maandag, januari 31, 2005
Bosnia's horrific war memories
BBC NEWS | From Our Own Correspondent | "There were countless horrors in the wars which led to the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A Serbian army general has now surrendered to the authorities and will go to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to answer war crimes charges dating back to 1999. But what happens once camp guards have served their sentences?
Dragan Kolundzija, Kole to his friends, is sitting at the bar of the Hotel Prijedor when we enter."
Bosnian ex-general goes on trial
BBC NEWS | "The former head of the Bosnian army, Sefer Halilovic, is going on trial at The Hague over the killing of Bosnian Croat civilians during the civil war.
Mr Halilovic is the most senior Bosnian Muslim commander to face trial at the international war crimes tribunal.
The court is also set to rule in the case of the former Yugoslav general, Pavle Strugar.
Mr Strugar is charged over the 1991 siege of the medieval Croatian coastal town of Dubrovnik."
vrijdag, januari 28, 2005
Wanted Serbian general surrenders
BBC NEWS | "A Serbian army general, Vladimir Lazarevic, has surrendered and will go to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague next week to face charges."
vrijdag, januari 21, 2005
General Assembly extends judges' terms at UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia
UN News centre | In a bid to help the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia meet its target of trying all defendants by 2008, the General Assembly today extended the tenure of seven short-term judges and appointed two new temporary judges as well.
The General Assembly adopted a resolution, in response to an earlier Security Council resolution, approving the election of seven judges whose tenures were due to expire before the expected end of the trials they have been conducting.
The judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) whose terms have been extended until their trials have ended are: Vonimbolana Rasoazanany (Madagascar), Bert Swart (The Netherlands), Hans Henrik Brydensholt (Denmark), Albin Eser (Germany), Krister Thelin (Sweden), Christine Van Den Wyngaert (Belgium) and Joaquín Martín Canivell (Spain).
The two new short-term, or ad litem, judges who have been appointed are Gyorgy Szénási (Hungary), who will serve on a case due to start next week, and Claude Hanoteau (France), who will take over another case from a serving judge.
A pool of ad litem judges was created in 2001 to try to speed up the work of the ICTY, which has been based in The Hague in The Netherlands since its formation in 1993.
donderdag, januari 20, 2005
Judge Criticizes Milosevic Witness
Las Vegas SUN | "The judge at Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial criticized testimony from one of the former Yugoslav president's witnesses Tuesday, saying it sounded like 'a conversation over a cup of tea on the veranda.'
Milosevic, who is defending himself against 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes at the U.N. trial that resumed Tuesday after a three-week break, had called French nurse Eve Crepin to testify about the suffering of Serbs in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Crepin worked in field hospitals for the United Nations and various humanitarian aid organizations in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. She later co-authored the book 'The Assassination of a People,' about violence against Serbs.
Crepin greeted the court in Serbo-Croatian but later testified in French as Milosevic questioned her for two hours.
Crepin said she wanted to talk about 'the unjust treatment of the Serbs and the Serbian president' and accused Western media of ignoring their suffering during the war and the U.N. tribunal of being biased against Serbs."
U.N. Tribunal Convicts Two for Srebrenica
Las Vegas SUN | "A U.N. tribunal convicted and sentenced two former Bosnian Serb army commanders to lengthy prison terms Monday for their roles in the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
Col. Vidoje Blagojevic, 54, received an 18-year term for complicity in genocide and other war crimes. He was the wartime commander of the Bratunac brigade that took part in the killing of more than 7,000 Muslims near the eastern Bosnia city of Srebrenica.
Dragan Jokic, 47, a major in the Zvornik brigade who assumed command during a week of killing at the end of the 1992-1995 war, got a nine-year sentence. He was convicted of murder, extermination and persecution on racial grounds.
Prosecutors had sought 15-20 years in prison for Jokic and 32 years for Blagojevic.
Both men were acquitted of allegations of command responsibility. The court said the men had merely passed on orders, rather than given them.
Some analysts criticized the sentences as relatively light when compared to the 17-year and 27-year sentences handed down to two lower-ranking officers who pleaded guilty and testified against Blagojevic and Jokic, their former superiors."
woensdag, januari 12, 2005
