War Criminal Updates

I always enjoy checking in with the UN criminal tribunals to see how the lethargic hunting down and prosecution of various war criminals is coming along. Following is the latest and greatest. Perhaps if the world spent less time worrying about Bin Laden's whereabouts, murderers far greater than he would be brought to justice:

1) Charles Taylor: The once illegitimate leader of Liberia propped up by his rebel force (National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL)), turned President (elected in "free and fair"elections in 1997) has been in exile in Nigeria since 2003. 2003 was the climax of a combined Liberean/Sierra Leonean rebel attack against Charles Taylor's NPFL. These rebels took over Monrovia, Nigerian Peacekeepers arrived (temporarily backed by US troops), the UN managed to pull together a broader reaching peacekeeping force, US troops pulled out and riots continued through 2004. Charles Taylor is accused of "17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Sierra Leone by the Special Court. The crimes include killings, mutilations, rape and other forms of sexual violence, sexual slavery, the recruitment and use of child soldiers, abduction, and the use of forced labor by Sierra Leonean armed opposition groups. "
NIGERIA MUST SURRENDER TAYLOR FOR PROSECUTION IN THE SPECIAL SIERRA LEONE COURT.

2) Theoneste Bagosora: Mastermind of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. He has been in the midst of prosecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) since 1996. With the verdict still pending, the ICTR continues to struggle over the legitimacy of expert witnesses and truthfulness of character and other witnesses. If only there were a way to insure a fair trial without all of the ensuing bureaucracyy!
PROSECUTE THE MAN ALREADY!!!!

3) Ratko Mladic: The once invincible military leader of the Serbian Army, was also a man disillusionedd by his own power. During his "ethnic cleansing" campaign (a friendlier phrase for Genocide) of Bosnian Muslims, Mladic took hostage numerous Dutch UN peacekeepers, tying and chaining them to military targets essential to NATO's proposed airstrikes. This delayed intervention and caused Dutch troops to back away from the contested safe areas. This allowed Mladic to commit the largest singular act of ethnic cleansing/genocide since WWII. 7,414 Muslim men were herded into a warehouse and mowed down by automatic weapons and hand grenades. Later, Mladic met with UN Force Commander, British General Rupert Smith. When talks did not go his way, Mladic thugishly declared "I am a war criminal, but you have to talk to me as I am the only one who can allow you to leave Gorzade." Later, Smith pulled all UN troops out of the "safe areas" and intense NATO bombings began.
STILL AT LARGE

4) Slobodan Milosevic: Arrested in April 2001, Milosevic is one of the most infamous war criminals known to our generation. His 13 year reign over the Serbian people ended in the total destruction of the country's infrastructure as well as that of all 6 Yugoslav republics. Responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and the displacement of nearly the entire country throughout the Croatiann (1991), Bosnian (1992) and Kosovo (1999) wars, Milosevic is the worst man Europe has encountered since Hitler.
CURRENTLY ON TRIAL ICTY

Obviously, there are many more war criminal awaiting trial than I have addressed: The greatest demons are usually the hardest to put down.