Yugoslavia. Of course, such blather was never going to shake the conviction of the international community...
...Today's Serb leaders, however, aren't the only politicians who are a little uncomfortable with the proceedings unfolding in The Hague. A number of Western leaders had to deal with the strongman over the past decade, reaching deals and accommodations in efforts to stabilize the increasingly imperfect world of the simmering Balkans. Richard Holbrooke, Lords Carrington and Owen and other senior Western officials spent hours behind closed doors on Milosevic's sofa without even the presence of translators (the strongman had been a banker before he became president, and prides himself on his command of English). His performance...
...that success will spur the efforts of those seeking redress for crimes committed all over the world by those whose access to the corridors of power appeared to buy them immunity. Among those least likely to have slept much on Thursday night are Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Serb leaders most wanted for atrocities committed in Bosnia, who had eluded justice in no small part because of Milosevic's patronage. The two men are thought to be hiding out in Bosnia, and now that the Serb authorities have acted to deliver Milosevic, NATO will presumably be emboldened to hunt...