Searching for justice in the Balkans

Dealing with effects of war crimes and war criminals has been a matter of daily life for many people of the former Yugoslavia since wars of dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation plagued the region in 1991. Announced shortly after the massacre of Srebrenica of July 1995, the ending of the fighting opened the door to a fragile peace in the region, which the international community has worked vigorously to enhance. Integral to concerted efforts of international and regional actors to entrench democracy, strengthen economy and the rule of law have been efforts to bring to justice political leaders and their military echelons who designed and implemented war fighting and its concomitant crimes. Survivors of the atrocities and relatives of some 200,000 people killed in the course of the conflict have waited patiently – and painfully – to see those most responsible for war crimes brought to the dock.

The arrest of Ratko Mladic´ on May 26 is a key event in the modern history of confronting war crimes. A first-class war criminal, Gen. Mladic´ was the architect and implementer of the siege of Sarajevo and the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, that of Srebrenica, when, in the short span of a few days, more than 8,000 Muslim boys and men were shot en masse having first been separated from their mothers, wives, daughters and sisters to whom Gen. Mladic´ – ironically – assured safety of their male relatives. Together with two Serbian leaders – Slobodan Miloševic´ and Radovan Karadžic´ – Gen. Mladic´ has been instrumental in devising and implementing ethnic cleansing, that is, homogenisation of territory along ethnic lines through use of war crimes, effects of which endure in present-day Bosnia.

Indicted in 1995 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes and crimes against humanity – including charges of genocide in Srebrenica – Gen. Mladic´ has been on the run, hiding in Serbia, for 16 long years. Captured at last, he was extradited to the Hague Tribunal on May 31.

His arrest is likely to bring some consolation to the families and friends of the victims. His health permitting, it is also likely to open the way to a judicious process of a historic war crime trial that will contribute to popularise the truth by establishing a record of the conflict beyond reasonable doubt. This, in itself, will be an added value to the legacy of the ICTY and its contribution to strengthening the rule of law in the region.

Moreover, the arrest of this war criminal in northern Serbia will send a powerful message to all war criminals in every corner of the world that justice may be delayed but it will not be denied. As UK Foreign Secretary William Hague noted in relation to charges of war crimes in the ongoing conflict in Libya, the regime in Tripoli “should take note” of Gen. Mladic´’s arrest.

Gen. Mladic´’s capture bodes well for Serbia. As Serbian authorities have been keen to emphasise, his arrest dissipates criticism that Belgrade does not cooperate with the ICTY. It also raises moral credibility of the government and its supporters. Moreover, it contributes to the overall efforts to rehabilitate Serbia, a kind of pariah state since 1995.

However, the politics of Gen. Mladic´’s arrest cannot be overlooked. Getting him behind bars is not an innocent act undertaken merely out of respect for victims and care for serving justice. His arrest has been a key condition for Serbia’s integration in the European Union and for securing its EU candidacy status. It is a curious coincidence that Gen. Mladic´’s arrest occurred on the very day that Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, arrived in Belgrade to discuss EU-Serbia relations. The EU’s technical assistance is critical to getting Serbia’s battered economy back on track.

Announcing the news of Gen. Mladic´’s arrest, Serbian President Boris Tadic´ declared that this event closes a chapter of Serbia’s recent history and it brings her “closer to full reconciliation in the region”.

The arrest of a dreadful war criminal is to be applauded. So does the collaboration of the Serbian government in this act. But the question remains, nonetheless, why it took so long to arrest this worst of the worse of modern war criminals. Moreover, the heavy burden of a troublesome past cannot be overthrown by this arrest alone.

Those who have endured unspeakable crimes cannot be realistically expected to forget and forgive. At the same time, it might be virtually impossible to provide justice for all the undergone suffering. Full reconciliation may not materialise, after all. But the symbolism of efforts to confront the crimes, search for the truth and promote justice may be more powerful than what it may look. Such efforts applied in the long term are likely to facilitate the break with a painful past.

Dr Mulaj is lecturer in international relations at the University of Exeter, UK. She is author of Politics Of Ethnic Cleansing (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2008) and editor and author of Violent Non-State Actors In World Politics (Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2010).