Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been handed over to the international war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is the first head of state to be brought to the court, where he is accused of committing war crimes during the brutal offensive he launched against the province of Kosovo. The decision to deliver Mr. Milosevic to the tribunal was taken by a reluctant Yugoslav government; it is a victory for human rights, the court itself and the Western strategy of steady pressure on the Belgrade regime.
Mr. Milosevic has been in jail since April while local allegations of abuse of power and corruption were investigated. He was indicted in May 1999 by the United Nations tribunal for alleged atrocities committed in Kosovo during an offensive two years ago against the province's ethnic Albanian population. About 10,000 ethnic Albanians were estimated to have died in the crackdown. Reportedly, prosecutors also plan to charge him with war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia.
When Mr. Milosevic was forced from office by a popular uprising last year, his successor, Mr. Vojislav Kostunica, originally denied that his government would hand the Serb leader over to the tribunal. Mr. Kostunica feared that any such move would destabilize the country as Milosevic loyalists and cronies fought extradition. Instead, the government argued that Yugoslavia itself should examine Mr. Milosevic's responsibility for and complicity in any war crimes or atrocities committed during the Balkan conflicts.