Since Slobodan Milosevic was indicted, tribunal prosecutors have insisted they will be even-handed in their approach to justice in the Balkans. As if to prove their point, prosecutors have charged senior Croatian and Bosnian commanders with crimes against Serbs.
Michael Scharf argues that the Milosevic trial remains a vital ingredient for reconciliation in the Balkans.
"Thousands of lower level people committed atrocities," says Scharf. "But for there to be reconciliation, the people going back to their homes in the same neighborhoods as their former enemies have to believe that it was the leaders who were most responsible for the crimes, that all these lower level people got caught up in the whirlwind of killing."
Scharf says the showdown in The Hague is also an important factor in establishing the long-term feasibility for a permanent global war crimes court, a body being slowly established despite staunch opposition from the United States.
"The success or failure of the Milosevic trial is going to go a long way in deciding whether the new international criminal court is seen as effective and fair and gets the backing it needs to accomplish its tasks."
RELATED LINKS
Milosevic in The Hague
New-York based Human Rights Watch collection of materials relating to the trial of the former leader of Serbia and Yugoslavia.
Crimes of War Project
A collaboration of journalists, lawyers, and scholars that seeks to raise awareness of the laws of war and of the human consequences of armed conflict.
United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ITCY)
The ICTY is located in The Hague, The Netherlands, and aims to bring justice to persons allegedly responsible for violations of international humanitarian law.
International Action Center
This legal group was founded by Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. Attorney General who is advising Slobodan Milosevic.
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic
The ICDSM condemns Milosevic's arrest and extradition.
Political Killings in Kosova/Kosovo
A cooperative report by the American Bar Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Massacre at Cuska
American RadioWorks looks at an "ethnic cleansing" of one ethnic Albanian village in Kosovo—a massacre conducted under Milosevic's leadership.
This story is a part of The Promise of Justice, an on-going series examining the elusive concept of justice in societies wrenched by war and genocide.
