Better late than never

Better late than never

Akron Beacon Journal: For 16 years, Gen. Ratko Mladic evaded arrest on war crimes charges, his freedom mocking the victims of atrocities he unleashed during the Bosnian wars. On Thursday, Serbian authorities announced the Bosnian Serb fugitive had been arrested in a village in northern Serbia where he was living under an assumed name. With plans under way to extradite him to the international court at The Hague, the announcement was, as the Dutch prime minister observed, ‘’a good day for justice.”

Mladic was not alone in perpetrating horrifying acts of brutality in the conflicts across the Balkans in the 1990s. His arrest underscores the need to keep up the pressure in bringing to justice the architects of war crimes.

It may be, as some observers suggest, that the arrest of Mladic at this juncture is a calculated move by a Serbian government anxious to close a bloody chapter of recent history and remove a barrier to its membership in the European Union. Whatever the motive, Serbian authorities pledged the swift extradition of Mladic, a welcome signal they want no part of providing safe harbor for war criminals hiding from international law.