WASHINGTON FOR THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE TRANSFER OF GORAN HADZIC TO HAGUE

US Secretary of the State
Hillary Clinton: Sympathies
for the the victims
(Photo Webpublicapress 2011)

NEW YORK, (Webpublicapress) -- The US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton saluted Thursday the arrest of the officialy last Serbian war-crime fugitive Goran Hadzic, who was apprehended earlier on Wednsday in Serbia. Mrs. Clinton said Washington was looking forward to Mr. Hadzic’s  “earliest possible transfer” to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague “so that justice may be served”.

POWERFUL MESSAGE

The top US diplomat said this was a “powerful message” sent to “those around the world who would break the law and target civilians: you will not escape judgment. This arrest serves as the latest proof that international justice works”.

With the arrest of Goran Hadzic, none of the 161 individuals indicted by the ICTY for serious violations of international humanitarian law have been able to evade the Tribunal’s judicial process. 

On May 26, after almost 16 years of escaping, another notorious accused war-criminal Ratko Mladic was also apprehended in Serbia and extradited to ICTY. Among others, Mladic is charged with the the crime of genocide in Bosnian city of Srebrenica, where in July 1995, more then 8.000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed. 

END OF THE HORRIFIC CHAPTER

General Mladic was than a chief Bosnian Serb military commander who held the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the siege longer than Adolf Hitler did with Stalingrad in World War Two. Some 12.000 citizens of Sarajevo including children died in that siege from shelling and heavy artillery under the Serb control.

Regarding the Hadzic’s case, Mrs. Clinton raised hope, that this arrest will close “a horrific chapter in the region’s history and it helps demonstrate Serbia’s commitment to reconciliation and to the rule of law – critical elements for progress toward accession to the European Union”.

SYMPATHIES FOR THE VICTIMS

While praising Presdent Boris Tadić of Srebia again, Mrs. Clinton expressed a hope “that this arrest will be an impetus for lasting peace and reconciliation, resulting in a stable and prosperous future for the entire region”.

The US Secretary of State also sent Washington’s deepest sympathies and extended “thoughts and prayers to all those who have suffered from the atrocities charged to Hadzic”. 

Erol Avdovic (WPP)