Slobodan Milosevic

I am going to try and present information and facts as they are, then ask a couple questions at the end. The goal is to inspire a little bit of debate, so feel free to take any side on the issue which I ask on at the end of this post

There was an interesting turn of events yesterday, when former President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his prison cell. Most of you know who he is, but if you do not, he was facing a UN tribunal at The Hague for over 66 crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and several war crimes. The trial had begun in 2002 and was set to conclude in a couple months. He had participated in ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. There is a very good graphic of what happened in the Washington Post, the full articles are available here.

So basically, in 1989 he became president of Serbia and strips Kosovo of its status as an autonomous province. In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declare independence from Yugoslavia, and in 1992, Bosnia declares independence from Yugoslavia. In 1998, Milosevic sends troops to crush ethnic Albanian uprising in Kosovo, NATO air strikes begin the next year, and Milosevic is indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal. The NATO bombings end in June, when the Serbs withdraw from Kosovo. The Balkan wars of the 1990s ended with Yugoslavia broken up into five new states, Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Macedonia. “The wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo cost nearly 200,000 lives, created 3 million refugees and left damages between $20-60 Billion.”

Here’s the interesting part about all of this. Slobodan was his own defense: he was a lawyer, and was speaking in his own defense. He died before the conclusion of his trial. This has created a huge mess, some wanted to see the trial completed and to see him “brought to justice” to borrow a phrase from our dear President. Others are happy that he’s gone. People blame him for the state of the Balkans now, some say that his abuse of resources had kept the area in poor production, without investment and corruption ridden. Milosevic however signed peace agreements brokered by the US in Dayton, and encountered high levels of opposition within his country.

So, given that a man has died before the end of his trial, what impact do you think this will have on tribunals in the future? Early reports indicate that he died of a Heart Attack, although suicide has not been ruled out as a possibility. So, food for thought:

What should be done when a person on trial dies during the trial? This is applicable to scenarios like murder trials inside the US, or international war tribunals like this one. is justice achieved when he’s dead, and cannot commit more crimes, or is there an element of justice in the actual proceedings of the trials, and does the judicial process arrive at some higher truth, and if it does, how can we arrive there now that he is dead? Can there be more justice achieved, even though he’s dead?

Thoughts/comments?