The Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), case 91, International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judgement returned on 26 February 2007.
The case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations's highest judicial body, which exclusively hears disputes between states, related to Serbia's alleged attempts to wipe out the Bosnian Muslim population of Bosnia.
[1] As of 9 May 2007 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had passed legally binding verdicts against six people indicted for genocide and crimes committed in Srebrenica since 1993.
[3] In 1998 General-Major Radislav Krstić[4] was indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, based on his alleged role in the events in and around the Bosniak enclave of Srebrenica between 11 July 1995 and 1 November 1995 at the ICTY.
[8] At the ICTY, the trial of several senior Serb military and police officers facing charges ranging from genocide to murder and deportation for the crimes committed in Srebrenica began 14 July 2006.
Their names are: The Trial Chamber made its ruling on 10 June 2010, by which it stated that "[t]he scale and nature of the murder operation, the targeting of the victims, the systematic and organized manner in which it was carried out, and the plain intention to eliminate every Bosnian Muslim male who was captured or surrendered proves beyond reasonable doubt that members of the Bosnian Serb Forces, including members of the VRS Main Staff and Security Branch, intended to destroy the Muslims of Eastern Bosnia as a group.
Regarding the rest, the chamber made the following rulings:[14][15] Radovan Karadžić (accused of genocide and complicity in genocide in several municipalities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, initially including: Bijeljina, Bratunac, Bosanski Šamac, Brčko, Doboj, Foča, Ilijaš, Ključ, Kotor Varoš, Bosanski Novi, Prijedor, Rogatica, Sanski Most, Srebrenica, Višegrad, Vlasenica, Zavidovići and Zvornik,[16] but later excluding Brčko, Kotor Varoš and Višegrad[17]).
[113][114] On 29 April 2014 the Panel of the Section I for War Crimes of the Appeals Division of the Court of BiH delivered a judgment granting in part the appeals filed after the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus revising the first instance verdict of 29 July 2008 regarding the legal qualification of the offense, and finding the accused guilty of the criminal offense of genocide under Article 141 of the Criminal Code of SFRY as read with Article 24 (aiding and abetting) of the said Code, and sentencing the accused Milenko Trifunović, Brane Džinić, Aleksandar Radovanović, Slobodan Jakovljević and Branislav Medan to 20 years imprisonment each.
[115] In a separate judgment the Appellate Panel partially accepted the appeal of Petar Mitrović and found him guilty of the criminal offense of genocide, but as an accessory (aiding and abetting), and sentenced him to 28 years of imprisonment.
The Panel of the Section I for War Crimes of the Appeals Division of the Court of BiH sent out on 29 April 2014 a verdict in this case accepting in part the appeal of defense for the accused, thus revising the previous judgment in relation to its legal qualification, finding the accused Petar Mitrović guilty of the criminal offense of genocide, now under the Criminal Code of SFRY, as an accessory (aiding and abetting), and sentencing him to 20 years imprisonment.
[129] On 22 April 2010 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pronounced the first-instance verdict finding both the accused guilty of knowingly assisting in the perpetration of the crime of genocide because, as members of the special police force of the 2nd Detachment of the Šekovići Special Police of the Republika Srpska MUP, they participated in keeping the road passable during the transportation of Bosniaks by trucks and buses, for later capturing a large number of Bosniak men who attempted to escape from the UN Safe Area and taking them to Kravica Farming Cooperative where they participated in their execution.
[131][132] On 25 January 2012 the Chamber of the Appellate Division of the Section I for War Crimes, following a public session, delivered the second-instance verdict by which Radomir Vuković was found guilty of perpetrating the criminal offense of aiding and abetting in genocide, and was sentenced to long-term imprisonment of 31 years.
At a plea hearing before Section I for War Crimes of the Court, held on 16 January 2009, both of the accused pleaded not guilty, and the main trial commenced on 10 March 2009.
On 31 October 2011, the Trial Panel of the Section 1 of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced the first-instance verdict, sentencing Momir Pelemiš and Slavko Perić to 16 and 19 years of prison respectively for the criminal offense of genocide, finding that the accused knowingly provided assistance to members of the joint criminal enterprise aimed at killing the able-bodied Bosniak men from Srebrenica, during a widespread and systematic attack carried out on the UN safe area in Srebrenica between 10 July and 1 November 1995 by members of the Republika Srpska Army and the RS MUP.
[138] The main trial before the Panel of the Section I for War Crimes of the Appellate Division of the Court of BIH was initiated on 14 February 2013, and the second-instance verdict was pronounced on 13 June 2013.
[146] The accused Željko Ivanović was charged with a criminal offense of genocide, in which he allegedly participated as a member of the Special Police Unit of the 2nd Šekovići Detachment, RS MoI, during the period from 10 to 19 July 1995 in and around Srebrenica.
[150] On 17 June 2003 the Appeals Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina found the accused guilty of the crime of genocide, as an accessory, and had sentenced him to a 24-year long-term imprisonment.
[156] On 16 February 2018 the Panel of Section I for War Crimes of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rendered a judgment acquitting Goran Sarić of the charges for the criminal offense of genocide in Srebrenica.
He was also accused that, after the entry into Srebrenica, and after the entire Bosniak population had been expelled from the safe area, on 16 July 1995, at the Branjevo Farming Cooperative, together with other members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment, he fired form an automatic rifle at the detainees gathered in groups of ten men, on which occasion, at least nine hundred detained Bosniak men and young boys from the Srebrenica enclave were summarily executed, and only two detainees survived.
[167] On 16 December 2014 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the indictment against the accused Dragomir Vasić, Danilo Zoljić and Radomir Pantićon, charging them with the criminal offense of genocide in Srebrenica, through aiding and abetting.
Two of these cases were cited in the judgement handed down by the ICTY against Radislav Krstic, when considering whether the Srebrenica massacre met the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide requirement of "in part".
[199] On 29 November 1999, the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf condemned Maksim Sokolović to 9 years in prison for aiding and abetting the crime of genocide and for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
[200][201][202] In 1999 Đurađ Kušljić was found guilty for committing genocide and sentenced to life-imprisonment by a German court for killing of six Bosniaks and order of expulsion of other non-Serb population while he was police chief of Vrbanjci (municipality Kotor Varoš) in 1992.
[208] A former UN interpreter, Hasan Nuhanović and the family of Rizo Mustafić, an electrician who worked for the UN Battalion at Srebrenica, have filed a criminal complaint requesting that genocide charges be brought against three Dutch military officials: commander Thom Karremans, his deputy Rob Franken and second in command Berend Oosterveen, because Nuhanović's family members were forced out of UN compound (his father and brother were killed subsequently), as well as Mustafić who is still missing.
On 30 August 2016 the European Court of Human Rights declared the application as inadmissible for being manifestly ill-founded, concluding that "it cannot be said that the domestic authorities have failed to discharge the procedural obligation under Article 2 of the Convention to conduct an effective investigation ... which was capable of leading to the establishment of the facts, ... and of identifying and – if appropriate – punishing those responsible".
In its decision the Chamber concluded that Republika Srpska's failure to make accessible and to disclose information requested by the applicants about their missing relatives constituted a violation of its positive obligations to secure respect for their rights to private and family life, as guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention.
Also, it held that Republika Srpska's failure to inform the applicants about the truth of the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives, including conducting a meaningful and effective investigation into the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995, violated their rights to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment, as guaranteed by Article 3 of the European Convention.
As for the reparations, the Chamber ordered Republika Srpska to disclose any information it had on the fate of the applicants relatives; to release any missing persons it had in custody; to conduct a full and meaningful investigation of the role of its authorities and armed forces in the Srebrenica massacre, its efforts to cover up the crime, and the fate of the missing persons, and to publish this report within six months of the decision; to publish the decision of the Chamber in the Serbian language in its Official Gazette; and to make a total donation of 4.000.000 Convertible Marks to the Srebrenica Genocide memorial.
Deputy High representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Raffi Gregorian, stated that OHR was considering ways of confiscating Karadžić's property, including that of his closest relatives and network of his supporters, and that EUFOR had taken measurements of his family house in Pale.
One case is headed by a team of 14 attorneys of Dutch law firm Van Diepen Van der Kroef,[229] which is representing 11 plaintiffs including the foundation "Mothers of the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa" (which represents 6,000 relatives of the victims),[230] who asked the court, inter alia, to grant a judicial declaration that the UN and the State of the Netherlands breached their obligation to prevent genocide, as laid down in Genocide Convention and to hold them jointly liable to pay compensation for the loss and injury suffered by plaintiffs as well as damages yet to be determined by the court, and to settle these according to law.