One person who could benefit from the pickle Slobodan Milosevic finds himself in in The Hague is the British ambassador to Ireland. Sir Ivor Roberts spent 1994 to 1997 as chargΘ d'affaires and then ambassador in Belgrade and, before coming to Dublin, he took a year off at St Antony's College Oxford to write a book on the then Yugoslav president. The material it contains could be of great use to the lawyers and of interest to anyone trying to understand the dictator's motivation.
Unfortunately, the British Foreign Office has banned the publication of such a book by a senior serving diplomat at such a delicate time. The book, as yet untitled, covers the history of the area, an account of Sir Ivor's contacts with Milosevic - he met him more than 40 times and was considered closer to him than any other Western diplomat - his impressions of these meetings and an analysis of what went right and what went wrong. It was commissioned by the Foreign Office with a view to publication but the outbreak of civil war in Yugoslavia and then the NATO bombardment put it all on hold. It will eventually be published, but not, it appears, just yet.