International bounty hunters for war criminals: privatizing the enforcement of justice

Air Force Law Review,  Wntr, 2001  by Christopher M. Supernor

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(2.) The ICTY indicted 98 individuals. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Key Figures, available at http://www.un.org/icty/glance/keyfig-e.htm (last modified Mar. 1, 2001) (copy on file with the Air Force Law Review). Nine of the indicted individuals have died and charges have been dropped against 18 others. Id. Proceedings are ongoing for 38 of the indicted individuals. Id. Twenty-seven of the indicted individuals remain at large. The three principal architects of the Bosnian genocide, ex-Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, Dr. Radovan Karadzic, and General Ratko Mladic, are among the most notable fugitives in Yugoslavia. Radovan Karadzic, an indictee of the ICTY who is charged with responsibility for killing up to 6,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995, lives in a closely guarded stronghold outside Pale in the Serb Republic. Brian James, Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind; Night & Day, MAIL ON SUNDAY (London), Aug. 10, 1997, at 10. Mr. Richard Holbrooke, the United States Ambassado r to the United Nations, explained that "NATO troops have been reluctant to arrest Karadzic, who travels with 20 to 80 bodyguards." David J. Lynch, Bosnian Serb Leader Faces Capture as his Power Fades, USA TODAY, Nov. 8, 2000, at 22 A. For several years, the residence of another indictee, General Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serbs, "the Butcher of the Balkans", was also a matter of public knowledge. James, supra, at 10. On Mar. 25, 2000, Mladic attended a soccer match in Belgrade with an escort of bodyguards, the Yugoslavian foreign minister, army chief of staff, and the Serbian Prime Minister. War Criminal Watch, COALITION FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE, http://www.wcw.org (last visited Mar. 9, 2001) (copy on file with the Air Force Law Review). Only recently has General Mladic gone into hiding. After Years in Open, War-Crimes Suspect Drops out of Sight, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Feb. 22, 2001, News, at 20.

(3.) Kosovo War Criminals May Go Free, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, http://www.hrw.org/hrw/press/l999/feb/kos0209.htm (Feb. 9, 1999) (copy on file with the Air Force Law Review); YVES BEIGBEDER, JUDGING WAR CRIMINALS: THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE 201 (1999); Brown, supra note 1, at 414. ("Most of the indictees still at large are apparently living free in the areas where the local authorities have failed to comply with their legal obligation to arrest those indicted.").

(4.) David Buchan, Downfall of Milosevic, THE FINANCIAL TIMES (LONDON), Oct. 7,2000, World News, at 6. Western governments continue to pressure Yugoslavia's new government to fully cooperate with the ICTY. On Oct. 25, 2000, the United States Congress approved a $100 million aid package to Serbia but conditioned the aid on the new Yugoslav government's cooperation on arresting and transferring those indicted by the ICTY for war crimes. Steven A. Holmes, $100 Million Voted for Serbia, But with War-Crimes Strings, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 26, 2000, at A13. Recently, Yugoslavia stated its intent to try Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia for abuse of power and theft of national property rather than turn Milosevic to the ICTY to face war crime charges. Alan Sipress, Yugoslavia Vows Milosevic's Arrest This Month, WASH. POST, Mar. 7, 2001, at 24.