When not involving brutal murder the wheels of justice are rarely worthy of headlines unless celebrities or famous people are involved. With war crimes trials the people on trial themselves are well known either due to being infamous or having been high ranking members of government. But it is their actions in court that often provide most news as the justice process at the international level can be interminably slow. Radovan Karadžić was the leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. He is accused genocide and other crimes against humanity; most notably for his role in the massacre of Srebrenica in July 1995 more than 8000 Bosniaks were killed. Karadžić was not present at the massacre itself but the war crimes charges are an attempt to prove that he ordered it and as the leader of the Bosnian Serb regime he had responsibility for the killings. Karadžić’s time in court since his arrest in 2008 has already been eventful. He claimed there is a conspiracy against him and therefore refused to enter a plea to the court at the Hague where is being tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which the court decided to enter as not guilty on his behalf so that the trial could go ahead. Karadžić, much like Slobodan Milošević the former President of Serbia before him, decided that he would defend himself – although he does have a legal team of advisers. Also up before the ICTY is Ratko Mladić, a general in Karadžić’s army, who is also accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes for the massacre at Srebrenica as well as for actions in and around Sarajevo a city that was besieged for almost four years. He was not caught until 2011. Mladić is now appearing in his old boss’ trial. Karadžić’s legal team says he is “the one person in the whole world who knows best what happened in the war in Bosnia” and hope his evidence will help to show that Karadžić is not guilty. He is to be asked “Did you ever inform me [Karadžić] that prisoners from Srebrenica would be, were being or had been executed? Did we have any agreement or understanding that the citizens or Sarajevo should be subjected to terror by shelling and sniping?” Yet Mladić may wish to keep his own counsel as a result of his own trial. He certainly does not seem too eager to give evidence; he refused to take the oath proclaiming “Your subpoenas, your platitudes, your false indictments, I do not care one bit about any of it.” He also went further “I do not recognise this court. It is a Nato creation. It is a satanic court”. Instead of testifying he wished to read a written statement. And so with a bit of fire and brimstone reporters have their news. Newspaper readers are reminded that international justice does exist – even if it is slow. And satanic or not the trial will continue, and eventually the victims and the world may get justice. I thought I would be slightly different and rather than attaching this to a specific debatabase debate (there are several possibilities) I would link people to the relevant page of our international justice site on Ad hoc tribunals – the ICTY and ICTR internationaljustice.idebate.org/international-justice/backgrounders/courts/icty-ictr it is a site that I suspect wont be well used as there are just not that many people who are particularly interested in international criminal law, and those who are will probably want something more detailed than we are providing. Still it would be a useful introduction for anyone who is interested in international relations or a broader type of law and want to know more. bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25923102 theguardian/law/2014/jan/28/ratko-mladic-war-crimes-tribunal-satanic-court icty.org/case/karadzic/4
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:55:03 +0000
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