The ever-vigilant Daniel at Srebrenica Genocide Blog has passed along a disturbing story about a US District Judge who evidently doesn't think that Federal law--at least not the Genocide Accountability Act--is something he should be bothering with.
In short--faced with Serb illegal immigrant Nedjo Ikonic, Judge Adelman seems to feel that he shouldn't allow the orderly deportation hearing to get cluttered up with too much nattering about human rights abuses, war crimes, and the largest single act of genocide in Europe since World War II. "I am not a war crimes tribunal" is his explanation of his position.
Ikonic is accused of taking a direct role in the Srebrenica massacre; it is troubling that the Judge seems to be looking for excuses to let him escape justice. He needs to reconsider his position; he also needs to be reminded that there is a federal law on the books regarding this situation.
Read the full story here, and then do as I did and send a short, respectful email to the judge gently reminding him that he is dealing with a suspect who is accused of something a little more serious than immigration fraud.
Here is the text of my email:
********************
Your honor,
It is my understanding that in the deportation matter of Serb immigrant and accused war criminal Nedjo Ikonic, you have publicly stated that you are "not a war tribunal."
I trust that by now I am not the first person to bring to your attention the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. Nor would I expect myself to be the first person to remind you that the atrocity at Srebrenica has been ruled as an act of genocide by the the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice.
Given the severity of this issue, it is my deepest wish that you reconsider your position on this matter.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Kirk Johnson
[contact information]
6 comments:
You may be interested to know that Judge Adelman is a male. http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2717
Kirk, Lynn's a him, I'm afraid. Ikonic is supposed to have been in command of a special police unit that was involved in the separations at Potocari and then operated a road block as part of the operations to trap and slaughter the members of the column that attempted to break through and escape. His unit is alleged to have been directly responsible for shooting dead 10-15 of the captives at Sandici Meadow.
Thanks to both of you for catching that! I had looking up the judge a little bit but obviously didn't read carefully enough--that's what I get for blogging at work!
I'm for Bosnia!
Ha! I think I spent the entire last few months around the election checking various websites for election news!
You should have seen me on November 4th.
Anyways, I'm not at work now-but I just wanted to spread the word that I have a new and (improved?) blog: Blogging Balkanistan. That by the way, thanks to misreading the instructions is also my wordpress username as well.
I will keep the Bosnia Vault up as an archive; but I really hope that you will visit and comment on the new blog.
the url is: http://bloggingbalkanistan.wordpress.com
Shaina.
Hey are you a professional journalist? This article is very well written, as compared to most other blogs i saw today….
anyhow thanks for the good read!
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