With all hell breaking loose in Iraq, a typhoon named Durian drowning hundreds in the Philippines, and the FSB irradiating or shooting any Russian who has opened their mouth in the past six years, how about some good news in the world of international affairs to cap off the week?
I know I could use it.
Here's the good word from the UN News Centre:
The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today sentenced a former Bosnian Serb general to life in prison after dismissing an appeal against his convictions for his role in the long siege of the city of Sarajevo during the early 1990s.
The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), sitting in The Hague, upheld prosecutors’ separate appeal against the original sentence of 20 years for Stanislav Galic, a commander in the Bosnian Serb army, over the campaign of daily shelling and sniping against Sarajevo’s residents.
It is the first time that the ICTY’s appeal chamber has imposed the maximum penalty.
A majority of judges dismissed all 19 grounds of appeal by Mr. Galic against his convictions, stating that there was ample evidence to demonstrate that the main purpose of the attacks during the siege was to spread terror among Sarajevo’s civilian population.
While foreign policy conservatives in the United States rail against the United Nations for being ineffective and corrupt, it is a useful reminder to see that some of the institutions like the ICTY, over which the individual Member States have the least control, are highly capable of carrying out the mandates assigned to them. With this life sentence, hopefully our world can build momentum to bring justice to those who have committed crimes against the world's civilians who find themselves caught in warfare, be it in Iraq, Sudan, the United States, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Rwanda, Chile, or other parts of our planet.