"Vampire" Milosevic's grave desecrated.

Could it be a case of someone taking negative political imagery too literally, or just literally enough?

The grave of former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević was found desecrated this week in the town of Požarevac, after a man drove a three foot stake through the remains of the corpse's heart. One of the suspects has given himself up, claiming that he and a group of other men had performed the act to prevent Milošević from rising from the grave as a vampire.

It's entirely likely this act had purely political, instead of folkloric, significance amid fears that Milošević's former party may return to power in Serbia. I think it's safe to say that Serbia is less in danger from Milošević's corpse than it is from Serbian anger over the United Nation's plan to grant de facto independence to the former Serbian province of Kosovo.

All the same, Dictators of the World applauds the brave attempt to prevent dictators rising from the grave as vampires or zombis. Am I worried about the supernatural returns of Josef Stalin or François "Papa Doc" Duvalier? Maybe not, but I'm not above having a group of amateur vampire hunters bust out the wooden stakes to make sure, either.

Finally, congratulations to, well, me, for my 100th post. 2007 promises to be a much busier year than 2006 did, but I'll make sure that you, my loyal dictator loving readers, get your fix of stories about the world's most notorious tyrants.

Milosevic vindicated! Sort of. Not really. No.

Have you ever wondered why it is that nobody takes the International Court of Justice seriously? Perhaps this will help.

After 14 years and countless millions of dollars, the judges at the ICJ have finally rendered a verdict on whether or not Serbia was responsible for genocide during the Bosnian war. Ready for this?

Serbia did not commit genocide, but was responsible for failing to stop genocide by the Serbian military.

Got that? Some mysterious, yet very well known, persons - apparently acting in accordance with the Serbian political leadership - permitted genocide to occur in Srebenica, but the Serbian government cannot be held accountable ... except morally! Therefore, Serbia is not obligated to compensate Bosnia with monetary damages, but apparently, is sort of genocidal all the same. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe?

Well, then! Now that the International Community has done its duty, however half-assed, I suppose we can finally let Slobodan Milošević out of jail, secure that his government was NOT responsible for genocide!

D'oh. I guess we can't.

On the plus side, I can't wait to find out who or what the International Court of Justice believes may have been responsible for that mysterious, mighta-been-genocide thingy in Rwanda.

UPDATE: David Luban at Slate reads my mind.