Serbs seize war crimes suspect | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited: Crime - December 18
More quality info from Guardian Unlimited:
One of the most notorious war crimes suspects in the Balkans was yesterday awaiting transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, despite his repeated declarations during three years on the run that he would never be taken alive. Following the crackdown on organised crime and political thuggery triggered by the assassination in March of the prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, the authorities have cleared up several of the biggest political crimes of the Milosevic years and arrested key figures wanted by the Hague. Last week, Jovica Stanisic, the security service chief of former president Slobodan Milosevic until 1998 and a central figure in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, was handed over to the Hague, where yesterday he pleaded not guilty to five counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Interesting article on Guardian Unlimited.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate attached hate crimes legislation to a must-pass Pentagon spending bill Thursday, but opponents predicted it ultimately would fail either in negotiations with the House or by presidential veto. “This bill will get vetoed.'’ Nonetheless, the Senate agreed by voice vote - with no dissenting votes - to attach the hate-crimes provision to a pending defense authorization bill that designates billions of federal dollars to the Defense Department and the Iraq war. The House bill would extend the hate crimes category to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability and give federal authorities greater leeway to participate in hate crime investigations.
USA Today has an interesting article:
Security Council approved a resolution Thursday to prosecute Sudanese war crimes suspects before the International Criminal Court, after the United States reversed policy and agreed not to use its veto. The United States won significant concessions, including ironclad guarantees it sought that Americans working in Sudan would not be handed over to either the ICC or any other nation’s courts if they are accused of crimes in Sudan. The Bush administration had wanted an African court to try those accused of war crimes, but the U.S. proposal had little support among the 14 other Security Council nations. The U.S. decision to allow the court to prosecute war crimes perpetrators could raise hackles among conservatives for whom the court is an unaccountable body that cannot be trusted. It says citizens of countries that have not ratified the treaty establishing the court may only be prosecuted by their own national courts.