War criminal Radovan Karadzic has been handed over to the police for extradition to the International Court of Justice in the Hague to be tried for genocide.
It would have been nice if this had been done earlier in the spirit of contrition. It wasn't - and for over a decade the unrepentant citizens of Serbia hid Karadzic - and his fellow murderer General Ratko Mladic - on the pretense that they couldn't find them.
The change of heart had a simple cause - self interest. The world made it clear that Serbia could forget any hope of becoming a member of the European Community ( EU ) until it handed over these criminals for justice.
In all probability Ratko Mladic will be mysteriously " found " in coming months.
This raises the question of whether the Serb people of the former Yugoslavia deserve to rub shoulders with the rest of Europe. During the war of the last decade they exhibited acts of brutality that horrified the rest of the world.
Srebrenica was designated a safe haven by the United Nations, yet the Serbs brushed aside United Nations peacekeepers and starved, tortured - and then murdered thousands of men and boys seeking shelter there - simply because they were Muslims.
This atrocity was not carried out solely by the two sought leaders. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of Serb citizens acting within the Serb army willingly took part in this genocide - and have no regrets for their actions.
Now - with EU entry refused - they have had a change of heart and are prepared to surrender the people they have shielded as " heroes " . Should people who have willingly taken part in genocide be greeted with open arms by the world community ?
History replies in the affirmative. During the second world war a " civilized " country carried out a similar act of genocide on a greater scale.
The German concentration camps and gas ovens were not manned by the country's leaders. Thousands of members of the armed forces were sent to man those camps and there is evidence that they carried out their duties with relish.
Now - over half a century later - most of them are either dead or very old men, and yet Germany has returned to being a law abiding member of the world body.
The world will embrace Serbia with a degree of reluctance. Hopefully, the passage of time may change attitudes and the Serb's may learn to live peacefully with their neighbours !
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