Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav leader who was the main architect of the bloody 1990s Balkan wars, defied justice in a dramatic way. He died in a Hague tribunal prison cell in March 2006 before he was set to receive a verdict at his trial. For many Bosnians, his escape from punishment symbolizes exactly how justice has been served in Bosnia.
Last month, two former Serbian officials in the longest running international war crimes case in history were finally convicted of “aiding and abetting” war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia. Jovica Stanisic, the former head of Serbia’s state security apparatus, and Franko “Frenki” Simatovic, his deputy, were among the final cases heard by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established by the United Nations in 1993 to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
