After years of struggle by Yugoslavian authorities, NATO officials and the international community, Slobodan Milosevic is one step closer to being extradited to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Yugoslav police last month announced the discovery of evidence linking former President Milosevic to possible war crimes during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, and on Saturday the Yugoslav Cabinet voted 8-1 to approve a decree paving the way for his expected journey to the United Nations tribunal.

Police say they have found at least two mass graves in Serbia, presumably filled with the bodies of ethnic Albanians.

The decision to extradite comes two years after the United Nations indicted Milosevic for crimes against humanity during his crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, which ended after the NATO bombing campaign in 1999. Milosevic is currently in a Serbian jail, charged with corruption.

This is an important step that must be taken to begin the process of healing the massive wounds suffered by all sides during the years of intense conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Reformist leaders are understandably anxious to show they are serious about cooperating with the tribunal, since the United States has made it clear it would not attend an upcoming international donors’ conference - at which Serbia hopes to raise more than $1 billion in aid - unless steps were taken to bring Milosevic to justice.

While attorneys for the deposed president have argued the decree violates principles of the Yugoslav constitution, it is apparent the Cabinet wishes to overrule this concern in the interest of preserving the country’s chances of recovery.

It is commendable that Cabinet members have shown a commitment to bring Milosevic to justice, despite how trying it must be to constantly have other countries dictating legal actions to them.

Some Yugoslav residents would prefer to hash out the charges against Milosevic themselves, but this is not an acceptable course of action when one considers the breadth of Milosevic’s actions while in office.

Ideally, the Yugoslav people would be left to punish Milosevic by their own legal devices without the need for international interference, but the crimes allegedly perpetrated under his orders are so abhorrent to the values of all civilized nations he should not be able to avoid answering for them.

It is important the nations that now make up Yugoslavia be given every opportunity to recover from Milosevic’s efforts to undermine and destroy their national fabric.

The first step to this recovery was ousting the former president during last year’s democratic elections, while the next will certainly be hurried by the receipt of the potential $1 billion in aid to be had now that Milosevic will likely be brought to some measure of justice.

The Yugoslavian people should take full advantage of this opportunity to do the right thing in securing justice while welcoming the opportunity to begin a bright future unclouded by the memory of the tyranny and ruthlessness of their despotic former president.