The acquittal of the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Ramush Haradinaj, by the UN War Crimes Court for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on charges of murdering and torturing Kosovar Serbs has been greeted with rapture in Kosovo and anger in Serbia. Both reactions are entirely wrong.
The Serbs protest that witnesses were intimidated and key testimony against Haradinaj was, therefore, never heard. The UN court judge dismissed the case saying the evidence against the former Kosovo premier was either inconclusive or nonexistent. Yet while a further accused, Idriz Balah, was also cleared, another former KLA commander, Lahi Brahimaj was convicted to the torture and cruel treatment of Serbs and jailed for six years. It must be wondered why if witnesses were prepared to come forward in the case of Brahimaj, others did not do so to testify against the remaining two defendants.
The prosecution may yet appeal the verdicts but, on the face of it, justice seems to have been done. Yet even if there has been a miscarriage, there are no grounds for the Serbs to announce they will now never arrest and hand over the two most wanted war criminals of the whole conflict in the former Yugoslavia: Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic. Horrific crimes were committed during the ethnic violence throughout former Yugoslavia. Everyone suspected of their commission should be brought to justice regardless of their ethnic background. Thus we have so far seen Bosnians, Croats, Serbs and now Kosovars convicted of heinous acts. We have also seen accused men found not guilty. Such verdicts may cause dissatisfaction and anger, and some guilty men may perhaps have walked free, but in civilized society the courts must be allowed to reach a decision based solely on the evidence that it presented to them.
The jubilant reaction of many Kosovars at Haradinaj’s acquittal is equally wrong-headed. Awful crimes were committed by the KLA and Haradinaj was its commander. It is no excuse that some of the Serbians in Kosovo were behaving no less brutally. Those Serbs too should be brought to justice. Even if Haradinaj was not himself personally involved in any war crimes, he cannot escape indirect responsibility because he was the man in ultimate command.
What is more, the crimes against Kosovar Serbs were carried out by the KLA in the name of the Albanian Kosovar majority. That ought, therefore, to be a cause for shame not rejoicing in Kosovo. It is equally to be deplored that Serbs do not feel dishonored by the behavior of Karadzic and Mladic, not least for the gruesome massacre of Srebrenica. Men from whatever community they come, who use their armed strength, to torture, rape and murder innocent civilian are a blemish on the causes they claimed to support. For the future health of their communities, they must all be brought to book.
