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July 3: Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic today made his initial appearance at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Here is our guide to the best writing from around the web.
International criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - UN
Special report: Yugoslavia war crimes
The issue explained
The weblog: latest issues in links
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Nuremberg: a fair trial?
The ICTY is the world's first war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg - so it is worth reading this Atlantic Monthly opinion piece from 1946, which asks whether the Nuremberg trial itself was fair. Then, as now, the debate was between those who saw the trial as an "effective recognition of a world law for the punishment of malefactors" or a denial of the principles of natural justice.
Atlantic Monthly
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The testimony of Rudolf Hoess
Here is a transcript of the British cross-examination of Rudolf Hoess, on the 108th day of the Nuremberg trial. Hoess was commander of the extermination camp at Auschwitz, Poland, from 1940 to 1943.
Nuremberg trial - CourtTV.com
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A new kind of justice
The Atlantic Monthly heralded the introduction of the ICTY with this analysis of its goals and remit - which, it says, are "far broader" than people at the time perceived.
Atlantic Monthly
Legal precedents at the Hague - Crimes of War project
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Milosevic in the Hague: a signal achievement ...
The Washington Post calls bringing Milosevic to the Hague a "signal achievement by the Bush administration". The strong-arm tactics of threatening to cut off Yugoslavia's aid seem to have worked.
Washington Post
"Get ready, you are leaving" - National Post
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... or a political circus?
When Slobodan Milosevic calls his forthcoming appearance a "political circus", he has a point, says Mick Hume in the Times: the very concept of "war crimes" always betrays a political motive.
Times
Ends do not justify the means - Moscow Times
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Indict him again
The BBC's Alan Little hopes that Milosevic will also be indicted for what he did in Bosnia and Croatia. His comments, made on Radio 4's Today programme, appear in the Institute of War and Peace Reporting.
Institute of War and Peace Reporting
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Nato's shame
Amnesty International claimed that Nato is guilty of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. In this newspaper, Isabel Hilton examined the "breathtaking conclusion", arrived at by the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee last year, that Nato's intervention was illegal but morally justified.
Collateral damage or unlawful killings? - Amnesty International
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Defending at the Hague
What is it like to defend an alleged war criminal at the Hague? Lawyer Anthony d'Amato, who was asked to defend the late Bosnian Serb anaesthesiologist Milan Kovacevic against charges of complicity in genocide, relates a few of his insights. From the Chicago Journal of International Law.
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Has Rwanda's tribunal failed in its mandate?
Most of the masterminds of the genocide in Rwanda are living freely, according to an influential NGO. AllAfrica.com asks whther the international criminal tribuanl for Rwanda (ICTR) has met its mandate.
AllAfrica.com
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The Gacaca system
Later this year the "Gacaca system" comes into place, under which Rwanda genocide suspects will be taken to their communes of origin and judged by a community court. Internews.org, which is touring Rwanda with its film of the first six ICTR trials, reports on the reaction.
Inside the UN prison - Internews.org
ICTR reports - Internews.org
Legal precedents in Rwanda - Crimes of War project
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The Bob Kerrey disclosures
The New York Times magazine interviews former US senator and war hero Bob Kerrey about his experiences in Vietnam - including one awful night in February, 1969, when he and his men killed at least 13 unarmed women and children in the village of Thanh Phong. He later called the events of that night an "atrocity" but not a "war crime".
New York Times
What made him do it? - Village Voice
Leave no child behind? - Christopher Hitchens, the Nation
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