Great news; the wheels of international justice haven't completely stopped moving. Milorad Trbic has been sentenced to 30 years for his rule in the Srebrenica Genocide. See this post from Srebrenica Genocide Blog for more details and links. This is real victory, even though of course the sentence will always pale in comparison to the scale of the crime in a genocide trial. But what is important is the 'guilty' verdict itself. An international body has spoken for all of us, and condemned evil in our name.
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There are people who argue that we in the international community need to "move on", either to heal or to let the past stay past, and so on. It helps to be reminded (painful as it may be) that the war over the meaning of the Balkan wars (and the larger issues involved) is hardly over. Oliver Kamm shines a bright light on one of the many dingy little corners of Srebrenica denial/Balkan revisionism in this article. Regular readers of this blog--especially those of you who stuck with my through the epic "Fools' Crusade" blow-by-blow review--will have little difficulty guessing whether or not I side with Kamm on the "ignore their poisonous nonsense, or call them out on their distortion of the historical record" debate.
2 comments:
Hi Kirk,
A group of Bosniak, Serb, Croat, and international judges made sure that the trial was fair and they made a decision (here are the judges: http://www.sudbih.gov.ba/?opcija=bio&jezik=e ). They found guilty Milorad Trbic on 1 count of genocide for Srebrenica; they also acquitted him of some charges in relation to "the Bratunac Brigade zone of responsibility as the Court did not have sufficient evidence to convict beyond reasonable doubt that he was part of that operation."
And finally, we must also remember the findings of the landmark judgement in relation to the Srebrenica genocide: that of Radislav Krstic in which the judges concluded that "By seeking to eliminate a part of the Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide. They targeted for extinction the forty thousand Bosnian Muslims living in Srebrenica..."
I would also like to draw your attention to the trial of "Srebrenica Seven" which was completed past month (September). It will take several months for the ICTY judges to debate the case before they hand down their judgement. We anticipate more genocide convictions. The suspects, five of them charged with genocide, include: Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Vinko Pandurevic, Radivoje Miletic and Milan Gvero.
"The prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the five accused officers – Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Drago Nikolic and Vinko Pandurevic – are responsible for genocide against the Muslim population in Eastern Bosnia," prosecutor Lada Soljan said in its closing arguments.
One more thing. Kirk, I would like to thank you for pointing me to Oliver Kamm's blog where he republished the contents of David Peterson's e-mail (poor Peterson, he's a discredited genocide denier). Since David Peterson mentioned Srebrenica Genocide Blog in his diatribe, I also responded by reminding him of undisputable facts that cannot be changed or distorted.
My comment to "Funny Side of Genocide" @ Oliver Kamm's blog still awaits approval.
I trully feel sorry for David Peterson. He's just a man without a shred of credibility.
On the other hand, I cannot express how proud I am of you. If you ever need any kind of help with anything - you know my E-mail. People like you deserve the best in life. I cannot be prouder that I know you Kirk. You make us proud every single day!
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