Two events happened this week that really bring out impunity back on the world stage with victims of war crimes looking on with exasperation. The first took place at The Hague when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) let loose a celebrated and notorious war criminal. Vojislav Šešelj, the founder and head of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS), had been on record calling for the expulsion and forcible transfer of the non-Serbs, denigrated and dehumanized the Croats comparing them to “primates” and “vampires”. He had even called Bosnian Muslims “excrements” and set up several groups of armed militias – one even named after him – that went on a campaign of ethnic cleansing that led to the deaths of thousands and the displacement of even more. That is the man an international tribunal has let loose. In a somewhat related incident, former French Prime Minister who has been implicated in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, took to Twitter to again sow confusion and propagate his revisionist policies. It was well timed, as he always does, to coincide with commemorations of the Genocide. Today he is a feted man in his country and is even running of the highest office. The two cases vividly demonstrate how little esteem the so-called First World has for human life and are even willing to openly flaunt their impunity. Today, the international criminal justice system has again proven that it works in mysterious ways – that of its sponsors who have their own agendas. One cannot fail to fear that with Juppé and Šešelj still having the powers to do ill, the world is not a safe place at all.
