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UNITED NATIONS — The at first botched but ultimately successful arrest of longtime Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic should come as no surprise given the stakes--a $100 million in foreign aid for Belgrade hinging on his capture and extradition to the Hague to face the International War Crimes Tribunal. Given that the Bush Administration tied the purse strings to the proverbial handcuffs on the former dictator, there was an obvious cause and effect. Yet before people start rejoicing that at long last Slobodan will see his day in the docket of justice, consider for a moment the game in play.
Serbia's new government despite its democratic credentials, is tainted by recent history. President Vloislav Kustunica, moreover, an unapologetic nationalist himself, prefers to deal with the former dictator as an in house affair. The charges against Milosevic amount to fraud and extortion and are sufficient to keep the former leader in an unpleasant Belgrade prison (not nearly as good as the Dutch jail where the UN wants him). Still even Serbian democrats argue, and not unconvincingly, that the Hague tribunal has no power to extradite Milosevic from a sovereign Yugoslavia never mind to decide his fate.
Yet in this scenario Serbia is shielded from moral culpability and Slobodan gets to cool his heels, write his memoirs, and possibly await the return of his political ilk to free him from custody. As importantly, a sanitized Belgrade trial can channel and contain the inevitable political fallout from Milosevic naming names, and more names, among the still-serving Serbian political class who may themselves later be called to the docket.
Noted British Balkan expert Noel Malcolm writes in the Daily Telegraph, "Although Kustunica did not organize any massacres himself, he fully supported the general direction of Milosevic's policy towards Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The defense lawyer for Miliosevic would have a fine old time spending day after day quoting speeches made by Kustunica in support of Radovan Karadzic, the bouffant hairdo mass murderer in Bosnia."
Many pundits say, "What does it matter, he's in jail?" This is true to a point, yet misses the bigger question of the uniquely evil nature of Milosevic's crimes which were not only against the Serbs but all the peoples of former Yugoslavia. Such an outcome shields his many minions who eagerly served Milosevic from guilt in the war crimes which bloodied the Balkans in the 1990's.
Slobodan Milosevic's ultimate crime after all was orchestrating the Serbian State's calculated pursuit of three wars against neighboring republics namely Bosnia/ Herzogovina, Croatia, and Kosovo. To say that Milosevic committed fraud and financial crime in Serbia is to cheapen and dilute the charge of the genocide perpetrated in the name of Serbia.
Milosevic stirred a witches brew of communism and virile nationalism, leading to the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims, Croatian Catholics, and Kosovar Albanians. But the prospect of this crazed man "singing" and spilling the secrets and the modus operendi of Serb terror disquiets even many democrats in Belgrade.
The Chief Prosecutor of the War Crimes Tribunal demands that Milosevic must be handed over immediately to the court and this is a "non-negotiable obligation,'
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Unfortunately the British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook offered Belgrade some maneuver space--offering instead to first let him go on trial for "crimes against Serbia" as long as he was then extradited to the Hague to stand trial for war crimes. Cook warned that not sending Milosevic to the war crimes tribunal risks losing international aid and debt relief. Britain is Yugoslavia's largest creditor and is owed $875 million of Belgrade's $12 billion international debt.
The Economist of London opines, "No single person has done as much to shape the history of the Balkans in the past dozen years, and no single person has as much to answer for the in the court of historical judgment. The verdict of history however, is too remote for those affected by his actions. They want and deserve, justice."
The Economist adds, "Serbia needs to go through something to akin to the denazification that took place in Gemany after the second world war, and the Serbs need to recognize, with honesty, their part in the horrors."
Neither Serbia's reputation, nor her future standing in Europe, are well served by shielding those responsible for the heinous crimes of Milosevic and his henchmen.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
