Is the prosecution of alleged human rights violators the most appropriate means to bring peace to war torn societies? In the former Yugoslavia, the widespread reporting of atrocities left the international community little moral room in which to manoeuvre. How could the leaders of civilised states sit down and discuss the future with people who only months before had organised and instigated the rape, torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians?
So abhorrent was such a scenario, the negotiators at Dayton refused to talk to Radovan Karadic and General Ratko Mladic, the two most prominent leaders of the Bosnian Serbs. Instead they preferred to direct their suggestions to Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic. All three are now indicted war criminals.
