For Peace in the Balkans, Indict Milosevic Now

By Paul R. Williams and Norman Cigar, for the International Herald Tribune, January 8, 1997

Slobodan Milosevic's callous annulment of Serbia's municipal elections and the resulting waves of protest have caught the United States by surprise.

But the only real surprise is why the United States has yet to realize that Mr. Milosevic is not the key to peace in the former Yugoslavia, but is rather the lock on the door. In trying to unlock that door, the United States must remember that in December 1992 the Department of State identified Mr. Milosevic as primarily responsible for the commission of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. The United States, now more than ever, needs to support an investigation into Mr. Milosevic's responsibility for some of the worst war crimes in Europe since World War II. To sweep this issue under the rug of diplomacy will undermine the deterrent value of justice, and calls for individual revenge by the victims will be harder to quiet. The genuine peace we all seek from the Dayton accord Q and democracy in Serbia Q will be the victims of America's reluctance to act.

An indictment of Mr. Milosevic can be sought on these grounds: Direct responsibility. Whenever the Western powers, under the leadership of the United States, decide to act on their war crimes rhetoric, they may rely upon the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, which, though its previous pursuit of accused Serbian war criminals, has already laid the groundwork for indicting Mr. Milosevic on the basis that the Yugoslav and Republic of Serbia forces and agencies and their paramilitary armies controlled by him committed genocide.

Complicity. Mr. Milosevic aided the commission of war crimes by directing Serbian Republic forces and agencies under his control, including Serbia's Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs, to assist the organization and operation of Serbian paramilitary armies such as Arkan's Tigers, Vojislav Seselj's Chetniks and Mirko Jovic's White Eagles. Specifically, it was Mr. Milosevic who provided these paramilitary armies with weapons, training, money and transportation to Bosnia, where they were encouraged to slaughter civilians in areas secured by the regular army.
Command responsibility. Finally, Mr. Milosevic may be indicted on his overall command responsibility for the Yugoslav Army and federal forces that tried to carry out his plans for an ethnically pure Greater Serbia. As the dominant member of the panel that controls the Yugoslav Army Q the Yugoslav Supreme Military Council, and its successor, the Supreme Defense CouncilQ Mr. Milosevic was obligated under international law to prevent his forces from committing or encouraging and enabling others to commit war crimes. Unfortunately, the United States continues to delude itself that Mr. Milosevic is the only individual capable of ensuring that the Bosnian Serbs deliver on their Dayton promises. U.S. policy makers simply ignore that none of the provisions of the Dayton agreement have truly been put into effect, aside from the tasks directly attributable to the NATO peace force. The obvious reason for this failure is that although it was in Mr. Milosevic's interest to sign the Dayton agreement to avoid losing the war and to secure the lifting of sanctions, it is not in his interest to promote respect for human rights, a strong Bosnian government, and certainly not the arrest and extradition of war criminals. It can no longer be business as usual for the West. Mr. Milosevic's responsibility for war crimes, coupled with his outright contempt for basic democratic principles, must be met with renewed economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

As the Belgrade demonstrations continue, the United States must recognize that the key to enforcing the Dayton accords and assuring peace and democracy in the former Yugoslavia is not held by a war criminal. Instead, that key will be found by assisting the forces seeking to change Mr. Milosevic's increasingly illegitimate and repressive regime.

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Mr. Williams is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Cigar is professor of national security studies at the U.S. Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting. They contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.