WASHINGTON — After eight years on the job, Carla del Ponte is about to step down as the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Set up by the United Nations to prosecute those on all sides in the Balkan wars — Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, Croats and, later, Albanian Kosovars — who committed atrocities, it is imperative that the U.N. appoint a new prosecutor prepared to carry on del Ponte's work.
The ICTY was the first international criminal tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals at the end of World War II. Despite a slow start, it has compiled an admirable record in bringing to justice and providing fundamentally fair trials for some 80 indictees, including generals, heads of state, and brutal prison camp commandants.