War Crimes

Writing for the European Courier, former ICTY spokeswoman Florence Hartmann slammed Western powers and international courts for not adequately protecting the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, either in the runup to the genocide or in the recent litigation. In her first book, Peace and Punishment, Hartmann accused Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France of sheltering Serb war criminals.

The general facts of the attack on Srebrenica are relatively uncontroversial. Srebrenica had been a hotly contested area throughout the conflict. It was declared a United Nations Safe Zone in 1993, and peacekeepers were stationed there. The Bosnian Serb militia (VRS) lay siege. As of early 1995, it was held by the Bosnian government, along with two neighbroing municipalities - a vulnerable island amidst Bosnian Serb-controlled territory. Nonetheless, VRS attacked on July 6 and conquered the area on July 11. Subsequently, VRS and a paramilitary group called the Scorpions killed every Bosniak man and boy in the Srebrenica enclave, engaging in a string of mass killings over the next few days. Dutch peacekeepers present were ineffectual (though a Dutch report effectively exoneratedthem, blaming political and military leadership for putting them in an untenable position where they quickly became de facto hostages) and NATO air support was unsuccessful.

ICTY and the International Court of Justice have both determined, in separate cases, that genocide was committed in Srebrenica. However, the ICJ found that Serbia was not liable, lacking sufficient control over the Bosnian Serb VRS, and the leading VRS commanders remain at large. Srebrenica itself remains in the Republika Srpska.

To this body of fact, Hartmann adds allegations that Western powers knew the attack was coming, and implies that they also knew a genocide would result. Though she offers no conclusive smoking gun, the allegations will certainly be controversial in the still-tense Balkans.

Unlike in the cases of its neighbors Bosnia and Croatia, the Yugoslavian government made no extended attempt to reconquer Slovenia when it seceded in 1991. The military conflict was ten days long and created less than 100 total casualties.

One colonel in the Yugoslav National Army has been indicted by the Slovene government for his role in the conflict. The Serbian war crimes division and the Helsinki Monitor watchdog group both expressed considerable skepticism about the indictment, and Slovenia has not issued an arrest warrant.

WARNING: THE “SLAUGHTER” LINK CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES

A case before a Dutch court will determine whether Dutch peacekeepers operating under the flag of the United Nations are liable for the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

In July 1995, forces from the paramilitary group The Scorpions, oversaw the detention and subsequent slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males determined to be of military age.

The families of roughly 6,000 victims killed by the paramilitary force are suing the United Nations because the Dutch peacekeeping force did not intervene in the massacre. Srebrenica at the time was a U.N. mandated safe haven.

The United Nations, supported by Amsterdam, claims immunity in the case.

Taking an apparent page from claims supporting the U.S. decision to not sign onto The International Criminal Court, Amsterdam’s lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers said the United Nations must be permitted to conduct peacekeeping operations without facing prosecution, the BBC said Wednesday.

“The Bosnian Serbs are the ones who are to blame, especially General (Ratko) Mladic. He is a war criminal,” he said.

BELGRADE (AFP) — Stojan Zupljanin, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in connection with atrocities against Muslims and Croats during the Bosnian war, has been arrested near Belgrade, officials said Wednesday.He was among the most-wanted Serbs indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia — alongside Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, who remain at large.

“One of The Hague indictees, Stojan Zupljanin, was arrested on the outskirts of Belgrade” shortly after noon (1000 GMT), Bruno Vekaric, prosecution spokesman for Serbia’s war crimes court, told AFP.

Zupljanin, 56, was armed, but there were no casualties during his arrest, according to a source who requested anonymity.

In The Hague, the UN tribunal confirmed the arrest, but was unable to say when he would be transferred to its custody.

“That will depend on a number of formalities in the country where he was arrested,” said ICTY spokeswoman Olga Kavran.

“Once in the detention unit, within a day or two, he will make his first appearance before the judges, and he will be given the opportunity to enter a plea,” she explained.

Zupljanin has been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged central role in the hostilities and the destruction of the Muslim and Croat communities in northwestern Bosnia during the 1992-95 war.

The ICTY had also fingered him for genocide, but that indictment was later dropped.

Zupljanin was a former aide to Karadzic, who remains at large along with Mladic and another ICTY indictee, Goran Hadzic, wartime president of the self-proclaimed Croatian Serb republic of Krajina.

His indictment accused him of participating in the planning, ordering or committing of the “execution of a campaign designed to destroy Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, in whole or in part”.

Thousands were held in horrific conditions in Serb-run camps during the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina as the former Yugoslavia disintegrated.

Many did not survive — and in the Prijedor area alone, more than 1,500 people were murdered in three notorious camps.

The Serbian war crimes office said the arrest of Zupljanin was headed by its chief prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic, and carried out by police and Serbia’s police intelligence agency.

“Zupljanin was arrested in a flat” less than 10 kilometres (five miles) from central Belgrade, said Vekaric, adding he would be handed his ICTY indictement and likely be transferred to the Hague within three days.

The ICTY has been seeking Zupljanin since 1999, and having over the four Serb war crimes fugitives to its custody is the main condition for Serbia’s integration into the European Union.

Zupljanin’s arrest comes just days after chief UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz urged Serbia to do more to locate and arrest the remaining indictees.

“We strongly believe that the remaining fugitives — Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Stojan Zupljanin and Goran Hadzic — are within reach of the authorities in Serbia and that the Serbian authorities can do more to locate and arrest them, ” Brammertz told to the UN Security Council.

“With the exception of a genuine but, alas, failed attempt to arrest Stojan Zupljanin, there has been no notable progress in this critical area of cooperation within the past six months.”

In the historic first case transferred to Croatian courts by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), General Mirko Norac was convicted and General Rahim Ademi acquitted of war crimes on theories of command responsibility.

The historic conviction is a major step forward for Croatia, whose government long resisted responsibility for war crimes committed by ethnic Croats during the conflict and whose EU accession has been conditioned on successful prosecutions of Croatian war criminals. The court has been less active than its Bosnian counterpart, but more successful prosecutions should help facilitate international confidence in the Croatian government and, eventually, EU accession.

Serbian media reports that the Serbian government is investigating accusations by former ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Serbian Kosovars were kidnapped and murdered and had their organs harvested by Kosovar Albanian paramilitaries during the 1998-99 war. The tribunal itself has refused to reinvestigate the allegations, averring that a 2004 investigation had not turned up any reliable evidence.

The allegations, and ICTY’s refusal to investigate, which roughly coincided with the surprise acquittal of former Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj (which the Prosecutor’s office is appealing), have sparked a firestorm of controversy in Serbia. The controversy threatens to further complicate the delicate politics of the region, and further undermine the Tribunal in Serbia.

Here we go again.  The top prosecutor with the United Nations said Sunday four war crimes suspects, including Ratko Mladic, are within reach of Serbian officials.  Serbia in its bidding to ascend to the European Union faces pressure to hand over war crimes fugitives suspected of atrocities during the 1990s, including the massacre of 5,000 Mulsim men and boys in the U.N. safe-haven of Srebrenica.  Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor who replaced Carla del Ponte who said nearly the exact same thing nearly a year year, said “there is no reason to believe Mladic is not in Serbia.”

From EU Business.com. Seems the EU is on the hunt for information relating to the elusive Radovan Karadzic. Maybe he’s having lunch with Osama bin Laden somewhere.

 

22 April 2008, 11:17 CET

 

 

(SARAJEVO) - NATO-backed forces of the European Union said they conducted a raid Tuesday on the home of a Bosnian Serb businessman suspected of helping war crimes fugitives to evade justice.

“EUFOR conducted a search operation in the premises of Goran Marinkovic in Paprikovac district” near Banja Luka, said a statement issued by the EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia (EUFOR).

“We believe Marinkovic uses his extensive business links to fund the fugitives. We are looking for evidence of communication between Marinkovic and family and support networks” of the fugitives, it added.

The operation, requested by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was aimed at finding material or information which could help to locate fugitives and put pressure on their supporters.

Marinkovic, who owns two large trading companies, is believed to be one of the key backers of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) founded by Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic.

Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic have been on the run from the United Nations tribunal based in The Hague for more than 12 years since being charged with war crimes committed during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war.

The pair also face a genocide charge related to the 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

Karadzic is thought to be hiding in Bosnia’s Serb-run half or in neighbouring Montenegro, while Mladic is believed to be in Serbia.

News summary

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The incoming chief war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations, Serge Brammertz, said Thursday Serbia could do a lot better with its cooperation with the Hague, specifically in bringing war crimes suspects before the court.

“I particularly insisted on the search for and arrest of the … remaining fugitives,” he said. “It is crucial that they be brought to justice as soon as possible.”

His comments come amid his first trip to Serbia since taking over the post from his predecessor, Carla del Ponte.

Brammertz said Serbia needed to hand over Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic and his top military commander Ratko Mladic, making the astonishing statement (note the sarcasm) “progress is still needed in all of these areas.”

Del Ponte took a notably harsher tone, banging her first on the podium of the Serbian parliament, demanding, “I want my fugitives.”

Del Ponte pledged in June that Karadzic and Mladic were within reach.

Many states in the European Union want to sign off on Serbia’s petition to the EU as soon as possible, the Netherlands threatened to block the move unless Serbia handed Mladic over to the international court.

Carla Del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, says in her new book that ethnic Serbs were taken from their homes and swifted to Albania to harvest and sell their organs.  Among the allegations are testimony from the book’s co-author, Chuck Sudetic, that evidence found in one home shows blood splattered walls throughout, except in one area about the size and shape of a hospital gurney.  Del Ponte says in her book she could not bring the charges to prosecution because she lacked prosecutorial authority.  And this from the same prominent prosecutor who said in July 2007 the most wanted war crimes suspects in modern history would be handed over in a matter of weeks.

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Horrors alleged in Kosovo

By MARC CHAMPION
April 14, 2008; Page A13

BRUSSELS — Incendiary allegations in a new book by a prominent European prosecutor are further stoking anti-Western tensions in Serbia ahead of pivotal elections.

Carla Del Ponte, who until January was chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, writes in a book released in Italian earlier this month that she found evidence that ethnic Serbs were kidnapped from Kosovo and taken to Albania to harvest and sell their organs. (more…)