Posted by
mgraves on Monday, May 25, 2009 5:37:59 PM
The circus that is "international justice"
continues at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Attorneys for Radovan Karadzic have filed a brief alleging that US envoy Richard Holbrooke offered Karadzic immunity from prosecution if he [Karadzic] gave up politics.
This offer of immunity allegedly occurred July 1996. Karadzic does not claim to have been at the meeting in Belgrade, but claims that the offers was reported to him by two former Bosnian Serb officials, and that those two individuals could testify to veracity of Karadzic's claim (I won't attempt the names of the officials because there aren't any vowels in their names, and I'm pretty sure that that is morally wrong--I jest, I'm just lazy).
The ICC states that it will proceed with the prosecution whether or not there was an offer of immunity. That is "international" justice for you--ad hoc and ex post facto. Throw on top of that that the U.S. is not a signatory to the ICC, and it is easy to see that Karadzic does not have a leg to stand on. My guess is that he's trying to run out the clock and die while on trial like Milosovic.
Anyway, Mr Holbrooke, now the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, denies the offer and calls the claim "laughable". Not surprising.
Karadzic stands trial for genocide, among other things. The court had to enter a plea of "not guilty" for him because he claimed that the ICC had no jurisdiction. He is correct, of course. A court established by treaty has no jurisdiction over non-signatory nations, especially when that court is charged with enforcing "international law" (and my opinions on that chimera are fairly well set). That said, hang him and be done with it, or turn him over to Bosnia and Herzegovinia for trial. The farce that the ICC is does no good and some bad. End it.