Genocide: - DIIS

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
came to a negative conclusion. The judges submitted that “[o]n the whole,
the number of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats detained in the Keraterm
camp, and who were victims within the terms of Article 4 (2) (a), (b),
and (c), is negligible.” 215 According to a 1991 census, some 49,000 Muslims
had lived in the area, but only 1000-1400 had been imprisoned in the camp.
The judges remarked that “This would represent between 2% and 2,8%
of the Muslims in the Prijedor Municipality and would hardly qualify as
a “reasonably substantial” part of the Bosnian Muslim group”. 216 With a
view to the criterion “a signifi cant section of the group, such as its leadership”,
the Trial Chamber asserted that “leadership” in this context meant
that the disappearance of this group of people must have a bearing on the
survival of the group as such. It continued that “among those detained
were taxi-drivers, school teachers, lawyers, pilots, butchers and café owners.
(…) Indeed they do not appear to have been persons with any special
signifi cance to their community”. 217
Second, the Trial Chamber assessed the circumstantial factors that had
been cited by the Prosecution in support of Sikirica’s genocidal intent and
found that none of these factors bore substance in the present case: “even
if they were taken together, they do not provide a suffi cient basis for inferring
the requisite intent”. 218 According to the judgement, the prevailing
campaign to expel non-Serbs from the region is not suffi cient to say “that
this doctrine sought to promote genocide.” 219 This statement is particularly
notable, as several of the other detainees at the ICTY, such as Milomir Stakic
or Zeljko Meakic, have been indicted for having committed genocide
in the region of Prijedor. 220
acts of genocide, i.e. killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, etc.
216 Ibid., para. 72.
217 Ibid., para. 80. Note, however, that in the Brdjanin trial (supra note 101-104) witness Kerim
Mesanovic has testifi ed that the inmates at Omarska camp were categorized and treated
according to their social status. The witness contended that “Muslim and Croat politicians,
intellectuals, doctors and lawyers” were picked out by the Serbs to be executed. See
on this Mirko Klarin, Courtside: Brdjanin Trial, Tribunal Update 287, Institute for War &
Peace Reporting, available at http://www.iwpr.net
218 Sikirica Judgement (supra note 145), para. 96.
219 Ibid., para. 92.
220 In this context, it surprises when the Trial Chamber states, ibid., para. 89 that “… in none
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