Judgement in The Hague or Justice in History

Slobodan Milosevic started and prosecuted the greatest European conflict since World War II. He was responsible for thousands of deaths, injuries, and rapes. He personally authorized concentration camps, and oversaw mass murder in Croatia and Bosnia. While many of his lieutenants were indicted for war crimes, it remained questionable that Milosevic, the "Darling of Dayton," would ever be punished for his crimes. Even if he is not brought to justice, the World Court began a case in mid-1996 which charged the state of "Yugoslavia" with violation of the 1948 Paris Convention Against Genocide. It was the first time in history that a such a charge had been leveled at an entire country rather than a few of its citizens.

Franjo Tudjman may not have built a perfect democracy during the difficult war-torn years of 1989 through 1995. Many problems faced the republic and its politically divided leadership. Reflecting on the post-dictatorship periods in Spain and Greece, Tudjman called for national reconciliation in 1996. He urged a "balanced historical view of all major personalities and movements in modern Croatian history," whether Josip Tito, Ante Pavelic, or Vlako Macek, and suggested that all could be buried in Croatia. For this he was accused by his critics on the Left as being a too far to the Right, and his critics on the Right for remaining an "old communist."

The Right also charged that he had let far too many former communists stay at their jobs if they were performing them well. The charge was partially true. Unlike American presidents, Tudjman did not sack every minister and every attorney from the previous administration. The Left charged that far too many former exiles, from the United States, Canada, Australia, and around the world, had returned to Croatia and were in positions of power. That charge was also true. For example, twenty-two per cent of the Foreign Ministry staff came from emigration, including the Ambassador to Canada who had lived in California for decades before independence.

Whether Franjo Tudjman was too far to the Right, too close to former communists, too nationalistic, or too conciliatory toward the Serbs, was in the eyes of the beholder. Yet the young Republic of Croatia from 1991 through 1996, with all of its problems, moved more quickly toward a free market economy and democratic institutions than many other emerging nations.

The deeds of Slobodan Milosevic will be judged by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, whether or not he sits in the dock. Franjo Tudjman will be judged by Croatian History.

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