The appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of former President Slobodan Milosevic may now be followed by those of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. The decision by the current Bosnian Serb Leader Mr Mladen Ivanic has removed the legal barriers which prevented these men from appearing before the tribunal.
The move is to be welcomed as a step towards assuring that those suspected of war crimes have become open to prosecution regardless of their current or former political status. The arrest and trial of Mr Milosevic can now be seen as the first of a number of moves against those accused of crimes of the utmost barbarity in the series of wars which have followed the break up of the old Yugoslav federation.
Mr Karadzic and Gen Mladic figured very prominently indeed in the vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing which characterised the conflict in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. They have, by all accounts, been living a clandestine existence in the Republika Srpska, the ethnic-Serbian political entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the recent transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague from Belgrade, Republika Srpska became the only region of the former Yugoslavia to hold out against co-operation with ICTY.
While Mr Ivanic's move now provides the legal framework for co-operation with ICTY it is far from certain that Mr Karadzic, Gen Mladic, or any of the dozens of others indicted for war crimes and believed to be living in the region, will face trial in the near future. Mr Ivanic was very quick to point out that while he has agreed to extradition he has no knowledge of the whereabouts of the two prime war-crimes suspects. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the legal move has evinced no more than a cautious welcome from The Hague, followed by a demand for "tangible proof" of co-operation.
It is understood however that despite Mr Ivanic's denials, Bosnian Serb officials are in constant contact with Gen Mladic and possibly with Mr Karadzic, despite their denial of all knowledge of the pair's whereabouts. It must surely be clear to them, following the transfer of Mr Milosevic, that they cannot hold this position for very much longer.
There may be some justification for the argument put forward by many in Serbia, that only those political and military leaders from smaller countries are likely to face trial while those responsible for atrocities in the Chechen wars, for example, will remain immune. This may be an unsatisfactory state of affairs but it can not be used as an excuse for preventing the arrest and trial of those who can in practice be arrested and tried.
editor@irish-times.ie