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Conclusion

The authorities in Serbia and in the Republika Srpska, as well as NATO forces, have a legal obligation to arrest Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic if the men are present in territory under their control.

All states have an obligation under international law to search for persons in areas under their jurisdiction or effective control who are alleged to have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide—and prosecute or extradite them.¹¹⁷ As set out in the preamble to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it is “the duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes.”¹¹⁸ Individual states through treaty obligations, national legislation, and military manuals have agreed to investigate and prosecute those implicated in international crimes. The U.N. Security Council, General Assembly, and Commission on Human Rights have all reaffirmed this obligation.¹¹⁹

In addition, the statute of the ICTY obliges all states to comply “without undue delay” in the “arrest or detention of persons” indicted for war crimes and “the surrender or transfer of the accused to the International Tribunal.”¹²⁰ As parties to the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro, are under an additional obligation to cooperate with the ICTY.¹²¹

A change in public opinion in Serbia might make the task of apprehending Mladic easier: At the beginning of June 2005, the public and political elites in Serbia reacted in shock to a video clip showing Serbian troops executing four boys and two men from Srebrenica in July 1995. On June 2 and June 10, Serbian police arrested five individuals allegedly involved in the killing.¹²² The government of Serbia in particular should use the momentum to arrest Mladic who was, by all accounts, the main architect of the Srebrenica genocide.

The chief U.S. negotiator during the Dayton peace talks, Richard Holbrooke, stated in 1997 that “Karadzic at large means Dayton denied.”¹²³ As the tenth anniversary of the Dayton agreement approaches, Holbrooke’s maxim remains true. The successes of the international community in reconstructing post-war Bosnia are overshadowed by a double failure—the failure to protect the inhabitants of Srebrenica, despite promises from the U.N. commander at that time that “I will never abandon you,”¹²⁴ and the failure to bring to justice Karadzic and Mladic, indicted for the genocide and crimes against humanity committed there. While Mladic may no longer be in Bosnia, Karadzic almost certainly is. The international community’s moral and political failure on Srebrenica can only be remedied by one act – the arrest of Karadzic by NATO or EU forces. Just as importantly, Serbia needs to fulfill its paramount legal and moral obligation to surrender Ratko Mladic to the Hague. The victims of Srebrenica should not have to wait another decade for justice.