SARAJEVO: The head of the United Nations tribunal set up 20 years ago to try those behind the bloodshed of Yugoslavia’s break-up faced protests yesterday by survivors angry at what they say is only partial justice.
As Theodor Meron began his keynote speech at a conference in Sarajevo to mark two decades of the tribunal’s work, families of victims turned their backs and removed their translation headphones.
A group of activists walked out, carrying a banner that read “RIP Justice”. Meron did not react and continued with his speech, in which he said the court rulings were based solely on the law and the evidence available.
The protest reflected deepening dissatisfaction, particularly in Bosnia, at the effectiveness of the Hague-based tribunal in seeking justice for the more than 125,000 people killed in the 1990s during the collapse of federal Yugoslavia.
It follows the acquittal this year of two former top Serbian security officials and a Serbian general of involvement in war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia. The verdicts meant no Belgrade official has been convicted of crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, which was largely fuelled from Serbia.
“This is our way to say that they are rewarding criminals and punishing us yet again,” said Hatidza Mehmedovic, head of the “Mothers of Srebrenica” association who lost her husband and two sons in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst mass killing on European soil since World War Two.
Reuters
