It has taken far too long, the spinmeisters have been spinning out of control, but finally, a long-anticipated trial began last week, one that will be a landmark in legal history. A trial that should have a ripple effect, that hopefully will swell into a wave that will wash into more than the recent past. With luck, a trial that will set a precedent that will ensure that war crimes will not go unpunished. On February 12th the trial of disgraced Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic opened in the Hague. Milosevic dominated Serb politics for 13 years as a hardliner, and is certainly the first head of state to answer to charges of genocide. The United Nations established a tribunal at the Hague to deal specifically with war crimes commited in the former Yugoslavia. The charges against Milosevic include violations of the Geneva convention, enacted to protect prisoners of war and non-combatants, as well as violations of other laws and customs of war such as those which protect churches and schools. Howwever, it is the genocide issue, the attempt to eradicate an entire race or religious group — or ethnic community — that establishes legal history. Sadly, even allowing for the fact that the UN tribunal has charged 80 people, including Milosevic with such crimes the truth remains that many more remain at large. Milosevic himself, the prominent one brough to justice is even flaunting the system, effectively asserting that international law is a toothless tiger. He has refused to recognize the court and is defending himself, not having formal counsel. Ironically, he is accepting the “informal” advice of some controversial international legal figures, among them being the French lawyer Jacques Vergès, whose clients have included Latin-American terrorists and old Nazis, hunted down by the Wiesenthal Centre. It is another irony, one not likely to be addressed anon, that the world, even while focusing on Milkosevic is keeping double standards in place. There are many other international leaders, in good standing at the UN General Assembly, who have been reponsible for mass deportations, extra-judicial killings and other forms of state terror. One need only to look at the turmoil in Central Africa, or to Indonesia and other Asian nations. And let us not forget that in Afghanistan the Taliban was allowed to operate unchecked until the events of 9-11 catapulted the US into required, far overdue action. The International Commission on Missing persons, based in Sarajevo has been responsible for the gathering of blood samples from tens of thousands of people throughout the Balkans, people who lost relatives in the war. With the use of DNA technology these samples will be matched with genetic material recovered from skeletons found in mass graves, thus proving without a shadow of a doubt that the intent of genocide drove the Serbian regime. Up until now the world that was not Balkan demonstrated an indifferent attitude towards what was perceived as internal squabbling. Although terms such as ethnic cleansing were trotted out in the media the atrocities commited did not seem real, even the Kosovo campaign by the UN was treated with much less interest than the present campaign in the war against terrorism. One supposes that this has much to do with human nature — if the atrocities did not affect Canadians, a blind eye was turned. Here again one should be concerned about double standards, as were experienced, for example, in Somalia. Victims of Communist war crimes, especially those in the Baltics, should follow the Milosevic tribunal with care. Especially considering the fact that now the Russians are alleging human rights violations against non-Baltic speaking residents, offspring of occupants, in the region. On a rational level it is too much to expect that Communist war criminals will ever be properly tried. The passage of time is relentless, indeed, a convicted KGB assassin, Leonard Paulov, died in prison in Estonia recently, after only spending less than two years behind bars. On the other hand he enjoyed over 50 years of freedom after commiting murder in the name of the state. Such travesties of justices should not be allowed to happen again, anywhere on this planet. It is to be hoped that the attention of the international community will reach beyond the Milosevic trial and address crimes from other wars as well. A faint hope admittedly, but one that needs to be kept alive in the interests of humanity, and with the clear goal of ensuring that terror and war, capital crimes committed against the innocents in the name of an ethnic goal should never be allowed to occur. Morally, this is an obligation that all of us have, in the name of all mankind.

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