The lengthy trial of Slobodan Milosevic was a ridiculous exercise that simply gave a little tinpot dictator years to strut on the world stage and defy the international body that pretended it was making him pay for justice.
Well, Milosevic died in prison before the international community could pronounce him guilty for his crimes against humanity committed in the 1990s:
A leader of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, the man reviled by the United States as "the butcher of the Balkans" was a hero to many Serbs despite losing four wars and impoverishing his people in the 1990s while trying to create a "Greater Serbia" linking Serbia with Serb-dominated areas of Croatia and Bosnia.
Milosevic apparently died of natural causes, according to the U.N. tribunal that was trying him on 66 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. His chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure had caused numerous long recesses.
What's the saying of the Left? Justice delayed is justice denied. Bingo.
But at least the international community didn't endanger us with this sham. After all, at the end of this long stall, Milosevic did not get nukes as the fruit of his delaying action.
I sure hope the Iraqis shoot Saddam long before he dies peacefully in a bed.
UPDATE: Mad Minerva hopes that Milosevic won't avoid the verdict of history despite dying unconvicted. But I cannot hang my hat on the author of the piece she cites since he very clearly values the process focus I condemn. Look at what Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program, writes:
Milosevic's death may have pre-empted a verdict, but he did not escape the process of justice. While the victims of the Balkan wars will not get the satisfaction of hearing a verdict in this case, the man who flaunted his power as Serbia's strongman died under indictment, in custody and with a long and official enumeration of his alleged crimes on record for posterity.
He may have escaped actual justice, but he did not escape "the process of justice." Well that's just swell. And how will history judge Milosevic when even the author writes of "his alleged crimes?" His supporters will see the lack of conviction as evidence of innocence. The long fruitless trial proof that the entire world could not prove their Slobo guilty of anything. As General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne said to an officer who wondered what history would say about his lifestyle, Burgoyne replied, "History, sir, will lie." And so Serbian nationalist history will lie. And other dictators know that they, too, can die in bed as long as they can fall under the jurisdiction of the vaunted international community. And Dicker writes:
On top of the sheer scale of atrocity crimes, there is the difficulty of proving the guilt of a former senior official who was nowhere near the multiple crime scenes.
Under the best of circumstances, these trials will be lengthy. In this context, international prosecutors should consider focusing their indictments on the most representative crimes for which there is the strongest evidence.
What rot. The fact of interventions to save Serb victims in Bosnia and Kosovo should have served to prove the guilt of Milosevic. This was not a criminal investigation but war to stop his genocidal crimes. His guilt was pre-established and trying to clearly pin a parking violation on him is an absurd elevation of process over justice.
Further:
As a human rights lawyer concerned with fair trial rights, I was dismayed to see Milosevic allowed to ask the same question of a witness over and over again, badger and bully witnesses, particularly those of lower social standing, and make interminable political speeches that had no relevance to the matter of his guilt or innocence on the charges.
Ah, but when you value process over justice, you have to let Milosevic defend himself the way he wants, don't you? Isn't anything else pre-judging him? We may have gone to war to stop him but let's not be hasty and assume him guilty of the crimes over which we went to war!
And:
There is one message that the aborted trial of Slobodan Milosevic, with its admitted shortcomings, cannot obscure: Absolute impunity for crimes that shock the conscience of humankind, regardless of the rank of the accused, is a thing of the past.
No, the lesson is that the world tolerates quite a lot. The world did nothing. Refusing to authorize intervention at either the UN or EU level. America did the deed. American power stopped Milosevic and allowed the international community their chance to convict the man.
And the lesson dictators have learned as that the country that captures a dictator will face more condemnation from the international community than the genocidal dictator himself faces. I mean, as long as the country is America. But that is what happens when process is elevated over justice.
The focus of this reperesentative of the international human rights community on process is just amazing. I hope Minerva is right to hope for the best. I don't share her hope.
Personally, I hope we never turn another dictator over to the Hague again. If they want to try one, let them go and get him. I'm sure the Belgian military will get right on it.
