Word: serbia
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...dock when so many other tyrants, from Fidel Castro to the late Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, have walked free. Vojislav Kostunica, the democratically elected President of Yugoslavia and hero of the people-power revolution that overthrew Milosevic, bitterly opposed sending him to a tribunal he regards as biased against Serbia. He called the deportation illegal and unconstitutional. It was. When the Serbian legislature, preferring that Milosevic be tried at home, declined to extradite him, the Serbian government ordered him extradited by decree. When the constitutional court put that decree on hold, the Serbian government simply ignored and overrode the court...
...beyond military power there was raw economic power, dispensed twice. Milosevic was arrested by the new government on April 1. Why then? Because the U.S. Congress had stipulated that unless Serbia showed cooperation on trying Milosevic by that date, the U.S. would withhold $50 million in reconstruction aid. And then, just last week, Milosevic was spirited out of the country. Why precisely on June 28? Because on the very next day, a donors' conference of Western nations would be meeting to consider the Serbs' request for $1.25 billion in reconstruction aid. They knew they wouldn...
These are the forces that brought Milosevic to justice. His deportation has nothing to do with any new authority wielded by the Hague court or any sudden eruption of allegiance by the leaders of Serbia (or any other country, for that matter) to the shibboleth of "international legality...
Such raw power, however, must be exercised with great care. The U.S. may in time come to regret bringing Milosevic as a trophy to the Hague. Why? Because America's main interest in the Balkans is a democratic and stable Serbia, which in turn is the key to a democratic and stable Balkans. And Milosevic's deportation threatens to destabilize Serbia just as it begins its transition to democracy. The Yugoslav Prime Minister has already resigned (declaring "Yugoslavia is at the beginning of a crisis") and the government fallen...
...would rejoice to see Milosevic pay for his crimes. But what price justice? Judges may never ask themselves that question. Statesmen must always. And it is statesmen, specifically American statesmen wielding American power, who made the fateful calls that sealed Milosevic's future and may now be risking Serbia...