Sunday, July 17, 2016

Yugoslavia, international tribunals and the politics of reconciliation

Open Democracy.net has this posting of interest. (My title is their title.)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acquittal of the leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Šešelj, provoked angry reactions in Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Kosovo, and beyond. Memories of Šešelj’s appearances in the Serbian media and his hate-mongering against non-Serbs during the 1990s are still vivid in the minds of many people from the region.
This may not be news to those who follow ICTY closely. But I found this most interesting.
The acquittal of Vojislav Seselj was last in a series of problematic court decisions regarding other important political leaders and military officers accused of various offenses during the bloody breakup of the SFR Yugoslavia. The consequences of such decisions have been the weakening of trust in ICTY as an institution, and the rise of various conspiracy theories on geopolitical interests of ICTY.  (Emphasis added.)
The three authors referred to are Dr. Eric Gordy, Dr. Srdja Pavlovic, and Dr. Amanda Hysa.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to moderation and must be submitted under your real name. Anonymous comments will not be posted (even though the form seems to permit them).