The arrest of Ratko Mladic on 26 May signified a key victory for both the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, and the Republic of Serbia’s President, Boris Tadić. However, perhaps inevitably, after 16 years at-large, the timing of Mladic’s arrest was questioned, coming as it did on the day that the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, was visiting Serbia, and shortly before the ICTY President Judge Patrick Robinson and Prosecutor Serge Brammertz were due to update the Security Council on the ICTY’s recent work.
The EU has always made it clear that giving up Mladic was a pre-condition to Serbia’s accession to the EU and a damning report on Serbia’s co-operation with the ICTY could have delayed accession further.
By Ed Jeremy*
Perhaps more troubling than the accusations about the political motivations for Mladic’s arrest, was the reaction to that arrest by some sections of Serbian society. There were street protests against Mladic’s apprehension, and the media afforded him celebrity status, even updating the Serbian public on his diet in jail. Nationalism remains strong in Serbia, but also in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Montenegro. By way of evidence, Natasha Kandic of the Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia, points to the rejection by a large cross-section of Croatian society of the ICTY’s recent conviction of two Croatian generals for war crimes, a ruling that conflicted with the national narrative of the war. In Kosovo, the public opposes any trials for the commanders of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, and in Montenegro, a court ruled that policeman that handed over Muslim refugees to Bosnia Serb forces in 1992 were not guilty of war crimes.
Violence or reconciliation?
It is clear that violence could return to the region, and that regional reconciliation remains vital. ICTY President Robinson said in his recent address that “the Tribunal cannot, through the rendering of its judgements alone, bring peace and reconciliation to the region. Other remedies should complement the criminal trials if lasting peace is to be achieved”. President Robinson went on to suggest that one such remedy should be adequate reparations to victims, but he could also have mentioned another that is currently being proposed by civil society groups across the region: the setting up of a regional truth commission for the former Yugoslavia. Originally conceived of in 2006 by a small group of civil society representatives, since March this year, victims’ families, 1,600 non-governmental organisations, veterans and clergymen throughout the Balkans have signed a petition for the organisation of an official regional commission.
List of victims
The proposal is that this regional commission (RECOM) would be representative of all ethnic, religious and national groups, and would aim to compile a list of victims of, and establish the facts about, the war crimes and other serious human rights violations committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. The coalition for RECOM held an International Forum for Transitional Justice in post-Yugoslav countries on 27 June in Sarajevo to evaluate the progress of the campaign to date, and to consider possible strategies for implementation of the campaign’s proposals.
European Support
Natasha Kandic, whose Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia was one of the founder organisations for RECOM, believes that if the leaders of the former Yugoslavia successor states adopt the initiative, “it will put an end to the age-old practice of leaving victims nameless.” The initiative already claims the formal support of a number of national leaders in the region, including Serbian and Croatian Presidents, Boris Tadić and Ivo Josipovic, President of the Republic of Slovenia, Danilo Türk and Prime Minister of the Republic of Montenegro, Igor Lukšić. In January, the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg adopted a formal resolution in support of the initiative, and this was followed by a Council of Europe report that encouraged all countries in the region to participate in RECOM.
EU pressure
Catherine Ashton recently wrote that she agreed with Boris Tadić’s assertion that by capturing Mladic, he had moved his country closer to playing its full part in today’s Europe. With Croatia hoping to complete negotiations to join the EU this year, and Serbia, and perhaps Montenegro the next, it is vital that the EU put the pressure upon political and cultural elites, and offer the practical help for civil society organisations within the post-Yugoslav societies, to come to terms with the legacy of the mass and systematic human rights violations of the past. It is said that there can be no reconciliation without justice, and no justice without truth. The regional truth-telling process advocated by RECOM is an important step along the road to reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia, and one that merits strong support.
*Ed Jeremy, a lawyer since 2002, recently undertook a Master’s degree in Justice and Transformation at the University of Cape Town, part of which involved working at the International Centre for Transitional Justice, Cape Town.
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Irrefutable Proof ICTY Is Corrupt Court/Irrefutable Proof the Hague Court Cannot Legitimately Prosecute Karadzic Case By Jill Starr
https://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa/IrrefutableProofICTYIsCorruptCourtI...
(The Documentary Secret United Nations ICC Meeting Papers Scanned Images)
https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite/irrefutable-proof-icty-is-co...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKe-5LORsGs (My YouTube VIDEO)
This legal technicality indicates the Hague must dismiss charges against Dr Karadzic and others awaiting trials in the Hague jail; like it or not.
Unfortunately for the Signatures Of the Rome Statute United Nations member states instituting the ICC & ICTY housed at the Hague, insofar as the, Radovan Karadzic, as with the other Hague cases awaiting trial there, I personally witnessed these United Nations member states having a substantial conversations, and, openly speaking about trading judicial appointments and verdicts for financial funding when I attended the 2001 ICC Preparatory Meetings at the UN in Manhattan making the iCTY and ICC morally incapable trying Radovan Karazdic and others.
I witnessed with my own eyes and ears when attending the 2001 Preparatory Meetings to establish an newly emergent International Criminal Court, the exact caliber of criminal corruption running so very deeply at the Hague, that it was a perfectly viable topic of legitimate conversation in those meetings I attended to debate trading verdicts AND judicial appointments, for monetary funding.
Jilly wrote:*The rep from Spain became distraught and when her country’s proposal was not taken to well by the chair of the meeting , then Spain argued in a particularly loud and noticably strongly vocal manner, “Spain (my country) strongly believes if we contribute most financial support to the Hague’s highest court, that ought to give us and other countries feeding it financially MORE direct power over its decisions.”
((((((((((((((((((((((((( ((((((((((((((((((((((((( Instead of censoring the country representative from Spain for even bringing up this unjust, illegal and unfair judicial idea of bribery for international judicial verdicts and judicial appointments, all country representatives present in the meeting that day all treated the Spain proposition as a ”totally legitimate topic” discussed and debated it between each other for some time. I was quite shocked! The idea was “let’s discuss it.” "It’s a great topic to discuss."
Some countries agreed with Spain’s propositions while others did not. The point here is, bribery for judicial verdicts and judicial appointments was treated as a totally legitimate topic instead of an illegitimate topic which it is in the meeting that I attended in 2001 that day to establish the ground work for a newly emergent international criminal court.))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
In particular., since “Spain” was so overtly unafraid in bringing up this topic of trading financial funding the ICC for influence over its future judicial appointments and verdicts in front of every other UN member state present that day at the UN, “Spain” must have already known by previous experience the topic of bribery was “socially acceptable” for conversation that day. They must have previously spoke about bribing the ICTY and ICC before in meetings; this is my take an international sociological honor student.
SPAIN’s diplomatic gesture of international justice insofar as, Serbia, in all of this is, disgusting morally!SPAIN HAS TAUGHT THE WORLD THE TRUE DEFINITION OF AN “INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT.”
I represented the state interests’ of the Former Yugoslavia, in Diplomat Darko Trifunovic’s absence in those meetings and I am proud to undertake this effort on Serbia’s behalf.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa (My Political Satire Blog)
International Relations Consultant & War Crimes Investigator
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What It’s Like to Chill Out With Whom the Rest of the World Considers As The Most Ruthless Men: Ratko Mladic, Goran Hadzic and Radovan Karadzic (+) Confessions of a Female War Crimes Investigator By Jill Louise Starr NJ USA
https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite/what-it-s-like-to-chill-out-...
Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at large and currently having a five million dollar bounty on his head for genocide by the international community. Yet there I was with my two best friends at the time, a former Serbian diplomat, his wife, and Ratko Mladic just chilling. There was no security, nothing you’d ordinarily expect in such circumstances. Referring to himself merely as, Sharko; this is the story of it all came about.
International Relations Consultant & War Crimes Investigator
- War
- Peace
- Preventive Diplomatic Strategies
- International Law
- Charitable Causes
- International Business
- International Political Economy
- Human Rights - Politics
- War Crimes Investigations
- Anti-Terrorism
- Law Projects Center Funded Projects (YCICC) Internationally https://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite
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