Twilight of Impunity

Twilight of Impunity
Author: Judith Armatta
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2010-07-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0822391791

An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials, Twilight of Impunity is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The historic trial of the “Butcher of the Balkans” began in 2002 and ended abruptly with Milosevic’s death in 2006. Judith Armatta, a lawyer who spent three years in the former Yugoslavia during Milosevic’s reign, had a front-row seat at the trial. In Twilight of Impunity she brings the dramatic proceedings to life, explains complex legal issues, and assesses the trial’s implications for victims of the conflicts in the Balkans during the 1990s and international justice more broadly. Armatta acknowledges the trial’s flaws, particularly Milosevic’s grandstanding and attacks on the institutional legitimacy of the International Criminal Tribunal. Yet she argues that the trial provided an indispensable legal and historical narrative of events in the former Yugoslavia and a valuable forum where victims could tell their stories and seek justice. It addressed crucial legal issues, such as the responsibility of commanders for crimes committed by subordinates, and helped to create a framework for conceptualizing and organizing other large-scale international criminal tribunals. The prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague was an important step toward ending impunity for leaders who perpetrate egregious crimes against humanity.

Travesty

Travesty
Author: John Laughland
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

In 2006, Slobodan Milosevic died in prison in the Hague during a four-year marathon trial for war crimes. John Laughland was one of the last Western journalists to meet with him. Laughland had followed the trial from its beginning and wrote extensively on it in the Guardian and the Spectator, challenging the legitimacy of the Yugoslav Tribunal and the hypocrisy of "international justice." In this short book, Laughland gives a full account of the trial---the longest trial in history---from the moment the indictment was issued at the height of NATO's attack on Yugoslavia to the day of Milosevic's mysterious death in custody. "International justice" is supposed to hold war criminals to account, but---as the trials of both Milosevic and Saddam Hussein show---the indictments are politically motivated and the judicial procedures are irredeemably corrupt. Laughland argues that international justice is an impossible dream and that such show trials are little more than propaganda exercises designed to distract attention from the war crimes committed by Western states.

Milosevic

Milosevic
Author: Adam LeBor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300103174

Offers an account of a man who started wars, whose rhetoric whipped up Serb nationalism to a frenzy of "ethnic cleansing" and yet who retained for a decade the ability to wrap the "international community" round his little finger.

Prosecuting Heads of State

Prosecuting Heads of State
Author: Ellen L. Lutz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2009-03-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0521491096

The meteoric rise in criminal prosecutions of former heads of state is examined for the first time in this probing and engaging narrative.

Indictment at the Hague

Indictment at the Hague
Author: Norman L. Cigar
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2002-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814716261

The upcoming April 2002 trial of Slobodan Milosevic represents a singular moment in modern history. For the first time a former head of state must answer charges before an International Tribunal for the commission of war crimes. Combining legal expertise with the scrupulous analysis of a mass of evidence, Cigar and Williams were the first to make a compelling case for the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal.

Prosecuting Slobodan Milošević

Prosecuting Slobodan Milošević
Author: Nevenka Tromp
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2016-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317335260

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the trial of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). With the premature death of Milošević in March 2006 his trial was left unfinished. Although the traditional objectives of criminal law, such as retribution, justice for victims, and deterrence, were not achieved, the Milošević trial archive is a significant historical resource for researchers from various fields. This book extracts details from the collection of documentary and transcript evidence that makes up the trial record – sources which would be almost impossible to extricate without an insider’s guiding hand – to allow readers to trace the threads of several historical narratives. The value of this methodology is particularly evident in the Milošević case as, acting as his own defence counsel, he responded to, and interacted with, almost all witnesses and evidence presented against him. By providing snapshots of the behaviour displayed by Milošević in court while conducting his defence, in combination with passages of carefully selected evidence from an immense archive familiar to few scholars, this volume reveals how these trial records, and trail records in general, are a truly invaluable historical source. The book underlines the premise that any record of a mass atrocities trial, whether finished or unfinished, establishes a record of past events, contributes to interpretations of a historical period and influences the shaping of collective memory. This book will be of much interest to students of the Former Yugoslavia, war crimes, international law, human rights, international relations and European politics.

The Conflict Over Kosovo

The Conflict Over Kosovo
Author: Stephen T. Hosmer
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2001-07-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0833032380

This report examines the reasons Slobodan Milosevic, the then president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, decided on June 3, 1999, to accept NATO's conditions for terminating the conflict over Kosovo. Drawing in part upon the testimony of Milosevic and other senior Serb and foreign officials who directly interacted with Milosevic, the report analyzes (1) the assumptions and other calculations that underlay Milosevic's initial decision to defy NATO's demands with regard to Kosovo, and (2) the political, economic, and military developments and pressures, and the resulting expectations and concerns that most importantly influenced his subsequent decision to come to terms. While several interrelated factors, including Moscow's eventual endorsement of NATO's terms, helped shape Milosevic's decision to yield, it was the cumulative effect of NATO air power that proved most decisive. The allied bombing of Serbia's infrastructure targets, as it intensified, stimulated a growing interest among both the Servian public and Belgrade officials to end the conflict. Milosevic's belief that the bombing that would follow a rejection of NATO's June 2 peace terms would be massively destructive and threatening to his continued rule made a settlement seem imperative. Also examined are some implications for future U.S. and allied military capabilities and operations.

The Butcher's Trail

The Butcher's Trail
Author: Julian Borger
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2016-01-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1590516052

The gripping, untold story of The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and how the perpetrators of Balkan war crimes were captured by the most successful manhunt in history Written with a thrilling narrative pull, The Butcher’s Trail chronicles the pursuit and capture of the Balkan war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Borger recounts how Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić—both now on trial in The Hague—were finally tracked down, and describes the intrigue behind the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president who became the first head of state to stand before an international tribunal for crimes perpetrated in a time of war. Based on interviews with former special forces soldiers, intelligence officials, and investigators from a dozen countries—most speaking about their involvement for the first time—this book reconstructs a fourteen-year manhunt carried out almost entirely in secret. Indicting the worst war criminals that Europe had known since the Nazi era, the ICTY ultimately accounted for all 161 suspects on its wanted list, a feat never before achieved in political and military history.

Peace with Justice?

Peace with Justice?
Author: Paul R. Williams
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2002
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780742518568

In this work, two former State Department lawyers provide an account of how and why justice was misapplied and mishandled throughout the peace-builders' efforts to settle the Yugoslav conflict. The text is based on their personal experience, research and interviews with key players in the process.