The following letter was published in The Washington Post on June 28, 2000.

Fred Hiatt
Editorial Page Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15^th St., NW

Washington, DC 20071

Dear Mr. Hiatt:

I am submitting the following Letter to the Editor in response to the op-ed piece in today’s Washington Post by Milan Panic.

In his op-ed piece "Exit Milosevic," Milan Panic has made a grossly defective argument in concluding that peace can come to Serbia by exonerating indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic has wreaked havoc in the Balkans ever since he occupied Kosova by force in 1989. Even if the Serbian people are in a mood to forgive him, how can the hundreds of thousands of Bosnian, Albanian, and other victims of his ethnic cleansing and genocide watch him go free to lead a life of comfort in exile on the money that he and his henchmen looted from them?

This is no solution. There can be no peace without true justice, and true justice requires that Milosevic be brought to trial in the Hague—just as Adolf Eichmann was brought to trial for his Nazi war crimes. Only after that, and only after the Serbian people apologize to the Albanian, Bosnian, and other victims of Milosevic’s wars (as the German people finally apologized to the Jewish people) will peace come to the Balkans.

Sincerely,

Joseph J. DioGuardi
Former U.S. Congressman (R-NY), 1984-1989
Volunteer president, The Albanian American Civic League