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BOSNIA: NEW ROW OVER ICJ
RULING
Last year's International Court of Justice ruling provokes
political disagreement in Bosnia.
By IWPR and RFE staff in Sarajevo and Belgrade
Bosnian victims of the 1990s Balkans wars welcomed last year's ICJ
ruling that Serbia was guilty of failing to punish the perpetrators of genocide. However,
12 months later, it seems that the verdict has only served to deepen political division in
the country. When the verdict of the world's highest court was announced, it was
interpreted differently in Bosnia and Serbia. Bosniaks focused on the fact that Serbia was
found guilty of failing to use its influence to prevent genocide and of failing to meet
its obligation to punish the perpetrators, while Belgrade celebrated being acquitted for
direct responsibility for... |
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BOSNIAKS STILL SEEK SERBIA
GENOCIDE CONVICTION
And a German court ruling in a genocide case might help them
achieve that.
By Edina Becirevic in Sarajevo (TU No 537, 8-Feb-08)
A year has passed since the International Court of Justice, ICJ,
decided Serbia was not guilty of genocide in Bosnia, and survivors angry about the ruling
have sought new ways of obtaining justice. The court ruled that Serbia bore no direct
responsibility for what happened in Bosnia in 1992-5, and decided that the only specific
crime that merited the name of genocide was the murder of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in
Srebrenica. Serbia was found guilty of no more than failing to prevent or punish
perpetrators of this crime. Other crimes committed against Bosniaks in the conflict were
classified as just "ethnic... |
A STATEMNT AR THE SEVNTH BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF GENOCIDE SCHOLARS
Sarajevo, July 2007
Florance Hartmann
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Genocide was defined as a crime of destroying or committing conspiracy to destroy a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Genocides or mass killings characterized by
their systematic and widespread nature emerge from a long process recognisable by its
pattern of purposeful actions that are common to each genocide: from the political
doctrine and the message creating a clear distinction between them and us, to the
perpetration of offences showing a pattern on repetition of destructive and discriminatory
acts. But it is not sufficient identifying these patterns and even the moving force(s)
behind the execution of the genocidal plan. Only external political will can prevent or
stop genocides or crimes... |
INTERNATIONAL COMPLICITY IN THE BOSNIAN GENOCIDE
Sylvie Mutton
(A Statemnet at the Seventh Biennial Meeting of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars, Sarajevo, July 2007 )
Ladies and gentlemen,
Having very little time to speak, I will be direct; I'll just say clearly what I believe
about Western complicity with the genocide that occurred in Bosnia in the 1990s. But it is
disturbing for me to do so here, when among all the scholars here present there are also
victims, survivors; it's as if I were appropriating the right to tell you your own story,
the story of your suffering; a story you know much too well. I hope you will forgive me.
"Reacting to genocide before it's too late." Unfortunately, there seems to be no
such thing in history, either before 1948 nor after the word genocide was invented. But if
they refer to the 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment for the crime of
genocide',... |
