{
  "id": "RL30864",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL30864",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 100314,
      "date": "2002-05-23",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:09:54.861941",
      "title": "Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal: Current Issues for Congress",
      "summary": "The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, established by U.N. Security\nCouncil resolutions in 1993, was the first international war crimes court to be founded since the\npost-World War II period. It is charged with prosecuting persons responsible for war crimes\ncommitted in the former Yugoslavia since 1991. To date, the Yugoslavia Tribunal has publicly\nindicted over 100 persons for crimes relating to the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Over\n40 persons are currently in proceedings at The Hague. Dozens more are under public or secret\nindictment, and the Tribunal\u2019s Chief Prosecutor continues to investigate charges against\nadditional\nsuspects. The Yugoslavia Tribunal is separate from and unaffiliated with the International Criminal\nCourt established by the Rome Treaty of 1998, and launched by over 60 countries in April 2002.\n \n On June 28, 2001, former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was transferred to The Hague. \nThe trial for Milosevic, the only head of state to stand before an international court for war crimes,\ncommenced in February 2002 and is expected to last a couple of years. Some of\nYugoslavia\u2019s new\ndemocratic leaders had resisted his extradition but yielded to international pressure on the eve of an\ninternational conference on financial assistance to Yugoslavia. Pressure was again applied to\nBelgrade in April 2002, when the United States suspended bilateral financial assistance to Serbia\nbecause of its limited cooperation with the Tribunal beyond Milosevic\u2019s transfer. In\nresponse,\nBelgrade passed new legislation to allow the transfer of war crimes suspects to The Hague and has\ncalled on 23 named indicted suspects to surrender voluntarily or be subject to arrest.\n \n The lingering presence of persons indicted and suspected of war crimes has been detrimental\nto the peace process in Bosnia, by most assessments. The two top remaining indicted suspects,\nformer Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain at large. NATO\npeacekeeping forces in Bosnia have seized over twenty alleged war criminals since 1997; however,\nNATO efforts to seize Karadzic in eastern Bosnia in early 2002 were unsuccessful.\n \n After Milosevic\u2019s fall from power in late 2000, the Clinton Administration removed\neconomic\nsanctions against Serbia and began to provide economic assistance authorized by Congress to Serbia.\nHowever, Congress mandated a deadline of March 31, 2001, for Belgrade to comply with\ncommitments to cooperate with the Tribunal, or face a funding cut-off. In April, the Bush\nAdministration certified that Belgrade was meeting these commitments, but continued to pressure\nBelgrade to demonstrate further progress, especially the transfer of Milosevic (which took place in\nJune). Facing a similar deadline the following year, the Administration held off certification of\nSerbian compliance with the Tribunal until May 21, when it cited recent measures of progress by\nBelgrade and released remaining unobligated U.S. assistance to Serbia for FY2002. While it has\nconsistently supported the Yugoslavia Tribunal over the years, the United States is opposed to the\nestablishment of the International Criminal Court and formally renounced the ICC treaty in May\n2002.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
      "formats": [
        {
          "format": "PDF",
          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL30864",
          "sha1": "45363c6668c9445193c94ef92793a44042e868ad",
          "filename": "files/20020523_RL30864_45363c6668c9445193c94ef92793a44042e868ad.pdf",
          "images": null
        },
        {
          "format": "HTML",
          "filename": "files/20020523_RL30864_45363c6668c9445193c94ef92793a44042e868ad.html"
        }
      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs"
  ]
}