LOCAL PRESS
Serbian government: Ivanovic needs to be released immediately (Tanjug/B92/Radio Serbia)
Serbian officials and legal representatives of the leader of the SDP Civic Initiative Oliver Ivanovic requested today his immediate release from detention, noting that a political process is conducted against him, since there is no evidence that would support the prosecution’s indictment charging him with war crimes. At a press conference in Belgrade, the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said there is no rule of law or normalization of social conditions and relations in the province before Ivanovic is released. Serbian Minister for Labor Aleksandar Vulin called the authorities in Kosovo to admit the mistake and release Ivanovic since, as he put it, the indictment against him is slim, while there are no witnesses. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic said that he offers support to Ivanovic as his friend and that everybody in Serbia should raise their voice over the political process that is being conducted. “I believe that Ivanovic is innocent,” said Ljajic, noting that two things are crucial, to establish the full truth on that case as in all other events in northern Kosovo and Metohija and expectation to release Ivanovic pending trial. Serbian officials and lawyers voiced expectation that the trial will be fast and efficient, noting that it would never occur to Ivanovic to escape or hide. Lawyers Zdenko Tomanovic and Toma Fila said the prosecution created an illusion that there is legally acceptable evidence for indicting and detaining Oliver Ivanovic. Fila said that the court in Pristina is an even greater caricature than the Hague Tribunal, and Tomanovic added that even the Hague Tribunal didn’t allow itself such freedom to take as relevant evidence that is in direct contradiction with the rules of international criminal law.
Djuric: Protest in Pristina over bad economic situation (RTS)
The real reasons for the protests in Pristina are economic and social, and not political, opines the Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric. He told the morning news of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that nobody has been dealing with the accumulated problems in Kosovo and Metohija for the past 15 years. “They are only talking about independence, big political objectives, while the economy is going downhill during that time. Hundreds of predatory privatizations had been conducted during that time. In the subtext of these demonstrations is a bad socio-economic situation and dissatisfaction with the fact that a narrow elite is holding power completely hermetically,” opines Djuric. Commenting the demands for the dismissal of the Minister for Return and Communities Aleksandar Jablanovic, Djuric says that he expects the Serb members of the Kosovo government to achieve good results for the Serb community. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic had also told them this during the recent visit to Kosovo and Metohija. “If they don’t yield results in that segment, perhaps someone from Belgrade will request them to withdraw,” says Djuirc, noting that the requests spelled out at the protest in Pristina were sent against all reached agreements. Djuric opines that Albanian political leaders should sit down and try to resolve disagreements, “instead of the big national stories”. Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa told RTK that Pristina will not discuss Trepca in Brussels and that the ownership of the mine is clear. However, Djuric says the topics of the talks will be what the two sides place on the table. The Serbian side wants to discuss the formation of the Union of Serb Municipalities, as well as the issue of property, not only of Trepca, but also of many other resources crucial for the survival of the Serb community. “Resolving the issue of property is the crucial part of the essential normalization of relations in the province. We want to broach the serious topics. In the following days we will have preparatory talks for Brussels,” said Djuric. The dialogue in Brussels is only one of the steps in the process of normalization of relations to which Serbia is completely devoted, says Djuric. Commenting the trial to the leader of the SDP Civic Initiative Oliver Ivanovic, Djuric says that this situation, as well as the fact that nobody has been processed for the crimes of the so-called KLA leaves a “bitter impression” and that at issue is “flagrant injustice”. “One of the political leaders who was turned towards reconciliation in impossible circumstances found himself behind bars in a Kafkian process. I hope the trial will be fair and that he will be released soon, and with his family,” said Djuric.
Drecun: Goal of protest in Pristina to complicate Serbia’s position (RTS/Tanjug)
The Chairman of the Serbian parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija Milovan Drecun assessed today that behind the protests in Pristina is the intention to complicate normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations and for Serbia not to receive a positive assessment on Chapter 35 in the EU negotiations. “On first sight it seems these are protests that have political, even social character, that this is an internal Albanian, political battle, primarily over Ramush Haradinaj’s dissatisfaction for not getting the premier post and the dissatisfaction of the Self-Determination Movement, which is otherwise very well organized,” Drecun told journalists in the Serbian parliament. Drecun says it seems to him that at issue is “something more long term” having in mind that the entire protest originated on the issue of ownership over Trepca and the request for the dismissal of Jablanovic…Having in mind that no Albanian political party in Kosovo and Metohija does anything without receiving at least silent consent from some Western country, it seems to me that at issue is an attempt of someone either slowing down or even perhaps postponing the resumption of the process of normalization of relations, slowing down Serbia’s opening of chapters in the negotiations process on EU accession,” said Drecun, who thinks that every possibility will be used to provoke new protests that will go to a certain limit. “It is evident that in the background of all this there is, nevertheless, an intention of Pristina or someone else to significantly complicate the process of normalization of relations and for Serbia not to receive a positive assessment on Chapter 35 when it comes to normalization of relations with Pristina,” Drecun concluded.
Goranis want Serbian healthcare (Novosti)
The employees of the health center in Dragas that serves about 10,000 patients in the region of Gora in the far south of Kosovo and Metohija, have not been receiving salaries from the Serbian Ministry of Health for the past seven months now, because of which they fear that Belgrade has entirely let them over to the Pristina institutions! Since a new director has not been elected according to the Serbian healthcare system for seven months now, 35 employees fear that the Serbian Ministry of Health rejected them. Physician Nazif Kojcin, member of the board of directors of this institution, says that the majority of the employees thinks that somebody is “hindering” the appointment of the director according to the Serbian healthcare system, but points out that they still find it unclear why and in whose interest is it not to appoint the director of this healthcare institution, especially since the Goranis, they note, are loyal to Serbia.
ICTY transferring court records to MICC (Tanjug)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has commenced the transfer of court records to the Mechanism for International Criminal Courts (MICC), the Tribunal stated. It is the first step in passing the court files to the competency of the Mechanism, and they will still be stored in a safe place, with adequate measures of control and access. The MICC was established in 2010 by the UN Security Council Resolution 1966, and its task is to continue the key duties of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Criminal Court for Rwanda, while preserving their legacy.
Oliver (Novosti, commentary by Predrag Vasiljevic)
War and national “heroes” Ante Gotovina, Naser Oric, Hashim Thaqi and Ramush Haradinaj are “prominent citizens” today and enjoy all the benefits that life offers.
Oliver Ivanovic, the Serbian politician from the southern Serbian province of Kosovo, has been languishing in a prison cell in North Kosovska Mitrovica for exactly one year—accused of war crimes.
The commander of the notorious Kosovo Albanian “Drenica Group” of the paramilitary Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Sulejman Selimi, known by the peaceful nickname Sultan, who is also on trial for war crimes, was released, along with his “co-fighters” terrorists, pending trial.
Despite testimony given that the members of this Kosovo Albanian criminal gang were cutting off the heads of Serbian policemen with chainsaws, the defendants are now deemed to be “harmless”.
Oliver Ivanovic had only four days in court during one year since he has been held in detention. This was enough for the staged theatrical show to turn into a tragic comedy: the trump card of the prosecution, crown witness Muhamed Lapastica, first gave statements which were opposite to the testimony offered by the other witnesses, and then completely changed his own testimony.
Even after this shortcoming, the “dangerous” Oliver is not allowed to defend himself while released. Probably because he has always advocated European values and dialogue between the Serbians and Albanians. In this insane reversal of roles, in which villains are converted into princes on whites horses, and innocent citizens are locked behind convicts’ bars, all the fairy tales about reconciliation and a joint European future of the region are crushed.
As much as we are struggling to prove how the treatment of the big world towards us Serbs has changed, and that we rejected the stigma of the 1990s, the case of Oliver Ivanovic reminds us, every day, that there is special “justice” to be meted out to the Serbs.
With Oliver in detention, and with villains on the loose, we can easily guess what our chances for success are in further dialogue with Pristina institutions.
REGIONAL PRESS
The SDA and DF seek SDP support to select FBiH leadership (Oslobodjenje)
Bakir Izetbegovic, vice president of the SDA, and Zeljko Komsic, leader of the Democratic Front (DF), sought the support of the Social Democratic Party of B&H (SDP) for the election of the leadership of the House of Peoples of FB&H and President and Vice Presidents of FB&H, in order to as quickly as possible conclude the process of forming legislative and executive government in Federation of B&H after last year’s general elections in B&H. Izetbegovic told reporters in Sarajevo after his and Komsic’s afternoon meeting with Nermin Niksic, president of the SDP. The three leaders agreed that it is essential that the House of Peoples at the 30 January session make a decision on temporary financing to enable the smooth functioning of FB&H institutions and interim meeting of obligations to citizens, especially the most threatened categories of the population that depends on payments from the FB&H budget, Izetbegovic also said. He added that in the continuation of the session next week, if the SDP board decides on Saturday, the date they scheduled their session, to offer support, election of the president and vice presidents of FB&H could happen. Nermin Niksic, Izetbegovic said, during today’s trilateral meeting expressed interest in resolving the process, although he said that he himself cannot do anything without a decision by his board. “It would be good for the Social Democratic Party to be part of resolving the situation. It can resolve itself in another way, but that would be already a political trade and I do not want to participate in that,” said Zeljko Komsic, the DF leader, just before the trilateral meeting in Sarajevo this afternoon. Komsic reiterated that the DF stands by its candidate for the position, Slobodan Soja. He believes that including the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in this story would not be good, and would like to see the situation “untangled” in any way, with the DF or without it, by the next session of the House of Peoples, at which the Serb vice president of FB&H should be elected. Any attempt at political unity in Sarajevo is good for B&H, and Komsic before today’s meeting said that in this light he wants to observe the political meeting.
Radmanovic: The Presidency of B&H has no constitutional jurisdiction to write the Joint statement (Srna)
The Chairman of the Executive Board of SNSD Nebojsa Radmanovic said that B&H has no constitutional jurisdiction to write the Joint statement on European integration. “The members of the B&H Presidency have succumbed to pressure from Brussels or Sarajevo to deal with it and they have mess it all up. They would have been satisfied with a slightly modified preamble that would result in B&H’s Presidency supporting the initiative of the European Commission,” said Radmanovic. It is assumed that, after justified complaints that nowhere in the statement Republika Srpska (RS) nor constitutional order of B&H have been mentioned, Presidency should redo the statement, but the end of it all is not even on sight. “The Europeans are wrong to demand that everyone signs the statement, because there is a strong desire in B&H of almost everyone to follow the EU path. Such a statement will not accelerate that process, the formation of the government and responsible people will,” said Radmanovic. Speaking about the situation in the SNSD Radmanovic reiterated that the relations in the party are very good, at a high level and that there is no conflict. “There is no statement that can shake the foundations of the SNSD as a powerful party in which people have different opinions,” said Radmanovic. He noted that the session of the Executive Board and Main Board of SNSD is under preparation at which they will discuss the things that have passed but also what is expected of this party. “This cycle will begin in seven to ten days, and will be completed at the party assembly that should be held in April,” concluded Radmanovic.
OSCE warns RS about draft on public peace and order (Tanjug/Srna)
The draft Law on Public Peace and Order tabled for adoption at the next session of the Republika Srpska (RS) assembly “could be used to limit free expression on social media”. This is what OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic stated in a letter sent to the speaker of the National Assembly of RS. The draft that will be on the agenda on February 3rd “extends the definition of public place to the social media”, an OSCE statement said, and added: “If the law is adopted, under articles 7 and 8 it will become an offense through social media to disturb the public order, to display symbols, images, drawings or texts containing indecent, offensive or disturbing content, to insult or engage in rude or insolent behavior.” “By specifically including social media in this law, there is a danger that vague terms such as disturbing the public order and the like also could be used to sanction and limit free expression. Officials may be left to interpret what is considered disturbing or offensive, possibly leading to arbitrary or abusive charges,” Mijatovic said. She said that “freedom of expression online should be left to self-regulatory bodies to deal with, and that only in cases of incitement to violence should legal sanctions be considered as an appropriate measure.” “I call on the members of the National Assembly to consider the effect this proposal would have on free expression,” Mijatovic said, adding that her office “would be prepared to assist the authorities to conduct a legal analysis to ensure the law would be in line with the OSCE commitments and international standards on freedom of expression”.
Montenegro rejects investments in billions of dollars for NATO and EU membership (Pobijeda)
U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy says Russia is offering Montenegro billions of dollars to build a military base there. Meantime, “Montenegro is rejecting such an offer for the sake of its membership in NATO and the EU,” he added. “Montenegro continues to reject Russia’s investments worth several billion dollars… It is making a decision that is extremely difficult and puts itself in a position that is in the long run perhaps unsustainable,” Murphy told a panel on the U.S. role in the Western Balkans organized on by the German Marshall Fund, reports the Podgorica daily Pobjeda. According to him, Montenegro is refusing Russia’s offer “because it wants to join NATO and the European Union”. Murphy, who is chairman of the Subcommittee for Europe of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate visited the Balkan country in October last year. He said Montenegro “has a lot of work to do in NATO integrations”. In this regard, he stressed the rule of law and “an increase of public support for NATO membership”, and said that the obstacles to membership can be overcome by mid-2015. Montenegro is a candidate for membership in NATO, which by the end of this year should assess its readiness to join the military alliance.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Police, protesters fight running battles in Kosovo (Reuters, by Fatos Bytyci, 27 January 2015)
PRISTINA – Riot police fought running battles with protesters hurling rocks and petrol bombs in Kosovo’s capital Pristina on Tuesday in the worst unrest since the former Serbian province seceded in 2008.
Triggered by remarks by an ethnic Serb cabinet minister and a row over a disputed mine, the violence was a potent reminder of the depth of popular dissatisfaction in majority-Albanian Kosovo, still mired in poverty and corruption seven years since declaring independence from Serbia.
A Reuters reporter saw masked police officers firing tear gas and water cannon, trying to disperse about 2,000 protesters who had joined rallies organized by opposition political parties. Protesters also set rubbish containers alight.
Ambulances attended to injured people as police pursued protesters into side streets around central Pristina. Police said 56 police officers were injured, two of them seriously.
It was not immediately known how many protesters were hurt. More than 120 were arrested. Police said they used rubber bullets to disperse crowds.
Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, barely six weeks in office, accused his opponents of trying to seize power by force.
“All these political parties have accepted the election results,” he said. “They must respect the vote of the citizens and not attempt to take power through violence.”
Tear gas and smoke hung in the air after six hours of violence that only subsided as dusk fell.
CLIMBDOWN
It was the second bout of unrest since Saturday, set off by popular anger over a government climbdown over the fate of a huge mining complex claimed by Serbia and remarks deemed offensive by an ethnic Serb minister.
Mustafa’s government had pledged to take control of the Trepca mine, which has been held in trust by a United Nations-created privatization body since Kosovo’s 1998-99 war and threatened by myriad creditor claims.
But he backed down days later in the face of a furious response from Serbia, which claims 75 percent ownership of the complex, and pressure from Western embassies concerned at the possible repercussions for a fragile European Union-led dialogue between the two sides.
Trepca’s lead, zinc and silver mines once accounted for 75 percent of the mineral wealth of socialist Yugoslavia, employing 20,000 people. Trepca now operates at a minimum level to keep the mines alive, with several thousand miners from both sides of Kosovo’s Serb-Albanian divide.
The protesters also clamored for the dismissal of an ethnic Serb minister in the mainly Kosovo Albanian government after he branded as “savages” a group of Albanians who lost relatives in the war and had protested against ethnic Serb pilgrims marking Orthodox Christmas in January.
There was no sign of intervention on Tuesday by NATO’s 5,000-strong peacekeeping force or hundreds of EU police officers stationed in Kosovo to encourage the rule of law.
Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999 with the help of NATO air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces waging a counter-insurgency war.
The territory of 1.8 million people, 90 percent of them ethnic Albanians, declared independence in 2008 and has been recognized by more than 100 countries.
OSCE Condemns Attack on Journalists in Kosovo (VOA News, 26 January 2015)
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called Monday for a quick and thorough investigation of an attack on journalists covering demonstrations in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.
Speaking Monday in Vienna, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović said any violence against journalists is unacceptable and should be treated as “an attack against society as a whole.” She said the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
Reporter Aleksandra Jovanovic and cameraman Bojan Košanin, both from Radio Television of Kosovo, and reporter Vladimir Milic from Radio Television of Serbia, were attacked and harassed by unknown individuals while covering protests January 24 in Pristina, the OSCE said in a statement.
Local media reported that the assailants attacked the journalists with sticks and stones and tried to steal their equipment.
The Journalists Associations of both Kosovo and Serbia condemned the attack.
Five indicted in Kosovo on terrorism charges (Reuters, 26 January 2015)
PRISTINA – Five people in Kosovo have been indicted on terrorism charges for fighting in Syria, trying to buy assault rifles and assaulting two Christian missionaries from the United States in 2013.
The indictments coincided with a vote in parliament on introducing prison sentences for waging war abroad, as the predominantly Muslim Balkan country seeks to confront the threat posed by radical Islamists returning from Syria and Iraq.
Security agencies estimate that between 100 and 200 Kosovars have enlisted with Islamic State. Most of Kosovo’s 90 percent Albanian majority are Muslim but overwhelmingly secular. The bill faces one more vote in parliament before becoming law.
Following a 14-month investigation, a European Union prosecutor in Kosovo filed an indictment charging five people with “various terrorism-related offences”, including the production of explosives, unlawful possession of weapons, aggravated assault and the “commission of terrorism” in Syria.
The prosecutor is part of an EU mission deployed after Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, to help improve the rule of law and handle sensitive cases involving organized crime, war crimes and corruption.
In August last year, more than 40 people, including 14 imams, were arrested in Kosovo for fighting in Iraq and Syria and inspiring or recruiting people to join the fight.
Imam on trial, terror arrests in Europe, Morocco (Daily Star, 27 January 2015)
SARAJEVO/ PRISTINA/RABAT: A radical Muslim leader pleaded not guilty in a Bosnian court Monday to charges of inciting terrorism for having encouraged his followers to fight alongside jihadis in Syria and Iraq, as others were arrested on similar charges across Europe.
The radical preacher, Husein Bosnic, was arrested last year and charged with urging followers to leave for Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamist militants when he preached in several Bosnian towns in 2013 and 2014.
“I understood the indictment … and I plead not guilty,” the 42-year-old imam told the Sarajevo tribunal.
A date for the start of Bosnic’s trial has not yet been set, but the case will be the first in the Balkan country trying a defendant for inciting terrorist activities.
Last year Bosnia adopted legislation calling for sentences of up to 10 years in prison for jihadisand their recruiters.
According to intelligence estimates published by Bosnia’s media, some 200 Bosnian citizens have fought with jihadis in Iraq and Syria. Around 30 have been killed, and some 40 are believed to have returned.
Five people in Kosovo were indicted on terrorism charges Monday for fighting in Syria, trying to buy assault rifles and assaulting two Christian missionaries from the United States in 2013.
The indictments coincided with a vote in parliament on introducing jail sentences for waging war abroad.
Security agencies estimate that between 100 and 200 Kosovars have enlisted with ISIS.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry announced the arrest of an Algerian citizen suspected of belonging to a group linked to ISIS which was responsible for the beheading of a French hiker.
In September, French hiker Herve Gourdel was kidnapped and then beheaded in Algeria by a group called Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), which had declared allegiance to ISIS.
A Spanish judge on Monday remanded in custody three suspected Islamists and conditionally released a fourth on terrorism charges, a judicial source said.
Police arrested the four Spaniards – two pairs of brothers of Moroccan origin – in the Spanish territory of Ceuta bordering Morocco Saturday.
The government said in a statement that the men had “a very similar profile” to the killers in this month’s Islamist attacks in France, but made no material link between the two cases.
The four went before Spain’s National Court, where Judge Pablo Ruz ordered three of them to be detained and the fourth to surrender his passport and check in with the court weekly.
The Spaniards are charged with belonging to a terrorist group and illegal possession of arms, the judicial source said.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz Saturday compared the suspects to Cherif and Said Kouachi, the brothers who killed 12 people in an attack on the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7.
The Ceuta suspects resembled the Paris attackers in their “physical and psychological preparation and their skill in using weapons,” he told reporters.
The Spanish suspects also had a “firm determination … to commit an attack and if necessary sacrifice themselves and die in the attempt.”
Bosnia soldiers escape censure for ‘Chetnik Ceremony’ (Balkan Insight, 27 January 2015)
The Defence Ministry said that no rules were broken when Bosnian Army troops lined up alongside people dressed in Serb nationalist Chetnik uniforms at a religious ceremony in Banja Luka.
The ministry said on Monday that its investigation into the incident had concluded that no violation had taken place at the ceremony earlier this month because “there was no connection between the Bosnian Army members and the persons in the uniforms in question”.
The probe was launched after a photograph of the Bosnian troops lined up alongside people dressed as Chetniks was published on Facebook with a mocking caption.
The investigation concluded that the photograph was taken in Banja Luka on January 19, at an annual celebration of the Epiphany Orthodox holiday which was organised by the Serb Orthodox Church and the city authorities.
“Members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina armed forces of Orthodox religion who were stationed at the Kozara barracks were allowed to attend this religious ceremony by documents of the Defence Ministry and the armed forces. However, even though their presence was planned, there was no connection with or intention to have common participation between the armed forces members and the persons in the uniforms in question,” the ministry said in a statement.
However Defence Minister Zekerijah Osmic issued guidelines that all units must take care not to damage the army’s reputation.
“This is especially important in cases when members of the armed forces take part in various manifestations and religious ceremonies which are not organised by the armed forces or Defence Ministry, and they should take all precautions to defend the reputation of Bosnian defence institutions,” said the ministry statement.
The Ravna Gora Movement of Chetniks are nationalist Serb fighters who were bitter enemies of Josip Broz Tito’s communist Partisans during WWII. Under communist rule in Yugoslavia, the Chetniks were banned. Serbia is the only country in the region which has recognised the rights of the Chetniks to be treated as regular troops in WWII.
Essay: Defending the devil (The Virginia Gazette, 27 January 2015)
Peter Robinson is an American criminal defense lawyer, a former federal prosecutor who has become a much sought-after and celebrated defense counsel to top-level war criminals facing charges at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals.
Currently, he serves as legal adviser to former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic at his trial for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes stemming from the 1991-1995 Bosnian War.
Robinson was the guest speaker Monday at William & Mary’s Human Security Law Center lunch, packed with law students eager to pose questions. I asked him what message he wished to convey to his audience.
“That a trial in an international criminal court is a David versus Goliath battle, where an individual is faced with the full weight of the international community against him, and where many of the protections we have come to take for granted in the American criminal justice system do not apply,” he said in an interview with the Gazette. Defending the most notorious, demonized people in the world has many challenges, rewards, and surprises.”
With touching candor, Robinson confessed that he didn’t become a defense lawyer for war criminals because he was driven by some crusading zeal.
“I had a flourishing criminal defense practice in Santa Rosa, California. And a daughter who was 11 years old at that time and had lived in the same house and gone to the same school all her life,” he said. “I wanted her to be a world citizen. So I looked around for a place where my family and I could live abroad for a year and I could do something related to criminal law. That is how I found out about the international tribunals and led to my new and unexpected career as defense counsel for alleged war criminals.”
In 2002 Robinson was assigned as a lead counsel for Joseph Nzirorera, former president of the Rwanda National Assembly during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Robinson mounted such an effective defense that Nziroreas first trial ended in a mistrial. Nzirorera died in 2010, before the second trial ended.
He also represented at the International Criminal Tribunal the former Rwandan Minister of Defense, and Serbian generals Radislav Krstic and Dragoljub Ojdanic, both accused of aiding and abetting crimes in Kosovo during the 1999 war.
In 2008 Robinson was selected by Karadzic to be his legal advisor at his trial. In an unusual arrangement, Karadzic represent himself, but depends on Robinson’s legal advice. The two developed a close working relationship. I asked Robinson how Karadzic justifies in private talks his role in the brutal Bosnian War.
“President Karadzic strongly asserts, both in private and public, that he did everything he could to avoid the breakout of war in Bosnia.” Robinson replied. “And, once the war broke out, did everything he could to mitigate the suffering of civilians and to end the war. He acknowledges that crimes were committed during the war, and feels a lot of sorrow for that, but contends that he did his best to prevent them and never was part of any joint criminal enterprise to ‘ethically cleanse’ the Serb part of Bosnia.”
Regardless of how much currency can be given to Karadzic’s statements, Robinson sees a “redeeming value” in providing professional assistance in the defense of war criminals.
“This experiment in international justice, which started at Nuremberg after World War II and was resumed in the 1990s with the Yugoslavian and Rwandan Tribunals, and which will continue with the permanent International Criminal Court will only work if the verdicts they produce are the product of fair and legitimate trial. My role as defense counsel is to fight for the right of the accused person to receive a fair trial and get to present his or her side of the story. In that way, I hope I will contribute to the success of this experiment and the promotion of human rights.”
Frank Shatz is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place.” The book, a compilation of his selected columns is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and on Amazon.com.
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Media summaries are produced for the internal use of the United Nations Office in Belgrade, UNMIK and UNHQ. The contents do not represent anything other than a selection of articles likely to be of interest to a United Nations readership.
