Opinio Juris

Very encouraging news out of Serbia -- Stojan Zupljanin, the commander of the Bosnian police during the war, has been arrested and will be handed over to the ICTY for prosecution:

Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin, 56, was one of four suspects sought by the tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Their arrest and handover to the tribunal has been a condition of Serbia's progress towards EU membership.

"There was no resistance during his arrest," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor, who coordinated the operation. "This arrest shows clearly that we are seriously cooperating (with the Hague)."

Zupljanin was found at an apartment about 8 km (5 miles) from the centre of Belgrade by police and security agents and will be extradited within in 72 hours, officials said.

The arrest comes as Serbia, deeply split between nationalists and a pro-EU bloc after inconclusive elections last month, is immersed in intense coalition negotiations.

Officials said Zupljanin had foiled a previous attempt to arrest him in the southern Serbian city of Nis two months ago. His family had publicly called on him to surrender, to spare them further notoriety and financial collapse.

[snip]

The EU welcomed the arrest.

"It is an important step towards full cooperation with (the tribunal), which is key to bringing justice and lasting reconciliation in the Western Balkans region," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement.

In Washington, the State Department also praised Serbia.

"His arrest is another positive step towards insuring those responsible for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia are held accountable," said State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos.

The U.S. hoped the arrest of Mladic, Karadzic and Hadzic, would follow, and "we call on authorities in the region to bring them to justice," he said.

Analysts said Wednesday's arrest may indicate that a pro-European coalition was the most likely outcome of Serbia's month-long government negotiations.

"It might also be seen as an announcement that it's more realistic to have a government that will follow a pro-European path," said political analyst Zoran Stojiljkovic.

The Democratic party leading the pro-Western bloc said the arrest signalled Serbia may gain EU candidate status by the end of the year. The Radical party, spearheading the nationalist grouping, slammed it as a black page in Serbia's history.

Hat-Tip: Una Hardester of USCRI.

In an important first, Roma gathered in Rome on Sunday to protest their continued harrassment and persecution at the hands of the Italian government:

The first national demonstration of Gypsies brought hundreds of people to the capital Sunday to protest recent episodes of racism in Italy that have targeted Roma and Sinti people, as they prefer to be called.

"We're being used as scapegoats" to gain political advantage, said Stoyanovic Vojislav, a Serbian Roma and one of the organizers of the colorful demonstration, which involved about a dozen organizations.

Roma communities and illegal immigrants are increasingly blamed for rising crime in Italy, although statistics do not reflect a marked change over previous years.

The demonstration, Vojislav said, will make Italians understand "that the Roma are very different from how we are depicted" in the media and by some center-right politicians. More than half of the estimated 160,000 Roma in this country are Italian citizens, while most of the remainder are from Romania - since 2007 part of the European Union - or from the former Yugoslavia. But they are usually treated as foreigners.

"This is the first time in six centuries that we are demanding our rights," said Santino Spinelli, another organizer, who is a popular Gypsy musician and a professor of Roma culture at the University of Trieste. "We are demanding to be integrated because we are citizens like any others."

[snip]

Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government has promised tough legislation that would allow the police to shut down unauthorized Roma camps. The government also wants to carry out a census of people living in the camps. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week that the issue of the Roma camps would be resolved by the end of the year.

Many of the demonstrators on Sunday wore black triangles, like those that the Nazis forced the Roma to wear in concentration camps.

"Today is a great day for the Rom," said Gina, a Roma from Romania who did not want to give her last name. "Remember that if you forget history, it can repeat itself."

The protest came two days after Italian authorities forcibly destroyed a Roma camp containing 120 people, including 40 children. Most of the camp's occupants were Italian citizens who had been transferred there -- with a promise of a decent living situation, no less -- after their previous camp had also been dismantled. They are obviously still waiting.

A final thought: it's revealing -- but not surprising -- that the article calls the protesters "Gypsies" while noting, in the very first paragraph, that they prefer to be called Roma. I somehow doubt that the International Herald Tribune would be so dismissive of other minority groups' preferred appellations.