The Hague Tribunal's Incompleted Mission

But has The Hague's Tribunal fulfilled its justice mission for the victims of wars in the former Yugoslavia, especially for civil ones?

International law recognisers and representatives of civil society in Kosovo estimate that in this direction much has been expected by The Hague Tribunal, though, in a measure of justice has been served.

International Criminal Law Professor Ismet Salihu tells Radio Free Europe that The Hague Tribunal was the second most important international war crimes tribunal since World War II.

The Tribunal of The Hague's mission to try the perpetrators of the worst crimes that had been committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, according to him, has been partially fulfilled.

According to him, this Tribunal has managed to bring the biggest criminals in the crimes of the Yugoslav Army and Serbia's regime to justice, but has shown shortcomings with procrastination of procedures against some accused who were in custody.

“has lasted procedures for three years or five years, which is contrary to standards, with international regulation, but also with these nationals. Using these defects, shortcomings and procrastinations near this court, Serbia's former head, Milosevqi, managed not to be tried, to die in Scheveningen, in custody. This is one of the shortcomings of this court. Overall, it has been achieved (to establish justice), but, not enough, because of many obstacles and we have to admit it, there have also been interferences and political and impacts on this court”, Salihu says.

Even Bekim Blakaj from the Fund for Humanitarian Law, suggests that The Hague Tribunal has brought justice to a measure only for a certain number of victims. Speaking to Radio Free Europe, Blakaj points out that however, The Hague Tribunal has shown that it can be fought, as he has called the culture of impunity, bringing to justice former presidents of states, senior officials, as well as senior military generals and superiors.

Of course, expectations have been much bigger, especially from the victims' community. But I think that a court of warck, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has not been able to do more in this regard. We should also highlight this that this court of all - powerful prejudice has documented, especially in Srebrenica, which it has described as genocide. This will remain in history now and no one can deny it. Not everyone's happy, but, I'm trying to imagine what the situation would be like in the region, in the former Yugoslavia, if there wasn't a Hague Tributal”.

Otherwise, Professor Salihu suggests that even The Hague's Tribunal mission to help reconcile peoples, after the wars in the former Yugoslavia, has failed to be fully fulfilled.

This mission has also been accomplished, but not enough. It would have been enough if he had put a greater number of those” before him, Salihu said.

But, Blakaj suggests that loading The Hague Tribunal with the mandate to help peoples for reconciliation has been excessive and unrealistic. That's because, according to him, such a court, “d hockey”, cannot take over a very complicated process such as the reconciliation process, which in many cases has proved to take decades.

In this regard, The Hague Tribunal has achieved almost nothing. Perhaps on a much longer - term horizon, it may be considered that the Tribunal has contributed by placing some facts, creating its own archive with documentation, which may in the future serve to achieve a reconciliation because the first step of reconciliation or reconciliation is that the parties who have been at enmity accept the facts”.

Blakaj has added that despite the fact that The Hague Tribunal has documented terrible war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, those who have been convicted of these crimes after returning to their countries following the torment, are expected to be heroes by relevant societies or the people they belong to. In his view, they have even been offered positions and positions of honor in some cases.

However, The Hague Tribunal, during its work for about two and a half decades, has set up 161 ax, has pronounced 90 convictions and 15 convictions of innocence.