The High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, welcomes the decision by the government of Serbia to send Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav President, to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague.
This was clearly a very difficult decision for the Serbian Government twelve years to the day that Slobodan Milosevic gave his infamous speech in Kosovo, that many regard as the overture to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. This is all the more reason for the High Representative to express his appreciation.
Regarded as the main culprit of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slobodan Milosevics appearance before the war crimes tribunal is crucial for the development of the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Justice must be seen to be done – only through this process will the true facts be known and individual guilt assessed.
The High Representative expects that others such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb leaders likewise indicted by the Hague Tribunal for their role in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s bloody war, will also appear shortly before the court in the Hague.