Balkan Justice

After the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the world hoped that the legacy of Nuremberg would be the institutionalization of a judicial response to atrocities committed across the globe. Yet the pledge of "never again" became the reality of "again and again" as the world failed to prosecute those responsible for crimes against humanity in Russia, China, Cambodia, Argentina, East Timor, Uganda, Iraq, and El Salvador. And then the world began to hear daily reports of barbarity in Yugoslavia.

This book begins with the inside story of the politics and diplomacy behind the establishment of the Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal and the launching of its investigations. It draws from the author's own experiences as the State Department attorney responsible for drafting the Security Council Resolutions leading up to the establishment of the Tribunal and the U.S. proposals for the Tribunal's Statute and Rules of Procedure.

Based on extensive interviews and other sources, the book describes the key players in this international judicial drama: the investigators, prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, and the defendant himself - Dusko Tadic. Scharf then details Tadic's case, the first of several to be tried before the Tribunal, from indictment to judgement and concludes with an assessment of the success and fairness of the Tribunal.

"...Scharf lays out the case for an international War Crimes Tribunal while the voices of the victims provide the call for justice. The book is a fusion of current events and foreign policy told in gripping detail." — Geraldine A. Ferraro, Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights

"Although non-fiction, Balkan Justice reads like a novel, keeping the reader engrossed in the difficulties of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal and the horrors of the Balkan conflict and atrocities. Scharf, through his first-hand experience in the State Department, provides an insider's view into the world of international affairs." — Professor Henry T. King, Jr., Former Prosecutor at Nuremberg