Fullaut0
02-27-2007, 09:50 PM
Serbia urges arrest of war crimes fugitives (http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Serbia-Montenegro/10107632.html)
http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Serbia-Montenegro/10107632.html (http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Serbia-Montenegro/10107632.html) 02/27/2007 11:02 PM | AP
Belgrade: The Serbian president yesterday urged the arrest of General Ratko Mladic and other war crimes fugitives to comply with a World Court demand, a day after the tribunal cleared Serbia of genocide in Bosnia.
The UN's highest court ruled on Monday that Serbia did not carry out genocide against Muslims in Bosnia's war. But it ordered Belgrade to hand over Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime commander and alleged architect of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
"It is clear that the guilt has been individualised and that Serbia as a state is now protected, therefore all the indicted war criminals must end up" at a separate UN war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands, Tadic said after talks with Spanish Foreign Minister and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) chairman Miguel Angel Moratinos.
However, the pro-Western Serbian president has little power to arrest Mladic, who is believed to be hiding in Serbia under the protection of hard-line supporters of late President Slobodan Milosevic.
Ivica Dacic, the leader of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, said yesterday that the World Court's decision clearing Serbia of genocide makes it hard to justify the UN war crimes charges for which the late leader was tried.
No effective control
The International Court of Justice ruling said that Serbia, then ruled by Milosevic's regime, did not have effective control over the Bosnian Serb forces it had helped arm and finance during the 1992-95 war.
Milosevic was on trial in the UN war crimes tribunal for genocide when he died in The Hague a year ago, weeks before his four-year trial was due to end.
Hard to justify
Dacic said that "if our state did not commit genocide, it is hard to justify the charges against Milosevic and other former Yugoslav leaders who were accused of the so-called chain-of-command responsibility" in Bosnia.
"The World Court ruling ridicules such charges," he said. The judges ruled that Belgrade could - and should - have stopped genocide in the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica - where more than 7,000 Muslims were massacred by Bosnian Serb troops under Mladic's command.
As noted in this article, a pretty empty promise.
Who are these hardline Milosevic supporters that are hiding Mladic, supposedly in Serbia?
Also, there is no direct mention of Karadzic. Could he also be in Serbia or is it more likely that he is in RS?
Most interestingly, I can't believe I missed such an obvious implication with regards to the Milosevic trial - no chain of command responsibility!
However, we must ask, had Milosevic been still alive and on trial would the verdict against the Serbian state be the same?
http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Serbia-Montenegro/10107632.html (http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/Serbia-Montenegro/10107632.html) 02/27/2007 11:02 PM | AP
Belgrade: The Serbian president yesterday urged the arrest of General Ratko Mladic and other war crimes fugitives to comply with a World Court demand, a day after the tribunal cleared Serbia of genocide in Bosnia.
The UN's highest court ruled on Monday that Serbia did not carry out genocide against Muslims in Bosnia's war. But it ordered Belgrade to hand over Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime commander and alleged architect of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
"It is clear that the guilt has been individualised and that Serbia as a state is now protected, therefore all the indicted war criminals must end up" at a separate UN war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands, Tadic said after talks with Spanish Foreign Minister and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) chairman Miguel Angel Moratinos.
However, the pro-Western Serbian president has little power to arrest Mladic, who is believed to be hiding in Serbia under the protection of hard-line supporters of late President Slobodan Milosevic.
Ivica Dacic, the leader of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, said yesterday that the World Court's decision clearing Serbia of genocide makes it hard to justify the UN war crimes charges for which the late leader was tried.
No effective control
The International Court of Justice ruling said that Serbia, then ruled by Milosevic's regime, did not have effective control over the Bosnian Serb forces it had helped arm and finance during the 1992-95 war.
Milosevic was on trial in the UN war crimes tribunal for genocide when he died in The Hague a year ago, weeks before his four-year trial was due to end.
Hard to justify
Dacic said that "if our state did not commit genocide, it is hard to justify the charges against Milosevic and other former Yugoslav leaders who were accused of the so-called chain-of-command responsibility" in Bosnia.
"The World Court ruling ridicules such charges," he said. The judges ruled that Belgrade could - and should - have stopped genocide in the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica - where more than 7,000 Muslims were massacred by Bosnian Serb troops under Mladic's command.
As noted in this article, a pretty empty promise.
Who are these hardline Milosevic supporters that are hiding Mladic, supposedly in Serbia?
Also, there is no direct mention of Karadzic. Could he also be in Serbia or is it more likely that he is in RS?
Most interestingly, I can't believe I missed such an obvious implication with regards to the Milosevic trial - no chain of command responsibility!
However, we must ask, had Milosevic been still alive and on trial would the verdict against the Serbian state be the same?