This obviously won't be a surprise to anyone over the age of 12, but still…
A former Bosnian President was arrested by British police and held at Heathrow yesterday, on foot of an arrest warrant for war crimes - originating from Serbia, which is pretty cheeky considering what actually happened in the Bosnian war (Serbs besieged Sarajevo, levelled it, murdered thousands of Bosnians in concentration camps such as Srebrenica). It's a petty attempt to harass a brave resistance leader.
Meanwhile, there are arrest warrants out for Israeli military and political leaders for their roles in the Gaza massacres of last year (and previous events), based on the independent United Nations report by Richard Goldstone (himself Jewish), which identified war crimes committed by both sides. Several of these figures have been to Britain. Are they arrested? No. In one case, somebody in the British government or security services tipped off Major General Doron Almog so that he remained on the plane and evaded arrest. The Israeli former Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, cancelled a trip to Britain when it 'emerged' that an arrest warrant awaited her - another tip-off. Following that embarrassment, British government ministers publicly started talking about changing the law to prevent suspects being arrested if they're important friends of the British government.
So this is how it works: Britain passes strong-looking laws about war crimes, corruption (especially see the BAe case) and the like, but then selectively applies them. Poor Eyup Ganic is thrown to the wolves because he's unimportant, while Israelis with a strong case to answer are quietly helped. It's called realpolitik.
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