The Ratko Mladic Trial

Today (16/5/12) the trial of former Serbian military commander Ratko Mladic opened at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands. Mladic faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity specifically; genocide, ethnic persecution, extermination, deportation and inflicting terror/committing inhumane acts. The charges relate to the Bosnian war between April 1992 and July 1995. The trial is currently at it's technical stages with the prosecution scheduled to begin laying out their case on May 29th (29/5/12). The entire trial is expected to last for months if not years.

While I appreciate that there is no such thing as a routine ICC trial the Mladic trial seems very poorly timed and will be hugely controversial. It was the revulsion at the atrocities committed during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia - many of which were comparable to the Nazi holocaust - that prompted the international community to set up the ICC as a permanent international body to prevent further atrocities being committed by bringing those who committed them to justice. The Mladic trial will examine many of the worst of these atrocities in great detail. If it is found that these events didn't occur in quite the way they were reported at the time it will undermine the justification for setting up the ICC and therefore undermine the credibility of the court which has since gone on to be involved in some of the most controversial areas of international relations including Libya and Sudan. This could not happen at a worse time because in June the ICC's Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will step down to be replaced by Fatou Bensouda who as a Gambian will be the first African to ever hold the post. Any controversy over the formation and function of the ICC will undoubtedly influence the way the office of Chief Prosecutor operates in the future especially as Bensouda takes over difficult active cases such Saif al-Islam Qaddafi in Libya while trying to put her own stamp on the role.

The second element of the Mladic trial that will be hugely contentious are the charges relating to events at the town of Srebrenica. Here Serb forces moved in to take control of the town forcing many of the town's Muslim residents to flee on foot into the woods where many of them were killed in what became known as the Death March. Serb forces then went on to systematically round up all the Muslim men and boys in the surrounding area and force them into Nazi-style concentration camps. At this point United Nations (UN) peacekeepers from the Netherlands summoned Mladic to Srebrenica to explain what would happen to the prisoners. Mladic personally assured the then commander of UN forces in Bosnia and now British Conservative Party MP Bob Stewart that the prisoners would be well cared for and humanely treated. After both Stewart and Mladic had left Srebrenica Serb forces proceeded to slaughter every last man and boy in the camps killing at least 8000 while the Dutch peacekeepers stood by and watched. Since then accusations has persisted that rather then keeping the peace the Dutch troops actively collaborated with the Serb forces in the killing of Muslims even going so far as supplying them with weapons and ammunition. Although Sovereign the ICC is located within the Netherlands and one of the Judges in the Mladic trial - Alphons Orie - is Dutch. As many think the Dutch should be on trial themselves rather then presiding over them this sort of conflict of interest seriously begins to undermine the ICC's claim that proceedings will be fair and impartial.

It was also the events at Srebrencia particularly the way that Mladic was perceived to have lied in the face of the UN that has fuelled much of western Europe's hatred of the Serbs throughout the 1990's and 2000's. This has pushed Serbia and Russia closer together and has fuelled Serb nationalism to the point where the big winner in Serbia's May 6th (6/5/12) elections was Ivica Dacic who served in a political role alongside both Slobodan Milosevic and Ratko Mladic during the Bosnian war, is nicknamed "Little Slobo" due to his similarity in attitude to Milosevic and was himself acquitted of crimes against humanity relating to the Bosnian war by the ICC. The west's animosity towards Serbia also led to the Kosovo war and the further break up of the former Yugoslavia into tiny states like Macedonia and Montenegro. These small states along with other members of the former USSR have been gobbled up one by one by an ever expanding European Union (EU). This has worried Russia which sees itself losing influence of it's near abroad and led to it supporting some highly questionable governments in places like Belarus, Hungary and Ukraine. International negotiations over Syria have made these differences of opinion between the EU and Russia more pronounced and they will be inflamed further by the Eurovision Song Contest and the Euro2012 football finals. If the Russians become too irritated they may responded by increasing their influence in that other Balkan member of the EU - Greece - making the already complex Eurozone crisis that little bit more complicated.

So while I appreciate that in order to grow into a credible international body the ICC needs to be seen to deliver justice in a timely fashion surely the Mladic trial can wait until at least autumn 2012. After all the Charles Taylor trial lasted for seven years and other defendants on trial over the Bosnian war such as Milosevic have died of old age before their trials completed. Besides allowing the British and Dutch Monarchies to turn proceedings into a circus in order to destabilise the Euro most certainly doesn't convince me that the ICC view Mladic's right to a fair trial to be a priority.

Edited at around 12:50 on 17/5/12: Today the Mladic trial has been adjourned after the US prosecutors failed to disclose large amounts of evidence to the defence. No date for the resumption of the trial has been set but the defence estimate it will take until October/November 2012 for them to work through the extra evidence. This sounds reasonable. After all if Mladic is acquitted or convicted the most important things is that there is no doubt that the court has made the right decision.