The New York Times Nazi propagandist at work. He tries to outdo Goebbels and Eichmann. No comment necessary. This is how Antony Lewis explains the verdict and its intent in his OP-ED article, on Friday May 9, 1997. For "fair use" only: 

For fair use only
Published under the provision of
U.S. Code, Title 17, section 107.

It is as if the Nuremberg tribunal after World War II had found a German soldier guilty of war crimes while the Nazi leaders who directed the Holocaust went free -- and continued to control half of Germany.

That, by analogy, is the case of Dusan Tadic, convicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for what he did as a paramilitary in the Serbian onslaught in Bosnia. It was the first trial of its kind since Nuremberg, a historic step toward holding war criminals accountable for their atrocities. But the surrounding realities gave it a bitter aftertaste.

The Yugoslav tribunal has indicted 74 men, most of them Serbs, but only 8 are in custody. Authorities in Serbia and the Serbian sector of Bosnia have refused to hand over suspects. And the NATO allies with military forces in Bosnia have so far done nothing to bring them to book.

The most important indictees are Radovan Karadzic, who as political leader of the Bosnian Serbs directed their genocidal campaign of "ethnic cleansing," and Gen. Ratko Mladic, who as military commander carried it out. Both are at large in Republika Srpska, the Serbian half of Bosnia.

The failure to arrest Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic is not only a moral blot and a crippling blow to the credibility of the war crimes tribunal. It is a failure with menacing consequences for the United States and its allies. It puts into question their ability to withdraw forces from Bosnia with any confidence in continued peace.

Dr. Karadzic, though barred from office under the Dayton peace accords, is running Republika Srpska from behind the scenes: not far behind, indeed, because his hand has become increasingly obvious in recent months. He is blocking efforts to carry out the civilian clauses of the Dayton accords, which were designed to knit Bosnia back together.

Thus only about 250,000 of the estimated 2.5 million displaced Bosnians have been able to return to their homes, a right assured by Dayton. Republika Srpska has signed a customs agreement with Serbia, in violation of Dayton. It has a separate telephone system that makes it hard to talk to the rest of Bosnia. The International Crisis Group, a well-informed private organization, concluded last month that "prospects look bleak for Bosnia staying together."

The Clinton Administration has promised to withdraw by mid-1998 the 8,600 U.S. troops that are part of the Stabilization Force in Bosnia. European countries will not keep their troops there without us.

But if international forces leave before there is real implementation of Dayton's political provisions, most experts think bloody fighting will break out again. That would be a disaster for the reputation of the United States and its allies. At the very moment that we are trying to enlarge NATO, it will have failed a crucial test.

If we want to avoid that result, we have to be serious about implementing Dayton. Arrest of the major war criminals is crucial.

The elected President of Republika Srpska, Biljana Plavsic, has actually shown a desire to work broadly within Dayton; but she has been overridden by Dr. Karadzic and his men. A Clinton Administration official put it bluntly: "Apart from justice and morality, the presence of Karadzic is a menace to Dayton."

The Administration has talked about forming a special police unit to arrest war criminals. Where that stands is uncertain, but a policy review is going on now.

Anyone who does not know why we should care about Bosnia -- and why we need to bring accused war criminals before the tribunal -- should read a new book. It is "End Game," by David Rohde, who reported in The Christian Science Monitor on finding mass graves of the Muslims slaughtered by General Mladic and his men after they seized the supposed U.N. safe area of Srebrenica in June 1995.

"End Game" tells the shameful story of how United Nations representatives and military commanders slithered out of the pledge to protect Srebrenica. It tells about Gen. Bernard Janvier and Yasushi Akashi, the chief U.N. representative, meeting President Slobodan Milosevic at a hunting lodge of his a month after the Srebrenica massacre. When Mr. Milosevic said no hunting was allowed near the lodge, Mr. Akashi joked, "a safe area for animals." Everyone laughed. 

Mr. Antony Lewis and the fascist leadership of America are all at large. 

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