Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic

About the Book

An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials, Twilight of Impunity is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The historic trial of the “Butcher of the Balkans” began in 2002 and ended abruptly with Milosevic’s death in 2006. Judith Armatta, a lawyer who spent three years in the former Yugoslavia during Milosevic’s reign, had a front-row seat at the trial. In Twilight of Impunity she brings the dramatic proceedings to life, explains complex legal issues, and assesses the trial’s implications for victims of the conflicts in the Balkans during the 1990s and international justice more broadly. Armatta acknowledges the trial’s flaws, particularly Milosevic’s grandstanding and attacks on the institutional legitimacy of the International Criminal Tribunal. Yet she argues that the trial provided an indispensable legal and historical narrative of events in the former Yugoslavia and a valuable forum where victims could tell their stories and seek justice. It addressed crucial legal issues, such as the responsibility of commanders for crimes committed by subordinates, and helped to create a framework for conceptualizing and organizing other large-scale international criminal tribunals. The prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague was an important step toward ending impunity for leaders who perpetrate egregious crimes against humanity.

Table of Contents:
Preface: A Personal Note ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Note on Usage and Conventions xvii
Abbreviations xxi
Cast of Characters xxv
Introduction 1
1. Opening Statements 10
2. Milosevic Was Warned 25
3. The Lead-up to War 46
4. War in Kosova 75
5. Massacre and Cover-up 95
6. Milosevic's Rise to Power 117
7. The Exercise of (De Facto) Power 148
8. War and Attempts at Peace 182
9. War Comes to Bosnia 212
10. Concentration Camps and Safe Areas 240
11. Genocide 284
12. Immigration 322
13. The World According to Milosevic 345
14. Constructing Reality: Milosevic's Loyal Officers 370
15. Croatia and Bosnia: A Case of Self-Defense? 393
16. Conclusions and Recommendations 430
Afterword 449
Appendix I. Law of the Tribunal 451
Appendix II. List of Defense Witnesses 457
Appendix III. Chronology 459
Notes 471
Bibliography 517
Index 523

About the Author :

Judith Armatta is a lawyer, journalist, and human-rights advocate who monitored the trial of Slobodan Milosevic on behalf of the Coalition for International Justice. Her dispatches from The Hague appeared in Tribunal Update, published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting; Monitor, a magazine of political commentary published in Montenegro; the International Herald Tribune; and the Chicago Tribune. Prior to her work in The Hague, Armatta worked for the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Law Initiative, opening offices in Belgrade, Serbia (in 1997) and Montenegro (in 1999). During the Kosova War, she headed a War Crimes Documentation Project among Kosovar Albanian refugees in Macedonia. Armatta currently consults on international humanitarian, human rights, and other rule-of-law issues, most recently in the Middle East. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Review :
"Will Armatta's book, or others like it, get us any closer to achieving what is arguably the most valuable and probably the most realisable objective of these courts, which would be to lay out a record of evidence that could be used to justify earlier and more decisive political and military action in future conflicts with similar potential for war crimes? We can hope so. But we need to recognise that there is no evidence that the prospect of punishment deters would-be perpetrators of mass atrocities." - Geoffrey Nice, deputy prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, London Review of Books "In Twilight of Impunity, Judith Armatta has done for the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the Butcher of the Balkans, what Hannah Arendt did for the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Architect of the Holocaust: present an unflinching depiction of the crimes, the anguish of the victims and witnesses, the arrogance of the killers, the virtues and flaws of the judicial process, and the banality of the evil that can arise when leaders assume they enjoy impunity."oChuck Sudetic, author of Blood and Vengeance and co-author of Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity's Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity "As the only independent lawyer to have monitored and reported regularly from the Milosevic trial courtroom from its first day, Judith Armatta has produced an unparalleled, first-hand account of the first truly international war crimes trial of a national leader in history. Armatta captures courtroom atmosphere and personalities with a thoroughly engaging reportorial style, but brings her legal and regional expertise to bear in explaining and analyzing important testimony and judicial decisions. Twilight of Impunity is not only a singular history of the trial, but a compelling narrative of the major battles and convoluted diplomatic struggles of the Balkan wars. The book is filled with previously unreported insights arising from the testimony of major figures of the era, including Milosevic, former world leaders, NATO officials, victims, judges and prosecutors. A compelling and thorough source of unconventional wisdom on the trial and its impact, this book must be read by anyone hoping to understand the Balkans and the new era of international war crimes trials."oNina Bang-Jensen, former Executive Director/Counsel, Coalition for International Justice