DOCSLIB.ORG

Friend Or Foe: Victimised Groups in Genocide Cases

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Friend Or Foe: Victimised Groups in Genocide Cases LLM INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LAW: INTERNATIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Friend or Foe: Victimised Groups in Genocide Cases A Comparative Analysis of the Judgments Before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court Source: http://www.toxbank.net/development/toxbank-requirements-analysis-group Charlotte Aardoom ANR 951815 European and International Public Law Faculty of law, Tilburg University, the Netherlands Supervisor: mr. D. Djukic Second Reader: mr. dr. A.K. Meijknecht January 2016 Academic year 2015-2016 Table of Contents Abbreviations 3 Summary 4 1. Introduction and Methodology 5 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Methodology and approach .................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Roadmap ............................................................................................................................... 11 2. Genocide 13 2.1 The Genocide Convention .................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Different objective and subjective elements in the definition of genocide........................... 15 2.2 The protected groups ............................................................................................................ 16 2.3 Other groups ......................................................................................................................... 17 3. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 19 3.1 The Jelisić Case ................................................................................................................... 19 3.2 The Kristić Case .................................................................................................................. 21 3.3 The Stakić Case ................................................................................................................... 24 3.4 The BrÐanin Case ................................................................................................................ 29 3.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 30 4. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) 32 4.1 The Akayesu Case ................................................................................................................ 32 4.2 The Kayishema and Ruzindana Case .................................................................................. 35 4.3 The Rutaganda Case , the Bagilishema Case , the Semanza Case , the Gacumbitsi Case , the Ndindabahizi Case and the Muhimana Case ............................................................................ 36 4.4 The Karemera et al. Case .................................................................................................... 39 4.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 40 5. International Criminal Court (ICC) 41 5.1 Report of the International Commission .............................................................................. 42 5.2 Pre-Trial Chamber decision on the arrest warrant ................................................................ 45 5.3 Separate and partly dissenting opinion Judge Uŝacka .......................................................... 47 5.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 49 6. Discussion and Comparison 51 6.1 Comparative conclusion ICTR, ICTY, ICC: objective, subjective or mixed? ..................... 51 7. Conclusion 59 8. Bibliography 61 2 Abbreviations AC Appeals Chamber COI Commission of Inquiry GA General Assembly GC Genocide Convention ICC International Criminal Court ICJ International Court of Justice ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ILC International Law Commission SC Security Council TC Trial Chamber UN United Nations 3 Summary Four groups are protected against the crime of genocide as envisaged in article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: national, ethnic, racial and religious groups. Other groups, such as political groups or social groups are excluded from this definition, and as such not protected against genocidal acts. The question however arises as to how international criminal tribunals, dealing with perpetrators of such genocidal acts, define membership of these four groups. Do they determine membership on the basis of objective determination criteria such as citizenship, religion and national laws? Or do they instead rely on subjective factors such as the perceptions of the perpetrator(s) or the perceptions of the victims themselves? This question is not so easy to answer as it appears at first sight. In the Rwandan genocide for example the Tutsi population, which were the victims, were not easy to distinguish from the perpetrators: the Hutu’s. They had the same culture, practices the same religion, had the same physical features and practices of inter-marriage made seeking for distinctions even harder. Neither the Genocide Convention nor the drafting history behind it provides a clear answer to this question, and therefore case law has to step in. This thesis provides a comparative analysis of the case law before the ICTY, ICTR and ICC in which the tribunals have elaborated upon this group requirement. The guiding research question is therefore: “How has the group-requirement in the definition of genocide been interpreted respectively by the ICC, ICTY and ICTR in their judgments?”. Ultimately, the conclusion is drawn that the tribunals all agree on using a case-by-case approach in which both objective and subjective factors are taking into consideration. Furthermore, strong emphasis is placed on the perception of the perpetrator and the identification of targeted groups by positive distinguishable criteria. In addition, identification on the base of negative criteria, by which the group is distinguished by the perpetrator on characteristics which are lacking is considered to be an inappropriate identification method. 4 “There are not just bad people that commit genocide; we are all capable of it. It is our evolutionary history.” - James Ephraim Lovelock 1 1. Introduction and Methodology 1. Introduction Everyone can recall the horrendous stories and images of the concentration camps during the Nazi regime in the Second World War (1st of September 1939 – 2nd of September 1945), also known as the ‘Holocaust’. In these camps, millions of people 2, consisting mostly of the Jewish race died from starvation or deadly diseases. Adolf Hitler, the brain behind the Nazi regime and ideology, referred to the Jews as a ‘parasitic vermin’, which had to be eradicated. 3 A more recent example is the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. Tutsi’s and moderate Hutu’s were called ‘Inyenzi’ or, ‘coackroaches’, which had to be killed and exterminated. The hatred can be read in the words of a broadcast on the radio in Rwanda: “'We must all fight the Tutsis. We must finish with them, exterminate them, and sweep them from the whole country. There must be no refuge for them. They must be exterminated. There is no other way.” 4 These are examples of groups which were targeted with the specific intent to destroy them, in whole or in part. Such acts are now qualified as genocide, a crime in international (criminal) law, distinguished from other international crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity by its genocidal intent (also called dolus specialis or specific intent 5). This specific intent is one of the three elements present in genocide, the other two elements are the victimised groups and the identifiable acts. 6 The specific intent dictates that the perpetrator must have a specific intent to commit the prohibited acts against the protected groups enumerated in article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (hereinafter: GC), 1 Brainyquote, Genocide quotes (2001) online retrieved 10-08-2015 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jameslovel314060.html?src=t_genocide 2 Socio-economic History Blog, ‘Jewish Estimate Sees Number of Holocaust Dead Drop To 2.8 Million!’ (2011) online retrieved 15-07-2015 from https://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/jewish-estimate-sees- number-of-holocaust-dead-drop-to-2-8-million/. 3 Holocaust Encyclopedia, ‘Victims of the Nazi era: Nazi racial ideology’ (2015) online retrieved 15-07-2015 from: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007457. 4 Peace Pledge Union Information, ‘Genocide Rwanda 1994’ online retrieved 15-07-2015 from http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_rwanda4.html. 5 R. Cryer, H. Friman, D. Robinson and E. Wilmshurst, An introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure, (3rd ed., Cambridge University Press 2014) p. 118-119. 6 Y. Aksar, ‘The “victimised group” concept in the Genocide Convention and the development of international humanitarian law through the practice of ad hoc tribunals’, 1 Journal of Genocide Research 5:2 (2010), p. 216. 5 which sets out the legal definition of genocide. 7 Therefore, the ultimate intended victim of genocide
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The-Prijedor-Genocide 1
    PART 1. THE PRIJEDOR GENOCIDE The Prijedor genocide [1][2][3] , refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Serb political and military leadership mostly on Bosniak civilians in the Prijedor region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the Srebrenica genocide, it is the second largest massacre committed during the Bosnian war in 1992. Around 5,200 Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor are missing or were killed during the massacre period, and around 14,000 people in the wider region of Prijedor (Pounje). [4] Contents • 1 Background • 2 Political developments before the takeover • 3 Takeover • 4 Armed attacks against the civilians o 4.1 Propaganda o 4.2 Strengthening of Serb forces o 4.3 Marking of non-Serb houses o 4.4 Attack on Hambarine o 4.5 Attack on Kozarac • 5 Camps o 5.1 Keraterm camp o 5.2 Omarska camp o 5.3 Trnopolje camp o 5.4 Other detention facilities • 6 Killings in the camps • 7 References • 8 See also • 9 External links Background Following Slovenia’s and Croatia’s declarations of independence in June 1991, the situation in the Prijedor municipality rapidly deteriorated. During the war in Croatia, the tension increased between the Serbs and the communities of Bosniaks and Croats. Bosniaks and Croats began to leave the municipality because of a growing sense of insecurity and fear amongst the population which was caused by Serb propaganda which became increasingly visible. The municipal newspaper Kozarski Vjesnik started publishing allegations against the non-Serbs. The Serb media propagandised the idea that the Serbs had to arm themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter VII: the Formation of the Republika Srpska and the Policy of Ethnic Separation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The unfinished trial of Slobodan Milošević: Justice lost, history told Vrkić, N. Publication date 2015 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Vrkić, N. (2015). The unfinished trial of Slobodan Milošević: Justice lost, history told. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:06 Oct 2021 Why do you want to make Serbia and Serbs responsible for the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina? ...[The international community] broke up Yugoslavia... and now they want all three peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to foot the bill... Slobodan Milošević, Opening Statement, 14 February
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Developments
    Recent Developments Proving Genocide: The High Standards of the International Court of Justice. By Peter Tzeng On February 3, 2015, the International Court of Justice rendered a final judgment in the Croatian Genocide case.' Between 1991 and 1995, ethnic Serbs and Croats had systematically killed, tortured, and raped members of each other's ethnic group on Croatian territory. 2 The Court thus found that the actus reus of genocide (genocidal acts) had been established,3 but it applied very high standards of proof for establishing the dolus specialis of genocide (genocidal intent),4 leading it to dismiss both Croatia and Serbia's claims of genocide.5 Since the Court's first pronouncement of the high standards of proof for genocide in the 2007 Bosnian Genocide case, 6 many commentators have criticized it,7 while others have expressed their support.8 Yet even this latter group of commentators would acknowledge that the standards, even if completely justifiable, have not been adequately justified by the Court. In accordance with the civil law tradition,9 the International Court of Justice has historically refrained from articulating consistent standards of proof°10 Instead, it has employed flexible terminology such as "(in)sufficient, "satisfqying],," 2 "convincing,"' 13 "conclusive,"' 14 and 1. Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croat. v. Serb.) (Croatian Genocide), Merits (Int'l Ct. Justice Feb. 3, 2015), http://www.icj -cij.org/docket/files/1 18/18422.pdf. 2. Id. 208, 295, 360, 485, 493, 495-96. 3. Id. 401,499. 4. Id. 77 148, 178.
    [Show full text]
  • Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina V Serbia and Montenegro)
    80 UNSW Law Journal Volume 31(1) APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA V SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO) STATHIS PALASSIS* I INTRODUCTION On 26 February 2007 the International Court of Justice (‘ICJ’) handed down its long-awaited judgment in the case concerning application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro).1 The Court adjudicated alleged violations by Serbia and Montenegro (‘Serbia’) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,2 examining whether genocide occurred during the secession of Bosnia and Herzegovina (‘Bosnia’) and, if it did, whether those actions could be attributed to Serbia. The Court found that Serbia had not committed genocide, but had violated obligations to prevent genocide and to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (‘ICTY’).3 The Court also found that the award of compensatory damages was not appropriate in this case. The case has generated public division over the Court’s reasoning on difficult jurisdictional questions, as well as the characterisation of, and responsibility for, atrocities committed. The fact alone that the case concerns alleged breaches of the jus cogens prohibition on genocide makes the case significant. * BJuris, LLB (University of Western Australia); SJD (University of Sydney); Senior Lecturer in International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney; Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The author thanks Stefanie Duncan and Danka Suvajlo for their research. 1 (Judgment), International Court of Justice, 26 February 2007 <http://www.icj- cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&k=f4&case=91&code=bhy&p3=4> at 26 March 2008 (‘Genocide case’).
    [Show full text]
  • State Responsibility and Attribution in Cases of Genocide
    NOTES REINING IN NON-STATE ACTORS: STATE RESPONSIBILITY AND ATTRIBUTION IN CASES OF GENOCIDE BERGLIND HALLDORSD´ OTTIR´ BIRKLAND* In 2007, the International Court of Justice defined the scope of state responsibility under the Genocide Convention for the very first time when it reached the merits in the Genocide Case, a case arising from the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The opinion immediately spurred extensive academic commentary, much of which was critical of the Court’s ultimate holding that Serbia had not committed genocide despite its well-documented role in the Srebrenica massacre. While the Genocide Case can be read as a disappointment, and the Court’s analysis is vulnerable to normative critique, this Note argues that it was nonetheless an important victory in the movement toward greater state accountability for genocide, especially considering the context in which the Court acts and the limitations imposed on its independence by the practical need for legitimacy. Although the Court raised onerous evidentiary hurdles for establishing state responsibility for the direct commission of genocide, it managed simultaneously to impose upon states a clear duty to rein in non-state actors over whom they exercise influence by inter- preting the state obligation to prevent genocide broadly. This broad duty to rein in non-state actors has important implications not only for the Court’s own jurispru- dence but also extrajudiciously within the customary framework of state responsi- bility, by empowering the general international community to enforce states’ obligations to curb genocidal actors within their reach. INTRODUCTION The 1948 Genocide Convention1 promised to “liberate mankind” from the “odious scourge” of genocide through “international co- * Copyright © 2009 by Berglind Halldorsd ´ ottir ´ Birkland.
    [Show full text]
  • State Responsibility for Genocide – the International Court of Justice’S Judgment in the Genocide Case and Its Aftermath
    FACULTY OF LAW Lund University Kaisa Marttinen State Responsibility for Genocide – The International Court of Justice’s Judgment in the Genocide Case and its Aftermath LAGF03 Essay in Legal Science Bachelor Thesis, Master of Laws programme 15 higher education credits Supervisor: Britta Sjöstedt Autumn term 2016 Contents Summary 3 Sammanfattning 4 Preface 5 Abbreviations 6 1 INTRODUCTION 7 1.1 Purpose 7 1.2 Research question and delimitations 7 1.3 Method and materials 7 1.4 Outline 8 2 STATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR GENOCIDE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW 9 2.1 Attribution 9 2.1.1 State Responsibility for Acts Committed by Non-State Actors 10 2.1.1.1 The Nicaragua Test of Control 10 2.2 State Responsibility in the Genocide Convention 11 3 THE GENOCIDE CASE 14 3.1 Background 14 3.1.1 Srebrenica 15 3.2 The International Court of Justice’s Judgment 16 3.2.1 Defining the Events in Srebrenica as Genocide 16 3.2.1.1 The Question About the Specific Intent 16 3.2.1.2 The Question About the Meaning of “Group” in Article II 17 3.2.2 Possible State Responsibility for Events in Srebrenica 18 3.2.2.1 Attribution of the Genocide to Serbia 19 3.2.2.2 Attribution of Complicity in Genocide to Serbia 20 3.2.2.3 Serbia’s Obligation to Prevent and Punish the Genocide in Srebrenica 21 3.2.3 Summary of the Judgment 22 4 ANALYSIS 24 4.1 Critique for the ICJ’s Judgment 24 4.2 Positive Outcome of the ICJ’s Judgment 25 Bibliography 27 Table of Cases 29 Summary State responsibility for commission of genocide has a jus cogens status in customary international law and is based on the general rule of attribution: whether the persons or groups acting within the State are acting, or at least can be treated as acting on behalf of the State is key for State responsibility to arise.
    [Show full text]
  • The International Law Against Genocide in the International Court of Justice's Judgement in Croatia
    Pace International Law Review Volume 28 Issue 1 Spring 2016 Article 3 April 2016 Between Light and Shadow: The International Law Against Genocide in the International Court of Justice’s Judgement in Croatia v. Serbia (2015) Ines Gillich Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Germany Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pilr Part of the Human Rights Law Commons, International Humanitarian Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Ines Gillich, Between Light and Shadow: The International Law Against Genocide in the International Court of Justice’s Judgement in Croatia v. Serbia (2015), 28 Pace Int'l L. Rev. 117 (2016) Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pilr/vol28/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at DigitalCommons@Pace. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pace International Law Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Pace. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 3 INES GILLICH (DO NOT DELETE) 8/10/2016 9:51 AM BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADOW: THE INTERNATIONAL LAW AGAINST GENOCIDE IN THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE’S JUDGMENT IN CROATIA V. SERBIA (2015) Ines Gillich* ABSTRACT This Article identifies and critically analyzes the contributions the International Court of Justice (ICJ) made to the international law against genocide via the judgment in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) of February 3, 2015. This Article elaborates on the concept of genocide—a term that has originally been coined after the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust—and the protection against this “crime of crimes” under international law.
    [Show full text]
  • The Responsibility of Outside Powers for Acts of Secessionist Entities
    THE RESPONSIBILITY OF OUTSIDE POWERS FOR ACTS OF SECESSIONIST ENTITIES STEFAN TALMON* Abstract In August 2008, Georgia instituted proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to estab- lish its international responsibility for alleged acts of racial discrimination against the ethnic Georgian population in South Ossetia and Abkhazia by ‘the de facto South Ossetian and Abkhaz separatist authorities [...] sup- ported by the Russian Federation’. In order to establish the international responsibility of an outside power for the internationally wrongful conduct of a secessionist entity, it must be shown, inter alia, that the acts or omissions of the secessionist entity are attributable to the outside power. International tribunals usually determine the question of attribution on the basis of whether the authorities of the secessionist entity were ‘controlled’ by the outside power when performing the internationally wrongful conduct. Attribution thus becomes a question of how one defines ‘control’. The test of control of authorities and military forces of secessionist entities has become perhaps the most cited example of the fragmentation of international law. The ICJ, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the European Court of Human Rights have all developed and applied their own tests in order to establish whether a secessionist entity has been ‘controlled’ by an outside power. There is a lot of confusion about the various tests, usually referred to as the ‘effective control’, ‘overall control’ and ‘effective overall control’ tests. This article sets out the various control tests, their requirements and areas of application, and asks which test or tests should be applied to attribute the internationally wrongful conduct of a secessionist entity to an outside power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bosnian Genocide Case
    Chapter Twelve State Identity and Genocide: The Bosnian Genocide Case Dominic McGoldrick* i. Introduction On 26 February 2007, after fourteen years, the International Court of Justice delivered its decision on the merits in the Bosnian Genocide Case.1 It was its first judgment on the merits in a case in which allegations of genocide had been made by one State against another. Bosnia sought, ‘to establish the responsibilities of a State which, through its leadership, through its organs, committed the most brutal violations of one of the most sacred instruments of international law’.2 The progress of the case was marked by extensive factual and evidential disputes, the most extensive written pleadings in the court’s history, procedural wrangling, applications for interim measures and counter-claims.3 At the heart of the case * Professor of Public International Law, University of Liverpool. 1 Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), ICJ General List No. 91, Judgment of 26 February 2007: http://www.icj-cij.org; 46 (2007) ILM 188. Hereinafter the main judgment is referred to as ‘Judgment’, while the Separate and Dissenting Opinions, and the Declarations are referred to as ‘note 1’. On this case, see Sivakumaran, Case Note, 56 (2007) ICLQ 695; and the commentaries in 28 (2008) Leiden Journal of International Law 63 et seq. 2 Cited in Judgment, paragraph 155. See Milanovic, ‘State Responsibility for Genocide’, 17 (2006) EJIL 553 and also ‘Follow-Up’, ibid, p. 669. 3 See paragraphs 1 to 66 of the Judgment.
    [Show full text]
  • Slobodan Miloševic
    Slobodan Milošević - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodan_Milošević#Death Slobodan Milošević (Serbo-Croatian: [slobǒdan milǒːʃeʋitɕ] Slobodan Milošević ( listen); Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician Слободан Милошевић who served as the President of Serbia (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) from 1989 to 1992 and within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1997, and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 and rose to power as Serbian President during efforts to reform the 1974 Constitution of Yugoslavia in response to alleged marginalization of Serbia, views that the powers of Serbia's autonomous provinces were too strong making them almost independent from Serbia, and claims of political incapacity to deter Albanian separatist unrest in Serbia's autonomous province of Kosovo. Milošević's presidency of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was marked by several major reforms to Serbia's constitution from the 1980s to the 1990s that reduced the Milošević in 1988 powers of the autonomous provinces in Serbia. 3rd President of the Federal In 1990, Serbia transitioned from a Titoist one-party system to a Republic of Yugoslavia multi-party system and attempted reforms to the 1974 In office Constitution of Yugoslavia. The constituent republics of the 23 July 1997 – 7 October 2000 country split apart amid the outbreak of wars, and the Federal Prime Minister Radoje Kontić Republic of Yugoslavia was founded by the former Yugoslav Momir Bulatović republics of Serbia and Montenegro.
    [Show full text]
  • The Judge, the Historian, the Legislator (
    Introduction THE JUDGE, THE HISTORIAN, THE LEGISLATOR ( Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel, and Jean-Louis Fournel On 11 July 1995, the enclave and town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia fell into the hands of General Mladić’s Serb nationalist forces. They organized the forced transfer of women and children, massacred about eight thou- sand Bosniaks,1 and, in the months that followed, unearthed and trans- ported the corpses to secondary graves in order to conceal evidence of their crimes.2 Yet the enclave had offi cially been declared a “safe area” by the United Nations in 1993 and its inhabitants—including thousands of refugees from across eastern Bosnia—had been put under the protec- tion of the international community, which was represented in this case by a ba alion of Dutch blue helmets (Dutchbat). The Srebrenica massacre quickly came to be seen as the symbol of the contradictions, errors, faults, and even crimes that had marked the policy of “peace keeping” advocated in the former Yugoslavia by the great powers and the UN. The horror of this last great massacre of the war in Bosnia (1992–1995) no doubt played an important role in NATO’s decision to intervene against the Bosnian Serbs in late summer 1995, which in turn led to the conclusion of the Day- ton agreements several months later. The Srebrenica massacre was thus a sad milestone for post–Cold War Europe and, more particularly, for the development of a European security and defense policy. At a more global level, the tragic result of the “safe areas” policy in eastern Bosnia con- tributed to redefi ning the rules of engagement and establishing national and international responsibility in operations of a military-humanitarian nature.
    [Show full text]
  • International Intervention and Genocide in Bosnia
    Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.4, No.7 Publication Date: April. 25, 2017 DoI:10.14738/assrj.47.2872. Gamawa, Y. I. (2017). International Intervention and Genocide in Bosnia. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(7) 1-21. International Intervention and Genocide in Bosnia Yusuf Ibrahim Gamawa Abstract The United Nations intervention in the Bosnian conflict was generally considered a positive development that could bring an end to the instabilty in the Balkans after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The UN was forced to intervene following the outbreak of violence in Bosnia after the referendum for its independence, a move that came to strongly resisted resisted by the Serbs. The UN togather with NATO collaborated on the Bosnian operations with aim of protecting the population as well as bringing stability. Arms embargo was imposed the UN, and safe areas were created, and among them them was Srebrenica. The UN declared such areas safe and free from attack when in reality it did not put in place in effective force in these areas to repel or counter attacks from any group. The result was the massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian before the UN peace keeping force by the Bosnian Serbs. The intervention in Bosnia as result raised many questions regarding UN policies and role, to the extent that it is argued if the intervention was actually carried out in accordance with the established humanitarian intervention ethics and the responsibility to protect. Why did the UN declare certain areas safe when it fully aware that it lacked the ability to protect the population of the areas from attacks? Rather than protect, The UN intervene in Bosnia appeared to have created an opportunity for mass murder or what came to be known as the Bosnian genocide.
    [Show full text]