After five years, the UN War Crimes Tribunal has tried only one case to conclusion–a fairly low-level camp guard, Dusan Tadic, who was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is appealing. Another defendant pleaded guilty and received a 10-year sentence. He, too, is appealing.
Four trials are ongoing. In all, 60 people have been named in public indictments. An undisclosed number of others are accused in sealed indictments. Twenty-six of the accused are in custody. The rest, including the Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
Graham Blewitt, an Australian jurist, is prosecuting the suspects as many observers grow impatient for progress.
Q: Charges against 14 Bosnian Serbs were recently withdrawn by your office. The chief prosecutor said the decision reflected a need to balance the resources of the tribunal and to prosecute the cases fairly and expeditiously. Could you elaborate?
A: We anticipated when the indictments were issued back in 1994 and 1995 that there would be joint trials for all of those accused. At that time, we had no real appreciation of what the reality would be in terms of surrenders and arrests. We now find ourselves hostage in many ways to our inability to control the rate at which the accused are arrested.
The decision also takes into account an investigative strategy that focuses on the people in more senior positions of authority. We decided to cut loose those people who are, in effect, the minor offenders, leaving them for domestic courts to prosecute. The people who are left in the indictments are the more senior offenders–the camp commanders and the like.
Q: There recently have been reports that Karadzic has been discussing possible terms of surrender. Can you comment?
A: We’ve read the reports and have no idea where they’re coming from. We’ve also heard that an arrest may be forthcoming by NATO troops. What happens is anybody’s guess.
Q: You mentioned that those suspects whose indictments had been withdrawn could be prosecuted by local authorities. Do you really think this is likely to happen?
A: I do, and this is only an assumption, but the Bosniaks now could issue their own indictments against these people . . . and we would cooperate with that process. Whether those indictments will result in arrests–I guess the Bosniaks would be in the same position we are.
Q: It’s hard to imagine Muslim authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina arresting Bosnian Serbs.
A: Today, that’s the case, but with these indictments there is no statute of limitations.
Q: I think many people who have followed the tribunal are frustrated with the lack of results and the high cost. Five years in existence, more than $185 million spent and only one case has been tried to conclusion. Why is the process so slow and expensive?
A: When you are talking about expense, I think the international community is really getting a lot of value for its money. What’s being attempted here is to create an entirely new judicial system with a police force to investigate international crimes and everything else that goes with that. I think what has been achieved during the four-year period that I’ve been involved is quite extraordinary.
Q: Tens of thousands of crimes were committed in the former Yugoslavia; there are probably thousands of perpetrators. What can you realistically expect to accomplish? How many can you try? Who will you try? And in the end, what will it all say?
A: Who we will try is probably the key question there. We will be looking at those people who were really responsible for what happened, not every single perpetrator. So it means that the actual number of people at the end of the day who will be investigated and prosecuted you could probably count in the hundreds, not the thousands. . . . The number of people indicted will be fewer, but they will be far more significant.
The most important achievement would be an acceptance by the victims that justice was done, that the people who were truly responsible for what happened have been held accountable. If that happens, then there may very well be an end to the cycle of violence.
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An edited transcript
