Some of the most wanted indicted war criminals in Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia remain at large. Recently, Ljiljana Karadzic, wife of Radovan Karadzic, called on her husband to surrender to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Mr. Karadzic was indicted for his alleged involvement in killing nearly eight-thousand Muslim men and boys near the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says the U.S. welcomes Mrs. Karadzic's appeal for her husbands surrender:
"We admire Mrs. Karadzic's courage to call for what is right and what is needed for both the Karadzic family and all the people of Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and throughout the entire Balkans region. We urge politicians in the region to support and echo this call to surrender. We urge Radovan Karadzic to heed these calls and surrender."
Two other reputed war criminals in the Balkans remain at large. Ratko Mladic, a former Serbian general, has been indicted for his involvement in the Srebrenica massacre. Croatian Ante Gotovina stands accused of arranging the killing of at least one-hundred fifty Serb civilians and the expulsion of one-hundred fifty-thousand others in 1995. Carla Del Ponte is the chief prosecutor for the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She says, "As long as Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Ante Gotovina manage to escape and defy the international community, the work of this tribunal will remain unfinished."
In the past several months, the government of Serbia and Montenegro has transferred or assisted in the transfer of fifteen indicted war criminals. But this is not enough. If Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia want full integration into Europe and the trans-Atlantic community, they will have to arrest the indicted war criminals that are still at large.
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
