That Someone Guilty Be Punished - International Center for ...

More generally, Bosnians’ perceptions of the ICTY and of its judgments appear to be at least
in part a function of the specific ethno-political context in which they are situated. 649
Beyond recent political trends, a recurring theme pressed by many of our interlocutors
is that Bosnians’ tendency to view issues, including those relating to war crimes, through an
ethnic prism is in large part a legacy of Dayton. Journalist Ivan Lovrenović made the point
this way: “The scheme of ethnic conflict going on in wartime was in a way verified politically
through the Dayton Peace Agreement. The military dimension has been removed, the war finished.
Metaphorically speaking, it moved on to the political field and it’s still on today.” In this
context, he says, the ICTY’s work is filtered through an ethnic lens, with each group approving
of verdicts convicting “war criminals from the other ethnic group” and faulting the ICTY
“when it reaches a verdict from our ethnic group.” In this setting, it is unlikely that establishing
facts at trial can by itself dispel denial. “Metaphorically, the ears are stuffed with cotton.” 650
Later we consider how well has the ICTY performed in meeting the challenges presented
by local actors who mediate the meaning of its judgments and who are key sources of
most Bosnians’ information about the ICTY. First, however, we take up Bosnians’ perceptions
of the significance of the ICTY’s verdicts in their own right.
B. Establishing the Truth
While many of our interlocutors in Bosnia are discouraged that “three versions of the truth”
persist fourteen years after Dayton, we did not interview anyone who concluded that the ICTY
was for that reason a failure. Instead, many believe that disappointments in this regard make
the Tribunal’s role in establishing facts all the more important.
For victims who suffered unspeakable crimes, the affirmation in ICTY verdicts that their
nightmare really happened—that a specific person was responsible and that what he did was
criminal—appears to be all the more important in the face of denial by those who abetted the
perpetrators through acquiescence or active support. Omarska survivor Muharem Murselović
evoked this notion when he told us he is “most satisfied with the realistic reflection of what
happened in Prijedor through [the ICTY’s] verdicts and sentences.” 651 Noting that the Tribunal
has “extremely rich documentation” of Prijedor’s nightmarish experience, Murselović said:
“With that documentation, with those verdicts … the truth about the situation in Prijedor
has been established, and this is the largest, the major achievement of the ICTY.” 652 A recent
study of victims in the area, however, suggests that even this achievement still pales against
the prevailing reality with which they must contend on a daily basis. 653
Noting that ICTY cases “established a lot of things that people forgot about,” journalist
Nerma Jelačić observed that “it matters for [victims] so much.” Without its work, she says, “you
wouldn’t be able to counter the political truth.” This is not to say that politicians have stopped
manipulating the truth. But now “you have the alternative you can counter with. 654 Sinan Alić,
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