Europe’s Most Wanted

The Srebrenica massacre is unforgettable. Over 8,000 Muslims went missing, later some were founded dumped in pits. Discoveries of numerous mass graves and horrific human stories have no parallel in the recent history but the World War II. The ethnic cleaning of Muslims sent chilling message of intolerance to the followers of Mohammad (Peace be upon Him) elsewhere in Europe where they also live as economic migrants.

The top Serb figure, Slobodan Milosevic, alleged for crimes against humanity, died on March 11, 2006 in a United Nations’ custody in The Hague, Netherlands. Ever since, the aggrieved families across the erstwhile Yugoslavia have hoped for justice to be served. While Milosevic was the architect of the war, there remain dozens others who teamed up for the bloodshed. In April 1992, General Ratko Mladic began the siege of Sarajevo for four years, killing 10,000 people followed by massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and rape of countless women across Bosnia.

Given some segments of Serb population respecting alleged criminals like Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general who led the war on Bosnian Muslims, more high-value arrests could not be possible. Serbia is neither Pakistan in terms of 170-million population nor Afghanistan for its treacherous topography. The fact that Europe’s most want man has been elusive until May 26 speaks well of the political and administrative fault-lines in Serbia. The former general, who spent 16 years hiding in military bases and countryside farming areas, does not have blood of the Muslims on his hands but also of his consciousness daughter Ana who committed suicide at the age of 23 after listening about his transgressions in March 2004.

Unlike the operation against OBL on May 2, the Serb police were more sane and respectful to the man’s right to stand a trial. Though armed, Mladic neither resisted nor the Serbian police provoked for such retaliation. Serbs and Balkan Muslims are better off as the 69-year-old faces jury in The Hague. Though the proceedings would be anxiously followed in the Balkans and elsewhere in the world, no revenge or backlash is feared, except from pro-Mladic ultra-nationalist Serbs.

As expected, sympathizers of Mladic show little willingness for the Serb general to stand a trial. Convenient excuses of ‘poor health’ and ‘inability to answer simple questions’ may still block the path to justice. The International Criminal Tribunal is known for its slow pace of proceedings where most alleged criminals are aged and ill. The Balkans is anything but stable, thus much depends on what verdicts are handed down to such criminals.

Belated arrest of a former general, allegedly supported by senior officers in military ranks, is not enough for Serbia to shed its image as a pariah nation and unblock long-sought accession to the European Union. The Serbs may put the Balkans War behind but not those who lost their loved ones and continue to live with harsh memories of the yesteryears.

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