Radovan Karadzic: Hold him accountable

War turned life in the former Yugoslavia into a nightmare of death, torture and suffering that, for many survivors, continues today. The arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic offers hope of a new measure of justice.

Karadzic was president of a breakaway Serb regime during some of the fiercest fighting in the 1990s. He is accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among other things, prosecutors charge him with responsibility for the disastrous siege of the ex-Olympic city of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 at Srebrenica.

After his capture on Monday, Karadzic was ordered extradited to face a United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Although some Serbia nationalist elements objected, Karadzic's arrest is a signal of progress, at least in the heart of Europe, toward the rule of international law even in the midst of war.

The Associated Press quoted German Chancellor Angela Merkel, "The victims need to know: Massive human rights violations do not go unpunished." She's right. And perpetrators of human rights crimes need the same knowledge.

The world must support the International Criminal Court in charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur. Eventually, too, the ICC must have the full participation of the United States, which did so much to advance international law to the point where someone like Karadzic must answer charges.