Slobodan Milosevic was not only the most notorious official of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, but also the only top Serbianor Yugoslav political and military leader to be indicted by theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes carried out in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1991 to 1995.
This decision had more to do with politics than justice: it would appear that Del Ponte found the resistance to the ICTY of Serbia's post-Milosevic regime - too tough to risk a further round of indictments of topofficials.
This had nothing to do with an absence of available evidence.
Kadijevic, Adzic, Jovic, Kostic and others could all have been indicted on the basis of their command responsibility for crimes carried out by their JNA subordinates at Vukovar and Dubrovnik, indictments for which already existed. Indeed, while Del Ponte was ready to indict the Croatian Army'schief of staff, Janko Bobetko, for crimes carried out by his subordinates at the Medak Pocket, and to indict the commander ofthe Bosnian Army, Rasim Delic, for crimes carried out by mujahedin fighters in Central Bosnia - in both cases on thebasis of command responsibility - she was unwilling to indict the top JNA commanders and members of the rump Yugoslav presidency on the same basis. She skewed her indictments in favour of the aggressors who conquered large areas of Croatia and Bosnia, and at the expense of those defending their countries from the aggression.
This decision had more to do with politics than justice: it would appear that Del Ponte found the resistance to the ICTY of Serbia's post-Milosevic regime - too tough to risk a further round of indictments of topofficials.
This had nothing to do with an absence of available evidence.
Kadijevic, Adzic, Jovic, Kostic and others could all have been indicted on the basis of their command responsibility for crimes carried out by their JNA subordinates at Vukovar and Dubrovnik, indictments for which already existed. Indeed, while Del Ponte was ready to indict the Croatian Army'schief of staff, Janko Bobetko, for crimes carried out by his subordinates at the Medak Pocket, and to indict the commander ofthe Bosnian Army, Rasim Delic, for crimes carried out by mujahedin fighters in Central Bosnia - in both cases on thebasis of command responsibility - she was unwilling to indict the top JNA commanders and members of the rump Yugoslav presidency on the same basis. She skewed her indictments in favour of the aggressors who conquered large areas of Croatia and Bosnia, and at the expense of those defending their countries from the aggression.
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