Commemorating Srebrenica
Today the world has come together in Srebrenica to remember. “Srebrenica”, the name of the eastern Bosnian town, stands as equivalent of the events taking place on July 11th, 1995. 20 years ago, the most atrocious event taking place in Europe after the Second World War cost about 8000 lives. Judge Riad from the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) described, after seeing the evidence of the violence as “scenes of unimaginable savagery, thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds of men buried alive, mutilated and slaughtered… These are truly scenes from Hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.”
In July 1995, Bosnian Serb troops entered the UN safe area Srebrenica, a town which had been surrounded and fought over for three years by then. Ca. 600 lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers were deployed for the town’s protection. After shelling of the town itself began in early July, the peacekeepers requested air-support since their mandate did not allow them to make use of weapons to protect the population but only themselves. At first, the support was denied, later granted but it was too late: The troops under command of Ratko Mladić took over the town started the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Srebrenica by forcing all female Bosniaks in buses to deport them, and by killing about 8000 men and boys. The ICTY as well as the ICJ (International Court of Justice) have ruled on these massacres as constituting genocide.
On July 8th, 2015, the international community aimed at condemning the genocide once more by passing a resolution concerning the topic in the United Nations’ Security Council. However, the resolution failed to pass with “10 votes in favour, four abstentions (Angola, China, Nigeria and Venezuela) and the Russian Federation voting against”.
The vetoed Security Council resolution resembles a second failure of the international community, after initially failing to protect the proclaimed safe area. Claims by the Serbian government and representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, foremost the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, it would target all Serbs including denouncing future generations of Serbs are unfounded: Everyone is aware of the fact that acknowledging the genocide as what it was, genocide, does not ascribe collective guilt to the Serbian people. Rather, it imposes the duty, similar to a lifelong duty of Germans regarding the Holocaust, to acknowledge what particular individuals of that society committed. The ICTY for instance has argued that all individuals persecuted so far “have been charged on the basis of their individual criminal responsibility” or “superior criminal responsibility at the time of the massacre”. For example, Radovan Karadžić was the President of the back-then self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb Republic and therefore the Supreme Commander of the troops, hence carrying superior responsibility. Also the ICJ argued in 2007 already, that “all indications are that the decision to kill the adult male population of the Bosnian Muslim community in Srebrenica was taken by some members of the VRS [Army of Republika Srpska] Main Staff, without instructions from or effective control by the FRY.”
The argument that the resolution would have not addressed Serbian victims profoundly enough is a poor attempt. The resolution purposefully aimed at the genocide taking place in Srebrenica in July, not trying to commemorate all the war dead the fighting around Srebrenica fell victim to during the period of three years. The statement of the President of the ICJ in 2007 made this clear already. Only the targeted killings of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in July 1995 resembled genocide. It was argued that atrocities appeared throughout the whole war. The court argued that proof of intent is necessary to proof genocide (as the Genocide Convention states), and this intent could not be seen throughout the war. “However, there was an important exception to these findings. The Court found that there was conclusive evidence that killings and acts causing serious bodily or mental harm targeting the Bosnian Muslims took place in Srebrenica in July 1995. These acts were directed by the Main Staff of the VRS (the army of the Republika Srpska) who possessed the specific intent required for genocide.” However, the FRY, whose rump state now is Serbia, “did not have de facto or de jure control over the VRS and paramilitaries. Accordingly, the Court held that acts of genocide could not be attributed to Serbia”. The only grounds Serbia was found responsible on was not doing enough to prevent the genocide and prosecuting the perpetrators responsible.
One could argue however, that a re-wording and concrete formulation in the document might have helped to achieve a passing of the resolution by the Security Council. The international community could have specified they did not intend to create a collective guilt. It would have meant to acknowledge concerns on the one hand, but on the other to increase the likelihood for passing the resolution and therefore showing international consent on the events taking place in Srebrenica in July 1995.
Photo Credit: Open Democracy on Flickr
