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Although the Dayton accord has brought a bare minimum of peace to the Balkans, even that will not last if implementation of the civilian provisions fails, and none is more crucial than the one promising that the men who held the club and the gun will be arrested and tried. "How can I ever go home," says Hamdija, a Muslim refugee in Sarajevo, "if the man who killed my father goes free?"
Many of those responsible for the worst atrocities not only remain free, but they also retain power in the towns and cities where they wreaked such devastation, in a position to begin all over again. "The only way Bosnians will ever feel safe," says Ivan Lupas, a human-rights investigator, "is if those responsible for the killings are punished." Deputy prosecutor Blewitt says at the Hague, "People explain this war as revenge for atrocities done in the past that were never punished. We have got to stop that cycle." The countrymen of the perpetrators also need the balm of justice. "The only way we Serbs can escape collective guilt," says Human Rights Watch's Sonja Bisierka, "is to determine who individually is guilty, who personally was responsible, so not all Serbs are condemned alike."
According to Richard Goldstone, the chief prosecutor, the biggest problem for the tribunal right now is that it has no means to arrest the suspects it has indicted. ifor won't help, and Serbia refuses to hand over any of the indicted men who are on its territory, as it is legally required to do. The U.N. Security Council could try to force Serbia to comply by imposing economic sanctions, but it has not done so. "On what basis is it going to proceed into the next century," Goldstone asks, "if it sits back and allows U.N. members to ignore their obligations?"
Without effective due process at the Hague, victims and victors alike may all too soon turn to the old Balkan tradition of blood justice. More justice, less blood--that is what the Balkans need.
--With reporting by Alexandra Stiglmayer/Zagreb