EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: SREBRENICA GENOCIDE TO BE COMMEMORATED THROUGHOUT EU EVERY 11TH JULY

Courtesy: Srebrenica Genocide Blog

July 11th as a Day of Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide throughout the European Union (EU)

European Parliament adopts Srebrenica Genocide Resolution

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution (by 556 to nine, with 22 abstentions) proclaiming the 11th of July a Day of Commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide throughout the European Union (EU).

After the fall of Srebrenica on July 11th 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by General Ratko Mladic, and paramilitary units rapidly executed more than 8000 Bosniak (Muslim) men, boys, and elderly, who had sought safety in the area. Moreover, approximately 25000 people were forcibly deported in a UN-assited ethnic cleansing.

The victims' bodies were first buried in mass graves, then dug out with bulldozers and moved to smaller graves. Remains can be scattered in several locations, and are not released for burial until two-thirds of the body have been recovered.

The European Parliament resolution called the Srebrenica Genocide "the biggest war crime in Europe since the end of WWII."

The assembly called it "a symbol of the international community’s impotence to intervene and protect civilians."

“Proclaiming July 11 as a day of remembrance for the Srebrenica genocide should be a step in the right direction for reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the region,” European Commissioner for Foreign Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in support of the initiative.

“The EP stresses that reconciliation is an important part of the European integration process, a process in which the religious communities, the media and the education system play a significant role”, the Parliament added, noting that bringing to justice those responsible for the massacres is an important step towards peace and stability in the region.

“In view of the fact that General Ratko Mladic is still at large almost 14 years after the tragic events, Parliament also demands that further efforts be made to bring the remaining fugitives to justice, stressing that bringing to justice those responsible for the massacres in and around Srebrenica is an important step towards peace and stability in the region,” the European Parliament said.

Members of the European Parliament said additional measures must be taken to find and arrest those responsible, including the former Bosnian Serb leader General Ratko Mladic.

“What happened in Srebrenica in July 1995 is the worst single atrocity that Europe has experienced since World War II,” said Bosnia’s High Representative Miroslav Lajcak in his statement, welcoming the EU resolution. "By commemorating the victims of the genocide, we can help reduce the pain of those still waiting to hear what exactly happened to their relatives killed in Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

The resolution was drafted following a meeting between European Parliament President Diana Wallis, who is from the liberal and democratic grouping, and members of the Association of Mothers from Srebrenica and Zepa. Wallis and Jelko Kacin, a Slovenian delegate and the rapporteur on Serbia, attended the commemoration organized in Srebrenica last year. Explaining the draft Resolution, Kacin said that “we must build Srebrenica in our common historical memory”. He said the resolution was not intended for the past, “although it speaks about the dead”, but is relevant to “the living and their better future."

Editor's Note: In 2007, Jelko Kacin issued the following statement, which we would like to share with you:

"Anybody who kills a single human being commits a crime, but those who commit genocide represent an international and political challenge."

SUPPORT FOR FLORENCE HARTMANN

Statement by numerous human-rights organizations from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosova, Montenegro and Serbia calling for the forthcoming proceedings before the Hague Tribunal against the author - and former spokesperson for its chief prosecutor - Florence Hartmann to be open to the public.

Regarding the proceedings against the journalist Florence Hartmann before the Hague Tribunal on 14 November 2008, for her alleged publication of confidential decisions by the appeal council during the trial against Slobodan Milošević, the human-rights organisations from successor states of the former Yugoslavia [listed below] recall that the content of those decisions was the subject of numerous newspaper reports and public debates, following the February 2007 ruling of the International Court of Justice (ISJ) in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s suit against Serbia , and stress that it is not clear why Florence Hartmann should have ended up before the court at The Hague.

At the time, human-rights organisations throughout the whole region of the former Yugoslavia openly questioned why the Hague Tribunal did not supply the minutes of the Supreme Defence Council (VSO) of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) to the ISJ, and why the ISJ failed to demand that Serbia should surrender these documents before reaching its decision on Bosnia-Herzegovina’s charge of genocide against Serbia. The human-rights organisations severely criticised the decision of the Hague Tribunal to accept Serbia’s demand that parts of the VSO records should be suppressed, as well as the ICJ’s decision not to ask Serbia to deliver the above-mentioned minutes on the grounds that it had sufficient evidence to reach a decision. The Serbian human-rights organisations demanded that the Serbian government should make public the VSO minutes, in order to silence the widespread suspicion that it was withholding evidence of its responsibility for genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, something that it has refused to do to this day. The result was a justified suspicion that the Hague Tribunal, with its decision to protect the minutes of the VSO, and the ICJ, with its lack of interest in collecting important evidence, were protecting Serbia from possible responsibility for the genocide committed at Srebrenica.

Human-rights organisations in the region of the former Yugoslavia demand of Serbia to renounce the protective measures, in order to remove the suspicion that the deleted parts of the VSO minutes hide evidence of Serbia’s responsibility in regard to the perpetration of genocide at Srebrenica. The human-rights organisations demand of the Hague Tribunal to explain its decision to accept Serbia’s demands [to delete the relevant parts of the minutes], in order to remove the suspicion that its decisions aimed to protect Serbia from its responsibility for the Srebrenica genocide. For all these reasons, the proceedings against Florence Hartmann should be public and accessible to observation by human-rights organisations.

Action for Human Rights, Podgorica, Montenegro

Aleksandar Zeković, independent researcher on human-rights violations in Montenegro

Anima, Kotor, Montenegro

Association of Lawyers of Montenegro, Montenegro

Association for Women’s Human Rights - KODI, Pecs, Kosovo

Association for Peace and Reconciliation, Đakovica, Kosovo

Association of Women for Women, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

B.a.B.e. - Group for Women’s Rights, Zagreb, Croatia

Bureau for Human Rights, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights, Osijek, Croatia

Centre for Education on Representation and Resources, Prishtina, Kosovo

Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, Prishtina, Kosovo

Censorship - League for the Advancement of Media Freedoms, Split, Croatia

Citizens’ Action, Pančevo, Serbia

Citizens’ Committee for Human Rights, Zagreb, Croatia

Committee for Human Rights, Leskovac, Serbia

Documenta, Zagreb, Croatia

Eye of Vision, Pecs, Kosovo

Foundation for Humanitarian Law, Belgrade, Serbia

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in RS, Bijeljina, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Helsinki Committe for Human Rights in Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

Helsinki Citizens’ Committee, Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Integra, Prishtina, Kosovo

Kosova Partners. Prishtina, Kosovo

Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, Belgrade, Serbia

Montenegrin Women’s Lobby, Podgorica, Montenegro

Sandžak Committee for Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, Novi Pazar, Serbia

Secure Women’s House, Podgorica, Montenegro

Women in Black, Belgrade, Serbia

Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Serbia

Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Montenegro

Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Kosovo

Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Bosnia-Herzegovina

SLOVENIAN "FRANC KOS" LINKED TO SREBRENICA GENOCIDE KILLINGS

A Slovenian living in Bosnia under a false identity is suspected of having taken part in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, local media reported.

The Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo demanded an investigation into 10 people suspected of participating in the massacre in which between 8,000 and 10,000 Bosniak boys and men were executed in July 1995.

The Slovenian is named as Franc Kos and is said to have been mentioned in the minutes taken during testimonies by a number of witnesses before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

In the minutes Kos is described as the leader of the Bijeljina platoon, and was known under the nicknames Slovenac or Zuca. The witnesses blamed the platoon for the murder of hundreds, even thousands of Srebrenica Muslims.

Police and prosecutors in the Slovenian town of Celje have confirmed that they investigated Kos’s involvement in the massacre. He is currently living in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within the Bosnian Federation, under a false identity which has not been revealed.

The news that a Slovenian national was among those suspected of genocide was confirmed to POP TV by the police in Celje, as well as the local prosecution, which is already looking into the allegations that Kos committed crimes in Srebrenica together with Bosnian and Serbian nationals. It was also confirmed that Kos had changed his identity and was living under a different name in the Republic of Srpska.

Slovenian media added that he was not currently in Slovenia, meaning that there was little chance of any charges of genocide being filed against him in Slovenia, where the crime of genocide carries a prison sentence of between 10 and 30 years.

Bosnian Serb wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic are top indictees for the Serbrenica genocide. Karadzic is behind bars in The Hague, while Mladic is still at large, believed to be hiding in Belgrade, Serbia.

SEVEN GUILTY IN SREBRENICA GENOCIDE TRIAL

A court in Bosnia-Herzegovina has convicted seven Bosnian Serbs of committing genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.

Another four people were acquitted as the decision in the two-year trial was handed down in Sarajevo on Tuesday.

Three former policemen, Milenko Trifunovic, Brano Dzinic and Aleksandar Radovanovic, were sentenced to 42 years in prison; another three former policemen, Milos Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljevic and Branislav Medan, received 40-year sentences; and one, Petar Mitrovic, was sentenced to 38 years.

Tuesday's ruling was the Bosnian war crimes court's first sentence related to Srebrenica, the worst massacre committed in Europe since the Second World War.

The seven were convicted of killing of more than 1,000 captured men of Muslim origin, known as Bosniaks, after Bosnian Serb forces conquered the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

The judges acquitted Velibor Maksimovic, Dragisa Zivanovic, Milovan Matic and Miladin Stevanovic, concluding the prosecutor failed to prove beyond doubt that they took part in the war crimes.

Widows and mothers of the victims were in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

"Nothing can ease my pain," said Munira Subasic, a woman from Srebrenica who lost her son in the massacre. Her son's body has never been found, although more than 3,200 other victims have been found in nearby mass graves, identified through DNA analysis and reburied.

News of the convictions came as thousands of ultra-nationalist Serbs poured into the Serbian capital of Belgrade for a right-wing demonstration tied to the recent capture of former president Radovan Karadzic.

He stands accused of war crimes in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica affair, which killed an estimated 8,000 men and boys in the space of one week, as well as about 10,000 deaths during the three-year siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s.

Karadzic now faces extradition to the Netherlands for an appearance in front of a United Nations tribunal in The Hague.

Source: CBC News