The UN war crimes tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, opened her case against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by declaring that “no one is above the law,” but it remains apparent that a few key figures do remain beyond the reach of international justice.
As the solitary defendant sat flanked by two uniformed security guards in a Dutch courtroom last week, two names came up repeatedly in the prosecution’s opening statements: Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Ratko Mladic, his general.
Karadzic and Mladic have been charged with genocide for their roles in the four-year siege of Sarajevo and for the July 1995 massacre of 7,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.
Both remain at large. Karadzic reportedly is hiding in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mladic, last seen visiting his daughter’s grave in Belgrade a year ago, is lying low in Serbia, apparently under the protection of the Yugoslav army.
Last Friday, Del Ponte’s chair in the courtroom was empty. She was in Bosnia, pressing local officials to do more to locate Karadzic.
“For sure we know that Karadzic is here,” she said after meeting with Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic. “I’m asking the authorities to locate where.”
4 accused of Kosovo crimes
Also conspicuous in their absence as the proceedings resume Monday are the four senior Yugoslav officials named along with Milosevic for alleged war crimes in Kosovo. One of them, Milan Milutinovic, is president of Serbia, although he has little power. Another, former Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, is a member of parliament.
Two others, Milosevic’s former police minister, Vlajko Stojiljkovic, and former army chief of staff, Dragoljub Ojdanic, are living on pensions in Serbia.
“This only reinforces their sense of impunity,” said Richard Dicker, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch who has been observing the trial. “Their absence represents a stunning failure of political will on the part of the international community.”
In the case of Karadzic, Dicker said the failure is NATO’s.
“They have had troops on the ground in Bosnia for six years, yet they have failed to apprehend one man on the run, a man with no political support and no place to hide.”
For the others believed to be in Yugoslavia, including Mladic, Dicker blames the European Union, the United States and the government of Yugoslavia.
“The EU and U.S. have to make it absolutely clear to [Yugoslav President Vojislav] Kostunica that if he wants to return his country to the international community, he has to live up to all of his obligations,” Dicker said.
“It’s outrageous that Kostunica continues with this lame argument that he can’t do anything until Yugoslavia amends its law,” he said.
Kostunica contends that under the Yugoslav constitution it would be “illegal” to extradite war crimes suspects to The Hague. In the past, Kostunica has been an outspoken critic of The Hague tribunal, and he staunchly opposed the arrest and extradition of the man who just 18 months ago tried to steal his election victory: Milosevic.
U.S. pressure spurred arrest
Only after the U.S. threatened to block reconstruction loans to Yugoslavia did senior officials of Serbia’s reformist government–overriding the wishes of Kostunica and the decision of Yugoslavia’s highest court–agree to arrest Milosevic and later to extradite him.
In the case of the four officials named along with Milosevic in the Kosovo indictment, their absence from the trial means they will have to be tried separately, a drain on the tribunal’s resources.
More significant, the clock is ticking.
“This is not a permanent tribunal, and at some point they have got to complete their business,” Dicker said.
The tribunal has set a tentative target date of 2006 for wrapping up its work. The fear is that Karadzic and Mladic, who have eluded arrest for six years, may believe that if they can hold out, they will be home free.
Although there is no statute of limitation on war crimes, it would be difficult to restart the tribunal’s machinery once it has been stopped and dismantled.
Despite these concerns, the televised image of Milosevic–the “Big Man of the Balkans” for more than a decade–in the dock at The Hague is one that few people would have wagered on seeing just 18 months ago.
Prosecution states case
In its opening statement, the prosecution laid out the framework of a case that portrays Milosevic as the head of a “joint criminal enterprise.”
According to Geoffrey Nice, the principal trial attorney, the goal of this enterprise was to create a Greater Serbia by killing and terrorizing ethnic minorities. Structurally, the case against the Serb leader resembles the kind of case a U.S. prosecutor might develop against an organized-crime boss.
Milosevic, who says he does not recognize the tribunal’s authority and has refused to appoint lawyers, is conducting his defense. His strategy is to have a parallel trial of NATO, using a kind of mirror image of the prosecution’s case.
