Genocide is incontestably the central issue in all Srebrenica trials at ICTY. It is the essence of the “conventional wisdom” on the subject of Srebrenica. It is also the principal conclusory emanation of the controversial history writing project that the Hague Tribunal has taken upon itself, arguably while overstepping the legitimate mandate of a proper…
Prof. Tiphaine Dickson: ‘The world’s court of justice’ – A historiography of war crimes prosecutions
Referring to the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, Prof. Dickson argues in this scholarly article that “despite the innumerable practical, legal, financial and political challenges these institutions faced, they chose to take on an additional and unnecessary responsibility for which they were woefully ill-equipped: writing history.” Elsewhere she observes: “Lawyers can become very frustrated in trials…
Judge Kristoff Flugge’s delicate conscience and ICTY’s incestuous inception
It was reported in late January 2019 that “a senior judge at one of the UN courts in The Hague is reportedly resigning over ‘shocking’ political interference from the White House and Turkey”. The hero of this morality play is German judge Kristoff Flugge. The stage of his edifying performance is the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former…
Andy Wilcoxson: The politics of genocide
On July 11th the ICTY Appeals Chamber reversed Radovan Karadzic’s acquittal on genocide charges related to seven municipalities in Bosnia where the original Trial Chamber had ruled that there was no evidence of genocidal intent. The Appeals Chamber acknowledged that “that Article 4(2) of the Statute defines genocide to encompass any of certain acts ‘committed with…
Andy Wilcoxson: Leaked State Dept. Cables Expose the ICTY’s Hypocrisy
“There is a general sense among prosecutors that the Appeals Chamber first decided that Krstic did not merit conviction as a principal perpetrator of genocide but that, for ‘political’ reasons, it did not want to set aside the finding that the massacres around Srebrenica constituted genocide. The result, one prosecutor said, made it seem as if ‘an eighteen-year-old…
Srdja Trifkovic: The Hague Tribunal — Bad justice, worse politics (1996)
Not many eyebrows will be raised at the revelation that there is a prison, in a small foreign country, where you can be indefinitely incarcerated without trial, or where you can be delivered on the orders of an ad hoc “court” which sets its own rules as it goes along, and sometimes issues warrants only…
Edward Herman: The Hague Tribunal — The Political Economy of Sham Justice. Carla Del Ponte Addresses Goldman Sachs on Justice and Profits
The late Prof. Edward Herman highlights a largely unnoticed speech by ICTY’s ex-chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in 2005 where, in barely restrained language, she recommended her judicial institution to Goldman Sachs executives assembled in London as a potential tool for creating a climate conducive to business and profit-making. But if reconciliation and stability had…
Tiphaine Dickson and Aleksandar Jokic — Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil: The unsightly Milosevic case
The trial of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is widely regarded in enlightened legal and intellectual circles as a sham. The authors of this scholarly article argue that “to ignore evil is to cause it to cease to exist, thought the ancients, and so, perhaps, think those who accuse…
Edward Herman: Srebrenica — The Star Witness
A review of Germinal Chivikov’s book Srebrenica: The Star Witness (orig. Srebrenica: Der Kronzeuge, 2009, transl. by John Laughland) – “a devastating indictment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).” The late professor Edward Herman reviews a meticulous critique of key Srebrenica evidence provided by witness-participant Drazen Erdemovic and points out some of…
ICTY: A political agenda driven court
Public statements that follow by ICTY judges Claude Jorda and Antonio Cassese unequivocally expose the political character of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Neither political sophistication nor legal training are required in order to recognize the professionally problematic character of their remarks. Be it noted that neither of the potential defendants referred…