chapter eleven

Shadows across the Path

O

n May , , President Slobodan Milošević of Serbia (technically,

the Federal Republic of Yugo slavia) was accorded a very dubious

honor. He became the fi rst sitting head of state to be indicted for crimes by

an international tribunal. Along with four other top offi cials (including the

prime minister and the military chief of staff ), he was alleged to have insti-

gated crimes against humanity and war crimes. More specifi cally, he was

accused of responsibility for the massacre of forty- fi ve persons in the town

of Račak, in the rebellious province of Kosovo. Th e immediate eff ect of the

indictment was not great, since there was no superior power in the country

that could arrest the president. Th at changed, though, when a combination

of elections, street demonstrations, and abandonment by the military forced

Milošević out of offi ce, in October 2000. He was then arrested and, in June

2001, transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugo slavia in

Th e Hague.

Th is incident was only one of many signs that international law was be-

coming a more potent force in day- to- day aff airs than it had previously

been— a development over which there would be much ambivalent feeling.

President Milošević, it may be confi dently surmised, looked upon the trend

with disfavor. But many others did too, for a wide variety of reasons. Inter-

national law had previously been regarded as something rather esoteric and

vague— but also fairly harmless. It nestled cozily in arcane tomes in libraries

but was seldom seen abroad in the world. When it became more frequently

sighted, it was not always welcomed.