The former investigator of the Hague Tribunal for crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Vladimir Dzuro, warned that there is "zero" chance that the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, will be arrested and brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, pointing out that it was the same in the case of Slobodan Milosevic while the government did not change in Belgrade.
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"The arrest of President Vladimir Putin, that is, the president who is still in power in Russia, is practically impossible. I assume the same in the case of ombudsman Lvova Belova (for whom the International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant yesterday). There is no way for Putin to be brought before the tribunal if the situation in Russia does not change and he is practically overthrown," Dzuro told the Prague newspaper Lidove Novini.
The Czech investigator, now a UN official, thanks to whom one of the first Hague indictees, the former mayor of Vukovar Slavko Dokmanović, was arrested, warned that even Milošević would not have been able to find himself in The Hague if he had remained in power.
"If he had been an active president, that is, the president in power, it would have been impossible. Without the will and cooperation of Serbia, it would never have been possible to bring him before the court in The Hague," Dzuro said.
The former prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal for crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Ana Richterova, also said that there is nothing left but to wait.
"If we compare it with the Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević was brought before the court only in 2001, even though the war ended in 1995. No one believed that this would happen. But then Serbia's political approach to that tribunal changed and its representatives decided to arrest and extradite Milosevic to The Hague," Richterova said.
The Czech prosecutor reminded that Radovan Karadžić, against whom charges were brought in 1995, was arrested only in 2008, and General Ratko Mladić in 2011.
The arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which should be valid in 123 countries in the world that have ratified the International Criminal Court in The Hague, was welcomed by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fijala and President Petr Pavel.
"The arrest warrant shows how brutally and contrary to the international order Russia is acting," said Fijala.
"If we respect international law, then we must reject its violation, no matter who it was. Crimes against humanity, attacks on civilian targets, child abductions, or other war horrors cannot be tolerated. Putin is the head of the country that commits these crimes, and that is why the order for arrest in line," said Czech President Pavel.
Dzuro, who wrote the book "Investigator" about the work of an international team to investigate war crimes for the Hague Tribunal, and a film based on it is being shown in Czech cinemas, warned in his last interview in December of last year that justice in international courts, whose existence requires political agreement, cannot be satisfied.
"I guess God's justice is fair for everyone, if it exists. But human justice is not fair for everyone. Some perpetrators died - the president of Croatia, the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Franjo Tuđman, Alija Izetbrgović). They did not receive the punishment of justice in this world. Some died in prison, others were released due to illness, they were punished by God's justice. But it is unrealistic to expect that we the people will succeed in punishing all crimes," said Dzuro.
He emphasized that it would be best if every country of the former Yugoslavia tried its citizens accused of crimes.
"For the people there to see that the courts in Serbia know how to convict a Serb, in Croatia a Croat. The Hague Tribunal was established only because the courts and prosecutors were unable to prosecute their own war crimes, they always tried to judge the others," Dzuro said. .
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