Archive for July, 2008

Rights Abuse Olympiad

Eric Witte July 29th, 2008

Yesterday Amnesty International released a new assessment of the human rights situation in China.  Amnesty finds that the situation has deteriorated as the Olympic Games in Beijing approach:   

“In the run-up to the Olympics, the Chinese authorities have locked up, put under house arrest and forcibly removed individuals they believe may threaten the image of ’stability’ and ‘harmony’ they want to present to the world.”

The organization has called on world leaders to condemn rights abuses when they attend the opening ceremonies.  One would think that western leaders and international media might find it difficult to engage in the biennial prattle about an “Olympic movement” while ignoring thuggish policies organized around the games.  We’ll soon see.

Bosnia on the Edge

Eric Witte July 29th, 2008

Writing in The Oberserver on Sunday, the international community’s former High Representative in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, warned Europe that the country is in danger of falling apart.  He writes that this is “because of weariness and misjudgment of the international community which is still supposed to be guiding Bosnia to its future.”  Brussels thinks, “Bosnia is done. Their policy now is ‘don’t rock the boat in Bosnia’ while we deal with Kosovo and Belgrade.”  This passivity has left a power vacuum being filled by Republika Srpska (RS) premier Milorad Dodik, who is steering the entity towards secession. This would have perilous consequences for non-Serbs in the RS.  Ashdown’s entire article is well worth the read.  Let’s hope it’s being read in Brussels.

Karadzic, on the run 13 years, finally arrested

Kurt Bassuener July 22nd, 2008

Note - Scott Lang authored the post below, and asked me to to post it on his behalf - KB 

 

Bosnian Serb war-time President Radovan Karadžic was arrested in Serbia, Serbian President Boris Tadic announced and ICTY Prosecutor Serge Brammertz

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Indicted on two counts of genocide, Karadžic fomented nationalist fear throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina to divide this multi-cultural land by igniting ethnic Serb militancy to forcefully expel non-Serb neighbors, besieging the capital Sarajevo for nearly 4 years and massacring unarmed boys and men at the UN ‘safe area’ of Srebrenica. This long delayed arrest, akin in importance to Eichmann’s post-WWII, is a massive step forward for the justice process in the Balkans where thousands of murders have gone unaccounted for, their murderers unpunished. Coming on the heels of the 13th anniversary of the genocide at Srebrenica where recently discovered victim remains are reburied annually, Karadžic’s impunity from the ICTY court was part of mockery and contempt extreme Serb nationalists held for victims as well as for reckoning with the truth. Karadžic’s incarceration follows a long string of Serbian leaders cum mass murders heading to the court such as RS wartime MoI chief Stojan Župljanin, Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Šešelj, former Serbian president Slobodan Miloševic, former RS president and former RS assembly speaker Momcilo Krajišnik. Yet Karadžic’s terrorizing of Bosnian civilians was made possible only through the passivity and fecklessness of the world’s democracies who stood idly by as Karadžic ethnically cleansed Eastern Bosnia in 1992 and then bleed this diverse land for four more years. It was IFOR that refused to arrest him and it was the Dayton Peace Accords that solidify division and the gains of his genocidal project.

Therefore in Karadžic’s capture, Serbs, who like all former Yugoslav citizens, have suffered so dearly since the Cold War’s end, have an unprecedented chance to come to reckoning with crimes carried out in the name of their culture, history and religion by rejecting exclusive nationalism based upon bloodlines. Equally important, we internationals can use this opportunity to redouble our efforts at bringing about the capture of remaining ICTY indictees VRS commander Ratko Mladic and RSK leader Goran Hadžic and globally learning the lesson of never again by making the ICC indictment of Sudan’s president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has also orchestrated the murder of thousands of Muslims, more than an empty gesture.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina Radovan Karadžic caused so many tears, robbed so many of their basics freedoms, yet today tears of relief and love shall flow for all that was taken but must never be forgotten.

Serbia likely to put EU conditionality to the test

Eric Witte July 15th, 2008

In an interview with a Serbian newspaper, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has described Serbia’s progress toward EU membership in remarkably sensible terms: “This is not a process that is led based on a calendar, but in which progress depends on full completion of clearly defined conditions.”  The Commission may just be reflecting the backbone displayed by The Netherlands and Belgium in refusing to ratify Serbia’s Stabilization and Association Agreement until Belgrade fully cooperates with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  In the same newspaper interview cited by Serbian broadcaster B92, Rehn specifies that “Serbia needs to have full cooperation with the international court in The Hague. We are calling on the new government to continue to improve the positive development of the situation and to take all necessary steps towards achieving this condition.”

If this is in fact the EU’s new policy on Serbia, it would be a welcome development.  In the past, EU “conditionality” often has been muddied by shifting goalposts and capitulation to nationalist obstinance.  Comments also reported in B92 from Serbia’s new interior minister - the head of former President Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialist Party of Serbia - indicate that EU resolve is likely to be tested again.  Minister Ivica Dacic’s contempt for the tribunal could hardly be clearer: “”I don’t think that the Hague cooperation is a priority, because, miserable is any state that makes this a priority - to cooperate with the Hague!”  He goes on to traffic in unfounded craziness about how the ICTY has killed Serb detainees who have died of natural causes while in custody.  Dacic does, however, acknowledge that cooperation with the ICTY is Serbia’s international legal obligation.  Whether he and other members of the government act on that obligation is likely to be determined by EU policy. 

Three ICTY fugitives remain at large: Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and Goran Hadzic.  Clint Williamson, the U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, told a Sarajevo daily on Monday that top fugitives Karadzic and Mladic are believed to be in Serbia. 

Genocide charges against Bashir: justice and peace in Sudan

Eric Witte July 11th, 2008

The Washington Post is reporting this morning that on Monday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will seek Darfur-related charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The United Nations is grappling with how the Sudanese regime might react, including by possibly targeting peacekeepers or cutting off their supplies. Likewise, humanitarian aid organizations worry about their access to people in need being cut off.

These are serious concerns, as is the major question examined in today’s New York Times about how the charges (there is no formal “indictment” at the ICC) could affect the tenuous north-south peace and what remains of the peace process in Darfur.

In different contexts, this is the same question that surrounded the indictments of Serbian and Liberian presidents Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1999 and Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2003, respectively. A major after-effect of those indictments was to make the rule of Milosevic and Taylor no longer tenable, and diminished their ability to string along negotiators ad infinitum

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as suited their power interests. Thus, Milosevic was no longer able to wine and dine Richard Holbrooke and maintain his position as the perceived go-to guy for stability in the Balkans. Likewise, the absurd merry-go-round of broken peace and cease-fire arrangements - interspersed by additional negotiations when Taylor felt pressure to regroup and re-arm - came to an abrupt end in Liberia following the unsealing of his war crimes indictment. In Serbia, this meant that Serbs saw their futures tied to that of a pariah. This helped to motivate the civic uprising that overthrew Milosevic after he tried to steal another round of elections in October 2000. In Liberia, it led to international demands that Taylor leave power and the country as an essential component of any peace deal.

The Milosevic and Taylor indictments also led to increased media and high-level political attention for the crises in Serbia and Liberia. In the New York Times piece linked above, Sudan expert Alex de Waal worries that “[Bashir] is prone to irrational outbursts and could respond in a very aggressive way.” That’s quite possible, and greater instability in the short term is a real danger.  But de Waal himself has a smart post up at the Africa Policy Forum blog, arguing that Sudan requires diplomatic attention at a higher order of magnitude. Charges against Bashir could not only create accountability for atrocities in Darfur, but bring increased political resources to bear on the Sudanese crises.  This could lead the international community beyond tactical crisis management, and into the realm of strategic thinking backed by requisite resources to forge a more durable peace.

Srebrenica - 13th Anniversary

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Andrej Nosov July 10th, 2008

On the eve of the 13th Anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, Serbian human rights organizations demand

Serbia Arrest Persons Indicted for Genocide

This year we mark 60 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It especially obliges us to remind the President of Serbia, the Prime Minister, ministers, and members of the Serbian Parliament, religious leaders and the faithful, leaders and members of political parties, associations, unions, professors, students, youth, and all citizens of Serbia that our country has not yet fulfilled its obligations relative to the International Court of Justice judgement on the violations/non-abidance of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The International Court of Justice rendered a decision on 27 February 2007 establishing that Serbia had violated its obligation to prevent genocide (in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide), in view of the genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995. The court stated that Serbia had violated its obligation which originates from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide because it did not extradite Ratko Mladi?, indicted for genocide and complicity in genocide, to stand trial before the Hague Tribunal, hence it has not fully cooperated with the Tribunal.

On 27 February 2007, the Court rendered a decision obliging Serbia to instantly take efficient steps to fully respect its obligation towards the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to punish the act of genocide and extradite persons indicted for genocide to stand trial before the Hague Tribunal and therefore complete the cooperation with this Tribunal. Since then, Serbia has taken no steps to arrest persons indicted for the most grievous crime of all war crimes, rather it has continued protecting Hague indictees from criminal liability.

Human rights nongovernmental organizations call upon the authorities of the Republic of Serbia to implement the verdict of the International Court of Justice regarding the arrest of Ratko Mladi? and other Hague indictees, Radovan Karadži? and Goran Hadži?, and in so doing cease violating provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the right of victims’ families to justice.

11 July, the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, is approaching and this date obliges especially us, the citizens, and the authorities in Serbia, to show that victims are important. It also obliges Serbia to accept responsibility for the injustice caused to the victims in July 1995.

Humanitarian Law Center
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
Youth Initiative for Human Rights
YUCOM Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights
Women in Black
Queeria Centre
Centre for Cultural Decontamination