Transfer of Milosevic Founded in International Law

The transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to the war crimes court in The Hague is a historic precedent with a sound basis in international law. Since 1998, eight Security Council resolutions have called on the Yugoslav government to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). 
 
"Yugoslavia has an overriding obligation under international law to cooperate with the tribunal," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program. "The legal basis provided by international law for the transfer not only of Milosevic but of all indicted Yugoslav citizens is unshakable."  
 
On Friday, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic invoked Yugoslavia's obligations under international law to support the transfer. Some in Yugoslavia are questioning the transfer, however, asserting that it may have violated Yugoslav law. "If Yugoslavia were to invoke domestic legislation as a reason for not fulfilling its obligations under international law it would run against the basic principles of international law," said Dicker.  
 
The tribunal was created in 1993 by U.N. Security Council resolution 827, which obliged all U.N. member states to "cooperate fully" with the tribunal and "take any measures necessary under their domestic law" to comply with its demands. The U.N. Charter's article 25, in turn, obliges member states to implement Security Council decisions.  
 
Since 1998, four Security Council resolutions specifically called on the Yugoslav government to cooperate fully with the tribunal. They are: resolution 1160 (March 31, 1998), para. 17; resolution 1199 (September 23, 1998), para. 13; resolution 1203 (October 24, 1998), para. 14; and resolution 1207, (November 17, 1998), paras. 1-4 . Two additional resolutions called on all parties to the Dayton Accords, which included Yugoslavia, to cooperate. These are resolution 1247 (June 18, 1999), para. 3; and resolution 1305 (June 21, 2000), para. 3. Resolution 1244 (June 10, 1999), para. 14, and resolution 1329 (December 5, 2000), para. 5, called on member states to cooperate with the tribunal.