Meredith is a senior editor of the World in Review section and is interested in the history of political development, especially that of Europe.
Blaming the ICTY
Many are calling Slobodan Milosevic’s death a failure for the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)–another strike against the idea of an international body of justice. They lament the slow pace of the trial that has dragged on since February 2002. But these problems are not the fault of the ICTY.
Milosevic died of natural causes on March 10 in his prison cell of The Hague at the age of 64. His death may not provide the justice that millions of people around the world are craving, but there is nothing the ICTY can do to rectify that. The man charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes and held responsible for the deaths of over a quarter of a million people will never be formally convicted or exonerated.
The seriousness of Milosevic’s charges necessitated a lengthy trial. For example, he was allotted 360 hours for his defense, which may seem an inordinate amount of time, but accusations like genocide cannot be addressed in a few weeks in court. Some have argued that he should have been held on lesser counts that would have still called for life in prison, but this was a man spearheading a war to unite Serbs and ethnically cleanse others, and bringing him to justice required a slew of charges. It is clear that few are satisfied with his death, and even fewer would have been satisfied if he were imprisoned for anything less than his 66 counts. In addition, his previous health problems caused multiple long delays in the trial, which was certainly one of the reasons that it lasted so long. The court could do nothing to speed up the process.
One must look at the success of the ICTY before blaming it for circumstances out of its control. It arrested a man still in charge of his country, taking him out of power and holding him accountable to not just his government, but to humanity. This is a huge step for the international community; the court presents a way to punish tyrants and commanders of genocide, and the world is beginning to take note. The International Criminal Court (ICC) began operations in 2002, and it too is taking on leaders charged with responsibility for war crimes, though it has not yet tried a case. This new international court is following the precedent of the ICTY and other ad hoc tribunals. The ICTY is thus not without its problems, but it still has revolutionized the way that the world looks at its leaders.