Ratko Mladic Extradtion.

Since his dramatic arrest on Thursday (26/5/11) alleged Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic has had his identity verified and appeared in front of a Serbian court which has authorised his extradition to the Netherlands to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. However his lawyer has lodged an appeal against the extradition. I have to say that he's actually got a point.

Although the ICC is meant to be an independent, international body like the United Nations it is still based in the Netherlands. That means that all the people involved in the trail will have to stay in Dutch hotels or apartments, eat their meals in Dutch restaurants, travel to and from the court on Dutch roads patrolled by the Dutch police and get their visas from the Dutch customs authorities. This gives the Dutch state far too much influence over the proceedings and means that Mladic will not receive a fair trial. This is because there are many people, not all of them Serbs, who think that senior members of the Dutch state should be on trial alongside Mladic as an accessory to his alleged war crimes. Not only did heavily armed Dutch soldiers stand by and watch as Bosnian-Serb forces massacred 8000 prisoners at Srebrenica there were also numerous incidents were Dutch soldiers all too easily allowed themselves and their weapons to be captured by Bosnian-Serb forces. Many of those weapons went on to be used in other crimes against humanity. Mladic is actually charged with one of these incidents which took place in May 1995. So with the eyes of their European neighbours and possibly the world upon them there is a very real possibility that the Dutch will try to hide their own guilt by vilifying Mladic and he will be convicted regardless of what the evidence says.

Not only that but the idea of holding Mladic's trial in the Netherlands goes against the principle of localisation on which all war crimes tribunals are based. Basically the idea is that justice is best served by holding any trial as close as possible to where the crime was committed. This principle is shared by most legal systems in the developed world including Britain's and America's and is why the Nazi trials were held in Nuremberg, the Khmer Rouge trials were held in Cambodia and the Charles Taylor trial is currently being held in Sierra Leone. So the Mladic trial should really be held in Bosnia & Herzegovina although even I can see why that might pose a security problem. However there is no reason why the trial can't be held in Hungary, Romania or Macedonia. Like the former Yugoslavia these countries were all part of the Soviet bloc and therefore will be more familiar with the problems faced during Soviet occupation and the years that followed the collapse of the USSR. Alternatively the trial could be held in Greece because they really need the money.

Oh and I should point out that if you squint really, really hard I suppose that Ratko Mladic might look a bit like one of my neighbours known to the Americans as Joe the Plumber. While it's not my place to put his business up on the Internet I think I'm commenting on rumours that are already circulating when I confirm that he is experiencing some legal problems that could force him to sell his house below market value. If that happens can you guess which company will be sweeping in to make an offer?