Milosevic must be punished for his crimes

During most of the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic stood addressing thousands of cheering… During most of the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic stood addressing thousands of cheering supporters as president of the Republic of Serbia and later of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Now he stands addressing an international criminal tribunal as a defendant.

His fall from glory was swift. In October 2000, he lost a presidential election. Although he tried to invalidate the results, a popular revolt forced him from office. On June 28 of last year, the new government extradited him to The Hague, Netherlands, to face trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

This week, Milosevic became the first former head of state to face trial for crimes committed while in office. Only one other leader, Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile, has even faced the risk of this fate.

If convicted of such charges as crimes against humanity and genocide, a man who was once one of the more recognizable world leaders could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Critics charge that his trial before the tribunal is imperfect justice. As Bill Keller of The New York Times noted in his Feb. 9 column, many allege this is the justice of the victors.

The critics are right. NATO defeated Milosevic in a bombing campaign in Kosovo in 1999. The indictment came down at that time. So it is the justice of the victors, which is always imperfect.

But it is better than no justice at all.

Throughout the 1990s, this man allegedly spearheaded one of the largest campaigns of genocide in recent memory. The ethnic wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo left scars that may never heal. Thousands lost their lives, many in massacres. Europe had not seen carnage of this scale since World War II.

After that war, the victors tried the defeated, executing many of them. The world reached a consensus that certain crimes were so horrible that no one