New York Times

Op-Ed Section

March 3, 1997

"No Justice in Bosnia"

By RICHARD J. GOLDSTONE

[excerpted]

JOHANNESBURG -- A criminal justice system lacking in credibility and

enforcement cannot provide justice to victims or deter future

criminals. The same holds true for international humanitarian law -- a

system that, among other things, aims to protect innocent civilians

from war crimes.

But that denial of justice is what is happening now.

.....

If there are no further meaningful arrests, the Yugoslav tribunal,

which was set up by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 (a

year before it established a similar tribunal on Rwanda) will have

been prevented from carrying out its mandate, and war-crime victims

will have been dealt another blow. Also dealt a blow will be the

credibility of the Security Council, whose binding resolutions about

enforcing tribunal orders are being disobeyed equally by Serbia,

Croatia, the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Croats -- all legally bound

by these orders.

.....

All this bodes ill for the future of human rights, particularly for

the establishment of a permanent international criminal court, which

is the best tell future war criminals that their evil deeds will no

longer be tolerated.

The international community has put this project on the agenda, but

has yet to hold a diplomatic conference to approve a treaty setting up

such a court. There must be no further delay.

Meanwhile, the temporary tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and

Rwanda continue their work. The Yugoslav tribunal has already made a

significant contribution to the advancement of humanitarian law: The

prohibition against applying international humanitarian laws to civil

wars has been almost obliterated. And systematic, mass rape has, for

the first time, been recognized as a war crime.

It would be nothing short of a tragedy if the Security Council, having

established the temporary tribunals, were to fail to enforce their

findings. The message this would send out would be unmistakable --

that alleged war criminals may be censured by the international

community, but no more than that. The cost of that message will be

enormous -- lost lives, suffering and extended post-war relief and

peacekeeping missions.

It is not too late for Western nations -- particularly the United

States -- to muster the political will to insure the arrest of those

indicted so that the Yugoslav tribunal can complete its mission.

Hundreds of millions of lives might be saved in the new millennium,

and the prospect of establishing a permanent international criminal

tribunal -- our best hope for justice -- will be significantly

improved.

(Richard J. Goldstone, a justice of South Africa's Constitutional

Court, was chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals on

the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.)