Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502240092
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Serbs continue to occupy some 70 percent of Bosnia. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed, and 2 million expelled from their homes, in a campaign dubbed "ethnic cleansing" by its practitioners. Civilians remain exposed to aggression and terror. The West continues to look on, and dither.
Can anything good possibly come from this?
At least one thing could - if the world community were to recognize the need for, and bring into being, an international criminal court to deal with crimes against humanity.
A United Nations tribunal investigating Balkan atrocities last week charged the commander and 20 officials at a Serb-run concentration camp with war crimes. Some 10,000 people, mostly Bosnian Muslims, were imprisoned at the Omarska camp in 1992. According to the tribunal, executions occurred daily. Prisoners routinely were "murdered, raped, sexually assaulted, severely beaten and otherwise mistreated."
Will the perpetrators be brought to justice?
Maybe, but don't bet on it. The United Nations, which created the tribunal, came close to emasculating it by withholding adequate funding.
What's more, Western allies are less than eager to pursue the prosecutions because of (1) continuing, delicate negotiations with the warring parties in the former Yugoslavia, and (2) a desire to put the least-worst face on Western inaction.
The tribunal, after all, raises questions of conscience that governments have wanted to avoid. For example: Can the West negotiate with war criminals? Are we prepared to accept borders created by genocide?
Thus, while the diplomats squabble, the genocidal murderers and rapists and their sneering commanders go free. And the world awaits sufficient recognition of the need for an international criminal court to help deter these evil deeds and punish their perpetrators.
by CNB