A moment of clarity

An advisor to Serbian Prime minister Vojislav Koštunica offers his assessment of the surrenders of people indicted for grave violations of international humanitarian law by the ICTY in an interview in Blic for 27 April. Miša Đurković explains:

"The story with the Hague had to mature. Time had to pass for the indictees to gain confidence in the government. The key thing was the two-directional cooperation with the Hague, however much people laughed at that. The provisional release of Stanišić and Simatović was a sign to all of the people who decide to surrender that the state and the government stand behind them."

So a mature story leads to the fulfillment of the legalist ideal: a state in which criminal indictees have confidence in the government, which gives them reason to believe that the state stands behind them. Why confront the past when you can absorb it?

Update: Interestingly, Mr Koštunica put the matter differently in a speech reported in Politika. He was quoted as saying, "Serbia is ready and able to take up its part of the responsibility to give its contribution for the whole region to move ahead and become a constitutive part of the European Union." You do see how much difference phrasing makes.