Milosevic Arrest Breaks Ground on International Justice
by Human Rights Watch
Slobodan
Milosevic’s transfer to the United Nations war crimes tribunal is a
great triumph for the victims of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and will
help solidify the emerging system of international justice, Human Rights Watch
said today.
Human
Rights Watch said the prosecution of a former head of state before an international
tribunal would create a groundbreaking precedent in international law.
“This
is a great day for the victims of war in the former Yugoslavia,” said
Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice
Program.
Serbian
authorities today surrendered Milosevic to representatives of the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The former Yugoslav president
had been in a Belgrade prison since his arrest on April 1 on domestic corruption
charges.
“Some
people have argued that sending Milosevic to The Hague would derail the democratic
transition underway in Belgrade,” said Dicker. “On the contrary,
this is a victory for the rule of law in Serbia.”
The
surrender of Milosevic makes clear that no leader accused of crimes against
humanity is beyond the reach of international justice, Human Rights Watch
said.
Today’s
transfer appears to enjoy the support of most members of the government in
Belgrade and a majority of the public. The latest polls indicate that 48 percent
of respondents support cooperation with the tribunal, while only 36 percent
oppose it. While mounting international pressure in recent weeks contributed
to this change of heart, it also appears to stem from an increasing willingness
by the Serbian people to come to terms with the legacy of the Milosevic era,
Human Rights Watch said. Recent discoveries of mass graves of Kosovo Albanians,
near Belgrade and in other parts of Serbia, contributed to the change.
On
May 24, 1999, the tribunal indicted Milosevic, along with four other senior
officials and officers, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed
by Yugoslav and Serbian troops under their command in Kosovo in early 1999.
The crimes include the slaughter of hundreds of ethnic Albanians, forcible
deportations of hundreds of thousands of people, and persecution based on
racial, religious, and political identification.
“The
surrender of Milosevic creates a positive momentum for the arrest and surrender
of other indictees,” Dicker said. He urged NATO troops in Bosnia and
Herzegovina to arrest all indictees still at large in that country, including
Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Gen. Ratko
Mladic, the wartime military leader.
It
is believed that twenty-six indictees currently live in Republika Srpska,
which is a part of Bosnia, and eleven more live in Serbia. Yugoslav authorities
have recently submitted to a district court in Belgrade a demand for surrender
to the tribunal of three former Yugoslav army officers.
Human
Rights Watch urged the Yugoslav authorities to surrender the remaining indictees
to the war crimes tribunal.
