In his search for evidence of crimes in high places, his most incriminating document turned out to be a forgery. In his efforts to round up smaller fry to put on trial, all but one has remained beyond reach.

Then there’s the matter of Goldstone’s employers. They keep going to his top suspects to ask for help, understanding and favors.

Such are the facts of life for the chief prosecutor of the U. N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Not since the post-World War II trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo has there been such a proceeding, although this one has little in common with its predecessors.

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The earlier tribunals chose suspects from the vantage point of victors culling the vanquished and were aided by some of the most voluminous records ever kept by killers.

Goldstone’s team of investigators, by comparison, must account for a war’s most horrible actions before the fighting has even stopped. There is virtually no paper trail leading to the top, and no guarantee that his most important suspects won’t end up dictating the terms of peaceterms that might even guarantee the suspects’ immunity from prosecution.