tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/srebrenica-massacre-18550/articlesSrebrenica massacre – The Conversation2021-06-04T16:20:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1621282021-06-04T16:20:58Z2021-06-04T16:20:58ZCanada’s hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous peoples<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404416/original/file-20210604-27-fbnzmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a memorial on Parliament Hill in recognition of the discovery of children's remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Canadian Parliament is sometimes at the cutting edge of genocide recognition and human rights.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/votes/43/2/56">the House of Commons passed a non-binding motion</a> to recognize China’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs as genocide. It was a principled and courageous stand and Canada was just the second country in the world to take this position. </p>
<p>A report by <a href="https://www.glanlaw.org/single-post/legal-opinion-concludes-that-treatment-of-uyghurs-amounts-to-crimes-against-humanity-and-genocide">a prominent British legal team</a> documented crimes of the genocide which included “evidence of Uyghur children being forcibly removed from their parents,” placed in orphanages and mandatory boarding schools.</p>
<p>It also said children “are deprived of the opportunity to practise their Uyghur culture…are sometimes given Han names, and are sometimes subject to adoption by Han ethnic families.” The report concludes there is enough evidence that their forced removal is carried out with the intention of “destroying the Uyghur population as an ethnic group.” </p>
<h2>Shameful history of residential schools</h2>
<p>Similar descriptions could be applied to what churches and governments in Canada did to Indigenous children who were sent to Indian Residential Schools.</p>
<p>Is it a double standard for Canada to recognize the Uyghurs and not Indigenous people? It’s a question that needs to be considered once again after the recent announcement by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation that <a href="https://tkemlups.ca/wp-content/uploads/05-May-27-2021-TteS-MEDIA-RELEASE.pdf">a ground penetrating radar specialist had discovered the buried remains of 215 children</a> who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial photo of the school that is set along a winding river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404419/original/file-20210604-25-1ie9e6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The former Kamloops Indian Residential School is seen in Kamloops, B.C. The remains of 215 children have been discovered buried near the former school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to the February motion against China’s treatment of its Uyghur population, Canada recognizes seven other genocides: the Holocaust during the Second World War, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadian-parliament-recognizes-armenian-genocide-1.509866">the Armenian genocide</a>, the Ukrainian famine genocide (<a href="https://www.ucc.ca/issues/holodomor/">Holodomor</a>), the Rwandan genocide, the <a href="https://bosniak.org/2010/10/19/canadian-parliament-unanimously-adopts-the-srebrenica-genocide-resolution/">Srebrenica massacres</a>, the mass killing of the <a href="https://natoassociation.ca/canadian-government-acknowledges-isis-genocide-against-the-yazidis-now-what/">Yazidi people</a> and the mass murder of the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4470455/canada-declares-myanmar-rohingya-genocide/">Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar</a>. </p>
<p>Recognition of our country’s own genocide against Indigenous people is long overdue.</p>
<h2>A violation of UN convention</h2>
<p>There have been calls for Parliament to recognize the Indian Residential Schools as a violation of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml">United Nations Genocide Convention</a>, in particular of <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">Article 2e </a> which prohibits “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” </p>
<p>Almost two decades ago, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) described the residential school system as “the forcible transfer of children from one racial group to another with the intent to destroy the group.” AFN National Chief Atleo <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/residential-schools-fit-definition-of-genocide-atleo/">made reference to genocide in 2011</a>, as has current National Chief Perry Bellegarde, <a href="https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/discovery-of-indigenous-children-s-bodies-reminder-of-canada-s-genocide-experts-1.24325480">who reiterated his views on genocide</a> after the announcement of the discovery of the graves in Kamloops.</p>
<p>There is ample evidence in the <a href="http://www.trc.ca/about-us/trc-findings.html">Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report</a> of state intentions, legislation, actions and legacies of genocide.</p>
<p>Sen. Murray Sinclair regularly discussed the Indian Residential Schools system as <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-murray-sinclair-has-tried-for-years-to-shock-canada-into-confronting/">violating Article 2e</a> and stated that he would have put this in the TRC’s Final Report, had it been permitted.</p>
<p>As he explained in an interview with me for my book <em><a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-sleeping-giant-awakens-4">The Sleeping Giant Awakens</a>: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I had written a section for the report in which I very clearly called it genocide and then I submitted that to the legal team and I said, can I say this, or, can we say this? And the answer came back unanimously no, we can’t as per our mandate, because we can’t make a finding of culpability, and that’s very clear. So, we did the next best thing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The TRC ultimately concluded that <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/canada-guilty-cultural-genocide-indigenous-peoples-trc-2/">cultural genocide had been committed in the Indian Residential School system</a>, while also making hints throughout the report that the government was culpable of more. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A portrait of former senator Murray Sinclair taken in the halls of Parliament Hill" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404420/original/file-20210604-17-gyywp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former senator Murray Sinclair, who spent six years hearing stories of the effects of Canada’s residential school system for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has used the term ‘genocide’ to describe the IRS system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preventable deaths</h2>
<p>The discovery of the graves of 215 Indigenous children makes it clear that preventable deaths were always a part of the Indian Residential School system. We are now at the beginning of compiling the evidence of mass deaths in the schools. </p>
<p>Ground radar scans will help us get to the truth, and Sinclair believes <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-survivors-of-residential-schools-share-their-stories-call-on-the/">the death toll may reach 15,000 lives</a>. But we need not wait for the results of these investigations to make a conclusion of genocide. We have ample evidence of violations of Article 2e. </p>
<p>Remember that Raphael Lemkin, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41204789">who coined the term genocide</a>, was clear that genocide need not mean killing. In 1944 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/51.1.117">he wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Killing marks only the final stage of genocide. Lemkin was clear that “the machine gun” was often “a last resort” instead of the primary means of destruction.</p>
<p>In 2016, MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette, with help from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/maeengan-linklater-lobbies-for-manitoba-residential-school-memorial-day-1.3102730">Maeengan Linklater</a>, a Winnipeg man whose parents went to residential schools, <a href="http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-318/first-reading">introduced C-318</a> “An Act to establish Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day.” It called for Parliament to recognize that “the actions taken to remove children from families and communities to place them in residential schools meets this (UN) definition of genocide.”</p>
<h2>Never debated</h2>
<p>This private member’s bill didn’t make it to the committee stage and was never debated or discussed in the House. Bills have a long and complex route through Parliament to be enacted into law.</p>
<p>A motion, like the one about the Uyghur genocide, is a much shorter and simpler process and can be passed quickly. However, a motion in Parliament must pass unanimously; there can be no votes against. In the Uyghur case 266 voted for genocide recognition and the rest chose to abstain, including <a href="https://bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56163220">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most of the cabinet</a>. </p>
<p>Within days of the news about the discovery in Kamloops, the <a href="https://www.brandonsun.com/local/dotc-seeks-recognition-of-genocide-574551162.html">Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council at Keeshkeemaquah, Man., recommended</a> that “the Parliament of Canada should recognize the Indian Residential School system as an act of genocide.”</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree. A motion to recognize the Indian Residential School system as a violation of Article 2e of the UN Genocide Convention can go some way towards establishing a ground floor of truth on which we can build for the coming generations.</p>
<p><em>If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162128/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David MacDonald receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant 430413).</span></em></p>Canada has officially recognized eight genocides that have happened around the world. It has not done the same for its own treatment of Indigenous children who they sent to Indian Residential Schools.David MacDonald, Professor of Political Science, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1293652020-01-14T14:10:00Z2020-01-14T14:10:00ZWhy the Gambia’s plea for the Rohingya matters for international justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309072/original/file-20200108-107231-1az78ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protester supports the Rohingya outside the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, on 10 December 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Sem van der Wal</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In early December, the International Court of Justice <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/178">heard arguments</a> filed by <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20191111-APP-01-00-EN.pdf">the Gambia against Myanmar</a> for violations of the Genocide Convention. This included a request for “provisional measures”, asking that the UN court immediately order Myanmar to cease <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/myanmarffm/pages/index.aspx">genocidal activities</a> and to report to it within four months. </p>
<p>Under the 1948 Genocide Convention any member state can bring a claim against any other and be heard by the International Court of Justice. This is in keeping with the principle that the act of genocide harms all of humanity, not just those directly involved in it. Yet the case against Myanmar is only the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-in-the-hague-defending-myanmar-against-allegations-of-genocide-125102">third invocation of the Genocide Convention</a> before the UN court. It is the first case ever to consider acts and actors of non-contiguous, non-warring countries.</p>
<p>But even a successful judgement on provisional measures may still not bring relief to the minority Rohingya community in Myanmar or Bangladesh. Provisional measures against genocidal acts have an unfortunate history. The International Court of Justice issued them in 1993 against Serbia, for example, and this did not prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. </p>
<p>Moreover, even though legally binding, enforcement of provisional measures will prove difficult. In the meantime the Rohingya are still being persecuted and killed in Myanmar. They are also <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/bangladesh-may-force-100000-rohingya-to-resettle-on-uninhabited-island/a-50256755">increasingly unwelcome in Bangladesh</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the Gambia’s invocation of the Genocide Convention remains politically and legally significant, not least for the potential it signals about the application of international law by actors in the global south.</p>
<h2>Why the Gambia?</h2>
<p>The Gambia emerged from 22 years of dictatorship in 2016. President Adama Barrow came to power on a human rights and anti-corruption platform. He has embraced the case, which has been vigorously pursued by his justice minister, Abubacarr Tambadou. </p>
<p>In 2018 Barrow told <a href="https://gadebate.un.org/sites/default/files/gastatements/73/gm_en.pdf">the UN General Assembly</a> that his government would “champion an accountability mechanism” for crimes against the Rohingya.</p>
<p>Tambadou worked for 13 years in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In 2017, he travelled to Bangladesh for the annual meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. This is an international organisation open to countries with a Muslim majority and which the Gambia currently chairs. </p>
<p>Meeting refugees in the settlement of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh convinced Tambadou of the need for his country to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-world-court-gambia/with-memories-of-rwanda-the-gambian-minister-taking-on-suu-kyi-idUSKBN1Y91HA">“use our voice”</a> to assist the Rohingya. </p>
<h2>The arguments</h2>
<p>Two central points emerged from the December hearing on provisional measures. First, the hearing reiterated how Myanmar, in the person of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977">once-celebrated</a> human rights advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, categorically denies the atrocities for which there is overwhelming evidence. </p>
<p>The Gambia, led by Tambadou, relied almost exclusively on evidence collected by UN fact-finding missions, which are officially constituted and rigorously vetted. Yet Aung San Suu Kyi rejected these findings in favour of Myanmar’s internal investigations, and <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20191211-ORA-01-00-BI.pdf">concluded</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It would not be helpful for the international legal order if the impression takes hold that only resource-rich countries can conduct adequate domestic investigations and prosecutions, and that the domestic justice of countries still striving to cope with the burden of unhappy legacies and present challenges cannot be made good enough. The Gambia will also understand this challenge with which they too are confronted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this way, Aung San Suu Kyi borrowed from both neocolonialism and “fake news” populism in constructing her argument. </p>
<p>Second, the hearing emphasised how narrowly the International Court of Justice has previously drawn the definition of genocide. In the two previous cases invoking the Genocide Convention, the court declined to find state-sponsored genocide, due to its interpretation of the Convention’s “intent” element. As the court stated in its 2007 judgment <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/91/091-20070226-JUD-01-00-EN.pdf">Bosnia-Herzegovina v Serbia</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is not enough that the members of the group are targeted because they belong to that group, that is because the perpetrator has a discriminatory intent. Something more is required. The acts listed must be done with intent to destroy the group as such in whole or in part.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Aung San Suu Kyi specifically invoked this judicial history throughout her address to the court.</p>
<p>The prominent international law scholar appearing on behalf of Myanmar, William Schabas, <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20191211-ORA-01-00-BI.pdf">pushed this definition even further</a>. He argued that the International Court of Justice’s jurisprudence suggested that the correct understanding for genocidal intent was necessarily the absence of any other explanation for a state’s conduct.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Myanmar submits that the information in the application and in the materials invoked in its support … provide ample evidence to indicate alternative inferences…. Should the Court agree that there is ample support for an alternative explanation, then it cannot but conclude that the application has no reasonable chance of success on the merits. Not a 50 per cent chance. Not a 25 per cent chance. No chance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Schabas went on to cite the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20191211-ORA-01-00-BI.pdf">International Criminal Court’s investigation</a> into deportation of the Rohingya as a demonstration of the kinds of “alternate inferences” that would disallow the court to find the requisite genocidal intent.</p>
<p>Schabas developed this definition through an analogy of how domestic criminal law categorises crime. This interpretation would destroy the possibility of finding states responsible for genocide, however. This is because it is impossible to intentionally destroy a group in whole or in part, which is the core of the legal definition of genocide, without committing other international crimes along the way. </p>
<p>This distortion of the Genocide Convention perverts both its purpose as well as the International Court of Justice’s past jurisprudence, and seems unlikely to be adopted by the court.</p>
<h2>Promising new direction?</h2>
<p>The Gambia and Myanmar are a world away from one another. Nevertheless, in bringing a case against Myanmar, the Gambia represents “humanity” rather than Africa or world Islam. </p>
<p>The curiosity and surprise that have met the Gambia’s bold step remind us that this universal mantle is rarely worn by African countries. The Gambia’s initiative signals a promising new direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Rohingya case before the International Court of Justice is politically and legally significant.Kerstin Bree Carlson, Associate Professor International Law, University of Southern DenmarkLine Engbo Gissel, Associate Professor, Global Political Sociology, Roskilde UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1018372018-08-21T07:14:22Z2018-08-21T07:14:22ZKofi Annan: a man who paid his dues to global peace and security<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232654/original/file-20180820-30593-1un7mqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/ Fredrik Persson</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>All the world’s a stage; And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. (<a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/you-it-act-ii-scene-vii-all-worlds-stage">As you like it</a>, Act II, scene VII, William Shakespeare.) </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, Kofi Annan, born in 1938, entered the world in the City of Kumasi in Ghana, and exited the world in 2018 as a humanitarian, a true statesman and a peacebuilder.</p>
<p>He became Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) a few years after the demise of the Soviet Union. The collapse of the bi-polar world reduced to the barest minimum the constraints imposed by the Cold War rivalry on the world body. It also led to the expansion of its role and responsibilities to address the new challenges and dimensions of security. </p>
<p>Annan’s tenure began a few years after the (re)introduction of two important international security lexicons – peacebuilding and human security. These two were popularised in the UN commissioned works by former Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s <a href="http://www.un-documents.net/a47-277.htm">An Agenda for Peace</a> (1992) and the Pakistani economist, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-mahbub-ul-haq-1169323.html">Mahbub ul Haq</a>. Boutros-Ghali’s initiative expanded the UN’s role and responsibilities to the world. It also redefined global peace and security architecture. </p>
<p>The 1990s was characterised by complex and intractable armed conflicts. The period saw a significant shift from inter-state to intra-state conflicts. There was a rise in the number of
failed states as well as egregious violations of human rights.</p>
<p>As the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and later the Secretary-General, Annan’s task of overseeing the implementation of the new security agenda was no doubt arduous. </p>
<h2>The fight against poverty</h2>
<p>Throughout his life Annan committed himself to peace and security, human rights and rule of law. He was committed to ensuring respect for human rights and improving human security. Both were considered important in improving the quality of living of people. On one occasion he <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/68/pdf/human_security/FINAL%20Gasper_HumanSecurityApproach_UNGA-18June2014.pdf">remarked</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…anyone who speaks forcefully for human rights but does nothing about human security and human development – or vice versa – undermines both his credibility and his cause. So let us speak with one voice on all three issues.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He pursued the agenda of improving the quality of people by getting world leaders to commit themselves to addressing the basic concerns of the world’s population – poverty. In his <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/We_The_Peoples.pdf">2000 report</a>, We the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the 21st century, he urged member states to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Put people at the centre of everything we do …. to make their lives better.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the concluding part of the report, Annan <a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/We_The_Peoples.pdf">admonished</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Free our fellow men and women from the abject and dehumanising poverty in which more than 1 billion of them are currently confined. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Throughout his international public service, measures to address the basic needs of people were ever present, both in his words and deeds. Even on retirement, he continued to work for the improvement of the living standards of ordinary people.</p>
<h2>The reformist</h2>
<p>Annan was a reformist. On taking up the post as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN, he <a href="http://www.g77.org/doc/policy%20brief.htm">drove</a> the implementation of two management reports on reform. The first introduced a cabinet kind of body which assisted the Secretary-General in the effective running of the organisation. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=812&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232656/original/file-20180820-30608-19zde3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Former UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Lynn Bo bo</span></span>
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<p>The second established of the position of Deputy Secretary-General and the reduction of administrative costs to the world body. He presided over reforms intended to make the UN an effective international peace and security interlocutor. In his <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061213000423/http:/www.un.org/largerfreedom/">progress report</a> he made further far reaching recommendations for the expansion of the Security Council and a number of other <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061213172029/http:/www.un.org/mandatereview/">reforms</a> that brought about significant changes to the UN. </p>
<p>His past experiences shaped his international engagements, especially on international intervention to save humanitarian catastrophes. The failure of the UN to stop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and the Srebrenica massacre when Annan served as the head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations were key events in this context.</p>
<p>Under Annan, the UN General Assembly in 2005 endorsed the doctrine of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_to_Protect">Responsibility to Protect</a>” following the incorporation of this doctrine in his report, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/in_larger_freedom.shtml%7CIn">Larger Freedom</a>. </p>
<p>In the preparation to invade Iraq in 2003, Annan condemned the US and the UK, urging them not to do so without the support of the UN. He believed the intervention didn’t conform with the UN charter, and was therefore <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3661134.stm">illegal</a>.</p>
<h2>Reflections</h2>
<p>In his <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pPXpiXQ45osC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=All+of+us+must+bitterly+regret+that+we+did+not+do+more+to+prevent+it&source=bl&ots=JFLE201ClH&sig=eYK3IYyO3_9Rze--faz7aj7dePs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-r-2q1PncAhXQY1AKHfa2ApIQ6AEwBHoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=All%20of%20us%20must%20bitterly%20regret%20that%20we%20did%20not%20do%20more%20to%20prevent%20it&f=false">memoir</a> which he coauthored with his former advisor and speechwriter, Nader Mousavizadeh, Annan, he reflected on his roles at the UN. </p>
<p>On the Rwandan genocide, one of the significant lapses that dented the UN’s peacekeeping reputation, Annan reported on how he lobbied about 100 governments – and made personal calls to others – to assist with the passage of the Security Council Resolution (918) to dispatch about 5,500 troops to the country. He recalls how he received no single serious offer for troop contribution. </p>
<p>The 1999 independent investigation into what had happened categorically concluded that the UN had failed to prevent, and stop, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13431486">genocide in Rwanda</a>. As Secretary-General during the investigation, Annan accepted responsibility of the lapses during the genocide in Rwanda. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All of us must bitterly regret that we did not do more to prevent it,</p>
</blockquote>
<p>pointing out that UN peace force at the time was “neither mandated nor equipped” for the kind of forceful action needed to prevent the genocide.</p>
<p>Nonetheless with a deeper refection, Annan said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On behalf of the United Nations, I acknowledge this failure and express my deep remorse. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Recounting more recently on the genocide in Rwanda and his later diplomatic undertakings after the end of his tenure as the Secretary General, Annan said he’d learnt some useful lessons:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I realised after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support. This painful memory, along with that of Bosnia and Herzegovina, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44412275">has influenced</a> much of my thinking, and many of my actions, as secretary-general". </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He was to put these lessons into practice as he continued to pursue avenues for peace in conflicts around the world. For example, six months after his appointment as the UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, Annan <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2012/08/416872-kofi-annan-resigns-un-arab-league-joint-special-envoy-syrian-crisis">resigned</a>. His reasons included the stalemate in the Security Council to take measures that could ensure a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis as well as the intransigence of both the Assad regime and the rebels towards a peaceful outcome. </p>
<p>And in 2016 he headed the Rakhine Commission which was appointed to look into the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar. The commission’s recommendations were unpopular to both sides. But in 2018 the Myanmar civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi accepted the commission’s recommendations and convened a new board, ostensibly to implement them.</p>
<p>Annan acquitted himself well as an international diplomat, a humanist and peace-builder. He lived a fulfilled life, and contributed significantly in his chosen career. Kofi ‘Damirifa Duei Duei ne amane hunu’ (Rest in Peace).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abdul-Jalilu Ateku receives funding from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission IN the UK for my PhD</span></em></p>Kofi Annan’s tenure began after the reintroduction of two important international security lexicons – peacebuilding and human security.Abdul-Jalilu Ateku, PhD Candidate in International Relations, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017792018-08-19T17:00:44Z2018-08-19T17:00:44ZKofi Annan: his legacy is not perfect, but he helped improve millions of lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232572/original/file-20180819-165940-b5iavn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kofi Annan in 2009.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Kofi_Annan%2C_World_Economic_Forum_2009_Annual_Meeting.jpg">World Economic Forum via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The passing of Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been met with tributes from all around the world. His home country, Ghana, declared a week of national mourning.</p>
<p>Annan rose through the ranks of the UN to become the first black African to head the organisation, and his many achievements are rightly being celebrated. Under his tenure, human rights and development were put at the forefront of all UN work, ensuring that the organisation focused on all people in all parts of our global society. Courageously, he was also the first UN Secretary-General to recognise and condemn the UN’s disproportionate focus on <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/9702/annan-made-the-nations-a-little-less-united-agains/">Israel</a> as a human rights violator compared to many other similar or worse offenders.</p>
<p>It is also right to remember that on his watch, the UN’s reputation was tarnished by two of its worst stains. He was head of UN peacekeeping at the time when genocides were perpetrated in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/kofi-annan-rwanda/567865/">Rwanda</a> and the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/09/the-shame-of-srebrenica-bosnia-iraq-war-libya-syria/">Former Republic of Yugoslavia</a> while UN peacekeepers stood by and did nothing, and he was in charge of the UN during the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq.</p>
<p>But as a whole, Annan’s life and work will nonetheless be celebrated for a long time to come.</p>
<h2>A life well lived</h2>
<p>Kofi Annan was born on April 8 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana, which was, at the time, part of the British Empire and known as the Gold Coast. His family were traditional rulers and his father a provincial governor. Ghana’s independence was secured when Annan was in his final year of secondary school. He attended a national university, followed by studying in the United States on a Ford Foundation scholarship. After his studies, Annan took a job at the World Heath Organization and began his lifelong career at the UN. </p>
<p>There are many ways in which he changed and improved the world through his work at the UN, and indeed in the positions he took after his retirement. During his tenure as Secretary-General he reformed <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/04/134122-without-reform-human-rights-body-un-credibility-stake-annan-says">the UN’s human rights system</a>, in particular by establishing the modern <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-us-left-the-un-human-rights-council-and-why-it-matters-98644">Human Rights Council</a>. His commitment to ensuring development around the world and to establish the principle that no-one be left behind culminated in the <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/">Millennium Development Goals</a>, the forerunner of today’s <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300">Sustainable Development Goals</a>.</p>
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<p>Annan focused intensely on peace and security, ensuring that UN member states accepted the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/about-responsibility-to-protect.html">Responsibility to Protect</a> doctrine. This political mandate emphasises that the UN, and particularly its peacekeeping personnel, must prioritise protecting civilians in conflict and crisis zones. Its creation was a direct response to the UN’s failure to protect civilians in Rwanda and the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, where genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity were perpetrated while peacekeepers stood and watched. At that time, Annan was Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping, and it raised eyebrows when he was appointed Secretary-General immediately afterwards. He replaced <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35590039">Boutros Boutros-Ghali</a>, who was not reappointed for a second term – in no small part because of the terrible failures under his leadership.</p>
<p>Annan further strengthened the role of the UN Secretary-General’s role in <a href="https://peaceoperationsreview.org/interviews/good-offices-means-taking-risks/">peacefully settling disputes</a> and came close to securing a settlement in Cyprus. He spoke out against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But as Secretary-General, he also oversaw the staff members at the heart of the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, a scheme intended to get food and vital supplies to Iraqi citizens but which also fell prey to corruption on a grand scale. While he was cleared of direct involvement, questions continue to be asked as to what he knew and when, and whether he could and should have done more. </p>
<h2>The good and the bad</h2>
<p>All in all, this makes for a complicated biography. While his appointment as the first black African Secretary-General was undeniably a breakthrough moment for representation at the UN’s top echelons, he failed just as his predecessors did to bring about the long-promised parity of gender, ethnicity and class that the UN structure badly needs. And those failures – particularly to appoint more than a few women to senior roles – undermine the UN’s claim to uphold the obligation under its own Charter to represent “we the peoples”. Still, he did more than his predecessors or immediate successor, for example appointing Mary Robinson as High Commissioner for Human Rights and Edward Mortimer to assist with his UN reform agenda – an agenda far more wide-reaching than any before or since.</p>
<p>After retirement, Annan continued his work for the UN, including as Special Envoy on the Syrian crisis and Chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Myanmar. This body played a major part in keeping the peace there in ways that seem tragically elusive today. He was also a member of the <a href="https://theelders.org/kofi-annan">Elders</a>, a group of senior people from around the world that has included Mary Robinson, Nelson Mandela, Ela Bhatt and Jimmy Carter, all of whom use their reputations to attempt to bring peace to troubled parts of the world.</p>
<p>Tributes are being paid to Annan from within the UN and from leaders and peoples around the world. As Secretary-General he used his platform to effect meaningful change for billions of people across the world. His was a life well lived, and his legacy will live on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosa Freedman has received funding from the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aoife O'Donoghue receives funding from the AHRC.</span></em></p>While his appointment as UN Secretary-General was a huge breakthrough, Kofi Annan also led the organisation through some of its ugliest moments.Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of ReadingAoife O'Donoghue, Professor, Durham Law School, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017912018-08-19T14:18:16Z2018-08-19T14:18:16ZKofi Annan: a complicated legacy of impressive achievements, and some profound failures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232565/original/file-20180819-165952-y9y6es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan left a mixed legacy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Martial Trezzini</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45232892">Kofi Annan (80)</a> was an important historical figure who played a critical role in many key events of the 1990s and 2000s. His death is therefore an opportunity to both celebrate his life and to begin honestly assessing his contributions to the world.</p>
<p>The Ghanaian diplomat’s legacy is complicated. He served as both head of the United Nations peacekeeping and as Secretary General of the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/index.html">UN</a>. His tenure in these high offices – from 1992 to 2006 – were marked by great human tragedies as well as episodes of progress. His role in these events raises difficult questions about individual responsibility and the role of international organisations and their leaders in creating a more peaceful and just world.</p>
<p>On the plus side, his contributions were impressive. He was an effective diplomat, a shrewd negotiator and an intelligent strategist. He was such a successful bureaucratic operator that he was the first UN employee to rise to the position of Secretary General. </p>
<p>When he took over the organisation it was facing numerous challenges. They included a tense and often hostile relationship with its most powerful member state, the US, a difficult budgetary situation and what appeared to be an inability to fulfil its core peacekeeping, <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf">human rights and development functions</a>. </p>
<p>By the end of his term, things looked very different. Relations with key member countries had been restored, the UN had a sound fiscal position and both he and the organisation had <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/kofi-annan-dead-former-un-secretary-general-nobel-peace-prize-laureate-a8497171.html">won the Nobel Peace Prize</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, the organisation had launched some important new initiatives. It had adopted the <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/">Millenium Development Goals</a>, which contributed to significant gains in health, education and human welfare in many countries around the world. The initiative was so successful that it was succeeded by the even more ambitious <a href="https://una-gp.org/the-sustainable-development-goals-2015-2030/">Sustainable Development Goals</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, the international community had established the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/pids/publications/uicceng.pdf">International Criminal Court</a> and had begun prosecuting war criminals for their deeds in the wars in the former <a href="https://www.law.kuleuven.be/iir/nl/activiteiten/documentatie/OldActivities/Francqui2003/David6.pdf">Yugoslavia and Rwanda</a>.</p>
<p>He had also initiated the process of getting corporations to recognise and accept their responsibility for the environmental, social and human rights consequences of their activities. This process moved slowly. But his efforts ultimately led to the UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsing the <a href="https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/2">Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011</a>. These have now been incorporated into the human rights policies of many companies and have led to a number of countries adopting national action plans on the human rights responsibilities of business.</p>
<p>After he left the UN, <a href="https://theelders.org/kofi-annan">Annan</a> continued to do good work with both the <a href="https://theelders.org/about">Elders</a>, a group of global leaders working for peace and human rights, and his own <a href="http://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/">foundation</a>. In these capacities he had some notable achievements. He helped resolve the post-election violence in Kenya, helped ensure peaceful elections in Nigeria and a number of other countries, and helped promote more productive and sustainable agriculture and good governance across Africa. He also tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to end the civil war in Syria and the campaign against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.</p>
<p>But there’s also a darker side to Annan’s record. </p>
<h2>The tragedies</h2>
<p>Annan was the head of UN Peacekeeping operations in the 1990s when two of the biggest failures in UN history happened. Under his watch both the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13431486">Rwandan genocide</a> and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Srebrenica-massacre">massacres in Srebrenica</a> took place. </p>
<p>In both cases his commanders on the ground requested authority to take stronger action to limit the risk of tragedy to those under their protection. In both cases he declined their request –with tragic results. </p>
<p>In addition, under his leadership UN peacekeepers in a range of countries, including Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, were found to be sexually exploiting those they were charged to protect. The UN failed to respond promptly to these actions and they continued into the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/16/u-n-fails-stem-rapes-peacekeepers-africa-victims-cry/1016223001/">2000s</a>. </p>
<p>In most organisations, a leader who is responsible for such profound failures would be held accountable. If not fired, or forced to resign, they would at the very least be moved to a position of lesser authority. But this didn’t happen because the UN has poor mechanisms and a weak culture of accountability. In fact, the UN and its member states, decided to promote Annan, selecting him to replace the first African Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, who was deemed to be too <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/boutros-boutros-ghali-un-secretary-general-who-clashed-with-us-dies-at-93/2016/02/16/8b727bb8-d4c1-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.html?utm_term=.afb97dbcaab1">independent minded by the US</a>.</p>
<p>Annan continued relying on the UN’s lack of accountability once he was in office. His son was implicated in the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/impact-un-oil-food-scandal">infamously corrupt food-for-oil programme</a> that was initiated to help the Iraqi population during the period of sanctions against Saddam Hussein. </p>
<p>Eventually, under pressure, he appointed the independent Volcker Commission to investigate the programme. It concluded that, although Annan himself was not guilty of any wrong doing, <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2005/sc8492.doc.htm">his actions in response to the abuses were inadequate</a>, including that he had failed to refer the matter to the UN’s independent watchdog agency. </p>
<p>He also tolerated sexual harassment within the UN Secretariat, protecting the former head of the UN refugee agency when he was accused of sexual harassment, penalising his accuser and then relying on the UN’s legal immunity to avoid having to respond to her efforts to <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/54/brzak-v-united-nations/">seek justice</a>. The adverse publicity eventually forced the guilty official to resign.</p>
<h2>Lessons to be drawn</h2>
<p>There is no doubt that running a complex international institution like the UN is difficult and requires leaders who are willing to compromise. Given the Secretary General’s weak position, it may also be inevitable that its leaders will have to turn a blind eye to some acts and omissions that have tragic and possibly evil consequences in order to advance higher priorities. </p>
<p>Annan showed throughout his career that he was a master at playing this game. As a result, his record includes both some impressive achievements and some profound failures. It will be up to history to decide if he made the right choices and struck the correct balance between doing good and tolerating evil.</p>
<p>In the meanwhile, we should all draw lessons from the life of this important historical figure about the importance of holding leaders and the institutions that govern our world accountable for their actions and decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101791/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danny Bradlow's SARCHI chair is funded by the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Kofi Annan was the first UN employee to rise to the position of Secretary General but his tenure also had a darker side.Danny Bradlow, SARCHI Professor of International Development Law and African Economic Relations, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/991222018-07-11T12:31:34Z2018-07-11T12:31:34ZRemembering Srebrenica, more than 20 years on<p>One of the darkest hours in recent human history, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, has plenty of unpleasant parallels in today’s world, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/syrias-latest-chemical-massacre-demands-a-global-response-94668">Syria</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/rohingya-crisis-this-is-what-genocide-looks-like-83924">Myanmar</a>. 23 years after the massacre in and around the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, remembrance of what has been <a href="http://www.icty.org/en/press/radovan-karadzic-and-ratko-mladic-accused-genocide-following-take-over-srebrenica">described</a> as “scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history” is as important as ever.</p>
<p>The events in and around Srebrenica between July 10-19 1995 are well known. In those few days, an estimated 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces. Efforts to find, recover, identify and repatriate the victims’ remains are ongoing – and the task is a hugely complex one.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/11/srebrenica-massacre-commemorated-with-burial-of-recently-identified-bodies">Every year</a> at the <a href="https://www.srebrenica.org.uk/lessons-from-srebrenica/srebrenica-potocari-memorial/">Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Centre and Cemetery</a>, more victims are laid to rest. This year, <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/sarajevo-honours-convoy-carrying-srebrenica-dead-07-09-2018">35 people</a> have been identified and will be buried. Of the 430 Srebrenica-related sites where human remains have been recovered, 94 are graves and 336 are surface sites with human remains scattered on the ground. Pathologists and anthropologists examined more than 17,000 sets of human remains related to Srebrenica, resulting in around 7,000 identifications, most of them via DNA. To gather enough DNA to make those identifications, more than 20,000 DNA samples had to be collected. </p>
<h2>Slow justice</h2>
<p>It was only in autumn 2017 that Ratko Mladić, a former general of the Bosnian Serb forces, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/ratko-mladic-convicted-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-at-un-tribunal">convicted</a> of the crimes that took place in Srebrenica – genocide and persecution, extermination, murder, and the inhumane act of forcible transfer. Mladić is one of relatively few defendants to have appeared before the <a href="http://www.icty.org/">International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia</a> (ICTY) charged with genocide. </p>
<p>This is because for a conviction on the grounds of genocide, the prosecution has to prove a catalogue of things. To be convicted of the crime of genocide, the accused must have <a href="http://www.icty.org/x/file/Legal%20Library/Statute/statute_sept09_en.pdf">deliberately intended</a> “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such”. Punishable under Article 4(3) of the ICTY Statute are also conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide, attempts to commit genocide and complicity in genocide. Two things have to be proven: the <em>actus reus</em> (the actual killings, serious bodily or mental harm and deliberate infliction of conditions designed to bring about the destruction of the group) and the <em>mens rea</em> (the specific intent to destroy the group).</p>
<p>Mladić’s 2017 conviction did not bring an end to all aspects of his case. In March 2018, both the defence and prosecution <a href="http://jrad.unmict.org/webdrawer/webdrawer.dll/webdrawer/search/rec&sm_recnbr&sm_ncontents=mict-13-56&sm_created&sm_fulltext&sort1=rs_datecreated&count&rows=100">filed their notices of appeal</a>. Though not in relation to Srebrenica, the prosecution submits that the trial chamber erred in two of its findings: first, that Bosnian Muslims in the areas of Foča, Kotor Varoš, Prijedor, Sanski Most and Vlasenica did not constitute a substantial part of the Bosnian Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and second, that Mladić (and others) did not intend to destroy those Bosnian Muslims. As a result, the <a href="http://www.unmict.org/en/cases/mict-13-56">proceedings</a> are ongoing.</p>
<p>During the 530 days of Mladić’s original trial, 377 witnesses appeared in court, some of them victims of war crimes. Victims often have <a href="http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/24977/">many needs</a>: to tell their stories, to contribute to public knowledge and accountability, to publicly denounce the wrongs that were committed against them and others, to bear witness on behalf of those who did not survive, and to receive reparations, public acknowledgement or apologies. They may wish to confront the accused, to find out the truth about what happened to their loved ones, to contribute to peace goals or to help prevent the perpetration of further abuse. Many risk their own personal safety to tell their stories, or those of victims who did not survive.</p>
<p>And yet, a recent <a href="https://www.impunitywatch.org/docs/Keeping_the_Promise_%5BFINAL%5D.pdf">report by international NGO Impunity Watch</a> paints a bleak picture stating that “Western Balkan states have done very poorly when it comes to victim participation in [transitional justice] processes. Victims’ voices are marginalised and their rightful claims have been politicised by the different sides.”</p>
<h2>Remembrance and responsibility</h2>
<p>Impunity Watch describes a continuing “battleground of conflicting narratives, in which each side claims victimhood and blames the other for past abuses”. This does not bode well for the future.</p>
<p>The divisions in Bosnia are hard to ignore; Srebrenica’s Serb mayor, Mladen Grujičić, <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/srebrenica-s-serb-mayor-repeats-denial-of-genocide-04-13-2017">denies that the genocide occurred</a>, as does <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/thousands-mourn-at-srebrenica-anniversary-commemoration-07-11-2016">Milorad Dodik</a> the leader of Bosnia’s Serb-led entity Republika Srpska. Many Serbian nationalists regard Mladić as a war hero. To many people, his conviction would therefore be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/bosnians-divided-over-ratko-mladic-guilty-verdict-for-war-crimes">effectively meaningless</a>.</p>
<p>And yet, plenty of civil society activities, interventions and educational programmes have been devised. In Bosnia, <a href="https://balkandiskurs.com/en/2018/02/11/youth-united-in-peace-25-years-of-seaside-peacebuilding/">Youth United in Peace</a> and <a href="http://www.yihr.org/">Youth Initiative for Human Rights</a>, to name but two, offer young people the chance to hear different perspectives about the past through workshops and visits to commemorative places of all sides. Such projects try to counter ethnic <a href="https://www.osce.org/mission-to-bosnia-and-herzegovina/education">segregation</a> to offer shared space for dialogue.</p>
<p>In a speech to the United Nations in 1958, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/universal-declaration-human-rights-UDHR">Eleanor Roosevelt</a> famously said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works.</p>
<p>Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All too often this is forgotten. But with stark societal divisions palpable in many parts of the world, we have to keep reminding ourselves that all others are above all else human beings. Only if we do that will the idea of human rights be meaningful.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The massacre of 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks in a few days in 1995 must never be forgotten.Melanie Klinkner, Principal Academic in International Law, Bournemouth UniversityGiulia Levi, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/952012018-06-04T10:41:18Z2018-06-04T10:41:18ZSatellite imagery is revolutionizing the world. But should we always trust what we see?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220177/original/file-20180523-51102-p4xud5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sea ice off of East Antarctica’s Princess Astrid Coast.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-earth-images/#lowerAccordion-set1-slide3">NASA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 captured what has become one of the most iconic images of the Earth: <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/seeing-the-blue-marble-for-the-first-time/">the Blue Marble</a>. Biochemist Gregory Petsko described the image as “perfectly representing the human condition of living on an island in the universe.” Many researchers now credit the image as marking the beginning of environmental activism in the U.S.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220352/original/file-20180524-51115-1d2t3js.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Blue Marble.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/AerialPhotos_SatImages/aerial.html">Satellite images</a> are part of the big data revolution. These images are captured through remote sensing technologies – like drones, aerial photographs and <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/remotesensing.html">satellite sensors</a> – without physical contact or firsthand experience. <a href="https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/pdf_archive/How2make.pdf">Algorithms refine these data</a> to describe places and phenomena on the Earth’s surface and in the atmosphere. </p>
<p>As a geographer, I work with geospatial data, including satellite images. This imagery offers a powerful way to understand our world. </p>
<p>But I think it’s important for people to understand the limitations of this technology, lest they misunderstand what they see.</p>
<h2>What satellites show us</h2>
<p>Satellite imagery has made a difference in a wide variety of fields and industries. </p>
<p>For example, in 1973, satellite images were first processed to demonstrate <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/MeasuringVegetation/measuring_vegetation_2.php">seasonal vegetation change</a>. This information now helps to monitor vegetative health and track droughts around the world.</p>
<p>Images also provide evidence of compelling stories about the power of disasters. For example, in 1986, combined data modeled from satellite images and weather data tracked the plume of radiation from the explosion of the Chernobyl reactor in the USSR. More recently, before and after images of the impact of <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2018-05-16-aerial-hawaii-kilauea-leilani-estates-before-after-images">Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano</a> revealed the flow of lava and loss of homes and businesses. </p>
<p>Satellite images track the <a href="https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog883/node/496">changing human footprint</a> across the globe, including rapidly growing cities, urban sprawl and <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ColorImage/">informal settlements</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221386/original/file-20180601-142063-11xrwz1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya. Satellite images reveal the urban form of this Kenyan city, shown by the organization of roads and buildings, adjacent land uses, and rooftops that may indicate types of building materials associated with economic conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Earth, annotations by Melinda Laituri</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Increasingly, satellite imagery is used to measure, identify and track human activity. In 1995, satellite images provided <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-srebrenica-massacre-cover-up-was-exposed">evidence of mass executions</a> in Srebrenica, in former Yugoslavia. In 2014, satellite images exposed the extent of <a href="https://www.penn.museum/information/press-room/press-releases-research/691-syrian-heritage-sites-exhibit-significant-damage">the destruction of cultural heritage sites</a> in northern Iraq and Syria. Last year, satellite images revealed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/24/myanmar-rohingya-villages-bulldozed-satellite-images">the burning of Rohingya villages in Myanmar</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s missing from satellite images</h2>
<p>But there are some caveats that anyone working with satellite images – or viewing them – should consider. </p>
<p>Satellite images are only as good as their resolution. The smaller the pixel size, the sharper the image. But even high-resolution images need to be validated on the ground to ensure the trustworthiness of the interpretation. Should we question the images we see? Whose view of the world are we seeing? </p>
<p>One example of the misuse of remotely sensed data was in 2003, when <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/05/sprj.irq.powell.un/">satellite images were used as evidence</a> of sites of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. These images revealed what were identified as active chemical munitions bunkers and areas where earth had been graded and moved to hide evidence of chemical production. This turned out not to be the case.</p>
<p>What’s more, processing satellite images is computationally intensive. At best, satellite images are interpretations of conditions on Earth – a “snapshot” derived from algorithms that calculate how the raw data are defined and visualized. </p>
<p>This has created a “black box,” making it difficult to know when or why the algorithm gets it wrong. For example, <a href="https://www.popsci.com/can-an-algorithm-find-craters-in-satellite-images">one recently developed algorithm</a> is designed to identify artillery craters on satellite images – but the algorithm also identifies locations that look like craters but aren’t. How can experts sift through data that may yield imperfect results?</p>
<p>Through platforms like Google Earth and Earth Explorer, satellite images are increasingly available to not only researchers and scientists, but to people around the world. Satellite imagery is the basis for a global effort to map the world’s communities, such as OpenStreetMap, a platform where high-resolution imagery is used to digitize maps. Maps become living documents, always in a state of flux as new elements are added, often by remote mappers.</p>
<p>With this increasing practice, maps derived from satellite images are constructed by those who may not be very familiar with the site. Mappers have an important responsibility when representing other people’s places. Maps derived from satellite images without local context – like street names or information about vegetation types – tell incomplete stories. Building footprints can be digitized, but only locals can identify the purpose of that building. Imaginary lines, like country boundaries, don’t show up on remotely sensed images. </p>
<p>As satellite images become more ubiquitous, we should reflect on where they come from, how they are created, and the purpose for their use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95201/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melinda Laituri receives funding from the Association of American Geographers for research on Secondary Cities and from the National Park Service for oversight and management of multiple GIS projects. She is supported through funds from the Department of State as a Jefferson Science Fellow and principle investigator on the Secondary Cities Initiative. She is affiliated with the Association of American Geographers and the Rachel Carson Center. </span></em></p>Geospatial data offers a powerful new way to see the world. But these high-tech images can be misleading or incomplete.Melinda Laituri, Professor of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/880942017-11-24T10:59:46Z2017-11-24T10:59:46ZRatko Mladić convicted – but justice hasn’t entirely been served in the Hague<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196279/original/file-20171124-21801-12li83b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Convicted for genocide and other crimes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbaileymbe/6892194912/in/photolist-9Mgq4q-oMbmvS-bv3iqL-9MHbyF-GQnVnF-9SqZ6C-GQnVvB-Dpbets-21rZs4G-ZqwwKn-QmyYtM-9Qf31o-GQnV18-GQnVEp-21rZtkE-ZqwwVT-GQnWgz-GQnVNR-GQnVdT-GQnWpF-Dpbex5-ZqNupP-Dpbefm-57FJbJ-7uTBvq-21Nzjq2">David Bailey</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/ratko-mladic-convicted-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-at-un-tribunal">conviction</a> of Ratko Mladić in The Hague for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War hardly came as a big surprise. The evidence was strong and stacked up against him. Nearly 600 people gave evidence during his five-year trial including many of his victims. So any robust defence of the charges was always going to be a challenge for Mladić even with the support of a defence team comprised of the most talented lawyers in the world.</p>
<p>Of course, his conviction has been widely hailed in the media as an important
milestone for international criminal justice, since he was one of the first people to be indicted by an international criminal tribunal since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials">Nuremberg</a>. But his conviction also showcases how slow the cogs of international criminal justice seem to turn. Despite being <a href="http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mladic/ind/en/kar-ii950724e.pdf">indicted by the tribunal in 1995</a> he managed to evade the clutches of the court <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/world/europe/27ratko-mladic.html">until 2011</a> leading to much speculation about whether the tribunal really possessed much sway in the early days of its existence and whether the international community supported its mission. It was only following political pressure on Belgrade from the European Union that the government renewed its appetite to apprehend him.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196278/original/file-20171124-21858-150m91d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Prosecution team in the case of Ratko Mladić, former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, at Mladić’s initial appearance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/icty/38362818296/in/photolist-9Mgq4q-oMbmvS-bv3iqL-9MHbyF-GQnVnF-9SqZ6C-GQnVvB-Dpbets-21rZs4G-ZqwwKn-QmyYtM-9Qf31o-GQnV18-GQnVEp-21rZtkE-ZqwwVT-GQnWgz-GQnVNR-GQnVdT-GQnWpF-Dpbex5-ZqNupP-Dpbefm-57FJbJ-7uTBvq-21Nzjq2">UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mladić, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”, commanded the Bosnian Serb
forces during <a href="https://theconversation.com/ratko-mladics-conviction-and-why-the-evidence-of-mass-graves-still-matters-87976">the massacre</a> of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica and the three-year <a href="https://theconversation.com/ratko-mladic-orchestrator-of-the-brutal-siege-of-sarajevo-87969">Siege of Sarajevo</a> which caused nearly <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17617775">10,000</a> civilian deaths.</p>
<p>Aside from one genocide charge he was found guilty of all the other ten counts
including a separate count of taking UN personnel hostage in an effort to thwart NATO airstrikes. Delivering yesterday’s verdict the presiding judge, Alphons Oria, <a href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2017/11/news-in-brief-22-november-2017-geneva-am/#.WhfnjbSFg6g">held</a> that the crimes, “rank among the most heinous known to humankind” and rejected his mitigation pleas of good character, ill-health and diminished mental capacity. </p>
<p>Dogged by health problems Mladić shakily occupied the defendant’s chair on Wednesday morning but following a toilet break he was quickly removed again from court after a tirade of abuse aimed at the judges. His sentence of life imprisonment was handed down in his absence.</p>
<h2>Ethnic tensions</h2>
<p>Only time will tell whether his conviction will bring closure to the families of his victims who are still searching for the remains of loved ones nearly three decades after the war. Ethnic tensions still persist in the former Yugoslavia and many there regard Mladić <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/22/ratko-mladic-bosnia-camps-mass-murder-torture-rape-serbian">as a hero</a> who defended his people and believe that Wednesday’s judgment is a verdict against them as well. </p>
<p>US attorney Christopher Hale, who has worked at the tribunal, has gallantly <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/11/22/565672709/tribunal-finds-ratko-mladic-guilty-of-genocide-crimes-against-humanity-in-bosnia">argued that</a>: “the weight of empirical evidence demonstrates that justice is one of the most vital components to achieving durable peace”. But in reality there is very little evidence to suggest that the trials have brought meaningful reconciliation to the region.</p>
<p>Whatever view we choose to adopt the statistics clearly speak for themselves.
Division between ethnic communities has grown since the end of the war. For
example, Banja Luka was once ethnically diverse - nearly 50% of its population
were Bosnian Serbs while Muslims and Croats represented 19% and 15%
respectively. In 2017, Banja Luka is almost <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/bosnia2/">90% ethnic Serb</a>. Hard questions need to be asked about whether such trials can truly bring about meaningful reconciliation and durable peace to this post-conflict region when the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/bosnia2/">data</a> suggests that ethnic tensions are becoming more deeply entrenched in communities long after the conflict has ended.</p>
<p>The trial of Mladić will be the last at the <a href="http://www.icty.org/">UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia</a> (ICTY) before it closes its doors at the end of this year, having arrested and tried more than 161 persons, including Slobodan Milosevic – who controversially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/13/guardianobituaries.warcrimes">died during his trial</a> in 2006 – and the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadžić who was convicted <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-radovan-karadzic-case-56767">for his role</a> in the Srebrenica genocide last year. </p>
<p>So on the face of it the tribunal seems to have achieved rather a lot. But some would argue, myself included, that the tribunal sidestepped the prosecutions of high-ranking commanders of the opposing armed factions in the war for alleged crimes. So ultimately it must be questioned not only whether justice has been achieved but also whether the tribunal has laid down an accurate historical record of the events that occurred.</p>
<p>We are right to question the success of these institutions that market themselves as beacons of international justice – but the process by which individuals are selected by these institutions for investigation and prosecution also needs to be placed under the spotlight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88094/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna-Marie Brennan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Last of the big trials for UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, but what about high-ranking officials from the other side?Anna-Marie Brennan, Lecturer in Law, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/880412017-11-23T14:54:59Z2017-11-23T14:54:59ZMyanmar and Bangladesh strike a shameful deal on Rohingya refugees<p>Many Rohingya people who have fled the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar are now living as refugees in Bangladesh. And now, the two countries have reportedly struck a deal to return them home. Returning Rohingya people to the hands of their persecutors not only violates international law, but raises fundamental questions about how the world protects those fleeing the most heinous crimes and abuses. </p>
<p>This deal comes just days after <a href="https://theconversation.com/ratko-mladics-conviction-and-why-the-evidence-of-mass-graves-still-matters-87976">Ratko Mladic</a> was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, which took place in Bosnia even as news cameras <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-18102216/footage-of-mladic-entering-srebrenica-played-at-trial">broadcast footage</a> around the world – in much the same way as they have documented this latest crisis of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/myanmar-scorched-earth-campaign-fuels-ethnic-cleansing-of-rohingya-from-rakhine-state/">ethnic cleansing</a>. </p>
<p>As far as Myanmar is concerned, the deal will ease the increasing pressure it faces from both the United Nations and its Asian neighbours. The Myanmar government has no interest in welcoming Rohingya refugees home with open arms; those Rohingya who remain in Myanmar are treated as an alien people, denied citizenship and basic rights, and systematically persecuted. The Myanmar government maintains that the recent spike in violence did not amount to ethnic cleansing, that it was not state-sponsored, sanctioned or condoned, and that the Rohingya are safe to return. But those words are empty. </p>
<p>Abundant <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/myanmar-scorched-earth-campaign-fuels-ethnic-cleansing-of-rohingya-from-rakhine-state/">first-hand reports</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-41646881/rohingya-crisis-drone-footage-shows-thousands-fleeing">documentary footage</a> all point to the same thing: ethnic cleansing conducted by state actors. <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57490">Top UN officials</a> have been using the term “ethnic cleansing” for some time, and the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2017/11/275848.htm">now using it too</a>.</p>
<p>Given that Myanmar is refusing to take responsibility for the atrocities, let alone to provide guarantees of protection and justice for the Rohingya, it beggars belief not just that the country is asking those refugees to return, but that Bangladesh would provide its support. </p>
<p>Under international law, refugees who flee atrocities are afforded fundamental protections. Above all, they are protected by the principles of offering asylum and of <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/excom/scip/3ae68ccd10/note-non-refoulement-submitted-high-commissioner.html">non-refoulement</a> – protection against return to a country where a person has reason to fear persecution.</p>
<p>Bangladesh will of course insist that Myanmar wants these people to return, and that only those choosing to do so voluntarily will be returned. But that ignores the facts on the ground. Rohingya refugees’ options are bleak: remain in the squalid camps, somehow escape into Bangladeshi society with no formal documentation or status, or return home and face persecution.</p>
<h2>Bleak future</h2>
<p>Bangladesh has not acceded to the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 Refugee Convention</a> or its <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/protection/basic/3b66c2aa10/convention-protocol-relating-status-refugees.html">1967 Protocol</a>. The country has no law to regulate the administration of refugee affairs or guarantee refugees’ rights. And despite many decades of persecution and abuses in Myanmar, Bangladesh has never allowed the Rohingya to claim asylum. Those who make it to Bangladesh are placed in overcrowded camps without basic provisions, and there they remain unless they choose to return to Myanmar.</p>
<p>The idea of voluntary return stems from a <a href="http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/modify-10312017161158.html">1993 agreement</a> between Bangladesh and Myanmar, under which those Rohingya who can prove their identity must fill in forms with the names of family members, their previous address in Myanmar, their date of birth, and a disclaimer that they are returning voluntarily. But those who do choose to return will face extortion, arbitrary taxation, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Many will be required to undertake <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-forcedlabour/forced-labor-shows-back-breaking-lack-of-reform-in-myanmar-military-idUSKCN0PC2L720150702">forced labour</a>, and some will face state-sponsored violence and extrajudicial killings.</p>
<p>Those who remain in Bangladesh, on the other hand, face a lifetime in camps where human rights abuses are rife, with insufficient and inadequate food, water, housing or healthcare. Fleeing these camps leaves them undocumented and vulnerable to <a href="https://theconversation.com/myanmars-persecution-of-rohingya-muslims-is-producing-a-ready-supply-of-slaves-46108">trafficking, exploitation and abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Whatever individual Rohingya people in Bangladesh might decide to do, their future is bleak. And that’s not good enough. The international community has long known about the systematic persecution of this people. The international community has long ignored the atrocities perpetrated against them. And the international community has long tolerated the cover-ups and excuses from the government of Myanmar. This time it needs to be different. </p>
<p>Bangladesh should step up and provide refuge to those who have been seeking it for 25 years. Myanmar’s neighbouring states and allies should help properly resettle the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, and Myanmar itself should be held to account for the atrocities it commits. There’s no point saying “never again” unless action is taken.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosa Freedman receives funding from the AHRC, the British Academy, the ESRC, and the Jacob Blaustein Institute.</span></em></p>Refugees’ rights are protected by international law. Why are the Rohingya being returned home?Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879272017-11-23T00:40:44Z2017-11-23T00:40:44ZRatko Mladic, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, to spend life in prison for genocide and war crimes<p>The former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, Ratko Mladić, has been found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and sentenced to life in prison. </p>
<p>Mladić was convicted by the <a href="http://www.icty.org">International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia</a> of crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. <a href="http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mladic/tjug/en/171122-summary-en.pdf">The tribunal declared</a> that the crimes he committed were “among the most heinous known to humankind”.</p>
<p>Trials of former high-ranking war criminals are often peppered with drama, and this week’s verdict announcement was no exception. Disruption of trials is a way for previously powerful people – usually men – to reclaim some of their lost power. </p>
<p>Halfway through the verdict summary announcement, Mladić requested a break. After a lengthy break, the court was informed that Mladić had high blood pressure, but on medical advice, deemed it appropriate to continue. At this point, Mladić refused to sit and began shouting at the judges: “this is a lie” and “shame on you”. </p>
<p>He was thrown out of court, and watched the rest of the proceedings from another room. This unfortunately meant that victims were unable to see his reaction to the long-awaited verdict and sentencing.</p>
<h2>Long road to justice</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.icty.org/en/node/10764">First indicted</a> by the tribunal in 1995, Mladić stayed in military resorts, protected even though a fugitive. He later went into hiding until his arrest in Serbia in 2011. Mladić’s trial began in 2012, concluded in 2016, with the verdict delivered on November 22.</p>
<p>Mladić, who came to be known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, rose through the ranks to become the commander of the Bosnian Serb army in 1992, participating in atrocities committed under Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević’s regime. Milošević was also tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, but died before he could be convicted.</p>
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<p>Mladić played a leadership role in these atrocities, commanding the army as it committed crimes across the regime. He has been convicted of “Joint Criminal Enterprise” – the international equivalent of conspiracy – alongside other leaders such as Milošević and Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadžić. The tribunal found that Mladić was instrumental in the crimes and they would not have taken place without his involvement.</p>
<p>The atrocities included the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted for 44 months from 1992-95. Some 10,000 people died during the siege, including many children. Some of Mladić’s other crimes were committed at internment camps such as Omarska and Foča, where thousands were tortured and raped. He has also been held responsible for the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in order to leverage NATO to stop air strikes.</p>
<p>Convicting the high-ranking Mladić is symbolic and momentous, as he was the commander of the soldiers who carried out these actions.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significant is the conviction for genocide over mass killings at Srebrenica in July 1995. Some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed and buried in mass graves.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ0iT4mSK0I">Identification of remains</a> is ongoing, with thousands of bones and personal belongings still being analysed in hope of a match for families that continue to seek the whereabouts of loved ones. Identification is hampered by the fact that two months after the killings, bodies were moved to alternative mass grave locations.</p>
<h2>A welcome day for survivors</h2>
<p>The many survivors have waited a long time justice, both for themselves and for their lost loved ones. Some victims <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/11/20/families-of-bosnia-victims-head-to-the-hague-for-mladic-verdict">travelled to The Hague</a> to hear the verdict first hand.</p>
<p>It is particularly poignant, given that some of the war criminals convicted by the tribunal have already served their sentences and returned to Serbia and Bosnia, now living in communities with their victims. A life sentence for Mladić is a source of satisfaction to the victims; a minimum justice for their suffering and loss.</p>
<p>Legal consequences of this ruling are also substantial. Proving genocide in court is challenging for prosecutors, with the requirement of a “special intent” to eliminate part or whole of a specific population. </p>
<p>Convictions for genocide are rare; only a handful of convicted perpetrators at the ICTY were found guilty of genocide, including Karadžić and Radislav Krstić, a deputy commander in the Bosnian Serb army. </p>
<p>The confirmation that the Srebrenica massacre was indeed a genocide is important, because many Bosnian Serbs continue to deny the fact. Victims hope the ruling will contribute to a broader acknowledgement, which in turn could help the reconciliation process. </p>
<p>Yet <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/11/bosnia-war-victims-speak-ratko-mladic-verdic-171120142218960.html">others have little hope</a> that the ruling will change things. Srebrenica’s Serb mayor Mladen Grujičić still denies the genocide, and many Serbian nationalists still laud Mladić and his fellow war criminals as heroes.</p>
<p>Mladić was found not guilty of one count of genocide, in reference to a broader spate of killings throughout Bosnia. This is in keeping with previous decisions where Srebrenica has been deemed genocide, but the overall objective of the leadership for the whole of the Yugoslav territory has not.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/ratko-mladics-conviction-and-why-the-evidence-of-mass-graves-still-matters-87976">Ratko Mladić's conviction and why the evidence of mass graves still matters</a>
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<p>This verdict is the final judgement to be delivered by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, slated to close at the end of this year. Since it was established in 1993, the tribunal has indicted 161 individuals and convicted 84 perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.</p>
<p>Some <a href="http://www.icty.org/en/content/infographic-icty-facts-figures">4,650 witnesses have appeared</a>, more than 1,000 of whom testified about the Srebrenica genocide. There are only seven proceedings remaining, with the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals finalising cases. The tribunal has undoubtedly contributed to justice and reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.</p>
<p>However, success has not been absolute, with criticism that sentences have been too short. There is also inevitable post-atrocity denial of crimes committed by perpetrators and their communities, with continued rejection by Serbian communities and politicians of the validity and decisions of the Tribunal.</p>
<p>These 84 convictions are clearly only a small proportion of the thousands of perpetrators. With the wind-up of the tribunal, remaining perpetrators will continue to be tried at local war crimes courts in Bosnia.</p>
<p>Throughout Europe, 14 countries have housed convicted tribunal war criminals in their prisons. Mladić will serve his sentence in a country yet to be determined. </p>
<p>While it may not bring their loved ones back, survivors can have some comfort in knowing the man who ordered and oversaw the atrocities will spend the rest of his life in prison.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie O'Brien is a member of the Australian Red Cross Queensland International Humanitarian Law Committee, and the Second Vice-President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. </span></em></p>Former commander of the Bosnian Serb army Ratko Mladic has been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Survivors of the atrocities have today welcomed the long-awaited news.Melanie O'Brien, Research Fellow, TC Beirne Law School, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879692017-11-22T21:41:10Z2017-11-22T21:41:10ZRatko Mladić: orchestrator of the brutal siege of Sarajevo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195861/original/file-20171122-6031-94dh5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">General Ratko Mladić – convicted of war crimes and genocide.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssoosay/5763104078/in/photolist-9Mgq4q-oMbmvS-bv3iqL-9MHbyF-GQnVnF-GQnVvB-Dpbets-21rZs4G-QmyYtM-ZqwwKn-GQnV18-21rZtkE-GQnVEp-ZqwwVT-GQnWgz-GQnVdT-GQnVNR-GQnWpF-Dpbex5-ZqNupP-Dpbefm-57FJbJ-7uTBvq-9SqZ6C-9Qf31o">Surian Soosay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ratko Mladić’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/ratko-mladic-convicted-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-at-un-tribunal">sentencing for genocide</a> in Srebrenica will doubtless be the headline in the plethora of press coverage that has accompanied judgement of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). But Mladić was also sentenced for his role in executing <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/it/book/9781137577177">the siege of Sarajevo</a>, the longest siege in modern European history during which citizens were targeted by mortar, shell and sniper fire and the city’s water and electricity was cut off. It was a brutal campaign to break the city’s resistance, and there was no distinction made between military and civilian targets. </p>
<p>Bosnia and Herzegovina was the most multi-ethnic of former Yugoslavia’s six republics. The population of its capital, Sarajevo, mirrored this ethnic complexity and the city itself. But the first multi-party elections in Bosnia in 1990 had brought a tenuous coalition of nationalist parties to power. This coalition, comprising the (Bosniak) Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) were elected with a Bosniak, Alija Izetbegović, as president. </p>
<p>As the Yugoslav state continued to disintegrate, with Slovenia and Croatia both pursuing independence, Bosnia’s situation became increasingly dangerous. In short, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/radovan-karadzic-26073">Radovan Karadžić</a>’s SDS wished to remain in a Yugoslav state, whatever form that would take, while both the SDA and the HDZ pursued independence. During heated exchanges in October 1991, the SDS walked out of parliament and set up a parallel Bosnian Serb assembly and <em>de facto</em> headquarters in the nearby Holiday Inn hotel. </p>
<h2>Sliding into war</h2>
<p>On February 29 and March 1, a referendum on independence was held. The SDS, arguing that the decision to hold a referendum was unconstitutional because it was not reached by consensus, called on Serbs to boycott the vote. Those who did vote, largely Bosniaks and Croats, opted for independence. The result initiated the “war of the barricades”, during which the SDS (and later the SDA) erected barricades in areas of Sarajevo they claimed as theirs. War was avoided then, but on April 6, 1992 shots were fired from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24730400">the Holiday Inn</a> by snipers into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators who were assembled outside the Bosnian parliament. In the chaos that followed, Karadžić fled. The Bosnian Serb leadership established their wartime base in nearby Pale and heavy weapons were placed on the hills surrounding Sarajevo. Intermittent shelling and sniping began.</p>
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<p>Whether interested in politics or not, the siege imposed itself on ordinary people’s lives in increments. Many continued going to work, despite the sporadic sniper and mortar fire and fierce battles in Ilidža, just west of Sarajevo. They refused to believe it could happen in their city, which was civilised, cultured, part of the European mainstream. But any existing illusions were shattered by the summer of 1992. Mladić assumed command of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) in May 1992, promising to “blow the minds” of the citizens of Sarajevo. Throughout the subsequent months the city was heavily shelled, causing significant civilian casualties and the destruction of many important buildings, such as the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bosnia-cityhall/sarajevo-reopens-landmark-city-hall-and-library-destroyed-in-war-idUSKBN0DP0XO20140509">Vijećnica</a>, which housed thousands of rare books and manuscripts. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195858/original/file-20171122-6051-yyzqe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">General Mladić (centre) arrives for UN-mediated talks at Sarajevo airport, June 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratko_Mladi%C4%87#/media/File:Evstafiev-mladic-sarajevo1993w.jpg">I, Evstafiev</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>It was, however, the first winter of the siege that brought real privation to Sarajevo. No running water, no electricity and limited amounts of food (UN aid and anything that could be purchased for inflated prices on the black market) meant the challenges of surviving were manifold. And the extremities of life under siege had a significant impact upon people’s ability to stay sane. Daily shelling and sniping – sometimes in a slow and methodical manner – and constant danger of death placed citizens of Sarajevo in an unimaginable psychological position. Some withdrew into themselves, while others found survival mechanisms and a way of facing the realities of their lives. Otherwise normal activities became vital mechanisms for survival – dressing well, attending theatre performances or going to <em>ad hoc</em> gigs. Humour, albeit of the rather dark variant, was equally important. Preservation of one’s dignity was a serious matter. </p>
<p>The construction of a tunnel (built by the Bosnian Army) underneath Sarajevo airport in 1993 eased the situation somewhat, with arms and food being brought into the city – breaking somewhat the over-inflation of basic goods. But life under siege became a reality with no end in sight. The international community’s efforts to bring the siege to an end had failed, though <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force">NATO airstrikes on VRS</a> positions, following the two mortar attacks (in February 1994 and August 1995) would eventually help to do so. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195934/original/file-20171122-6013-14qe5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Sarajevo Tunnel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/26781577@N07/15840660490/in/photolist-9fD5ai-9fD5cM-9fGevw-8trhr7-q8Mwu3-qqgH75-C8kFuT-HjxHfD-qqgGwh-wDpDRX-oZtdwu-buTb32-buTNtz-buTNNr-buTMbP-buTN26-bsCwiv-9kav2S-9fJnfS">Clay Gilliland</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The war in Bosnia ended with the signing of the <a href="http://www.osce.org/bih/126173">Dayton Peace Agreement</a> in November 1995, though the siege of Sarajevo was not lifted until February 1996. As part of the peace agreement, the vast majority of the city – with the exception of Istočno Sarajevo (eastern Sarajevo) – became part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the country’s two entities (the other being Republika Srpska). This initiated the departure of the majority of the city’s Serb population. </p>
<p>By the lifting of the siege over 11,000 people, 5,000 of whom were civilians (2,000 were children), were killed during the siege of Sarajevo. In the context of the charges relating to Sarajevo, Mladić’s sentencing is no surprise – his colleagues, <a href="http://www.icty.org/case/galic/4">Stanislav Galić</a> and <a href="http://www.icty.org/case/dragomir_milosevic/4">Dragomir Milošević</a> both commanders of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the VRS had previously received lengthy sentences. Mladić’s sentencing for the siege of Sarajevo (not to mention his other crimes) will never compensate for the destruction of a city and the targeting of civilians, but it may go some way to bringing a close to a dark chapter in Bosnia, and Sarajevo’s, history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth Morrison is author of four monographs on the Balkans, including Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn: On the Frontline of Politics and War (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016).</span></em></p>Bosnian Serb general found guilty of genocide.Kenneth Morrison, Professor of Modern South-East European History, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879762017-11-22T17:21:41Z2017-11-22T17:21:41ZRatko Mladić’s conviction and why the evidence of mass graves still matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195903/original/file-20171122-6061-czl9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former general Mladić during proceedings in January.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/icty/31737888363/in/photolist-9Mgq4q-oMbmvS-57FJbJ-bv3iqL-GQnVnF-9MHbyF-7uTBvq-9SqZ6C-GQnVvB-QmyYtM-9Qf31o-Dpbets-21rZs4G-ZqwwKn-21rZtkE-GQnV18-Dpbex5-Dpbefm-GQnVEp-GQnWgz-ZqwwVT-GQnVdT-GQnWpF-GQnVNR">UN ICTY</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ratko Mladić <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/22/ratko-mladic-convicted-of-genocide-and-war-crimes-at-un-tribunal">has been convicted</a> of genocide and persecution, extermination, murder and the inhumane act of forcible transfer in the area of Srebrenica in 1995. He was also found guilty of persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and inhumane act of forcible transfer in municipalities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and of murder, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians in Sarajevo. </p>
<p>In addition, the former Bosnian Serb army general was convicted for the hostage-taking of UN personnel. But he was acquitted of the charge of genocide in several municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.</p>
<p>The events that occurred in and around the Srebrenica enclave between July 10-19 1995, where an estimated 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, mostly men and boys, lost their lives, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/11/reviews/970511.11grimont.html">are well documented</a>. These atrocities, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yugoslavia-Death-Nation-Laura-Silber/dp/0140262636">culminating in</a> the “biggest single mass murder in Europe” since World War II, not only resulted in a tremendous loss of life and emotionally scarred survivors, it also left behind a landscape filled with human remains and mass graves.</p>
<p>Forensic investigations into the Srebrenica massacre <a href="http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/24750/1/Karadzic%E2%80%99s%20guilty%20verdict%20and%20forensic%20evidence%20from%20Bosnia%E2%80%99s%20mass%20graves%20Sci-Justice%202016.pdf">assisted</a> in convicting Mladić, who stood accused for his involvement in implementing and orchestrating the forcible transfer and eventual elimination of the Bosnian Muslim population from Srebrenica. For the Srebrenica investigations, between 1996 and 2001, the <a href="http://www.icty.org/">International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia</a> (ICTY) conducted exhumations at 23 sites, while a further 20 mass graves were probed to confirm that they <a href="http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/documents/P642-1a.pdf">contained human remains</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195909/original/file-20171122-6016-4ntuqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Srebrenica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/martijnmunneke/2653413838/in/photolist-53trus-53tuFf-53pecX-53trZG-53tuRh-53tuzf-53tuLW-53pcec-53pcsF-53tvwJ-53pgY6-53tvtd-53pezt-53pdXF-53tsNy-53trCJ-53pftF-53tsru-53tu8y-53tvpG-53trfJ-53phoB-53pe4X-53pffz-53tr4w-53ttaW-53pfn4-53peXP-53tsUY-53tqTq-53pdB4-53pfai-53pgLr-8A4MLN-53pgkx-53tviA-53ph1r-53tvd3-53tuPq-o9UYVS-obNR8L-a5ypHx-53tvaL-53tv93-53pgNn-53pfGX-vSB5KV-a3tvtf-Xefv6v-a3tuw3">Martijn.Munneke/ Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The investigative objectives for these investigations were to:
* Corroborate victim and witness accounts of the massacres;
* Determine an accurate count of victims;
* Determine cause and time of death;
* Determine the sex of victims;
* Determine the identity of victims (a process that is ongoing with the help of DNA analysis); and
* Identify links <a href="http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/documents/P642-1a.pdf">to the perpetrators</a>.</p>
<p>The task of locating and exhuming mass graves in Bosnia continues, as does the general quest of locating the missing in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. And this evidence still matters for the ICTY. Evidence on hundreds of bodies exhumed from the Tomašica mass grave near Prijedor in the north-west of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was <a href="http://www.sense-agency.com/icty/what-post-mortems-of-tomasica-victims-showed.29.html?cat_id=1&news_id=16662">presented in the Mladić trial</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mladic/tjug/en/171122-summary-en.pdf">summary judgment</a> read out in the court room in The Hague made this very clear:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During several weeks in September and early October 1995, senior members of the VRS [Army of the Bosnian-Serb Republic] and the MUP [Ministry of the Interior] attempted to conceal their crimes by exhuming their victims’ remains from several mass graves, and then reburying those remains in more remote areas in Zvornik and Bratunac municipalities. Their attempt to cover up the Srebrenica massacres ultimately failed. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such attempts at hiding crimes by digging up mass graves only to dispose of the bodies in so called “secondary mass graves” results in commingled and mutilated body parts rendering identification and repatriation of human remains all the more difficult. This causes further and prolonged distress to the survivor population and can be seen as intent to cause suffering.</p>
<p>Properly investigated forensic evidence from mass graves, the presentation of such physical evidence, the testing of expertise, independence and impartiality of the accounts in court, is likely to result in more reliable findings. In the case of Bosnian Serb leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/radovan-karadzic-sentenced-to-40-years-but-peace-is-still-a-work-in-progress-56778">Radovan Karadžić</a> forensic evidence helped confirm the crimes committed – it can be assumed that the same is the case for Mladić; at the time of writing the judgment in its entirety is not available yet. </p>
<p>It is well worth remembering that the information from forensic mass grave investigations has another purpose and does not only speak to a court of law. The work on the ground through organisations such as the <a href="https://www.icmp.int/">International Commission on Missing Persons</a> will continue <a href="https://www.ictj.org/news/karadzic-bosnia-herzegovina-criminal-justice#.VwvL_wtXbgc.twitter">as there are</a> “too many people who are still searching for their children’s bones to bury”. Those forensic findings will have a value and meaning for family members and survivors that judgments such as the Mladić one cannot have. It offers them information on their lost loved ones and, hopefully, the return of their human remains.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Klinkner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forensic science of the dead helps to convict the living responsible.Melanie Klinkner, Senior Lecturer In Law, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/871052017-11-12T18:55:28Z2017-11-12T18:55:28ZThree ways robots can save lives in war<p>Military robots are not all bad. </p>
<p>Sure, there are risks and downsides of <a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-prime-minister-wed-like-you-to-join-the-call-for-a-ban-on-killer-robots-86758">weaponised artifical intelligence (AI)</a>, but there are upsides too. Robots offer greater precision in attacks, reduced risk of collateral damage to civilians, and reduced risk of “friendly fire”. </p>
<p>AI weapons are not being developed as weapons of <em>mass</em> destruction. They are being developed as weapons of <em>precise</em> destruction. In the right hands, military AI facilitates ever greater precision and ever greater compliance with <a href="https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/what_is_ihl.pdf">international humanitarian law</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-split-on-how-to-regulate-killer-robots-57734">World split on how to regulate 'killer robots'</a>
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<p>There are at least three ways that robots can be useful in war zones. </p>
<h2>1. Bomb disposal</h2>
<p>Bomb disposal robots reduce risk to humans. Mostly remotely operated, they have little autonomy and are used to investigate and defuse or detonate improvised explosive devices. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Dragon Runner is a radio controlled robot used by bomb disposal teams.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As robots become more dexterous and agile there will come a time when there is no need for a human to be next to a bomb to defuse it. </p>
<p>The robot in The Hurt Locker – a movie based around a bomb disposal unit in Baghdad – was portrayed as pretty useless. But future robots will be able to do everything the humans do in that film, better and quicker. </p>
<p>No one objects to robot bomb disposal. </p>
<h2>2. Room-by-room clearing</h2>
<p><a href="http://library.enlistment.us/field-manuals/series-3/FM90-1%7E1/APPK.PDF">Room by room clearing</a> is one of the riskier infantry tasks. </p>
<p>In World War II, booby traps were sometimes triggered by pressure sensors under whisky bottles and packets of cigarettes. Human troops entering houses often succumbed to the allure of smokes and booze and were killed as a result. </p>
<p>Today ISIS fighters disguise <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/03/syria-war-isil-explosive-legacy-170304082254000.html">booby traps</a> as bricks and stones. These are specifically <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=6EE84CE6429F5C0AC12563FB00611D99">prohibited</a> by international humanitarian law. </p>
<p>In theory, with smaller versions of sensors of the kind used to inspect luggage at airports, robots could perceive the wiring and pressure sensors associated with such booby traps. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MOT1HatBBw4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Pointman Tactical Robot.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Robots like the Pointman Tactical Robot and the <a href="https://www.irobot.com/filelibrary/ppt/corp/cool_stuff_ppt/img22.html">iRobot Negotiator</a> are already capable of entering buildings, climbing stairs and moving over obstacles to search buildings. Future versions are more likely to be armed, have more advanced sensors, hold greater autonomy, and be classified. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-robots-that-we-can-trust-79525">How to make robots that we can trust</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>More agile humanoid (or animal-like) versions of these robots could be used to clear buildings of booby traps and enemy fighters seeking to ambush troops.</p>
<h2>3. Maintaining safety zones</h2>
<p>It’s plausible that robots could contribute to <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199926121.001.0001/acprof-9780199926121-chapter-6">maintaining perimeter security</a> in the near future. </p>
<p>Military robot technology could be used to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Ethics-and-Security-Automata-Policy-and-Technical-Challenges-of-the-Robotic/Welsh/p/book/9781138050228">enforce safe havens</a> that protect unarmed civilian refugees from genocides similar to those that happened in Srebrenica and Rwanda, and unlawful bombing as is ongoing in Syria. </p>
<p>Peacekeeping military robots could stop war criminals killing innocent civilians at little or no risk to supervising human peacekeepers. </p>
<p>Much of the technology you could use is already available “off the shelf” from equipment vendors. Surface-to-air missile defence systems that can target missiles, aircraft and artillery shells such as Raytheon’s <a href="https://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/patriot/">Patriot</a> and <a href="https://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/phalanx/">Phalanx</a> have been in production for decades.</p>
<p>Sentry robots such as the Hanwha Techwin (formerly Samsung Techwin) <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/foreign-policy-essay-south-korean-sentry%E2%80%94-killer-robot-prevent-war">SGR-A1</a> and the DoDamm <a href="http://www.dodaam.com/eng/sub2/menu2_1_4.php">SuperAegis II</a> are also currently available and widely fielded.</p>
<h2>Should we delegate lethal decisions to machines?</h2>
<p>At some point, on some missions, the question of delegating decisions to kill the enemy to autonomous machines has to be faced. </p>
<p>This is actually not a new “Moral Rubicon”. The Confederates crossed this line in the American Civil War. When General Sherman’s men <a href="https://www.civilwar.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fort-mcallister">stormed Fort McAllister</a> in 1864, several were killed by “torpedoes” – the name given at the time to anti-personnel landmines. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-researchers-must-learn-ethics-82754">Artificial intelligence researchers must learn ethics</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Anti-personnel landmines were <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/INTRO/580">banned</a> in 1997. At the time though, General Sherman did not treat Major Anderson, the Confederate commander, as a war criminal. In a gesture of gallantry to the defeated foe (considered customary in his day), he entertained him at dinner.</p>
<p>Adding more variables and using computing machinery instead of physical machinery does not change the fundamental moral choice to delegate a targeting decision to a machine. </p>
<p>The justification is simple. If robots can perform a lawful military function more precisely and with less risk of error than humans, then it is arguably right to let them do it. </p>
<p>This is a big technical “if” of course, and it requires robots that have AI <a href="http://artint.info/html/ArtInt_8.html">knowledge representations</a> of what is legal and moral. This is an active research area called <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/machine-ethics-the-robot-s-dilemma-1.17881">machine ethics</a>. </p>
<p>Machines have achieved superhuman performance in the games Chess, Jeopardy and Go. With sufficient research, superhuman performance in ethics may become possible too.</p>
<p>Robots are a double-edged sword. Used badly, they can perpetrate genocide and war crimes. Used well, they can prevent them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Welsh has written a book for Routledge, Ethics and Security Automata, on the subject of machine ethics. </span></em></p>Robots are a twin-edged sword. Used badly, they may one day perpetrate genocide and war crimes. Used well, they can prevent them.Sean Welsh, Doctoral Candidate in Robot Ethics, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839242017-09-15T11:07:20Z2017-09-15T11:07:20ZRohingya crisis: this is what genocide looks like<p>The world is witnessing a state-orchestrated humanitarian catastrophe on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. The <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GTjPsp3_UokJ:https://cxbcoordination.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/170911_ISCG-SitRep_Influx-August-2017.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk">latest UN figures</a> show a staggering 370,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since August 25. An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/07/massacre-at-tula-toli-rohingya-villagers-recall-horror-of-myanmar-army-attack">unknown number</a> have perished. Around 26,000 non-Muslims have also been displaced.</p>
<p>This is just the latest crisis to confront the Rohingya in recent years. In October 2016, over 80,000 Rohingya fled violence which the UN said very likely amounted to <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/FlashReport3Feb2017.pdf">crimes against humanity</a>. In 2015, thousands were stranded on boats on the Andaman sea, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/17/rohingya-burma-refugees-boat-migrants">described</a> as “floating coffins”. Their lives inside Myanmar were so desperate that they gambled with dangerous human trafficking networks. Many drowned, died of starvation, or ended up in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/26/malaysia-mass-graves-villagers-tell-of-desperate-migrants-emerging-from-jungle-camps">death camps</a> on the Thai-Malaysian border.</p>
<p>The Rohingya have long endured a bare and tenuous life. The World Food Programme has documented high levels of extreme food insecurity: an estimated 80,500 Rohingya children under five <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-malnutrition/hunger-rife-among-rohingya-children-after-myanmar-crackdown-wfp-idUSKBN19Q1WC">require treatment for acute malnutrition</a>. Since October 2016, critical life-saving humanitarian activities have been severely restricted. </p>
<p>The Myanmar state has historically adopted strategies of “othering” the Rohingya, dehumanising them as “illegal Bengalis”. The Rohingya have been isolated from society, forced into squalid open-air prisons, confined to villages, and denied livelihood opportunities. They have been harassed though disenfranchisement and violent intimidation. They suffer from destitution, malnutrition, starvation, and severe physical and mental illness as a result of restrictions on movement, education, marriage, childbirth, and the ever-present threat of violence and extortion.</p>
<p><a href="http://statecrime.org/data/2015/10/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf">This is what genocide looks like</a>, just prior to the mass killing phase.</p>
<h2>The dark descent</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wq9vn">Modern genocide</a> is a form of social engineering, and often a long-term process. It begins not with mass murder, but with the dehumanisation, isolation, and systematic weakening of a target group. Conceptualising genocide in this way enables us to identify the genocidal process while in motion, and to intervene before it’s too late. </p>
<p>The destruction of members of a target group depends upon either the complicity or participation of the local population. An exclusionary ideology, designed to elicit support for the systematic removal of the “other”, is therefore central to the genocidal process. Exclusionary ideologies enable perpetrators to cope with the destruction of the stigmatised community, providing a psychological justification for their removal. By creating internal enemies, the natural human aversion towards murder is eroded.</p>
<p>Propaganda, agitation, and incitement deeply indoctrinate future perpetrators, paving the way for mass murder. In the early stages of the Rwandan genocide, radio propaganda encouraged fear and hatred of the Tutsis, labelling them as “cockroaches”, “snakes” and “devils who ate the vital organs of Hutus”. In an eerie echo, Myanmar’s state media has <a href="http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/a-flea-cannot-make-a-whirl-of-dust-but/">insinuated</a> Muslims are like “detestable human fleas”; prominent nationalist monk <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2013/06/ashin-wirathu-the-monk-behind-burmas-buddhist-terror/">Wirathu</a> has said: “Muslims are like the African carp … They breed quickly and they are very violent and they eat their own kind.”</p>
<p>As well as making it easier for neighbours, business partners and even friends to kill one another, labelling the target group an “enemy of the state” also reinforces popular support for the military and a nationalistic agenda. On September 1, Myanmar’s defence commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/seniorgeneralminaunghlaing/posts/1698274643540350">declared</a> that “entire government institutions and people must defend the country with strong patriotism”, going on to describe the “Bengali problem” as a longstanding “unfinished job, despite the efforts of the previous governments to solve it”. “We openly declare that absolutely, our country has no Rohingya race,” he said.</p>
<p>This demonising rhetoric not only makes eliminating the Rohingya psychologically acceptable, but frames it as a matter of protecting national interests: land, race, and religion. Adopting a narrative of Rohingya “terrorism” relieves the state of responsibility for the long-running structural grievances among the Rakhine community which animate local hostility against the Rohingya, and also ensures the military retains popular support for its indiscriminate violence against the entire Rohingya population. One Rakhine politician in 2016 <a href="http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/amid-news-blackout-myanmar-politician-blames-muslims-for-torched-villages-10312016155616.html">claimed</a> that “all Bengali villages are like military strongholds”.</p>
<p>Warnings that decades of discrimination and oppression against the Rohingya could lead to armed resistance in the region have become a reality. The pervasive persecution of the Rohingya is directly linked to the origins of the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/myanmar-arakan-rohingya-salvation-army-170912060700394.html">Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army</a> – but instead of tracking down and prosecuting those responsible for recent attacks, the military has instead launched a campaign of collective violence against the Rohingya, <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/myanmar-scorched-earth-campaign-fuels-ethnic-cleansing-of-rohingya-from-rakhine-state/">systematically razing</a> entire villages to the ground and killing civilians. </p>
<h2>Harrassed and terrorised</h2>
<p>Genocide scholars document a range of strategies of physical and psychological destruction which take place prior to mass killings. Physical destruction involves overcrowding, malnutrition, epidemics, lack of health care, torture, and sporadic killings; psychological destruction involves humiliation, abuse, harassment or killing of family members, and attempts to undermine solidarity through collective punishment. </p>
<p>These forms of harassment and terror tactics are often deployed to force members of the out-group to leave, rather than killing them outright. One year before Bosnia’s Srebrenica massacre, a Republika Srpska Army report <a href="http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/91/091-20070226-JUD-01-00-EN.pdf">referenced</a> a “crucial task” to be executed: “the expulsion of Muslims from the Srebrenica enclave”. “The enemy’s life has to be made unbearable and their temporary stay in the enclave impossible so that they leave en masse as soon as possible, realising that they cannot survive there,” it read.</p>
<p>And yet conceptual difficulties with the legal definition of genocide, together with historical precedent, apparently mean that we need to wait for mass killings and a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NazShahMP/videos/1751460461821118/">court ruling</a> before we can call this form of structural violence what it is: genocide. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Kofi Annan Commission act as <a href="https://www.irrawaddy.com/in-person/u-zaw-htay-kofi-annan-commission-govt-shield.html">shields</a> for brutal “clearance operations”. Western diplomats, unwilling to take a firm stance, hide behind a broken international system, arguing that it’s the UN’s responsibility to take action – knowing full well that any such action would be <a href="https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/analysis-china-backs-myanmar-un-security-council.html">vetoed</a> by China and Russia.</p>
<p>The Myanmar government knows it can count on China in particular, which is keen to maintain its business interests and limit Western influence over a neighbour. On September 6, Myanmar’s national security adviser, Thaung Tun, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rohingya-crisis-our-friends-in-china-will-block-un-censure-says-burma-98nlqmq9g">told journalists</a> “we are negotiating with some friendly countries not to take it to the security council. China is our friend and we have a similar friendly relationship with Russia, so it will not be possible for that issue to go forward”.</p>
<p>All the while, Rohingya villages continue to burn, many of their inhabitants murdered. More than half the Rohingya population of northern Rakhine has been forcibly displaced. Those who manage to escape the terror continue to stream across the border into Bangladesh – desperate, starving, injured, and traumatised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alicia de la Cour Venning receives funding from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Canterbury.</span></em></p>Genocide doesn’t begin with mass murder. It’s a long, insidious process that can be stopped before it’s too late.Alicia de la Cour Venning, Research Associate, International State Crime Initiative, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809132017-07-14T12:40:08Z2017-07-14T12:40:08ZWhen Bosnia was torn apart, football clubs were ethnically cleansed along with the population<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178114/original/file-20170713-10278-4oz6m8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Displaced team Velež Mostar FC’s far less glamorous postwar home, in the village of Vrapčići.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Mills</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina 25 years ago, the first painful hours after being ejected from their homes were often spent in football stadiums. Some found themselves in stadiums for their own protection, while for others the football stadium was the last they would see of their former community before being expelled in the name of ethnic cleansing. For others still, corralled into stadiums by armed paramilitaries, the football ground would be the last thing they would see.</p>
<p>The three-way conflict that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17632399">engulfed Bosnia between 1992 and 1995</a> left 100,000 dead and forced half the country’s population to relocate. Used by Serb, Croat and Bosnian government (primarily Bosniak, or Bosnian Muslim) forces, football stadiums and sports infrastructure were part of this – and football clubs themselves suffered alongside the population: some clubs embraced narrow ethnic identities, whereas multi-ethnic clubs became targets. </p>
<p>While many footballers took up arms, hundreds more were displaced by the fighting. Some Serb players fled east to Serbia and continued their careers at clubs in Belgrade and Novi Sad, Velež Mostar FC’s <a href="https://www.transfermarkt.com/nikola-jokisic/profil/spieler/400938">Nikola Jokišić</a> among them. Borac Banja Luka FC continued to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2013.801220">compete in the Yugoslav football leagues</a> for the duration of the war, playing “home” matches at stadiums across Serbia. Other teams played in the competitions of the incipient Bosnian Serb state. </p>
<p>Talented Croat and Bosniak players headed westward, signing for clubs in neighbouring Croatia or venturing further afield. Like thousands of their compatriots, many footballers rebuilt their lives in countries across western Europe and, while there is a long tradition of Yugoslavia’s best players making profitable moves abroad, the war turned a steady stream into a flood. While the most talented Bosnians found themselves welcome at some of Europe’s best clubs, others scrambled to secure any contract they could in order to escape.</p>
<p>When in 1993 Bosnian Croat forces harnessed <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2010.497018">Velež Mostar’s Bijeli Brijeg Stadium</a> to round up Bosniak civilians from west Mostar, the football club was also a victim. The team had strong links to the failed communist order and espoused a multi-ethnic identity that was ill-suited to the Bosnian Croat project. The team was expelled along with the civilian population.</p>
<p>Ejected from its home, Velež gradually resumed activities in Bosnian government-held territory and competed in Bosnia and Hercegovina’s first wartime championship of 1994. Other clubs, such as Željezničar Sarajevo FC, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2016.1219899">split along ethnic lines</a> and rival incarnations laid claim to the club’s history on either side of the front line. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178245/original/file-20170714-14287-y8wjtw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former home of FC Velež, Mostar’s Bijeli Brijeg stadium now hosts Croatian team HSK Zrinjski.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stadion_H%C5%A0K_Zrinjski.JPG">Mostarac</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Croat forces and international peacekeepers used Tomislavgrad’s football ground as a reception centre for Croat civilians fleeing fierce fighting in nearby Bugojno. Footage of this operation shows <a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060013979">women chatting quietly on rugs laid out under the goal posts</a>, surrounded by hastily-packed bags of prized possessions while their children play on the pitch.</p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Dayton-Accords">Dayton Accords</a> brought the war to an end a year later, Bosnia was recreated as a federal state, implicitly recognising the results of ethnic cleansing. Territorially, Bosnia’s three principal ethnic groups remain largely separated today, although there is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2014.974512">a unified football league and national team</a>. Yet Velež has been unable to return to its west Mostar home: <a href="https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/hsk-zrinjski-mostar/startseite/verein/6808">Zrinjski Mostar</a>, a resurrected Croat club that had been banned during the communist era, now plays at the Bijeli Brijeg Stadium. Displaced Velež play their football several miles east of the town at a hastily prepared ground in the village of Vrapčići.</p>
<h2>A changed landscape</h2>
<p>Inside Bosnia today, the football landscape is irrevocably altered. East of Sarajevo, a large new settlement is now home to thousands of Serbs who left the capital as a result of the war. There, inhabitants who once backed Sarajevo’s leading football clubs now gather around Slavija FC, another team resurrected in the early 1990s that boasts a proud Serbian identity. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, Velež and other prominent Bosnian clubs have fans among the displaced supporters who have built new lives beyond the Balkans, who often gather together to celebrate the club that shared their fate. Professional footballers who were child refugees in the 1990s retain strong emotional attachments to Bosnia, even though they have lived the vast majority of their lives in western Europe. </p>
<p>In the UK, <a href="http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/from-refugee-to-footballer-the-journey-of-bosnian-mario-vrancic-to-carrow-road-1-5083043">Norwich City FC’s new Bosnian signing</a> Mario Vrančić, originally from the town of Bosanski Brod, spent most of his life in Germany. Nevertheless he – like other compatriots in similar positions, including his own brother – has proudly represented Bosnia and Hercegovina at international level.</p>
<p>Those who passed through football stadiums after being thrown out of their homes were not the worst affected. Bosnian Serb forces attacking the UN-protected “safe area” of Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 took thousands of Bosniaks who sought refuge there to detention facilities, including the football grounds of lower league Bosnian teams. As described by <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/329799/srebrenica-by-jan-willem-honig/9780140266320/">witness testimony from UN personnel</a> and in the proceedings of the <a href="http://www.icty.org/">International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia</a>, men and boys were separated, bussed to other facilities, and executed. </p>
<p>A US U-2 spy plane captured images of hundreds packed onto a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1995/aug/19/warcrimes">football pitch in Nova Kasaba</a>, surrounded by guards. On its return, the spy plane saw only mounds of freshly dug earth in the adjacent field. Some 8,000 men and boys were massacred in the days following Srebrenica’s fall, one of the darkest moments in Bosnian history, but also in the history of Bosnian football.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80913/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Mills does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In many countries sports like football brings people together, but in Bosnia it re-emphasises the divides.Richard Mills, Lecturer in Modern European History, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/755172017-04-05T01:10:08Z2017-04-05T01:10:08ZBosnia’s 25-year struggle with transitional justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164098/original/image-20170405-14629-16m39ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graves at the memorial center Potocari, near Srebrenica</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Amel Emric</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Bosnian war started 25 years ago this week.</p>
<p>Although bombs ceased falling in 1995, in many ways the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are as divided as ever. The past two decades have repeatedly shown that divisions exacerbated by the war continue to permeate politics. </p>
<p>In fact, according to a 2013 public opinion poll, just one in six residents of BiH feels that the three ethnic groups that live there – the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – have reached <a href="http://www.media.ba/sites/default/files/prism_research_for_un_rco_statistical_report_1.pdf">reconciliation</a>.</p>
<p>It would be easy to pass this sentiment off as what one former U.S. secretary of state called “<a href="http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/briefing/dispatch/1992/html/Dispatchv3no52.html">ancient tribal, ethnic and religious rivalries</a>.” But I believe it raises profound doubts about the ability of international justice to bring about a more peaceful world.</p>
<p>As I demonstrate in my book, <a href="http://undpress.nd.edu/books/P01398">“The Costs of Justice</a>,” transitional justice – the process of dealing with human rights abuses committed by a previous regime – is an inherently political process made even more contentious by taking it out of the country. The fallout is not just a lack of reconciliation, but also the constant threat of violence. </p>
<p>In BiH, <a href="http://www.media.ba/sites/default/files/prism_research_for_un_rco_statistical_report_1.pdf">more than 30 percent</a> believe a renewal of armed conflict could be right around the corner.</p>
<h2>The G word</h2>
<p>Ongoing resentment in BiH was highlighted by two recent events. </p>
<p>First was the fall election of a Serbian genocide denier, Mladen Grujicic, as mayor of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2005/07/10/legacy-srebrenica">Srebrenica</a> – a town where more than 8,000 Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims, were systematically killed in 1995.</p>
<p>Next came the Bosniak response: a February <a href="http://www.rferl.org/a/icj-bosnia-serbia-genocide/28360242.html">request</a> for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to review its 2007 ruling that cleared the neighboring state of Serbia of complicity in genocide during the war. </p>
<p>The war may be long over, but wounds are still oozing. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2905758.676488683!2d14.726032644738389!3d44.66540078404253!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x134ba215c737a9d7%3A0x6df7e20343b7e90c!2sBosnia+and+Herzegovina!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1491325241954" width="100%" height="300" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Lack of reconciliation in BiH comes despite – or perhaps because of – a major international effort to ensure justice in the region. BiH, like other states of the former Yugoslavia, was under the jurisdiction of the <a href="http://www.icty.org/en/about">International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia</a> (ICTY) at The Hague for more than two decades. </p>
<p>The ICTY’s establishment in 1993 was greeted by human rights advocates as the harbinger of a new era of justice. At the time, transitional justice scholars preached its <a href="https://bookstore.usip.org/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=51329">numerous benefits</a>. These included deterring future rights violations, strengthening rule of law, increasing the legitimacy of a new regime and, perhaps most importantly, encouraging reconciliation within broader society.</p>
<p>There are many <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022343309340108">ways to address</a> past rights abuses – from issuing apologies and providing victim compensation to holding truth commissions and launching criminal trials. The international community has historically focused on the latter – whether at <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/accountability-for-human-rights-atrocities-in-international-law-9780199546671?cc=us&lang=en&">Nuremberg</a>, <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/tokyo/tokyolinks.html">Tokyo</a> or <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100357920">The Hague</a>.</p>
<p>Criminal prosecutions are largely symbolic, but they are nonetheless important. They signal the end of impunity, or the ability to escape punishment, and the start of a more just order. The fact that post-conflict countries frequently lack institutions strong or independent enough to pursue criminal prosecutions on their own makes international mechanisms indispensable. Indeed, BiH’s inability to carry out its <a href="https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-FormerYugoslavia-Domestic-Court-2008-English.pdf">own criminal trials</a> for a decade and a half points to a real need for international courts. </p>
<p>But the very process of taking criminal prosecutions out of the domestic purview can ultimately be a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/accountability-for-human-rights-atrocities-in-international-law-9780199546671?cc=us&lang=en&">blow to justice</a>. Most locals, for instance, lose interest in trials that play out in faraway courtrooms, meaning trials fail to bring about the sorts of dialogue that might lead to mutual understanding. </p>
<p>Formidable challenges of international prosecutions, from learning the intricacies of a foreign culture and political regime to collecting evidence essential for a successful prosecution, mean that international trials also take a long time to complete. And, of course, they are expensive. The <a href="https://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/15/3skilbeck.pdf">ICTY cost</a> more than US$1 billion, or between $10 million and $15 million for each person accused. Various countries, including the United States, footed the bill.</p>
<p>And yet, rather than improve relations in the region, the ICTY may have <a href="http://undpress.nd.edu/books/P01398">incited tensions</a>. Each of the parties claimed they were unfairly targeted. Serbs were infuriated by their overrepresentation on the court’s docket. Croats couldn’t believe that any of their heroes were facing judgment. </p>
<p>Little surprise then that <a href="http://www.media.ba/sites/default/files/prism_research_for_un_rco_statistical_report_1.pdf">only 8 percent</a> of those polled in BiH in 2013 felt the ICTY had done a good job facilitating reconciliation. </p>
<p>While international courts did little for reconciliation, they fundamentally sabotaged more <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2486.2009.00891.x/abstract">organic forms of justice</a> than could otherwise have happened at the local level. In the former Yugoslavia, political leaders who were struggling to balance international pressure for – and domestic opposition to – ICTY cooperation opted for half-baked local initiatives designed to satisfy both. The result was a watered-down <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2002/02/truth-commission-serbia-and-montenegro">truth commission</a> here, an <a href="http://www.rferl.org/a/1105227.html">apology</a> of questionable sincerity there. </p>
<p>These half-measures ultimately replaced what might have been <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ijtj/article-abstract/10/2/292/2356904/History-of-a-Failure-Attempts-to-Create-a-National?redirectedFrom=fulltext">more earnest mechanisms</a> had they not been established in the context of ongoing international trials. The recent Bosniak appeal to the ICJ, just like the key political victory of a Serb genocide denier, highlights the degree to which justice and historical memory remain politicized in BiH a quarter-century after the war began. </p>
<h2>The ICTY’s long shadow</h2>
<p>The ICTY and subsequent tribunals demonstrated that international prosecutions can play an important role in ending impunity. But they must carefully balance the need of the international community to ensure accountability with the needs of a local populace to deal with past rights abuses on their own terms. </p>
<p>Limiting international prosecutions to the most serious perpetrators is one way to reach this balance. Few in Serbia shed tears for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, a corrupt dictator. </p>
<p>Even then, the recent experience of the International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002 as a permanent and global version of the ICTY, demonstrates this can be a tough sell. Numerous African states have accused the ICC of the same bias Yugoslavs attributed to the ICTY. They are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jan/31/african-leaders-plan-mass-withdrawal-from-international-criminal-court">threatening to withdraw</a> as a result.</p>
<p>Back in Bosnia, the <a href="http://www.rferl.org/a/icj-bosnia-serbia-genocide/28360242.html">ICJ last month rejected</a> the Bosniak request on the grounds it did not come from all three members of the country’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/oct/08/bosnia-herzegovina-elections-the-worlds-most-complicated-system-of-government">tripartite presidency</a>. In other words, the very lack of reconciliation between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats that prompted the initial appeal now makes that appeal impossible. It is ironic that Bosniaks still feel the need to turn to international justice mechanisms for redress. After all, international justice may bear some blame for the predicament they’re in today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Grodsky received funding from a number of organizations while carrying out research in the former Yugoslavia, including grants from Fulbright-Hayes and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. </span></em></p>How long does it take to make peace? Decades after the end of the Bosnian war, just one in six residents felt that country had reached reconciliation.Brian Grodsky, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/727142017-02-15T23:48:19Z2017-02-15T23:48:19ZCan the United Nations adapt to Donald Trump?<p>On January 1, 2017, Antonio Guterres began his <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/01/01/Guterres-calls-for-peace-on-first-day-as-new-UN-secretary-general/3731483303428/">five-year term</a> as United Nations Secretary-General; 19 days later, Donald Trump began <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/16/happens-next-donald-trumps-inauguration-first-100-days-new-us/">his own term</a> as President of the United States. </p>
<p>Guterres got off to a smooth start – professional and low-key, almost invisible in the media. The beginning of Trump’s term has been dogged by scandal, making front pages every day in <a href="http://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/donald-trumps-first-100-days">every newspaper</a>. </p>
<p>That’s not the only difference. The new American president’s isolationism and protectionism goes against everything that the UN is about: <a href="https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/untaskteam_undf/thinkpieces/22_thinkpiece_trade.pdf">openness, free trade, international cooperation</a>. Some of Trump’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/30/british-dual-citizens-will-now-allowed-travel-us-boris-johnson/">statements</a> – that torture works, that refugees should be denied entry, that Muslims should be subject to extreme vetting – contradict principles globally accepted by the United Nations 70 years ago. </p>
<p>Trump has called the UN an organisation where people “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/28/trump-re-ups-criticism-of-united-nations-saying-its-causing-problems-not-solving-them/?utm_term=.7feabb3490e4">just talk and have a good time</a>”, like a businessman who eschews one big corporation and switches his deals to its competition. </p>
<p>This isn’t how international relations works, and Trump’s oft-changing, emotion-driven statements have not only raised eyebrows – they are also deteriorating US relations with various countries, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/15/china-warns-trump-that-taiwan-policy-is-non-negotiable">China</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/30/512438879/7-targeted-countries-react-to-trumps-ban-on-immigration">Muslim and Arab nations</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-enrique-pena-nieto-mexico-phone-call-humiliating-threatening-2017-2">Mexico</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/us-australia-trump-turnbull.html?_r=0">Australia</a>. </p>
<p>Concerns about the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html">close relationship</a> between the Trump administration and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and Trump’s changing views on the need for NATO have produced <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38014997">waves of anger and fear</a> in Ukraine, the Baltic States and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. </p>
<p>After only a few weeks the “America first” policy has put America last in terms of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/demonstrationsand-apprehension-mark-worlds-response-to-trumps-inauguration/2017/01/20/6f1f2dc2-dce4-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html">global respect</a>. </p>
<p>Donald Trump in the White House might be the biggest challenge the UN has ever faced, and it puts Guterres in a very delicate position. A cozy relationship with Trump will make Guterres seem a spineless Secretary General, mocked by many member-states. But confrontation with the US will impoverish and isolate the UN, upsetting both the international civil service and UN member-states. </p>
<p>What’s a secretary-general to do?</p>
<h2>A difficult relationship</h2>
<p>Guterres is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/world/americas/united-nations-un-antonio-guterres.html">an experienced and diplomatic dealmaker</a> who previously ran the UN’s High Commission on Refugees. He was prime minister of Portugal from 1995–2002.</p>
<p>These prior posts give him confidence in his leadership and ensure that he not only knows the world very well but is also fully aware of what it takes to efficiently manage a large international organisation. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/after-trashing-the-un-trump-has-a-very-positive-talk-with-un-secretary-general-guterres-2017-1">Both Trump and Guterres</a> would like to see a more efficient, better managed and less costly United Nations. So if Guterres can create an image of himself as <a href="http://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/syndication/think-tanks/877-huge-challenges-ahead-for-new-un-chief-antonio-guterres">a reformist</a>, open to do business differently and non-ideologically, he may find a way to work with Trump. </p>
<p>Cutting unnecessary expenditures, reducing the number of special representatives and working quietly on issues such as anti-corruption, action on <a href="https://theconversation.com/leaked-report-details-un-peacekeepers-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-39004">sexual abuse by peacekeepers</a>, the protection of whistle-blowers and independent oversight will earn sympathy from Washington. </p>
<p>The new US Permanent Representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, met Guterres twice in her first week in office, and <a href="http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/21100/why-guterres-and-haley-are-set-to-become-the-u-n-s-odd-couple">her appeal for peacekeeping reform</a> – a major plank in Guterres’ own campaign for the job – may get support. </p>
<p>Guterres is also operating from a position of relative strength vis-a-vis the US president. His victory as UN chief was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-37566898">solid and steady</a>, without serious competition from any other candidates. As a result, he managed to avoid making deals with member states to support him in exchange for economic aid and or high posts. </p>
<p>It is important to note that Guterres has won applause for immediately appointing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/15/next-un-chief-names-three-women-to-senior-posts">three women</a> to top posts (appeasing many who protested the fact that the UN would again be led by a man).</p>
<p>Such widespread support will allow Guterres to remain relatively free from internal pressures. This means he does not really need to kow-tow to Donald Trump. </p>
<p>By the time Guterres begins thinking about a second term in five years – effectively his only reason to be beholden to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which includes the US – there may well be a different American leader.</p>
<p>And bowing to Trump may lead Gutteres to lose face in front of some of those whom he will need votes from to be re-elected. </p>
<h2>Bon ton and understanding</h2>
<p>Instead, Guterres can capitalise on his wisdom, knowledge and experience, filling the gaps in global governance that Trump creates with <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/31/trumps-grand-strategic-train-wreck/">his antagonistic and ill-advised foreign policy</a>. In contrast to Trump, who might shout and offend, Guterres can offer what the French call <em>bon ton</em>, understanding and reasonableness in the coming years. </p>
<p>This scenario is nearly opposite to that of 25 years ago, when US president Bill Clinton acted as <a href="http://millercenter.org/president/biography/clinton-foreign-affairs">an intelligent global mediator</a> to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s <a href="http://observer.com/1999/06/the-undiplomatic-diplomat-boutrosghalis-un-memoir/">narcissism and arrogance</a>. </p>
<p>Already, Guterres has set up <a href="http://blogs.ft.com/the-world/2016/10/guterres-has-a-delicate-path-to-tread-at-the-un/">a plan of action</a> for his mandate. He will support the efforts of the Security Council’s permanent member on counter-terrorism and ISIS, on sanctions, non-proliferation and North Korea while he, as secretary-general, will lead efforts to prevent conflicts, mitigate climate change, eliminate poverty and pursue other items from <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld">the 2030 Agenda</a>. </p>
<p>This is a good division of labour, in which the UN focuses on prevention and the kind of “soft” security issues it is well suited to, while Trump, Putin, Theresa May and the next French president deal with “hard” security issues such as Syria, Iran and North Korea. </p>
<p>It may also help the world better understand what the UN <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/world/africa/un-peacekeepers-south-sudan-massacre.html">can and cannot do</a> and stop <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmdfence/writev/intervention/int10.htm">blaming it inappropriately</a>, for the Syrian catastrophe, for example, and also make clear what the major powers can and should do. </p>
<h2>The climate change and human rights challenges</h2>
<p>Two major tests for Guterres during the Trump presidency will be climate change and human rights. </p>
<p>Climate change is a serious concern, which <a href="http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/09/15/unpolluted-of-world-citizens-rank-climate-change-dead-last-as-concern-16th-out-of-16/">many, including Donald Trump, still fail to take seriously</a>. In the 21st century, climate change has taken<a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/node/77"> many more victims</a> than headline-grabbing terrorist attacks. </p>
<p>It is disturbing that the most powerful office in the world is in the hands of someone who considers global warming to be a <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/">Chinese “hoax”</a>. He has also installed as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency a <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-picks-top-climate-skeptic-to-lead-epa-transition/">well known climate sceptic</a>, threatened to withdraw from <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/30/donald-trump-paris-agreement-climate-change-withdraw/">multilateral climate agreements</a> and <a href="http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/31100/20161103/trump-administration-cancel-billions-payment-uns-green-climate-fund.htm">cancelled</a> payments to the Green Climate Fund. </p>
<p>If Trump follows through on these threats, he will almost certainly provoke a backlash from China and other developing countries, including India, which ratified <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php">the Paris climate agreement</a> with the understanding that they would receive financing and technology from rich nations. </p>
<p>Guterres has to mobilize UN member-states to fill the gap left by Trump. Paradoxically, the Chinese, so unfairly accused by Trump of “inventing” climate change, are the ones who can show <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/11/15/china-is-now-the-global-leader-in-climate-change-reform/">a global example</a> on how to mitigate the CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and invest in renewable energy. They may prove a strong partner in UN’s efforts to save the environment.</p>
<p>Human rights is <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/314329-human-rights-org-lists-trump-as-threat-to-human-rights">the other potential big victim</a> of the Trump presidency. </p>
<p>Trump’s assertions that “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/donald-trump-torture-waterboarding/">torture works</a>” have not only put America back 250 years before the <a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/208"><em>Cesare Beccaria</em></a> pronounced torture to be cruel and barbaric. They also serve as green lights for tyrants and torturers around the world <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2017/01/05/watching-trump-many-fear-leap-backward-torture/wQv1dDdk4jNTL6Yn0lrt1O/story.html">to violate human rights</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, the proposed (but thus far <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/09/politics/travel-ban-9th-circuit-ruling-immigration/">constitutionally blocked</a>) ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US is not just an American problem. It recalls the dark ages of religious discrimination, stokes <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/donald-trump-executive-order-immigration-reaction/">enormous global tensions</a> and creates grounds for xenophobia, terrorism and more conflicts. </p>
<p>Women’s and girls’ rights are also now in jeopardy around the world. Trump and his vice-president have taken a strong anti-abortion stance and even re-issued <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/opinions/global-gag-rule-backlash-garrett/">a global gag rule</a> prohibiting international health providers that receive US funding from even talking to patients about abortion. </p>
<p>China will not come to the rescue on human rights. Guterres will probably have to rely on European and Latin American member states to keep the UN machinery working and find a way to act as the global guardian of the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">international norms and principles</a> that have sought to safeguard human rights around the world since 1948.</p>
<p>On both climate change and human rights, strong leadership by Guterres could irk Trump, who would see him posing as a moral global leader. Guterres will also need to work with the US to secure funding and support. Still, it is likely he will have to confronts Trump at times when the president’s statements or policies undermine international law and order. </p>
<p>Failure to speak truth to power when necessary will lose Guterres, and the UN, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/27/donald-trump-existential-threat-united-nations">the respect of much of the world</a>. </p>
<h2>Mutual concern</h2>
<p>To avoid confrontation and seek constructive cooperation, Guterres could pursue issues of mutual concern, for example peacekeeping, combating drug trafficking and human trafficking.</p>
<p>He should also try to properly frame critical issues in ways that resonate with reasonable people in Trump administration. On climate change, for instance, Guterres can attempt to formulate opportunities that renewable energy would present for job creation and innovation, including in the US.</p>
<p>Guterres may search for a cooperative approach to peacekeeping and conflict prevention, presenting them as burden-sharing exercises in line with, rather than in opposition to, US national interests. Because UN peacekeeping is <a href="http://psm.du.edu/media/documents/congressional_comm/house_foreign_affairs/us_house_foreign_affairs_hearing_june_13_2007.pdf">eight times less expensive</a> than the comparable US forces needed to do the same job, there’s a good economic argument to be made to the businessman sitting in the Oval Office for his continued UN investment.</p>
<p>Even if the US <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/opinions/us-un-relations-patrick-opinion/">delays</a> paying its budgetary contributions to the UN, Guterres can use this as a leverage to push for reducing bureaucracy and structural reforms.</p>
<p>It is in Guterres’s interests to learn to adapt to Trump. Boutros-Ghali could not work with Washington even when the administration was multilateralism-friendly. He <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/07/24/un-controversy-over-boutros-ghali-heats-up/cce7b9fc-d9cc-4f3a-ad6b-72bf2b2bdb57/?utm_term=.0f96142cc74c">lost</a> his second term, but more importantly, the weakened UN was unable to respond to the massacres in <a href="https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/201/39240.html">Rwanda</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/16/world/un-details-its-failure-to-stop-95-bosnia-massacre.html">Srebrenica</a>. Those failures continue to haunt the instituion today.</p>
<p>Kofi Annan, on the other hand, proved able to survive the time of US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, and will be remembered for standing up for the norms and principles of his organisation. Ban Ki-Moon was “lucky” with Obama and the made did some good progress, for example on mobilising global efforts during <a href="http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/resources/documents/Briefing10Ebola2inTemplate.pdf">the Ebola crisis</a>, and reaching global agreements on <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/27/remarks-president-sustainable-development-goals">Sustainable Development Goals</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us/politics/obama-climate-change.html">climate change</a>. </p>
<p>Will Guterres be remembered one day as the saviour of the UN during Trump? Only time will tell, but one thing is sure: his task won’t be an easy one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vesselin Popovski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most of Trump’s positions go against the principles accepted by the United Nations. The new Secretary-General will have to try to find areas of mutual concern to work with the new US administration.Vesselin Popovski, Professor and Vice Dean and Executive Director, Centre for the Study of United Nations, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720612017-01-29T13:41:13Z2017-01-29T13:41:13ZTrump’s order barring refugees flies in the face of logic and humanity<p>With an irony that hasn’t gone unnoticed, US President Donald Trump signed his executive order <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/refugee-muslim-executive-order-trump.html?_r=0">Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the US</a> on January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day. </p>
<p>The order’s instructions are harsh and shocking. Not only does it suspend the <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/prm/ra/admissions/">US Refugee Admissions Programme</a> for 120 days and all refugee arrivals from Syria indefinitely, it suspends all new arrivals from <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1187">designated countries</a>, which, apart from Syria and Iraq, are reportedly <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38781302">Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen</a> – all predominantly Muslim.</p>
<p>The executive order is highly problematic on several levels, and it’s good to see the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration issue a <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2017/1/588bc4e34/joint-iom-unhcr-statement-president-trumps-refugee-order.html">joint statement</a> expressing their concern. As the order came into effect, several foreign and dual nationals were detained by US authorities and others barred from boarding inbound flights from other countries. <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/protest-jfk-airport-trump-refugee-ban-170128193014041.html">Protests sprang up</a> at major US airports and <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316682-ny-congress-members-demand-to-see-detained-refugees-at-jfk">two members of Congress</a> went to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to secure the release of an Iraqi refugee who had worked for the US government in his home country.</p>
<p>The day after the order was signed, however, a federal judge temporarily <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-refugees-lawsuit-iraq-visas-234305">blocked</a> the government from deporting citizens from the designated countries and refugees who might face irreparable harm if the US breached its duty not to “<a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/excom/scip/3ae68ccd10/note-non-refoulement-submitted-high-commissioner.html">refoule</a>”, meaning to expel or return people to a place of danger. But the chaos it has created goes on.</p>
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<p>The order’s provisions are vague, and its rationale clearly ill-conceived. It refers to the events of September 11 2001 despite the fact that no refugees were involved in hijacking and crashing any of the four planes that wreaked havoc that day. Statistically, Americans’ chances of being killed by an immigrant terrorist are <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/13/12901950/terrorism-immigrants-clothes">vanishingly small</a> – and in any case, existing laws and the <a href="http://www.refworld.org/docid/3be01b964.html">1951 Refugee Convention</a> itself are already in place to keep terrorists out. </p>
<p>Almost by definition, refugee movements are unplanned and irregular, and when they take place on a large scale, some of those fleeing could indeed be using the refugee movement to hide and gain entry to territories from which they would otherwise be barred. This is why the 1951 <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/StatusOfRefugees.aspx">Convention relating the Status of Refugees</a>, by which <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanda-what-legal-obligation-does-the-us-have-to-accept-refugees-72007">the US is bound</a>, excludes from protection anyone who could seriously be considered to have committed a war crime, a crime against peace, a crime against humanity or a serious non-political crime. Known terrorists would never qualify for refugee status (<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/StatusOfRefugees.aspx">Article 1F</a>).</p>
<h2>False distinctions</h2>
<p>One of the order’s most contentious elements is its instruction to prioritise refugees fleeing on grounds of religious persecution, so long as any applicant comes from a minority population in their home state. This has been taken to refer to Christian minorities from Iraq and Syria, but it would also logically extend to <a href="https://theconversation.com/asean-countries-should-find-a-solution-to-end-the-persecution-of-rohingya-66919">Rohingya Muslims</a> from Myanmar and Muslims from the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/amnesty-muslims-erased-central-african-republic-150731083248166.html">Central African Republic</a>. </p>
<p>To be sure, a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion is a ground for refugee status, but it is is improper to prioritise this over persecution on grounds of race, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. More than that, the whole policy of targeting refugees based on nationality or religion could fall foul of <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/StatusOfRefugees.aspx">Article 3</a> of the 1951 Convention that requires state parties to apply the provisions of the convention “without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin”. </p>
<p>And of course, if any person seeking refugee status from any of these countries for whatever reason were to make it to the US, then the country’s <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/excom/scip/3ae68ccd10/note-non-refoulement-submitted-high-commissioner.html">non-refoulement obligation</a> would mean it could not return them to the frontiers of any territory where their life or freedom would be threatened, or if it put them at real risk of torture.</p>
<p>It hasn’t been lost on everyone that the US has a long history of receiving refugees and asylum seekers and resettling them and it is always among the <a href="http://www.unhcr.ie/about-unhcr/facts-and-figures-about-refugees">top receiving countries</a> in the industrialised world. Many people now helping to rebuild their countries as they transition from conflict and repression found refuge in the US where they were given opportunities to study and work which prepared them to return once it was safe.</p>
<p>The executive order also emphasises that in future, refugees must respect the laws and values of the US, a sentiment that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/belgium-to-require-immigrants-to-sign-up-to-european-values">some European countries</a> have recently voiced. But again, the 1951 Convention has always endorsed such an approach, via Article 2: “Every refugee has duties to the country in which he finds himself, which require in particular that he conform to its laws and regulations as well as to measures taken for the maintenance of public order.” </p>
<p>Indeed, the countries that benefit most from new arrivals in their society are those which <a href="http://www.mipex.eu/key-findings">take steps</a> to best integrate refugee populations while respecting their cultural identity and freedom of religion.</p>
<h2>Nowhere to go</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3416383/Trump-EO-Draft-on-Refugees.pdf">draft of the executive order</a> that emerged a few days before the final version included an instruction that didn’t make it into the final version: its Section 6 required the US Secretaries of State and Defense to produce within 90 days a plan to provide safe zones for refugees in Syria and neighbouring states while they awaited repatriation or resettlement in another country. </p>
<p>The idea of safe zones has been given a wider airing of late, without any firm evidence of how they might be implemented. If civilians are left in isolated, clearly defined areas which demand protection, they are vulnerable to targeted attack. The proposals naturally raise fears of a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/safe-zone-syria-conflict/415134/">repeat of what happened at Srebrenica</a> in 1995, when 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were massacred in what had been declared a “safe area” two years previously. </p>
<p>That the US did not believe it could create such zones in the volatile conditions that persist in most of Syria is indicative of the fact that they may never be viable at all.</p>
<p>Refugees are, by definition, fleeing persecution, persecution that is intensified during times of armed conflict, as <a href="http://www.refworld.org/docid/583595ff4.html">UNHCR’s recent guideline</a> emphasises. Closing the gates into the US puts lives at risk in the same way as happened in the 1930s, which Holocaust Memorial Day is in part meant to commemorate. All human beings fleeing persecution and armed conflict deserve protection. What the Trump administration is doing flies in the face of that basic truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Gilbert consults for UNHCR and has received funding from UNHCR in the past. He is a member of the Labour Party. </span></em></p>On Holocaust Memorial Day, Donald Trump took to his desk to instruct his government to keep refugees out.Geoff Gilbert, Professor of Law, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/567782016-03-24T15:19:06Z2016-03-24T15:19:06ZRadovan Karadžić sentenced to 40 years, but peace is still a work in progress<p>Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić has been sentenced to 40 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).</p>
<p>The court found the former president of the Bosnian Serb republic guilty of one count of genocide and <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-radovan-karadzic-case-56767">nine war crimes</a>, all relating to the war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He is criminally responsible for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-court-upholds-srebrenica-massacre-verdicts-37003">Srebrenica</a> massacre in 1995.</p>
<p>This marks the final chapter in three interlinked stories of hubris, war and retribution in Europe at the turn of the millennium.</p>
<p>The first of these stories is a personal journey of an ambitious intellectual – a psychiatrist and a poet who rose from poverty and obscurity to eventually join the political elite. It’s the story of a man who went on to lead a nationalist movement responsible for some of the most heinous crimes seen on the continent since 1945.</p>
<p>Karadžić held political authority over the Bosnian Serb forces that perpetrated the crimes for which he was charged by the ICTY. Ousted from power after the conclusion of the <a href="http://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/BA_951121_DaytonAgreement.pdf">Dayton Peace Agreement</a>, he remained a fugitive until 2008. He was found living on the outskirts of Belgrade disguised as a new-age healer. It’s a tale that could have been taken from a Yugoslav surrealist film.</p>
<p>He will undoubtedly spend the remainder of his life in prison – an apt ending to this extraordinary trajectory.</p>
<p>The intriguing question that remains is how an apparently tolerant and convivial man, who worked and associated with Bosnians of different religious backgrounds and exhibited no particular nationalist leanings prior to 1990, became a ruthless political ideologue who oversaw a policy of mass murder, torture, rape and the forced removal of non-Serb populations for the sake of creating an “ethnically cleansed” Serbian state in Bosnia.</p>
<h2>A new kind of justice</h2>
<p>The second story is that of the international tribunal itself. Set up by the UN in 1993 to investigate the war crimes that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s, the ICTY has undergone several metamorphoses over its 20-year existence.</p>
<p>The tribunal began as an ineffectual and underfunded institution. It was unable to press Western governments into capturing the more important war criminals. But from 2001 it went on to score some remarkable successes. All its indictees were eventually arrested, including the big fish, such as Serbia’s former president <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/8538575/Serbian-war-criminals-Slobodan-Milosevic-profile.html">Slobodan Milošević</a> and the Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Karadžić and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/14-years-fugitive-hunt-for-ratko-mladic-butcher-of-bosnia">Ratko Mladić</a> (who is currently on trial).</p>
<p>This success was due largely to new governments coming to power in the post-Yugoslav states and the West’s policy of making financial aid and accession to the EU conditional on co-operation with the tribunal. </p>
<p>The ICTY has provided impressive evidence of the worst crimes committed in the Yugoslav wars. It identified those involved and charted the chains of command. It set some important milestones in international law, paving the way to the creation of a permanent <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/international-criminal-court">International Criminal Court</a>. Without the ICTY, it is unlikely that some of the worst perpetrators in the Yugoslav wars would have been brought to justice or that we would have such detailed knowledge about the conduct of those wars. </p>
<p>However, the tribunal has been very controversial in the region. It has ultimately made little headway in its mission of contributing to reconciliation. </p>
<p>Nationalist politicians have sought to portray the ICTY as <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/un-debate-turns-as-criticism-of-the-icty">victimising</a> their individual national groups. They present the indictments of their own former political or military leaders as disproportionate and unjust.</p>
<p>The tribunal has remained insular and remote from the region, making little attempt to explain its indictments, procedures and judgements to the war-ravaged and traumatised populations for which it was meant to provide justice.</p>
<p>Often relatively short sentences issued for capital crimes have rankled with victims and some of those tried by the tribunal have now returned home and were welcomed as war heroes. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.icty.org/en/press/jovica-stani%C5%A1i%C4%87-and-franko-simatovi%C4%87-acquitted-all-charges">acquittals</a> of high ranking military and security figures from Croatia and Serbia in 2012 and 2013 produced consternation even among the greatest champions of the tribunal. Even some <a href="http://hrbrief.org/2013/03/acquittals-for-croatian-generals-raise-questions-about-the-icty-and-its-legacy/">ICTY judges</a> publicly protested. </p>
<h2>An international journey</h2>
<p>The Karadžić judgment (along with those pending for Mladić and a few others) also marks the end of a third story – that of external involvement in the region’s reckoning with its legacy of war.</p>
<p>Without <a href="http://research.gold.ac.uk/1899/">international intervention</a>, there would probably have been little justice. However, the actions of external actors sometimes had counterproductive effects, undermining the reformist political forces seeking genuine change in their countries. And, ultimately, real reckoning with a difficult past cannot be orchestrated from outside. </p>
<p>If the Karadžić judgment is to have any longer-term resonance in the region, it will need to be part of a sustained internal and introspective process in those states where the crimes were perpetrated.</p>
<p>That usually implies the presence of both genuine political commitment and a propitious socio-economic context. Unfortunately, neither of these conditions are on the horizon yet anywhere in the region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasna Dragovic Soso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Former Bosnian Serb leader guilty of one count of genocide and numerous war crimes after 18 months of deliberation.Jasna Dragovic Soso, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/567672016-03-24T10:59:06Z2016-03-24T10:59:06ZFive things you need to know about the Radovan Karadžić case<p>The <a href="http://www.icty.org">International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia</a> is issuing its judgment in the case of Radovan Karadžić, arguably its most high-profile accused since the trial of Slobodan Milošević, which ended in 2005. Here’s all you need to know about this landmark decision.</p>
<p><strong>1. Who is Radovan Karadžić?</strong></p>
<p>He’s the former president of Republika Srpska, an autonomous region established in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/bosnia-and-herzegovina">Bosnia and Herzegovina</a> in 1992 at <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17212376">the outbreak of war</a> in the region. It ended in December 1995 and Karadžić lost power. He then went into hiding and wasn’t captured until 2008, when he was found in Belgrade. He had apparently been working as an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26karadzic-t.html">alternative medicine practitioner</a> for several years. His neighbours were unaware of his true identity.</p>
<p><strong>2. What is he charged with?</strong></p>
<p>Karadžić is charged with 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war. The tribunal has already convicted a number of defendants for their role in the genocide in the enclave of <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-court-upholds-srebrenica-massacre-verdicts-37003">Srebrenica</a> where more than 7,000 men and boys were separated from their families and killed, while women, young children and some elderly men were forcibly removed from the enclave. Karadžić is charged with this genocide. He denies the charges. </p>
<p>He is also charged with genocide committed in seven other municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Earlier in the case, the Trials Chamber was found that there was not sufficient evidence about what happened in these seven municipalities for it to be considered genocide against Bosnian Muslim and/or Bosnian Croat groups, and the charge was dropped. However, the Appeals Chamber found that the evidence did reach the threshold, and it reinstated the charge. </p>
<p>Another interesting charge is the war crime of taking hostages. This is the first time that the tribunal has charged anyone with this crime. In 1995, Bosnian Serb forces detained UN peacekeepers, purportedly in an attempt to stop the NATO bombing that was going on at the time. <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/karadzic-s-appeal-on-hostage-taking-rejected">Karadžić argued</a> that, because of NATO’s involvement and the peacekeepers’ link thereto, the peacekeepers were lawfully detained prisoners of war. This argument has been unsuccessful to date, and is unlikely to hold sway in the Trial Chamber’s judgment. </p>
<p><strong>3. How long did the trial last?</strong></p>
<p>Karadžić’s trial ran from 2010 to 2014. The Trial Chamber has been deliberating on its much anticipated judgment since October 2014. Over the course of the trial, the chamber heard evidence from almost 600 witnesses, received thousands of pages of evidence and received filings from both the prosecution and defence totalling 90,000 pages. Karadžić has received almost 3m pages of disclosed evidence from the prosecution. Right up <a href="http://www.icty.org/x/cases/karadzic/tdec/en/160314.pdf">until last week</a>, the chamber was deciding on motions where the prosecution had failed in its obligation to disclose exculpatory (in other words favourable) evidence to the accused. </p>
<p><strong>4. Did he get a fair trial?</strong></p>
<p>Karadžić chose to represent himself at trial and as a result, received less legal aid than he would have if he were represented by a lawyer. There have been issues with the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8325096.stm">adequacy of time</a> and <a href="http://www.icty.org/x/cases/karadzic/presdec/en/120131.pdf">financial resources</a> for the preparation of the defence case throughout the trial, only some of which were resolved by the Trial Chamber.</p>
<p>Karadžić has been critical of the use of written witness statements in the place of full oral testimony, and of the doctrine of <a href="http://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/did-karadzic-get-fair-trial.html">judicial notice</a> which admits previously adjudicated facts from other cases into the record in this case. Furthermore, one of Karadžić’s key witnesses, his wartime ally and former military leader <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27464998">Ratko Mladić</a> (who is currently also standing trial in The Hague) refused to answer any questions when called to testify. Although the tribunal issued a subpoena for Mladić to appear, it failed to take any further action to compel him to testify, such as charging him with contempt of court, so Karadžić missed out on this testimony. </p>
<p><strong>5. What sort of sentence will he get, if convicted?</strong></p>
<p>Unlike many legal systems, international criminal courts do not have sentencing guidelines, so it is hard to predict. However, if convicted of even some of the charges, it’s likely that Karadžić will spend the rest of his life in prison. </p>
<p>His good behaviour and co-operation with the tribunal throughout the trial will be acknowledged as a mitigating factor in sentencing, but his refusal to surrender to the tribunal will likely act against him. Furthermore, if he is found guilty, his leadership position is likely to be an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne McDermott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A four year trial and several years of deliberation later, and an international tribunal is to decide on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.Yvonne McDermott, Senior Lecturer in Law, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/443962015-07-10T16:28:59Z2015-07-10T16:28:59ZProtecting the memory of Balkans tragedy from political opportunism<p>Bosnia and Herzegovina is preparing to mark the 20th anniversary of the coldblooded extermination of more than <a href="http://www.rferl.org/fullinfographics/infographics/27114531.html#">7,000 Muslim men and boys</a> in the small mining village of Srebrenica in the east of the country.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/world/europe/srebrenica-genocide-massacre.html?_r=0">massacre</a> was one of the worst atrocities to be committed on European soil since World War II and the only internationally recognised <a href="http://www.icty.org/sid/8434">case of genocide</a> in the Bosnian conflict.</p>
<p>There will be an influx of visitors to Srebrenica over the anniversary. Survivors, relatives and returning nationals will memorialise the men and boys killed in 1995 with the burial of 136 victims at the <a href="http://www.sitesofconscience.org/members/srebrenica-potocari-memorial-center-cemetery/">Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center</a>.</p>
<p>Others, though, have been using the opportunity to fuel divisions in the fragile country. The complexities and mess of war and post-war recovery are not limited to Srebrenica. A multitude of experiences of conflict as well as sites marking scenes of violence exist across Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/1992/aug/07/warcrimes.edvulliamy">Omarska</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/27/radovankaradzic.warcrimes2">Trnopolje</a> – which were concentration camps established near Prijedor to imprison non-Serbs.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://iwpr.net/global-voices/prlic-trial-shown-images-war">Helidrom</a>, people remember the internment of Muslims near Mostar and in <a href="https://iwpr.net/global-voices/former-firefighter-recalls-sarajevo-siege">Sarajevo</a>, they remember the longest siege in modern history.</p>
<h2>Admitting guilt</h2>
<p>In the run up to the 20th anniversary, the international and political nature of Srebrenica has come to the fore. National governments have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-pledges-12-million-to-remember-victims-of-srebrenica">reflected on their involvement</a> and appear to be <a href="http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Bosnia-Herzegovina/The-Netherlands-and-Srebrenica-the-burden-of-guilt-162201">making small acknowledgements of their blame</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/un-shares-blame-for-srebrenica-genocide">UN</a> has admitted to failing to protect Srebrenica and recently sought to pass a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/08/russia-vetoes-srebrenica-genocide-resolution-un">resolution</a> condemning the events there as genocide. The resolution was vetoed by Russia, but it shows willingness by other UN members to acknowledge the severity of what happened.</p>
<p>This came against the backdrop of revelations that the fall of the town was not the unexpected tragedy so often portrayed. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/04/west-true-role-in-srebrenica-massacre-bosnia">Recently released documents</a> suggest the UK, US and France in fact sought to cede Srebrenica to the Bosnian Serbs in a bid to end the conflict in the Balkans. </p>
<p>Within the region, admitting blame is still difficult. Serbia’s prime minister, Aleksandar Vučić, a nationalist and supporter of the idea of <a href="http://www.suedosteuropa.uni-graz.at/sites/default/files/publications/ofre2www_csee_3.pdf">Greater Serbia</a>, will <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/07/uk-bosnia-serbia-srebrenica-idUKKCN0PH2FM20150707">attend the commemoration</a> – but it will be under a cloud of political dispute. Serbia recently issued an arrest warrant for war crimes allegedly committed by the former Srebrenica commander, Naser Orić. This even though Orić had already been aquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2008 of crimes against Serbs in the Srebrenica area.</p>
<p>Orić’s recent <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnian-army-wartime-commander-naser-oric-arrested">arrest</a>, and subsequent release, have created tension between both Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has also caused division domestically within Bosnia and Herzegovina, further heightening ethnopolitical tensions between the Muslim Croat Federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. Nationalist politicians have been calling for a referendum to decide if Republika Srpska should break away from Bosnia and Herzegovina – and the arrest has only fuelled their campaign.</p>
<p>This has led other nationalist political parties to appropriate the 20th anniversary of Srebrenica. The massacre and the politics surrounding it are being used to foment divisions in the country in an effort to further political and often divisionist agendas.</p>
<h2>Reclaiming remembrance</h2>
<p>This political appropriation of Srebrenica does not help the process of healing and the building of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But there is resistance and a movement to reclaim the memorialisation of Srebrenica and other sites of violence. These movements do not take away from the pain and suffering of Srebrenica but rather encompass and recognise the complexities of the war experience. The aim is to take a human rights-based view rather than use the massacre as part of a political battle.</p>
<p>This was seen at a recent event in <a href="http://instituteforgenocide.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/THE-PRIJEDOR-GENOCIDE-1.pdf">Prijedor</a> – where 5,200 non-Serbs from the town and 14,000 non-Serbs from the surrounding area were either killed or are missing. The event called for <a href="http://instituteforgenocide.org/?p=9990">an end to genocide denial</a> and aimed not only to raise awareness of what took place in Prijedor in 1992, but also protested the lack of the right to pay tribute to the children killed in Prijedor during the Bosnian conflict.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://balkanist.net/twenty-years-since-srebrenica-no-reconciliation-were-still-at-war/">Refik Hodzić</a> reminds us, the legacy of violence and war are still present in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Srebrenica is the main battlefield.</p>
<p>Maybe it is only through the act of challenging the appropriation of remembrance at the international, regional, and local levels that Bosnia and Herzegovina can begin to deal with the past.</p>
<p><em>Martin Avila, Marija Sarić, Nicola Ovenden and Mike Lipari also contributed to this article</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michaelina Jakala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, nationalists are fuelling divisions.Michaelina Jakala, Research Associate, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/444542015-07-10T10:18:37Z2015-07-10T10:18:37ZWho gets to forget? What the tragedy of Srebrenica says about Europe<p>Saturday marks <a href="http://www.srebrenica.org.uk">20 years</a> since genocide returned to Europe. In 1995, <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/bosnian-genocide">Bosnian Serb troops</a> under the command of general Ratko Mladić, with the collaboration of a paramilitary unit from neighboring Serbia, murdered more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. They dumped the bodies into pits. They videotaped some of the killings.</p>
<p>In 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia declared that Serb forces had committed genocide in Srebrenica. But on Wednesday, July 8, Russia <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/russia-vetoes-un-draft-resolution-srebrenica-genocide-150028528.html">vetoed</a> a British draft resolution that called for recognizing genocide as “a prerequisite for reconciliation.” Serbia <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33445772">vehemently rejects</a> calling the atrocities “genocide.” Along with Bosnian Serb leaders, Belgrade lobbied Moscow to block the resolution. </p>
<p>They got their wish. “<a href="http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2015&mm=07&dd=08&nav_id=94684">We are grateful to everyone who helped us</a>,” said Serb premier Aleksandar Vučić. “China and Russia and Venezuela and Angola and many others who contacted us and were ready to help.” </p>
<p>That the resolution died at the UN serves as a painful déja vu: Srebrenica has always symbolized the weakness of the “international community.” At the time of the mass killings, the area was under UN protection. A force consisting of hundreds of Dutch peacekeepers were stationed to keep the town safe. That ended up meaning nothing; Mladić and his henchmen took control anyway.</p>
<p>The international diplomatic squabbles, however, should not obscure the fact that Srebrenica was a distinct European failure. Choosing to mislabel this horrendous act will not strengthen European bonds. Rather, acknowledging failure is a step forward in forging new resolve to avert future tragedies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87933/original/image-20150709-10879-19oparz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gravestones at the Srebrenica massacre memorial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Srebrenica_massacre_memorial_gravestones_2009_1.jpg">Michael Büker/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The graves help tell the story</h2>
<p>I remember standing at the Srebrenica <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_Genocide_Memorial">memorial</a> over a decade ago. I was 22 years old, born and raised in the Balkans. A college student, I was working with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was preparing to prosecute war crimes at home.</p>
<p>Yet, I had trouble processing what was happening. There were open graves all around, with numbered coffins lined side by side. Hundreds of women sobbed. Some fainted. It kept raining, so the freshly dug earth quickly turned into mud.</p>
<p>Bodies have continued to be buried because mass graves have kept turning up. It has also taken decades to identify the remains. So the anguish returns to Srebrenica every July, as thousands gather at the site to remember the victims. Hundreds are still unaccounted for.</p>
<p>The Srebrenica memorial reminded me of countless other war memorials across Europe designed to achieve the impossible: capture the sense of loss. How do you visualize entire generations wiped out? A beginning is to name the names. That is what author Dzenana Halimovic does, movingly, by documenting every victim’s face. (You can scroll through thousands of photos <a href="http://www.rferl.org/fullinfographics/infographics/27114531.html">here.</a>)</p>
<h2>Why do some refuse to call the killings ‘genocide’?</h2>
<p>Denial can serve many purposes, but it is also made possible by the stubborn insistence that what happened in the Balkans in the 1990s was a reflection of mutual age-old hatreds. Historians have <a href="http://eep.sagepub.com/content/23/4/461.abstract">rejected</a> this view energetically. If hatred is endemic, responsibility falls everywhere – and so nowhere.</p>
<p>Still, this belief <a href="http://qz.com/287923/what-a-surprise-drone-and-a-soccer-brawl-reveal-about-the-balkans/">persists</a>. Whenever the Balkans briefly pop up in the news these days, we are quickly reminded that wars stemmed from complicated ethnic divisions. But what wars are not complicated? </p>
<p>In fact, the Balkan conflicts reflect profoundly European problems. In remembering Srebrenica, it is worth considering three of these.</p>
<p><strong>First</strong>: We like to teach our students about “the lessons of the Holocaust,” but forgetting has been central to the idea of a united Europe. So remembering Srebrenica will require more than memorials and speeches. It will be a long-term battle.</p>
<p><strong>Second</strong>: The destruction of Yugoslavia had its undeniable peculiarities, but, in retrospect, the conflicts of the 1990s seem like a foreshadowing of the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/25/AR2010102505601.html">radicalism</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/01/21/378845062/anti-muslim-protesters-in-germany-plan-massive-rally-in-leipzig">anti-Muslim campaigns</a> that we have seen more recently across Europe. The ghosts of the Balkans are European ghosts. These were Europeans delivering unspeakable suffering upon Muslim Europeans.</p>
<p><strong>Third</strong>: European states have been good at devising mechanisms for an integrated Europe but terrible at saving Europeans in times of tragedy. The idea of European unity has been incredibly captivating. But in matters of life and death, European powers have often been impotent. Take the example of
<a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nato-bombs-yugoslavia">Kosovo in 1999</a>, when Serb forces unleashed another human tragedy. It was NATO’s <a href="http://www.nato.int/kosovo/history.htm">intervention</a> that proved decisive. The EU has since directed massive resources to Kosovo, but the problem of timely EU decision making in times of urgent crises remains. </p>
<h2>Who gets to forget?</h2>
<p>Past events in the Balkans, or in Ukraine today, reveal something obvious but not fully appreciated: East and south of the continent, lives have often been disposable. Some of the most impoverished Europeans also live in geopolitically threatened borderlands. In light of this insecurity, some will continue to look uncritically to the United States for protection. Others will look uncritically to Russia. </p>
<p>It is too easy to bash the EU, especially now. Further enlargement of the union appears to be unpopular. From <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/world/anti-immigrant-party-gains-in-denmark-elections.html?_r=0">Denmark</a> to the United Kingdom, anti-immigration parties have gained ground. Moreover, the EU is an ambiguous target: there are the officials in Strasbourg passing resolution after resolution. And then there are a handful of powerful national leaders who worry about domestic voters. Who cares, after all, about Bosnia?</p>
<p>Yet the battle for Europe is likely to play out on the margins. Yes, it will be about the built-in tensions between political and economic integration. Yes, it will be about immigration controls and the inevitable contradiction between opening borders and building new walls. </p>
<p>But the battle for Europe will also be about who gets to remember and who gets to forget. That is also why Srebrenica is a European tragedy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44454/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elidor Mehilli receives funding from the Research Foundation of CUNY. </span></em></p>Twenty years after the mass killings of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Balkan War, Europeans still grapple with the legacy of genocide.Elidor Mehilli, Assistant Professor, City University of New York, Hunter CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/443762015-07-09T16:00:03Z2015-07-09T16:00:03ZTwenty years after Srebrenica, ethnic cleansing has become a defence to genocide<p>It has been 20 years since Bosnian Serb forces killed and secretly buried more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys over three tragic days in Srebrenica. The awful event is the only legally recognised genocide to have taken place in Europe since World War II.</p>
<p>But as the world prepares to mark the incident, Russia has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-veto-on-srebrenica-infuriates-us-and-allies-at-the-united-nations/2015/07/08/7458df6c-25a8-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html">vetoed</a> a UN resolution to acknowledge that genocide took place at Srebrenica. Its ambassador dismissed the resolution as a politically motivated attempt to blame one side for the terrible events that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s.</p>
<p>This is just the latest twist in a dispute about whether the killings were genocide and, if they were, why other terrible war crimes committed during the collapse of the former Yugoslavia were not.</p>
<p>It is fairly clear that people do not like genocide – not enough to stop committing it, but just enough to protest vehemently if they or their ancestors are accused of it. Take for example, how Turkey reacted to claims by Pope Francis that Ottoman Turks had engaged in “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/12/pope-boosts-armenias-efforts-to-have-ottoman-killings-recognised-as-genocide">the first genocide of the 20th century</a>” when they killed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in World War I.</p>
<p>There has been a similar reluctance to accept the magnitude of what happened in Srebrenica. The day after being sworn in as president of Serbia in 2012, Tomislav Nikolic went on Montenegrin TV to say that the Srebrenica killings were a war crime, by people who should be brought to justice – but that the events <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18301196">were not genocide</a>. A year later, he made an <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/10017552/Serbian-president-in-historic-Srebrenica-massacre-apology.html">historic apology</a> for the killings but maintained that it had not been proven to be genocide.</p>
<p>All this despite the fact that the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have both accepted that genocide has, in fact, been proven in relation to Srebrenica.</p>
<p>Aleksandar Vucic, the current prime minister of Serbia, is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33209147">reportedly preparing</a> to attend the official 20th anniversary commemorations of the massacre, but this has angered some people because there is still no official acceptance by Serbia that genocide took place.</p>
<h2>Narrow definition</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most staggering thing about this debate, though, is that Srebrenica is the only incident <a href="http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=1897&code=bhy&p1=3&p2=3&p3=6&case=91&k=f4">legally classified as genocide</a> in the Yugoslav conflict, despite all the other atrocious war crimes and crimes against humanity that are known to have taken place.</p>
<p>The difference with Srebrenica was that the massacre was an end in itself. The Bosnian Serbs targeted the Bosnian Muslims as a specific ethnic or religious group. In legal terms, there was, at Srebrenica only, the special intent to destroy an ethnic or religious group.</p>
<p>This sets it apart, according to the <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%252078/volume-78-I-1021-English.pdf">1948 Genocide Convention</a>, which is where genocide and its special intent are defined. Or, more specifically, according to how the convention has been interpreted by high-profile courts and tribunals.</p>
<p>It would seem that, according to the ICJ, trying to make a geographical area “ethnically homogenous” does not show the special intent required for genocide because it does not single out a specific protected group.</p>
<p>Likewise, forced displacement, even when accompanied by mass killings, does not count as genocide because it does not “destroy” the protected group. The same conclusion was reached by the International Commission of Inquiry on <a href="http://www.un.org/news/dh/sudan/com_inq_darfur.pdf">Darfur</a>. The commission’s 2004 report found that “generally speaking” the policy of attacking, killing and forcibly displacing members of some tribes in Sudan did not display the special intent needed for genocide. Instead the people who planned and organised attacks on villages pursued the intent to drive the victims from their homes. </p>
<p>What’s more, the threshold for implying special intent has been set at a very high level. It must be shown that there is a pattern of conduct from which “the only reasonable inference to be drawn” is an intent by the relevant authorities to destroy the protected group.</p>
<h2>When ethnic cleansing becomes a defence</h2>
<p>The effect of this is that if a case goes to the ICJ via the Genocide Convention, reparations or other remedies can only be given if genocide is proven. If the abhorrent actions do not carry that special intent, they might still be war crimes and crimes against humanity but the ICJ is powerless to act against states that commit the actions. The individual perpetrators might face trial, but there can be no sanctions against the state they served.</p>
<p>The unfortunate consequences of this were brought into stark relief earlier in this 20th anniversary year in the case of <a href="http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=1&case=118&code=cry&p3=4">Croatia v. Serbia</a>.</p>
<p>In this case Serbia did not contest the “systematic and widespread” nature of certain attacks against the Croatian people. It argued that the attacks “were intended to force the Croats to leave the regions concerned”.</p>
<p>The ICJ accepted this, and repeated the findings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which had found that various war crimes and crimes against humanity were aimed at forcing the Croats out of certain regions rather than destroying the group. The Serbian defence was that it was not committing genocide because, instead, it was carrying out ethnic cleansing.</p>
<p>It cannot be right that ethnic cleansing has become a defence to genocide. When mass killings accompany massive forced displacement, with a goal of creating an ethnically pure state, then let’s be frank and call those mass killings genocide. At least then, we might stand an outside chance of being able to give support to victims and their family, and to rehabilitate those who deny, or even celebrate, their role in or support for genocide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I have consulted to Agencia Consulting (with RIPA International and / or the UK Foreign Office) on projects where I have trained the Ukrainian Supreme Court (2011); helped to establish a legal research syllabus for the Kosovo Judicial Institute (2014); and convened workshops for the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court of Kosovo (2013-14). In the past I have given expert advice to the Council of Europe on projects in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Georgia.
</span></em></p>Russia is the latest to deny 1995 massacre was genocide. Why is it so hard to agree on this issue?James Sweeney, Professor, Lancaster Law School, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/370032015-01-30T17:49:00Z2015-01-30T17:49:00ZInternational court upholds Srebrenica massacre verdicts<p>In 1995 the Bosnian Serb army killed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in what was known as the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31053503">Srebrenica massacre</a>. And after nearly 20 years and a ten-year legal battle, the <a href="http://www.icty.org/">International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia</a> (ICTY) has upheld its guilty verdicts against five of the men involved, confirming sentences of between 18 years and life for what has been judged to be a crime against humanity involving genocide.</p>
<p>Despite being declared a “safe area” by the United Nations and protected by around 450 Dutch UN peacekeepers, Srebrenica became the stage for a nine-day attack against mainly men and boys. As women were forced into buses and sent outside the enclave, men were left to face their death.</p>
<p>The memory of Srebrenica has been difficult to handle as Bosnia-Herzegovina tries to rebuild in the wake of its conflict. It has been particularly challenging for the different ethnic groups living in the country. </p>
<p>Not only does it emphasise the need for extensive efforts in truth-telling and fact finding, but also the need for a political commitment to acknowledging the atrocities committed during the war. It has equal implications for the role of justice and the legal system in the country.</p>
<h2>The original trial</h2>
<p>As part of the strategies for dealing with genocide and grave violations of human rights in the country, ICTY was established as a transitional justice mechanism to investigate and prosecute those responsible for atrocities such as the ones committed in 1995.</p>
<p>It issued its first judgement on the Srebrenica genocide in 2004. Radislav Krstic, deputy commander of the army of the Bosnian Serb forces, was charged with “aiding and abetting” genocide and given 35 years in prison.</p>
<p>Then in June 2010, five more men – Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Vinko Pandurevic and Radivoje Miletic – were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Nikolic was sentenced to life imprisonment and Nikolic to 35 years. Pandurevic was sentenced to 13 years, Miletic to 19 years and and Gvero to five years. All five had played central roles in the military operation that led to the massacre.</p>
<p>The defendants all appealed their sentences, arguing that errors and misjudgements had been made in their indictments, and that the credibility of some of the witnesses against them was shaky. They also questioned evidence about the number of people killed in Srebrenica.</p>
<h2>Firm stance</h2>
<p>But now the court has upheld its ruling and reinforced its conclusion that Bosniaks, as Bosnian Muslims are also known, in Eastern Bosnia were victims of a strategy of genocide and ethnic cleansing planned and implemented by the Bosnian Serb forces during the war.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70668/original/image-20150130-25927-1x3fp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The defendants await the court’s ruling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Due to the role of the ICTY in the transitional justice process of Bosnia and its impact on judicial institutions established in the country, the decision opens up questions around issues of truth, justice and reconciliation and their impact in the rebuilding of Bosnia-Herzegovina.</p>
<p>Back in 2012, the European Union <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/eu_condemns_serbian_presidents_denial_of_genoside_in_srebrenica/1147055.html">condemned statements</a> by Serbian president Tornislav Nikolic, who openly rejected the existence of a Serb genocide strategy during the war in Bosnia. The decision by the international court in these cases can be interpreted as a further blow to regular attempts by politicians in the region to deny that genocide took place. </p>
<p>It can also be seen as a push for rethinking transitional justice mechanisms in the country as it reopens debates at the local, national and international levels around the need for truth-telling mechanisms and discussions on justice and reconciliation between Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks.</p>
<p>The decision is important in the ongoing process of post-war reconciliation between the different ethnic groups that live in the region. These groups are still divided and mistrustful of one another. This ruling is a reminder that dialogue about the past and future is needed at all levels. The different groups need to agree on what happened during the war and what type of justice should be pursued. Then there are issues such as missing people, mass graves and the return of refugee and internally displaced minorities to the country after the war.</p>
<p>The message from the court is that genocide took place and that those responsible will not get away with it. Now that message needs to be heard by politicians and people back home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Monroy-Santander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1995 the Bosnian Serb army killed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in what was known as the Srebrenica massacre. And after nearly 20 years and a ten-year legal battle, the International Criminal Tribunal…Louis Monroy-Santander, PhD student, International Development Department, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/298032014-08-01T11:03:59Z2014-08-01T11:03:59ZDutch court ruling on Srebrenica could have ramifications for future UN peacekeeping<p>The Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 is one of the most horrendous atrocities of post-war European history. The mass killing of 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims accompanied by the deportation of 25,000 to 30,000 civilians has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/03/warcrimes1">been classified as genocide</a>. One of the most shameful facts is that, at the time of the attacks, the victims had been in a so-called “safe haven” under United Nations protection. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this sorry chapter of European history is far from finding closure. Nearly 20 years after the slaughter, mass graves are still being found and survivors and relatives still have to fight for recognition and compensation.</p>
<p>On 16 July, a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28313285">Dutch civil court in the Hague ruled</a> that the relatives of some 300 men and boys who were killed after being evicted by Dutch peacekeepers from the Potočari compound could receive compensation from the Dutch state. The relatives of the thousands of men and boys who had fled into the woods where they were hunted down and summarily executed by the Serbs, received nothing.</p>
<p>A key question is whether this legal decision will have any impact on other UN peacekeeping missions. </p>
<h2>“Effective control”</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie/Hoge-Raad/Supreme-court/Summaries-of-some-important-rulings-of-the-Supreme-Court/Pages/Ruling-Dutch-Supreme-Court-Mothers-of-Srebrenica.aspx">court ruled</a> that there is a shared accountability between the UN and the state which contributed the troops to the peackeeping mission. As long as the contributing state has “effective control” over its troops, it is responsible, even though the overall command lies with the United Nations.</p>
<p>“Effective control” not only includes giving orders, but also the capacity to prevent certain actions. Considering the many <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/892592.stm">failings of peacekeeping operations</a> around the world – most notoriously in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/06/un-admits-sudan-peacekeepers-failure">Sudan</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/dec/19/theobserver3">Rwanda</a> and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/04/20-years-genocide-rwanda-central-african-republic">Central African Republic</a> – this might open a floodgate of civil lawsuits around the world.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Dutch court restricted the liability to the victims within the Potočari compound and not those who had fled from Srebrenica to the surrounding woods. Other national courts could choose a similarly narrow reading on the duties and responsibilities of peacekeeping forces. </p>
<p>In spite of the fact that <a href="http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/reform.shtml">UN peacekeeping has been reformed</a> considerably in the past 20 years, this case shows the need for a precise definition of the duties of peacekeeping operations.</p>
<h2>Questions of UN immunity</h2>
<p>This decision will also have an impact on other cases dealing with the question of UN immunity. The most important example is the civil law suit currently brought in <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/cholera/cholera-litigation/">a civil court in the United States against the UN</a> for introducing cholera to the Caribbean, which has already claimed 8,500 deaths, injured more than 700,000 people and has now spread to the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mexico. </p>
<p>The Dutch court’s reiteration that the UN itself is immune against national court claims (confirmed last year <a href="http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2013/06/court-rejects-un-immunity-srebrenica-massacre-complaint/">by the European Court of Human Rights</a>) might encourage the American court to reject the victims’ claims. On the other hand, the strengthened principle of UN immunity might increase the pressure on the UN to finally provide a settlement mechanism for victims. </p>
<p>This case is yet another example of victims looking to national civil courts to address their human rights concerns. In another case, <a href="http://www.ionglobaltrends.com/2010/02/liberia-charles-chuckie-taylor-jr.html#.U9tN7E3Qd3w">human rights activists successfully sued</a> and convicted the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor in the Southern District of Florida in 2010 on behalf of torture victims and were awarded damages of more than $22m. </p>
<p>The disadvantage of civil lawsuits is that national courts are limited in the scope of their examination. In the case of the Srebrenica genocide, there is no shortage of candidates to blame alongside the Dutch government, who had not equipped and armed the Dutch peacekeeping force sufficiently to accomplish their mandate. </p>
<p>A national civil court cannot, for example, look at the UN which was in overall command of the peacekeeping operation, nor NATO which rejected the peacekeepers’ desperate pleas for air support. Nor can they consider the actions of the Dutch commander Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Karremans, who <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/grossbild-364902-444963.html">was photographed</a> having a drink with Serb general, Ratko Mladić, amid the fall of Srebrenica, or of French general, Bernard Janvier, the overall commander of the UN peacekeeping operation, who repeatedly denied air support for the Dutch on the ground.</p>
<h2>Peacekeeping fatigue</h2>
<p>The most far-reaching consequence of this decision is that, if followed by other national courts, it might contribute to the increasing of peacekeeping fatigue. States are even less likely to contribute to dangerous and expensive peacekeeping operations if there is the risk that they might now find themselves subject to a flood of civil compensation claims. But the allocation of risks and costs between the UN and national states is for the international community to decide and of no concern to the national courts, who address compensation claims.</p>
<h2>Other victims</h2>
<p>On a final note, it is important that the discussion of the responsibility of the failed peacekeeping operation in Srebrenica should not forget the other victims of the conflict. Long before the fall of the enclave, its population had suffered inhuman conditions, including a number of deaths by starvation. </p>
<p>In addition, many of the civilians who <a href="http://srebrenicagenocide.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/were-women-also-victims-of-srebrenica-genocide/">were later taken away in buses</a> were never seen again. It is likely that they were either killed or sent to <a href="http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.co.uk/2006/06/women-srebrenica-massacre.html">rape camps</a>. A hierarchy between differences of suffering, with some being compensated and others not, should be avoided. The decision of the Dutch district court will be appealed against and it is hoped that the higher courts will address at least some of these concerns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina E Rauxloh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Srebrenica massacre of July 1995 is one of the most horrendous atrocities of post-war European history. The mass killing of 7,000 to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims accompanied by the deportation of 25,000 to…Regina E Rauxloh, Senior Lecturer, Law School, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.