The new muscle of international justice

While newspapers around the world have been recording images of Russia's resurgent military might, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has been flexing new muscle of a very different, multilateral kind. In May, former Congolese strongman Jean-Pierre Bemba was arrested on ICC charges of crimes against humanity. Last month, the Court for the first time indicated a sitting head of state, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. And most recently, Radovan Karadzic, the infamous genocidaire of the Balkan Wars, was turned over to the ICTY to stand charges.

Not since the days of Nuremberg have so many of the world's most prolific murderer-tyrants been called to justice by the international community. It heralds a promising trend, not least because the United States, ever suspicious of international justice, has not stood in the way: it elected not to block Bashir's indictment before the Security Council. Moreover, the recent show of force by international judicial institutions sends a powerful signal that murderous regimes can no longer hide nor escape judgment for their crimes.

If it lasts, that is. Bashir remains ensconced in power, and the kind of theatrics that deprived Slobodan Milosevic's victims of justice may yet derail the trials of Bemba and Karadzic. To prevent that, the world's governments, America's in particular, need to encourage the pursuit of justice. The world's international courts are to be congratulated for their new-found resolve. We can only hope that its governments will follow suit.