Prosecuting Slobodan Milošević. The unfinished trial and the politics of law, Amsterdam - Hoofdinhoud

With the premature death of the former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević in March 2006, his trial was left unfinished. His death was followed by disappointment with a justice system that had failed to address the accountability of an individual for mass atrocities committed over the course of ten years. But had it? Geoffrey Nice (barrister), Jan Pronk (former politician), Liesbeth Zegveld (lawyer in International Humanitarian law), and Nevenka Tromp (lecturer in European Studies) discuss.

In order to understand the disappointed reactions to the failed prosecution of Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it is important to understand what expectations the victims and the general public had of a ruling. What did they expect to gain from the judgment if Milošević had lived? Retribution through a very long prison sentence? Some confidence that the trial’s result would deter other war criminals and add to the creation of a safer world? Or did they expect that a judgement would meet the developing citizen’s ‘right to know’ and thus would explain why these mass atrocities occurred and at whose instigation? Can the existing record of this unfinished trial meet any of these expectations?

In her recently published book on the Milošević trial, Nevenka Tromp argues that the Milošević trial archive is an invaluable historical resource for researchers of all disciplines. Although the traditional objectives of criminal law - retribution, deterrence and general justice - was not delivered by a judgment and punishment, the archive gives a detailed account of both the trial and the complexity of the occurred atrocities.

During the trial, Milošević acted as his own defence counsel responding to, and interacting with, almost all witnesses and commenting on nearly all evidence presented against him. He laid out truths and lies that enhanced the case against him so that, by great irony, the trial record comes to life in large part through Milošević’s attempts to destroy it. Witnesses facing Milošević in person pushed back against the false accounts he advanced, and sometimes they knocked him over.

Documents seized by the Tribunal from state archives - normally hidden from public view for 30 years - stand as sentries marking the route that court-watchers, journalists, lawyers and judges will have to take in drawing conclusions about Milošević’s responsibility and about the responsibility of the state he led to its, and to his own, ruin. To what extent is the trial’s archive able to satisfy the extensive expectations victims and the general public had from a judgment?

Before and after the programme Nevenka Tromp's book Prosecuting Slobodan Milošević will be on sale for the special discount price of €59,50 (regular €139), with courtesy of Athenaeum Booksellers.

About the speakers

Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC is a British barrister who first came to work for the ICTY in 1998. From 2001 to 2006 he was the lead prosecutor in the ICTY case against Slobodan Milošević.

Mr. Jan Pronk is a Dutch politician who held a number of top political posts nationally and internationally. During the conflict in the former Yugoslavia he was Minister for Development Cooperation (1989-1998).

Dr. Nevenka Tromp is a lecturer at the European Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). From 2000 to 2012 she was a member of the Leadership Research Team (LRT) at the ICTY and in that capacity worked as the principal researcher in the team prosecuting Slobodan Milošević.

Professor Liesbeth Zegveld is a lawyer specialised in the International Humanitarian law. She is also Professor of War Reparations at the University of Amsterdam and the founder of the Hasan Nuhanović Foundation, that helps victims to seek legal remedies.

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